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The Official Book Censorship Thread

beer good said:
Brave New World among top 10 books Americans most want banned | Books | guardian.co.uk

Of course, non-fiction books about penguins are still the most horrible thing one can subject children to, but I note that The Hunger Games has also been challenged for being "sexually explicit". From what I recall, the only sex scene in the entire book takes place in the epilogue, is half a sentence long, and about as explicit as Pride And Prejudice. It's almost as if anything being read by young people is automatically offensive. Fancy that.
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We spend tons of money and loads of energy to teach kids to read and then tell them, "Oh you can't read That." Anyways, I thought Little Black Sambo was the most horrible thing one can subject children to; or was that Where the Wild Things Are?

For the record, I never understood why LBS was so offensive; in my copy, the family was Indian, and the kid was very clever in outsmarting those nasty tigers.
 
abecedarian said:
For the record, I never understood why LBS was so offensive; in my copy, the family was Indian, and the kid was very clever in outsmarting those nasty tigers.
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Well, I don't think I've read it since I was about 3 so I couldn't say exactly what's in it, but generally speaking "positive" racist stereotypes ("boy, them darkies sho' do have natural rhythm") are still racist stereotypes. Though apparently there have been quite a few different versions over the years. Little Black Sambo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's interesting, only yesterday I was at a seminar on library cuts in the UK at the London Book Fair, where Alan Gibbons gave an absolutely furious speech about the dangers of cutting back on school libraries and children's sections at libraries. As idiotic as it is to want to ban books for containing "homosexuality" (that's a valid complaint according to the form, apparently - simply containing gay characters) or "political viewpoints" (what? In BOOKS?), at least those people are upfront about not wanting kids to read rather than hiding behind budget reasons...
 
beer good said:
Well, I don't think I've read it since I was about 3 so I couldn't say exactly what's in it, but generally speaking "positive" racist stereotypes ("boy, them darkies sho' do have natural rhythm") are still racist stereotypes. Though apparently there have been quite a few different versions over the years. Little Black Sambo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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I never saw one of the offensive versions til a friend showed me one that had been her mother's. This one uses all the nasty stereotypes imaginable. Her mom is still living, and I'm thinking she's in her 80's, and I think the book was printed in the very early 1900s at the latest. I'll have to ask...

Hmm..just looked at the version linked in the article. I need to look at my friend's book again; I thought that version took place in Africa, with stereotypical representations of Africans that were common to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This one looks more like a mixture of American Deep South stereotypes and African jungle setting.
 
So speaking of stereotypes (a little off subject) i thought I would share a moment from childhood. A friend of mine (a white kid) invited me over to hang out at his house after school one day. We get there and we're in his kitchen having a snack and he is just staring at me and I'm like "What??" And he just raises his eyebrows, smiling, and sort of looks around the room and looks back at me..... and I look around and notice..... EVERYTHING in the room is an old pitch black sambo looking character with these huge white eyes, eating watermelons. I mean the cookie jar, the salt and pepper shakers, the sugar bowls, the knick knacks, the potholders even the ever-lovin wallpaper!!! After I got over the creepy sort of shock of it, we had a pretty good laugh about it.
I am not for banning books but that wallpaper should have been censored.
:lol:
 
753C said:
So speaking of stereotypes (a little off subject) i thought I would share a moment from childhood. A friend of mine (a white kid) invited me over to hang out at his house after school one day. We get there and we're in his kitchen having a snack and he is just staring at me and I'm like "What??" And he just raises his eyebrows, smiling, and sort of looks around the room and looks back at me..... and I look around and notice..... EVERYTHING in the room is an old pitch black sambo looking character with these huge white eyes, eating watermelons. I mean the cookie jar, the salt and pepper shakers, the sugar bowls, the knick knacks, the potholders even the ever-lovin wallpaper!!! After I got over the creepy sort of shock of it, we had a pretty good laugh about it.
I am not for banning books but that wallpaper should have been censored.
:lol:
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That's just weird! Did you meet his folks? What were they like? I can't imagine honest-to-Gawd white supremists decorating their home with that sort of thing, even if they believed the stereotype. Creepy indeed!
 
My ex hubby's family (Southern USA) had a collection of Sambo like cookie jars in their kitchen. To them it was normal culture. Not sure how I felt, but I'm caucasion so it's really irrelevant. I now live 1400 miles away...
 
Abecedarius said:
My ex hubby's family (Southern USA) had a collection of Sambo like cookie jars in their kitchen. To them it was normal culture. Not sure how I felt, but I'm caucasion so it's really irrelevant. I now live 1400 miles away...
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I have southern roots too and have participated in many debates with my maternal cousins about racism. My Georgia cousin always acted like I just didn't know any better when I'd say white supremacy was a lie from the pit of Hell. She was a neat lady, and I loved her dearly, but we had to agree to disagree about racism...but when the relatives make their stupid remarks in front of my kids, I HAVE to speak up and confront them.
 
abecedarian said:
That's just weird! Did you meet his folks? What were they like? I can't imagine honest-to-Gawd white supremists decorating their home with that sort of thing, even if they believed the stereotype. Creepy indeed!
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No, it was weird. They were perfectly normal. They were nice and seemed happy to see me. His Mom invited me back. I never figured that out, although in the business i'm in now I have come across lots of things like that. They call it "Black Americana" and there is a pretty decent collectible market for it.
 
753C said:
No, it was weird. They were perfectly normal. They were nice and seemed happy to see me. His Mom invited me back. I never figured that out, although in the business i'm in now I have come across lots of things like that. They call it "Black Americana" and there is a pretty decent collectible market for it.
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I know that stuff is highly collectible, but I find it creepy. Knowing what I know about my family heritage, I find it embarrassing to know that some of my family would find it humorous. The ick-factor is just too much.
 
Interesting interview with one of the authors on the "Challenged books" list:

MOBYLIVES » Amy Sonnie on the ALA’s “Most Frequently Challenged” list

It tells us something very profound: People either love or hate vampires and gays, especially those wayfaring penguins. Oh, and true stories. People either love or hate the truth. This year was an especially bad year for reality with my book and Ehrenreich’s exposé on minimum wage work causing such controversy.
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beer good said:
"Homosexuality, sexually explicit", according to the original article. Bearing in mind that Hunger Games and Brave New World are also deemed "sexually explicit".
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Oh well then...burn it; don't just ban it.:rolleyes: Or hey, here's a thought, read it, discuss it, and see what shakes after that.
My older kids have read the Hunger Game series and so far seem none the worse for the experience. Unless a total lack of interest in their chores can be pinned to those books....
 
beer good said:
Slaughterhouse-Five banned by US school | Books | guardian.co.uk
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Seriously? Have they not seen the other young adult novels on the average high school library shelf? Are we supposed to bust them all back to Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys fare? Give them something to read with meat for discussion,sit down with them and talk about whatever 'troubling' issues the author raises. Rocket science? Hardly.

PS..and don't try to tell me kids can't handle tough issues. When have they ever not had to deal with imperfect environments? Better to shine a light on bad stuff than to try to hide it under a rock. If school is supposed to prepare students for the 'real world', how better than with a book and discussion?
 
Man, I was all settled in for a nice happy Friday evening with a Buffy boxset and couple of cans of Coke Zero. Now this will be bugging me...

We should have a rule of some sort maybe, no depressing posts on a Friday. Hah. That would be even worse than what these thought fascists are up to, right?
 
beer good said:
School bans 'anti-Mormon' Sherlock Holmes book | Books | guardian.co.uk
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While I can understand why Mormons might be offended, I still think it would be better to read the book and have lots of discussion, perhaps with a view of understanding the historical background of the piece. Doyle was using information he had about Mormon beliefs and the reactions of others to those beliefs and customs. On the other hand, I wonder at the selection of this book for 6th graders, when other Sherlock Holmes stories are more well known. And as much as teachers love handouts, there are tons of articles available online about how the Mormon Church has changed over the years..no reason why teacher can't print out one of those to help counter balance Doyle's 'bias'.
 
OK, all, I'll ask the dumb question. But, is the US the only country in the world where citizens and school boards seek to control the reading available to the children under their jurisdiction? :confused:
 
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