To Kill a Mockingbird removed from Virginia schools for racist language

[oberliner]

To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have been suspended from the curriculum in some Virginia schools, after a parent complained about the use of racial slurs.

Harper Lee and Mark Twain’s literary classics were removed from classrooms in Accomack County, in Virginia after a formal complaint was made by the mother of a biracial teenager. At the centre of the complaint was the use of the N-word, which appears frequently in both titles.

The woman who made the complaint said her son struggled to read the racist language, telling the Accomack County public schools board: “There’s so much racial slurs and defensive wording in there that you can’t get past that.” The challenge also appears to be motivated by the current political landscape in the US, as the mother told the board: “Right now, we are a nation divided as it is.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/05/to-kill-a-mockingbird-removed-virginia-schools-racist-language-harper-lee

[Egnever]

1. Good lord

Book baning blows.

[still_one]

2. Let me guess, the woman was not an African American. So it begins. Are we going to

have another monkey trial. Is the "burning of books next"?

[oberliner]

6. Her name is Marie Rothstein-Williams

You can hear her talk about it at the school board meeting:

http://accomackcountyva.swagit.com/play/11152016-1300

[still_one]

16. Thanks. Not a good way to protect ones child in my view

[oberliner]

17. Agreed

I think it is preposterous.

[Grey Lemercier]

7. white parent of a bi-racial child

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/virginia/2016/12/01/book-controversy-mark-twain-harper-lee/94738318/

[still_one]

14. Thanks. Is this how someone protects their children?

[Grey Lemercier]

19. As a bi-racial woman myself, my parents never censored anything

from me. I disagree with this parent profoundly.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Not again?

[Vinca]

4. Oh, good lord. You can't protect a kid from everyone who might look crosseyed at them.

I'm sure they've all seen far worse things on the Internet.

[Calculating]

5. So stupid

Might as well ban history because it was racist.

[Paladin]

8. Helpful hint to you racial slur book banners:

As long as you're forcing the removal of great works of American literature from classrooms (again), you better avoid Colson Whitehead's best-selling, National Book Award-winning novel, "The Underground Railroad." Whitehead, a black author, chooses to use the offending racial slur, over and over and over again---and his work gains enormous impact from it. It's a little mature in parts for some school children, but it sure as hell doesn't deserve to be censored---anymore than the usual targets, "Huck Finn" and "Mockingbird." What a shameful contribution to the huge brain drain that is underway in this country, right now.....

[nycbos]

9. What morons.

You use Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird to give kids lessons about racism.


At least thats what my teachers did.

[lagomorph777]

12. It seems some people can't see more than individual words; they miss the point of the book.

It's a stinging indictment of our educational system.

[oberliner]

18. TKAM barely uses the n-word

Huck Finn uses that work much more frequently.

[loyalsister]

20. Is this because not all kids are mature or academically prepared enough

to get a firm grasp of what the authors were saying and just found the use of the n-word entertaining? When I heard it come out of the mouth of my 6 yr old nephew who had to have an extensive lesson on what the problem with it is. Given that the word has been used much less over time. We're living in a time of racial divisiveness and anxiety, an effort to curtail it among young people for a time might not be so ridiculous.
The last thing a school schools needs is a resurrection of an ugly verbal weapon to add to the Trump effect. Just saying, there might be more to the story than puritanical book burning.

[msongs]

10. bibles are full of perversion. are they being yanked too? nt

[oberliner]

11. I should hope so!

Lots of nasty stuff in there.

[philosslayer]

13. Why would a bible be in a public school to begin with ?

[11 Bravo]

15. Because it's a book? And public schools have libraries?