School district pulls 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from reading list; 'makes people uncomfortable'

[kpete]

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is being removed from a junior-high reading list in a Mississippi school district.



The Sun Herald reports that Biloxi administrators pulled the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum this week. School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book's language "makes people uncomfortable."

Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town.

A message on the school's website says "To Kill A Mockingbird" teaches students that compassion and empathy don't depend upon race or education. Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons.

The book remains in Biloxi school libraries.


http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/mississippi_school_district_pu.html

[yardwork]

1. Thats what the author intended.

[Irish_Dem]

16. Yes, we are supposed to be uncomfortable. We should also look at pics from shootings.

We should all have to look at the gun carnage.

It was reported that Eisenhower made Germans walk through concentration camps
and view the bodies. We should be forced to look at the consequences of our gun culture.

[Iggo]

2. Stupid people make me uncomfortable. (n/t)

[Brainstormy]

3. that does it.

I'm going back to bed.

[smirkymonkey]

7. I think I'm going to join you.

I mean, in my bed, not yours. I just want to sleep the entire weekend away. I feel like we have all taken a real beating this week.

[MineralMan]

4. Books are supposed to make people uncomfortable sometimes.

Those administrators should be made to feel uncomfortable for their stupidity.

[Tanuki]

5. Trump makes me uncomfortable. Can they pull him from the White House?

[Docreed2003]

6. Way to miss the point entirely Mississippi

[WinkyDink]

18. Well, one school district, anyway.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Awww, truth about heritage hurts.

[moriah]

9. Apparently the "language" is the n-word.

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article178572326.html

Sun Herald received a email from a concerned reader who said the decision was made “mid-lesson plan, the students will not be allowed to finish the reading of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ .... due to the use of the ‘N’ word.”

The reader said, “I think it is one of the most disturbing examples of censorship I have ever heard, in that the themes in the story humanize all people regardless of their social status, education level, intellect, and of course, race. It would be difficult to find a time when it was more relevant than in days like these.”

If a teacher can't explain that the historical language used is important to know, so they know why its use today as an epithet is problematic... there's a problem. Especially to 8th graders, who in most districts are about to enter high school.

We can't ignore history and pretend it never happened. No, facing history isn't going to turn kids into self-hating white people. We might actually start to teach some empathy.

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. It especially makes no sense when they listen to hip hop

music that uses the n-word on a regular basis. I think the people who are "uncomfortable" are the people who don't like the racists in TKAM as the ignorant white trash that they are.

[moriah]

19. Exactly. nt

[yallerdawg]

10. Makes people uncomfortable.

Why on earth would anyone write a book that does that?

[Brainstormy]

11. The whole country is starting to make me feel uncomfortable

but I think Trump has plans to remove it from the planet.

[Vinca]

12. This is nuts. They want kids to go through life in a hermetically sealed bubble.

[peggysue2]

13. Every year . . .

there are people/groups who come up with a list of banned books. This has been going on since I was a kid: To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, The Last Temptation, Lolita, Tom Sawyer, etc.

The important thing is to shine a spotlight on the book banners (who could easily become book burners), be they a religious group, a political entity and most particularly a school administration or any center of learning.

Censorship for any reason is a knife to the heart, a clear attack on democratic norms. The reasons get gussied up in all sorts of costumes--inappropriate language, sexual innuendo/imagery, heretical ideas. I give the Biloxi folks credit; they didn't try to hide their nonsense or wrap the reason up in faux-Christian mumbo-jumbo.

Makes people feel uncomfortable? That's called thinking, reconsidering, seeing the world from another's perspective. That's what fiction is meant to do. It's what art is meant to do--shake things up.

Everything old is new again. Ugh.

[catrose]

14. I read Deliverance as a high school assignment

Yes, it made me quite uncomfortable. I thought that was the point.

[Irish_Dem]

15. This book, and the Harvey Milk movie educated my child in 8th grade about reality in

a dramatic and hard hitting way. She loved the book and to this day talks about it.

She simply could not believe that minorities were treated in such horrific ways. She could not fathom why gay men were arrested by police at a gay bar. We were able to have some very good discussions about these topics.

[Brother Buzz]

20. Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown

[lindysalsagal]

21. Mississippi, a close second to Kansas on the school board idiocy scale.