Book Bans Are Targeting Black and LGBTQ+ Authors

Fascism isn’t some nebulous, remote concept. It’s alive and thriving in the USA.

Photo by Yalonda M. James/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

NBC news reports:

[Jerry] Craft is among dozens of Black authors whose works are being pulled from school libraries under the pretext that they’re teaching critical race theory. (Most of the books that are targeted for bans don’t teach critical race theory but are written by and about people of color).

Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice King explains the fearmongering around CRT:

Be A King @BerniceKing

What the fear mongering around CRT was purposed to do: Erase truth about the roots, branches and cruel, strange, and systemic fruit of slavery and racism the U.S. Erase teaching and telling of that truth, especially by Black people (including my father) https://t.co/ySWpgIdjP4

NBCBLK @NBCBLK

Dozens of books written by Black authors are being pulled from school libraries under the pretext that they’re teaching critical race theory. Most of the books don’t teach critical race theory but are written by and about people of color. https://t.co/FM2yYaU7q5

Columnist Shalise Manza Young adds:

shalise manza young @shalisemyoung

this is what they want. this has always been what they wanted. total erasure of our voices, at the ballot box, in the library, in the history books...

NBCBLK @NBCBLK

Dozens of books written by Black authors are being pulled from school libraries under the pretext that they’re teaching critical race theory. Most of the books don’t teach critical race theory but are written by and about people of color. https://t.co/FM2yYaU7q5

More reaction:

Birthday Month Send Flowers @WilGafney

Doing their best to erase us. Also, they know that exposure in education breed familiarity and relatability. This is social, cultural and intellectual segregation.

NBCBLK @NBCBLK

Dozens of books written by Black authors are being pulled from school libraries under the pretext that they’re teaching critical race theory. Most of the books don’t teach critical race theory but are written by and about people of color. https://t.co/FM2yYaU7q5

Amarnath Amarasingam @AmarAmarasingam

The same people who go on about "snowflakes" and "cancel culture" are also out here trembling at the mere telling of black and brown stories.

NBCBLK @NBCBLK

Dozens of books written by Black authors are being pulled from school libraries under the pretext that they’re teaching critical race theory. Most of the books don’t teach critical race theory but are written by and about people of color. https://t.co/FM2yYaU7q5

Maurice W @iamMauriceW

@NBCBLK The goal of using and weaponized the catchphrase “CRT” is to remove everyone’s history and story except the white Supremacist propaganda history that has been taught in schools K-12 for generations. They don’t want the truth taught.

The book bans are also targeting LGBTQ+ authors:

Among the most frequent targets are books about race, gender and sexuality, like George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

George M. Johnson, the author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir about growing up Black and queer, was stunned in November to learn that a school board member in Flagler County, Fla., had filed a complaint with the sheriff’s department against the book. Written for readers aged 14 and older, it includes scenes that depict oral and anal sex and sexual assault.

According to NBC:

Several queer students, meanwhile, said the arguments by some parents, specifically the idea that it’s inappropriate for teenagers to read about LGBTQ sexual relationships, are making them feel unwelcome in their communities.

“Reading books or consuming any kind of media that has LGBTQ representation, it doesn’t turn people gay or make people turn out a certain way,” said Amber Kaul, a 17-year-old bisexual student in Katy. “I think reading those books helps kids realize that the feelings that they’ve already had are valid and OK, and I think that’s what a lot of these parents are opposed to.”

Bigotry and fascism are alive and thriving in the USA.