Recently, a Virginia school banned The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird because of “racial slurs.” Both books have been the subject of on and off bans for decades. A mother claimed, by reading these books, “We’re validating that these words are acceptable…” and there are “psychological effect” on the children.
Ridiculous.
One of the reasons that these books have endured is because they show how life was or address race issues. Contrary to causing “psychological effect(s)” on children, books are supposed to be read and studied with discussion. This is how school is supposed to work — and critical thinking.
“There is other literature they can use,” the parent argued. Like what? Some book that rewrites history or tries to discuss issues by being afraid to discuss them? The buzzword “inclusive” was thrown out there in trying to find books that didn’t offend anyone. Good luck with that.
Yes, I support every parents’ right to control what their child reads, learns or sees, but that doesn’t mean their position should be forced on others. Rather, we should decide not to be offended and try thinking and discussing these books with the students who read them.
Raising generations of children who are sooner offended by anything, instead of trying to think through something, will be a mistake we will all someday regret.
And on 
Darrick Dean 
Lame.
Yet, strange in that the exact opposite is happening with television and film. Both are becoming more and more controversial and obscene in what they present. I suppose it’s easier to accept visual issues than it is to read about them.
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So bizarre, because that’s the language that was used back then. We can’t wash over history and pretend everything was sunshine and rainbows. Soon they’ll want to keep books about slaves out of school, or maybe the Holocaust, because it’s too “upsetting” for our “special snowflakes.” I am so sick of it, really. Ugh. 🙄
And the guy in the comment above is right: TV is getting more lewd but classics can cause damage? 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
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Gosh I agree with you so much- it’s absolutely wrong with to censor books because they are “insensitive”. You’re right that we shouldn’t wash over history, but it’s more than that- by banning books like to kill a mockingbird they clearly very dense- this book was illustrating racism to show how it was wrong- what utter madness to ban it because it uses offensive language- that’s the whole point! This is simply infuriating!! I agree- we are doing so much damage to young people by trying to “shield” them in this way!!
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