A Tennessee school board recently banned a great classic, The Complete Maus. The book which is accessible to a young audience throws light on the ills of Nazism. However, this Tennessee school board deemed it inappropriate for school children. An article in the Institute for Policy Studies critiques this decision. Here is an excerpt:
Most books like these are disturbing. They’re supposed to be. Reading about how human beings — including infants — died so horrifically, you’re supposed to break down crying, asking: How could this have happened, and how can we ensure it never happens again?
That gut-wrenching sense of mourning — and the thrill for the people who fought back — is similar to how you should feel when you read other banned books about Black Americans being sold as human chattel, lynched, or blasted with water cannons as they protested for civil rights.
The people who want to ban Maus or The 1619 Project or any number of books about the lives of queer people or people of color are the very ones who need to read them.
Read the full article here.
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