… Reading is fundamental, but context is everything, thus it’s sad to see these schools and parents caught in a game of telephone.” "New Kid" and "Class Act" by Jerry Craft.ĭeborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, said many of these book challenges are driven by social media and target stories about people of color. “I had to go back and reread my own book to determine if we’re reading the same story. “It’s hurtful to go through this, to be considered such a monster, allegedly corrupting children,” Jackson wrote in an email. Jackson said the attacks on her work are distressing. Since September alone, there have been at least 230 challenges, the organization said in an email.įight for Schools, a local advocacy group calling for the removal of critical race theory from school curriculums, posted on Twitter several clips of outraged parents at a school board meeting reading short passages from “Monday’s Not Coming” containing sexual situations. The American Library Association said its Office for Intellectual Freedom reported 273 books were affected by censorship attempts in 2020, many with content that highlighted race, gender and sexuality. (Most of the books that are targeted for bans don’t teach critical race theory but are written by and about people of color.). While the Texas school district reinstated the book and rescheduled his visit, 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. “Apparently I’m teaching critical race theory,” Craft wrote in response to a parent confused about the ban, citing the decades-old academic and legal framework that teaches about racism in America. A now-deleted petition with more than 400 signatures showed parents calling for Craft’s visit to be canceled.Īt the time, Craft tweeted that he was shocked by the accusations. In October, the Katy Independent School District made headlines for temporarily yanking two of Craft’s books, which tell the stories of Black boys who experience racism in schools, from school libraries and postponing his virtual visit. The person who sent the message to Craft is from Katy, Texas, a town near Houston that has been under fire for attempts to limit the public’s access to books that teach about racism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |