Novels by Harper Lee and Mark Twain have been pulled from school syllabuses in Minnesota over fears their use of racial slurs will upset students.
The Duluth school district said it was removing To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from its curriculum because their content may make students feel “humiliated or marginalized”.
What idiocy, or is it? Is this more of the Great American Purge?
The school district, which includes more than 20 schools, will keep copies of the classics in the libraries, but they’re banned from the curricula.
This is political correctness, virtue signaling, and it’s destructive, whether, by intention or stupidity, it doesn’t matter. It is destroying our literature now.
Michael Cary, the district’s curriculum director, said that its schools planned to replace the novels with texts that “teach the same lessons” without using racist language.
Both To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer-prize winning novel depicting racial injustice in Alabama, and Huckleberry Finn, which deals with slavery in pre-Civil War America, include racist characters who regularly use offensive language, including the N-word.
That is what educators call a perfect teachable moment.
These books depict the times better than any watered-down substitute ever could. They depict history.
The decision had come in response to complaints about the books’ offensive language over the years, rather than a specific complaint by a student, Mr. Cary said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People has supported the decision, saying it was long overdue.
Stephan Witherspoon, the president of the local branch, said the books were “just hurtful”, adding that they use “hurtful language that has oppressed the people for over 200 years”.
These books are the most powerful, anti-racism books in history.
These so-called educators are dimwits.
I’ll be Snow WHITE will be next!
Just another form of book burning… the 2020 version.
I was taught that in the past, the N-word referred to people from Nigeria; it wasn’t used as a “racial slur”. Today, the majority of users of the word are black rappers.
My dad gave me the complete collection of Mark Twain’s books; it opened up a bygone era for me; I spent many hours floating on make-believe rafts, reading about the many exciting adventures of Huckleberry Finn and his friend Jim, a black man (and I’m a female).
Another one of my favorite books, set during the Civil War period, was Little Women. Will they ban that book and movie, too?
It’s a shame that future generations won’t be allowed to have access to the great classics.
This is not the first time these box have been banned by people with no real understanding of hoe books actually teach
You are going to be hard pressed to find any of Mark Twains works in many of today’s public libraries, guess it was just a matter of time for them to get around to To kill a mocking bird. This isn’t much different than Hitler’s book burning campaign.