‘Racist’ classics banned from schools: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Huckleberry Finn,’ ‘Of Mice and Men,’ and others
November 18, 2020 | Vivek Saxena
A number of classic novels that have long been a staple of school curriculum have been axed from California’s Burbank County because of concerns about racism.
“Until further notice, teachers in the area will not be able to include on their curriculum Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Theodore Taylor’s The Cay and Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,†Newsweek confirmed late last week.
Four parents, three of them reportedly black, complained that the novels posed “potential harm†to the Burbank Unified School District’s 400 black students.
One of the black parents, Nadra Ostrom, reportedly claimed that the books’ portrayal of black people comes from only a white perspective.
“There’s no counter-narrative to this black person dealing with racism and a white person saving them,†she said, adding that the district’s curriculum was also giving the supposedly false impression “that racism is something in the past.â€
Another black parent, Carmenita Helligar, claimed that one of her daughter’s white classmates learned the N-word from reading “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,†and then used it against her.
“My daughter was literally traumatized. These books are problematic … you feel helpless because you can’t even protect your child from the hurt that she’s going through,†she said.
It’s not clear why she believes her daughter’s abuser could have only learned the word from the book …
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https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/11/18/racist-classics-banned-from-schools-to-kill-a-mockingbird-huckleberry-finn-of-mice-and-men-and-others-997531
