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School district pulls 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from reading list; 'makes people uncomf

Kyzer

Banned
Didn't the writer end up being a milkshake duck? Not sure if people can tout it's "intentional" effects and how the racism is clever intellectual commentary if the author is actually a racist shithead
 
Ah, so an alternate take?

Thank goodness. Atticus is one of my favorite characters of all fiction, such a paragon of virtue.

Just saying, Atticus gets his client off by interrogating a woman claiming she was raped using the same kind of cross examination techniques that dissuade rape victims from pressing charges or taking the stand today.
 
Didn't the writer end up being a milkshake duck? Not sure if people can tout it's "intentional" effects and how the racism is clever intellectual commentary if the author is actually a racist shithead

Erm, we're going to need some receipts here.
 

entremet

Member
Just saying, Atticus gets his client off by interrogating a woman claiming she was raped using the same kind of cross examination techniques that dissuade rape victims from pressing charges or taking the stand today.
I think context is important here. This was an era when these types of accusations were used as weapons against black men. Many lynchings were motivated on the smallest speculation of black men looking at white women.
 
Man its hilarious and sad how often this book is banned specifically. Its supposed to make you uncomfortable, and think about American society on a deeper level. We NEED kids reading these kind of books right now. Its been past time to act like nothing is wrong.
 

Acorn

Member
That book is one of the most important in my life, and many other people's lives. It had a profound impact on me and contributed to becoming politically active when I was older.

Racism is uncomfortable because it's fucking evil. Hiding it away doesn't solve shit.
 

gabbo

Member
Didn't the writer end up being a milkshake duck? Not sure if people can tout it's "intentional" effects and how the racism is clever intellectual commentary if the author is actually a racist shithead

What are you basing this on? The 'sequel' that came out under dubious circumstances that shows Atticus as a racist?
edit: I see this is what you meant, but weren't exactly up to speed on.

Hopefully someone in that district comes to their senses and removes the ban
 

kirblar

Member
I think context is important here. This was an era when these types of accusations were used as weapons against black men. Many lynchings were motivated on the smallest speculation of black men looking at white women.
These types of accusations are still used as weapons against black men unfortunately.
 

gabbo

Member
These types of accusations are still used as weapons against black men unfortunately.
I'm not up to speed on the numbers, but I would have thought the number of race-based accusations for sexual assault/rape would be rather low. Specifically false accusations with racist intent/to perpetuate the "Savage Negro" sterotype where "theyre coming for our white women".
 

Kite

Member
Is this a serious post? How dense can you be?
Yes this is serious because before posting I actually looked it up and read other sources. Try it sometimes before posting shitty hot takes.

Sun Herald received a email from a concerned reader who said the decision was made ”mid-lesson plan, the students will not be allowed to finish the reading of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird' .... due to the use of the ‘N' word."
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...-mockingbird-8th-grade-lesson-plan/762213001/

Mississippi schools ban ‘To Kill a Mockingbird' from lessons due to use of racial slur

Although the school administrator doesn't say it, a parent who first contacted the Sun Herald with the news of the apparent mid-year shift in the reading list said the decision to pull the book was ”due to the use of the ‘N' word."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...s_to_kill_a_mockingbird_because_it_makes.html
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
He?

Sequel?

Retcon?

It was written by a woman, and the "sequel" was an unreleased earlier story.

The "sequel" was essentially a first draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird." There are still lines in Mockingbird that point to that fact, heck most of the first section before the main plot does.
 

Media

Member

B-Dubs

No Scrubs

Yes and they're not just looking for an excuse. Just because that's what they say doesn't mean it's the truth. The book has been banned many times before and at the end of the day it's always been for the same reason, and it's not this one. They banned it because it makes the racists uncomfortable. It's that simple.
 
Yes and they're not just looking for an excuse. Just because that's what they say doesn't mean it's the truth. The book has been banned many times before and at the end of the day it's always been for the same reason, and it's not this one. They banned it because it makes the racists uncomfortable. It's that simple.
Denial isn't just a river in Egypt
Good god.
2 seconds of googling - another ban of this book, by someone upset that it normalizes the n word. But it's just another front for secret racists. "Always". Lol dude.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...UwBQ&usg=AOvVaw0UwfTBILXQvx57WEJvQzEb&ampcf=1
 

Kite

Member
Yes and they're not just looking for an excuse. Just because that's what they say doesn't mean it's the truth. The book has been banned many times before and at the end of the day it's always been for the same reason, and it's not this one. They banned it because it makes the racists uncomfortable. It's that simple.
*shrug*
Read all the bans and you can decide, hopefully PBS is still a reliable source on gaf~ Several black parents and the NAACP tried to get the book banned in the past, you sure you wanna go with the it's only banned cus "it makes racists uncomfortable" line?

Notable ”To Kill A Mockingbird" challenges and bans
1977
Challenged and temporarily banned in Eden Valley, Minn., for vulgar language.

1980
Challenged in Vernon-Verona Sherrill School District (N.Y.) for content, called ”filthy" and ”trashy."

1981
Challenged in Warren, Ind., by black parents who felt it represented ”institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature."


1984
Challenged in the Waukegan School District (Ill.) for use of racial slurs.


1985
Challenged in Kansas City and Park Hill, Mo., middles schools for profanity and racial slurs.


1985
Challenged by local NAACP & black parents of Casa Grande Elementary School District (Ariz.) for sexual and racial content.


1995
Challenged in Santa Cruz, Calif., schools for racial content.

1995
Banned in Southwood High School in Caddo Parish, La., for profanity and racial content.

1996
Challenged in Moss Point (Miss.) School District for racial slurs.


1996
Banned in Lindale, Texas, for content that ”conflicted with the values of the community."

2001
Challenged by a Glynn County School Board (Ga.) member because of profanity.

2001
Challenged at Muskogee High School (Okla.) for use of racial slurs.


2003
Challenged at Normal Community High School (Ill.) for racial slurs and content.

2004
Challenged at Stanford Middle School in Durham, N.C., for use of racial slurs.


2006
Challenged at Brentwood Middle School (Tenn.) for profanity, racial slurs and sexual content.

2007
Challenged by residents of Cherry Hill, N.J., for racial slurs and content. Challenged rejected by board of education.


2009
Banned in St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton, Ont., for use of racial slurs.


2012
A student at Colleyville Heritage High School in Texas was given an alternate book assignment when parents challenged the novel's use for racial and political content.

2013
Plaquemines Parish School Board in Belle Chasse, La., lifts a 12-year ban on the novel.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/to-kill-a-mockingbird-remains-among-top-banned-classical-novels/
 
*shrug*
Read all the bans and you can decide, hopefully PBS is still a reliable source on gaf~ Several black parents and the NAACP tried to get the book banned in the past, you sure you wanna go with the it's only banned cus "it makes racists uncomfortable" line?


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/to-kill-a-mockingbird-remains-among-top-banned-classical-novels/
NAACP secret racists confirmed. It's always secret racism.
And nice source, might as well be Breitbart
 

Late Flag

Member
Yes and they're not just looking for an excuse. Just because that's what they say doesn't mean it's the truth. The book has been banned many times before and at the end of the day it's always been for the same reason, and it's not this one. They banned it because it makes the racists uncomfortable. It's that simple.

Can you please post some evidence for this?
 

Darksol

Member
I remember when they replaced nigger with slave in Huck Finn because it made white people in the south uncomfortable.

Anyone with a brain should understand why it’s important to leave these words in. History shouldn’t be whitewashed to preserve our ego or sense of self.
 

Kite

Member
I remember when they replaced nigger with slave in Huck Finn because it made white people in the south uncomfortable.

Anyone with a brain should understand why it’s important to leave these words in. History shouldn’t be whitewashed to preserve our ego or sense of self.
Again, you really sure you wanna try and push this narrative? Cus the NAACP and black students and parents have also tried to get Hick Finn banned.

http://www.bannedlibrary.com/podcas...-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn-by-mark-twain

1969 - Florida - Removed from Miami-Dade Junior College required reading because it "creates an emotional block for black students that inhibits learning."

1991

Arizona - Challenged in the Mesa Unified School District because of racial language and damages self-esteem of black youth

Louisiana - Removed from required reading at Terrebonne Parish Schools in Houma for racial language

Michigan - Temporarily pulled from Portage classrooms after some black parents complained their children were uncomfortable

1995

California - Removed from required reading lists in East San Jose high school after objections from black parents over racial language that erodes their children's self esteem and affects the children's performance

Connecticut - Removed from eighth grade curriculum at New Haven middle school complained it undermined the self-esteem of black youth.

Washington, D.C. - Removed from curriculum of the North Cathedral School for content and language

Wisconsin - Challenged in Kenosha Unified School after a complaint was filed with the local NAACP of offensive to black students

1996

Arizona - Challenged as required reading in an honors English class at the McClintock High School in Tempe by a teacher on behalf of their daughter and other black students. In May 1996, a class action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, alleging the district deprived minority students of educational opportunities by requiring racially offensive literature as part of class assignments. In January 1997, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit stating he realized that "language in the novel was offensive and hurtful to the plaintiff," but that the suit failed to prove the district violated the student's civil rights or that the works were assigned with discriminatory intent. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled that requiring public school students to read literary works that some find racially offensive is not discrimination prohibited by the equal protection clause or Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The ruling came in the case Monteiro v. Tempe Union High School District

2002 - Oregon - Challenged in the Portland schools by a black student who said he was offended by the racial language

2004 - Washington - Removed from reading lists in Renton high schools after a black student said the book degraded her and her culture. The novel was not required reading but was on approved book's list
 

Cyframe

Member
Going off my own experience, I don't think it's the average black family that is wanting to avoid the topic of the ugliness and history behind that word. Most black families want their kids to know this.

I can't help but think it's mostly white people who want To Kill A Mockingbird erased. Which has always been the case.

Most likely. I mean, Black families have talked to their children about racism well before they've entered school. This reaction to the book, if I had to guess is an element of white fragility.

If I hadn't been in a racist cesspool of a school, I think I would have been open to reading and having a discussion about the book's content.

I also think there is an issue with TKAM and Huck Finn because they are allegories of racial accounts. There aren't many Black authors who write from first-hand experiences considered classic literature like those two books. The works of James Baldwin aren't recognized like Mark Twain's work. So I would appreciate Black authors talking about a subject they know best. But, I digress.
 
I'm in support of banning this book from lesson plans for middle school students. I don't think students nor teachers in most states are prepared to give and teach a sobering, contemporary look at this book. There is this white savior trope in the book which is worth mentioning. It's a good book and is on the right side of history but I think it should be studied at a higher grade than middle school.
 

Wild Card

Member
I'd definitely believe the reasons behind the banning of the book to be purely due to the use of the N-word. People are overthinking this. It's a very simple train of thought, N-word is uncomfortable, let's not be exposed to it. Sometimes that's really all there is to it. People don't have that much trouble believing that racist's are dumb and simple-minded. Why can't other people share those same processes, even if not prejudiced?
 
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