Story by Aubrey Salm / Contributing Writer
The McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove the graphic novel “Maus” from its eighth-grade language arts curriculum after concerns over profanity, nudity and its depiction of violence.
On Jan. 10, the McMinn County Board of Education voted unanimously to withhold a book from classes on the grounds of “unnecessary violence” that does not reflect the values of the McMinn County community. Parents, politicians and education boards have been challenging certain books from being read in the classroom for decades.
Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” has become one of the many books confined by censorship and suppression within the American school system. “Maus” depicts the author’s father’s experiences during his time in 1940s Poland and the Holocaust. People within the novel are portrayed as animals corresponding to their origin. For instance, Jews are represented as mice and Germans as cats.
Will Brantley, a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University since 1992, touched on his concerns over the recent book banning. He said, “Tennessee, of course, has quite the reputation for embarrassing itself on the national stage, so I’m not surprised by this latest attempt to preserve someone’s very restricted notion of what’s appropriate for eighth-graders.”
Amid the growing polarization in America and a surge of conservative-sponsored legislation, books exploring racial and social issues have been at the forefront of criticism.
In 2018, “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas were both challenged and banned in Charleston, South Carolina. After the Wando High School included the book in their summer reading, Charleston area police protested the book on the grounds of instilling distrust in the police. Both books dealt with racism and police brutality against people of color within America.
In 2019, “Prince & Knight” by Daniel Haack was pulled from West Virginia’s Upshur County public library after a local church minister called it “a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children, especially boys, into the LGBTQA lifestyle”. The children’s book tells a story of a prince who falls in love with a knight and deals with homosexual relationships.
Again in 2020, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison was removed from the Colton Joint Unified School District, located in San Bernardino, California. Parents complained about the novel’s depiction of child sexual abuse and other “graphic content.” The book follows a young black girl throughout her life and covers controversial topics of racism, incest and child molestation.
Students and teachers alike have come out against the decision in McMinn County. Lilian Hickman, a junior pursuing a minor in Jewish and Holocaust studies, reflects on the current situation in McMinn County. She stated, “Children deal with difficult issues themselves. And I think that instead of concealing books that mentioned hard subjects’ teachers and parents should be ready to explain and talk about these subjects such as rape or hate for a certain reason.”
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP have also joined in the conversation against the ban.
Although legally, cities, counties, parents and public libraries have the right to voice their concern over books and their influence over the public. Americans should not be shocked over censorship; however, the outcome begs the question, how to depict the horrors of the Holocaust with its apparent atrocities for age-appropriate accuracy?
At times, the school system reflects the 1953 dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451.” Written by Ray Bradbury, the book presents a bleak look into American society where books are outlawed, and “firemen” burn any that are found. Although we are not at the point of burning books, the movement against censorship is critical to people of all ages, literary wellness and to the right of each citizen to be informed.
As said best by Elizabeth Mayers, MTSU professor of English, “The very idea of limiting information to people is abhorrent to me. Banning books is the first step to denying people access to stories about experiences different from theirs and negating the ability to develop empathy.”
To contact News Editor Toriana Williams, email newseditor@mtsusidelines.com.
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