More than a dozen organizations have created the “Unite Against Book Bans” coalition to combat the wave of book censorship in American schools.
The American Library Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Authors Guild, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the publishing houses Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan are among the members of the new coalition.
Readers, especially students, have lost access to vital information, and librarians and teachers have been attacked for doing their jobs.said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the library association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, on Tuesday.
” This is a dangerous time for readers and officials who provide access to reading materials […] It is time for policy makers to understand the seriousness of this problem. “
Resources include help for community members to write petitions, developing questionnaires for political candidates, and designing graphics for social media.
A trend to shine
Last January, school authorities in a county in Tennessee banned cult comics Maus which became a worldwide success, winning the Pulitzer Prize. The author, Art Spiegelman, tells the story of his father, who survived the Holocaust. Jews are represented by rats, and Nazis are represented by cats.
But its content has already been judged vulgar and inappropriate for 13 years old.
There is rude and unpleasant language in this book, explained the council director, Lee Parkison, according to the minutes of the meeting. Eight vulgar words and images of a naked woman were included.
Maus censorship is arguably the most public example to date of a trend that is becoming popular in some U.S. states, especially Republican states. The reason? They want to let parents speak to what is being taught in schools.
The American Library Association reported last month that it tracked nearly 1,600 attempts to ban books in 2021, the highest number since it began recording them more than 20 years ago.
Source: Radio-Canada
