Get Your Bans Off My Books with George M. Johnson
What A Day
What A Day
4.6 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2022
⏱️ 18 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
As we celebrate the beginning of Black History Month, conservatives are actively and aggressively silencing educators’ ability to talk honestly about history. Book bans are gaining steam with schools banning everything from "The 1619 Project," to Toni Morrison’s "Beloved," to Art Spiegelman’s "Maus." Journalist and activist George M. Johnson joins us to discuss the issue from an author’s perspective after their book, "All Boys Aren’t Blue," was targeted for removal in at least 14 states.
And in headlines: A Georgia judge rejected plea agreements in the federal hate crime trial of Gregory and Travis McMichael, the FDA granted full approval of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, and The New York Times announced it had acquired Wordle.
Show Notes:
NYT: "Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S." - https://nyti.ms/3uah9wK
Order "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson - https://bit.ly/34qKfNC
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Tuesday, February 1st. I'm Gideon Rezick. |
| 0:08.6 | And I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What A Day. |
| 0:11.7 | The podcast that has no problem with beautiful, famous people announcing they're having a baby |
| 0:15.8 | together. |
| 0:16.8 | Yeah, unlike Drake, we're even happy for Asap Rocky and Rihanna. |
| 0:20.3 | From Fenty Beauty to Fenty Baby. |
| 0:22.2 | Baby. |
| 0:23.2 | That's the autobiography right there of the child. |
| 0:27.2 | It is. |
| 0:31.2 | On Today's show, the FDA fully authorizes the Moderna vaccine plus an update on the federal |
| 0:35.8 | hate crime trial of the men who killed Amat Arbery. |
| 0:38.8 | But first, today marks the beginning of Black History Month, my favorite month of the |
| 0:42.6 | year. |
| 0:43.6 | So we wanted to focus on the recent attempts to erase part of that history. |
| 0:47.2 | Yeah, so across the country, conservatives have been actively and aggressively silencing |
| 0:51.5 | educators' ability to talk honestly about history. |
| 0:54.8 | Recently, a number of states have passed laws functionally outlawing the discussion of |
| 0:58.3 | race and white supremacy in schools across the country. |
| 1:02.4 | These laws, which attempt to prevent the honest discussion of history, contribute to the |
| 1:06.7 | erasure of marginalized people and their stories. |
| 1:09.6 | In particular, book bans, which never really went away, are gaining steam. |
| 1:14.0 | Schools are banning everything from the 1619 project to Tony Morrison's beloved to most |
... |
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