‘Maus’ Among Latest Titles Banned in Some American School Districts

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

A Tennessee school board last week voted to remove the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus from an 8th grade course on the Holocaust. And that’s just one of many examples of recent bans instituted by parents, activists, school boards and lawmakers. According to the American Library Association, it has seen an “unprecedented” number of book bans in the last year. But unlike previous waves of book bannings, this latest wave has a different tone and tenor; bans are often targeted at books that center on the experience of diverse characters or are written by authors of color. Politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott are also using bans as campaign platforms to galvanize right wing voters. And while many bans are advocated by conservatives, there are also efforts by parents, like those in a Burbank, California school district, to remove books like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Of Mice and Men” from the curriculum because of the racist depictions in those books. We’ll look at why book banning is spreading across the country and what might be done to reverse the trend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.0	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on Forum, a Tennessee school board last week voted to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel, Mouse, from an eighth-grade course on the Holocaust.
1:08.0	The latest in a string of recent book bans. Other frequent
1:11.5	targets have included All Boys Aren't Blue, Gender Queer, and the Blueest Eye. The challenges
1:17.3	in bands, which the American Library Association has called unprecedented in number, have been
1:22.4	initiated by parents, school boards, even governors who've called for investigating and prosecuting school officials and librarians.
1:30.1	We look at why book bands have been spreading across the country with speed and intensity after this news.
1:48.1	This is Forum. I'm Nina Kim. A mayor in Mississippi is withholding funds from its public library until it removes books
1:53.7	with LGBTQ characters from the shelves.
1:57.1	Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called for investigations and prosecutions for, quote, pornographic school material, while Texas State Representative Matt Krause has told districts to identify books for removal that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.
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