By Diane Roberts
It’s Banned Books Week in Florida!
OK, the observance is in October, but it’s always Banned Books Week in Florida. Every day seems to bring another hissy fit from a state goon or “concerned” parent hell-bent on returning us to the glory days of censorship.
Hillsborough County School Superintendent Van Ayres has been attacked by parents and shouted at by state government for failing to remove materials chest-thumping Attorney General James Uthmeier claims are “pornographic“ from school libraries.
Ayres already had two books — ”Call Me By Your Name,” a gay romance with some sex scenes, and “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts),” which has no sex scenes — taken off the shelves.
That was not enough for Uthmeier and some of the school board’s more hysterical members. So, in an abundance of caution, Ayres had 600 more removed from schools for a “review,” estimated to cost $350,000.
It was not enough: During a June school board meeting, one member called many surviving books “nasty and disgusting,” and another, obviously in need of smelling salts, said, “I, as a 56-year-old woman, mother of five and a physician, can’t look at these pages.”
She wants heads to roll: “Have you considered firing all your media specialists and starting from scratch with women and men who can read, or have a single shred of decency? These people that you trust to review these materials are abusing the children of your county. They’re child abusers.”
Here are some of those child-abusing materials: “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “What Girls Are Made Of,” “The Bluest Eye,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Slaughterhouse Five,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Women and men who can — and do — read will know the authors of those books include a Booker Prize winner, a National Book Award winner, winner of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Nobel Prize laureate.
Obviously, a bunch of perverts and losers.
‘Overbroad and unconstitutional’
The good news is that some at that ambush of a meeting objected to the objections.
One parent said it was not the state’s responsibility to decide what books her kid should have access to, it was hers: “Don’t tell me that it’s inappropriate if I think it’s appropriate for my child to read.”
The chair of the school board also took exception to the abuse heaped on school librarians (annoyingly now called “media specialists”) who are, in fact, experts in “age-appropriate” materials.
The even better news is that a federal judge has struck down the worst parts of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pet book-banning law as “overbroad and unconstitutional.”
A gaggle of big publishers including Simon and Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, plus a bunch of well-known authors and hacked-off parents, sued over the state’s vague decree that if a text “describes sexual conduct” it’s “pornographic.”
U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza, probably trying hard not to roll his eyes, pointed out the state can’t seem to define what they mean by “sexual conduct”: Consensual intercourse? A kiss? A rape? A seductive conversation? A hand sliding down (or up) to touch certain body parts which may or may not be named? Joyous marital congress?
The state’s arguments boiled down to:
- If a parent or random Moms for Liberty busybody think something is obscene and therefore an assault on the Moral Fiber of Our Youth, it is, even if they can’t quite get specific about what that means. They know obscenity when they see it, by golly.
- Books in public school libraries should promote “government speech,” i.e., the views espoused by the DeSantis regime.
Views such as, say, gays are not good; trans people are worse; sex outside of marriage is terrible; authority should not be questioned; climate change should not be studied.
Legal fees
According the state, “When the government speaks, it ‘can freely select the views that it wants to express, including choosing not to speak and speaking through the removal of speech that the government disapproves.”
According to DeSantis’ lawyers, school books are “not subject to the First Amendment.”
You thought free speech was protected in the Free State of Florida?
In 2023, PEN America file a lawsuit against the Escambia County School District for removing or restricting access to books some people found objectionable.
Escambia keeps losing in court, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to spend taxpayer money: at least $440,000. So far.
To make an obvious point, think about the field trips and school supplies that cash could have funded.
What’s all this book banning really about, anyway?
Authoritarianism for authoritarianism’s sake? That’s probably part of it.
Bullies love to bully.
Does it spring from deeply held religious notions of “purity” which hold that any exposure to what some people see as “immoral” words or images will pollute the minds of innocent children?
Y’all might remember the embarrassing kerfluffle at a Tallahassee charter school over showing students one of the great achievements of Western art.
The teacher leading a unit on the Renaissance had the temerity to display a picture of Michelangelo’s statue of David.
Some parents freaked out: You could see David’s junk!
As if half the planet does not sport similar junk.
Consider “And Tango Makes Three,” the famous true story of two male penguins raising a chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo.
That book has been snatched off library shelves all over Florida because, well, maybe because it could encourage tolerance toward flightless birds?
Fear factor
The banners seem to think stories with a gay hero or a trans character will turn kids gay or trans.
These people do not assume stories with gun violence will turn kids into mass shooters.
But books telling the truth about Native American genocide and slavery will make kids question the essential virtue of America.
Biographies of Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or novels by Ralph Ellison or Alice Walker will make white kids feel guilty.
It’s true the Left has been known to criticize certain books — ”The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” for racist language, or “Lolita” for its depiction of pedophilia — but rarely demand they be deep-sixed altogether.
Still, nobody can take away the Right’s title as the undisputed heavyweight champs of the book banning world.
Here’s the real reason for MAGA animosity to books: Fear.
They are scared of an America where white is not the default ethnicity, Christianity is not the dominant religion, heterosexuality is only one kind of “normal,” and history is a complicated tangle of high ideals and low crimes.
They cannot bear the thought their children will grow up in the 21st Century when all they cherished as solid and eternal can be questioned, even discarded.
So, they fight for control.
Until March of this year, a website called “BookLooks,” founded by a member of Moms for Liberty, touted a ratings system for books it deemed unsuitable for decent eyeballs.
BookLooks has shut down, saying that “after much prayer and reflection it has become apparent that His work for us here is complete and that He has other callings for us.”
However, the ratings system is still all over the Web, with “0″ (no sex, no swearing, no nudity, no booze or drugs), to “4″ denoting a text with “depictions of sexual organs in a state of arousal” plus oral sex of every kind.
Level 5, “Aberrant Content,” means stuff so filthy (“sadomasochistic abuse, assault, and ‘beastiality’” (sic) it’d burn the retinas of a saint.
‘Book of Books’
Take a look at the Moms’ “Book of Books,” a document that is at once alarming, absurd, and not a little prurient.
It quotes carefully curated and utterly out of context scenes of sex and sexual assault from Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” or Yaa Gyaasi’s “Homegoing.” (Newsflash: in a novel about slavery, you’re pretty much going to encounter sexual assault.)
They react with horror at novels about kids coming to terms with being gay, such as “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”
They declare books dangerous for supposedly promoting “alternative gender ideologies.”
The “Book of Books” also lavishly shares sex act image after sex act image from graphic novels including “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer.”
That stuff is, admittedly, pretty raw, even hard to look at.
However, you can’t help wondering why they couldn’t have done with just two or three explicit pictures — and whether the compilers were getting a naughty thrill out of the whole thing.
We expect the Moms and their ilk to freak out over sex of any flavor, but even more of their ire has been directed at references to race, which they label “controversial social commentary” or just “hate.”
They don’t mean “hate” as in scenes of racist violence or oppression of people of color.
They mean people of color daring to expose or criticize or otherwise express strong disapproval of racism.
‘Nasty white folks’
Adding to the many transgressions of “The Bluest Eye,” they point to this sentence: “Nasty white folks is about the nastiest things they is.”
In Angie Thomas’ “The Hate U Give” the Moms clutch their pearls at: “A sixteen-year-old black boy is dead because a white cop killed him. What else could it be?”
Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” raises alarm for this: “Our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain.”
This nonsense would be hilarious if it weren’t driving public education policy in Florida.
Those who want to ban or suppress books are closing the barn door after the horse has bolted and is now in the next town, sitting in a bar drinking a Mai Tai.
They’re also exposing themselves as the frightened creatures they are.
The bans will continue: Escambia County has removed another 400-plus books from its libraries without reviewing a single one.
The lawsuits will continue.
And the 21st century will continue, despite the state of Florida trying its best to drag us back to the 19th.
Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began producing columns on the legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the St. Petersburg Times–back when that was the Tampa Bay Times’s name–and a long-time columnist for the paper in both its iterations. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and continues to contribute radio essays and opinion pieces to the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books.
Pogo says
@Diane Roberts
Ha ha, no, really — well said, sure to evoke a rueful smile; a wistful sigh.
What is actually happening to combat the shitheads bringing The Nothing that is replacing sunlight? How can we step over these troglodytes (and their sub literate small thinking and their obsession with genitalia and bathroom stalls) and get on with life?
Hey me — glad I asked; I like my answer too:
Read
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+distribute+sell+promote+banned+books&ia=web
For reference
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=The+Nothing&ia=web
Jason says
There are no such things as book bans. What is actually taking place is age appropriate reading materials being put into schools libraries and age inappropriate materials being removed.
Is it censorship that the libraries don’t offer Hustler or PlayBoy in libraries? Is it censorship that libraries don’t have books on how to create explosive devices?
Apparently it is only censorship when parents don’t want their children exposed to sexually explicit materials but teachers with political agendas do.
PC not again says
Yeah, this is ridiculous! Kids will see, read and watch far more explicit and even disturbing things online. Unfortunately online they will struggle to know what is a quality material (meaning fact based or published) and what they should stop reading or watching immediately and what is simply garbage.
I feel sorry for the school staff who’s responsible for the books. What a waste of their precious time!
As a parent, I feel this FL department of education have overstepped their boundaries. The book bans doesn’t bother me as much because ironically these banned books will experience ongoing popularity thanks to the bans. I am however referring to the letter about Beanstalk app that I assume all parents received. For those who are not familiar, Beanstalk is an app where students and parents can log minutes read and then celebrated for achieving a certain amount of minutes read. The letter that I received felt like a treat to make sure we are reading only the “right” books.
That is too much, it is absurd! That to me is a chilling reality check that times here in the US are seriously changing if more people won’t speak up.
Thanks for the article.
DoubleGator says
Is ignorance a disease? How do you catch it? How do you cure it?
Jill Titcomb says
Sounds like all the suing is making somebodies money, and lots of it, at the taxpayers’ expense. Isn’t desantis a lawyer with lots of lawyer friends? He seems to spend our well earned money for many reasons deemed necessary by himself. Which politicians and lawyers are getting rich off this?
Deborah Coffey says
It must be exhausting to be filled with so much fear and hate that those people feel the need to control every other person’s life. And to think they only care about what kids read…not one bit about those children being shot dead at school because the fear and hate will not allow them to get rid of their gun fetishes.
JW says
The bottom line is America’s failing K-12 education. Just look out of your window and compare our education with that in Europe and most of the world. There is plenty to read for everyone about that, but… who is reading these days?
We do not teach critical thinking (anymore), our politicians and some of those mothers want our kids to just feel good. Politicians (including Trump and DeSantis) have stated that they “like” less educated people. What they don’t say is that they exploit ignorant people.
An American biochemist from Columbia University (Isaac Asimov) once stated:
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge”
t.o. Doug says
I miss the old days, when the default right wing position in Florida was Libertarian and book banning itself was considered immoral.
Skibum says
Diane Roberts says it like it is! Well, at least for now while she and others are still allowed by law to speak truth to unhinged power from right wing extremists who are attempting to gag and remove free speech from Americans.
Banned books in school classrooms. Banned subjects that once were taught in school classrooms. Other subjects of historical importance fraudulently changed with “alternate fact” to fill young students’ brains with garbage to whitewash the truth, good or bad, about this nation’s ups and downs through history.
Students prohibited from using certain language and words, and forbidden to decide what name they wish to be called in this state’s school classrooms. Teachers punished up to include termination just for calling students the names those students prefer to be called.
Certain student support clubs and organizations banned.
Now, even rainbow chalked crosswalks destroyed and guarded by local police and state troopers to ensure not even a chalk representation of anything resembling a rainbow is in existence in public spaces under penalty of arrest.
This is DeSantis’ so-called “free” state of Florida under maga heavy handedness.
Jim says
Quoting the author: “Women and men who can — and do — read will know the authors of those books include a Booker Prize winner, a National Book Award winner, winner of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Nobel Prize laureate.” While I see her point and it is valid, unfortunately she needs to remove the Presidential Medal of Freedom winner from this list. It appears that Rudolph W. Giuliani is to be awarded this once prestigious award so it’s value will soon equate to a prize in a McDonald’s happy meal (I’d prefer the happy meal prize…)
Quoting the author: “The even better news is that a federal judge has struck down the worst parts of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pet book-banning law as “overbroad and unconstitutional.” The state’s arguments boiled down to:
If a parent or random Moms for Liberty busybody think something is obscene and therefore an assault on the Moral Fiber of Our Youth, it is, even if they can’t quite get specific about what that means. They know obscenity when they see it, by golly.
Books in public school libraries should promote “government speech,” i.e., the views espoused by the DeSantis regime. According the state, “When the government speaks, it ‘can freely select the views that it wants to express, including choosing not to speak and speaking through the removal of speech that the government disapproves.””. It’s just hard to accept that our state government would put forth such a weak, pitiful argument in support of a state law. If you can’t provide factual, detailed requirements for labeling decent vs indecent, you show you really don’t know the difference. And the government can choose “he removal of speech that the government disapproves”. Really? So the first amendment only applies when the government says so. That’s interesting. Under that guidance, I guess we all need to check in with the government before we utter any thoughts that might run counter to government selected views. Now if that doesn’t smack of a dictatorship policy, I don’t know what would.
I doubt this state is capable of turning this foolishness around any time soon. Too many “citizens” are perfectly fine with having the government encroach on our freedoms just because, at the moment, the government is going after those they don’t like. Someday, though, everyone will find themselves on the wrong side and then it’ll be too late. I may not like what you have to say but I respect that you have the right to say it. You can burn the flag. It’s stupid and pointless and only inflames others. Nothing positive comes from that act. However, you can do it. And, by the way, sometimes what a person does says more about that person that whatever point they think they’re making.
Anyway, DeSantis is a fascist, a baby tyrant and this is the kind of “government” you get with such idiots. Locally, we have Randy Fine (enough said) and Mike Norris. You can say/think what you want but as long as these are the “leaders”, we’ll just continue to sink and lose many freedoms on the trip.
It’s just sad that so many can’t see the forest for the trees…
According to DeSantis’ lawyers, school books are “not subject to the First Amendment.”
Doug says
Nazi always ban books they always want to block any sort of information thats counter to their propaganda. Attack media? Check, make up problems to use military control, check. Take away rights check. Build concentration camps , check. Blame immigrants and minorities for problems. Check. Hate to break it to ya but this is fascist nation now that commits human atrocities in the name of profit! Led by a pedophile with 34 convictions, what 80 more felonies just wiped away by corrupt buddies. Stole trillions! Kneels to enemies and attacks allies. Republican Party did this as they protect their leader that raped children.
Racist Ron the fascist is out trying to enforce is war on rainbows and freedom!
Next guy should just promise to pardon all crimes against the fascist!
Marek says
Banning the books is one of the most horrible acts of barbarism .
Skibum says
Jason’s comments are laughable at best. And I have to wonder why, when we are discussing book bans, his mind automatically goes to Hustler and Playboy sex magazines… which are NOT books Jason!
Shame on you, Jason, for revealing your own sex obsession while the rest of us are talking about some of the literary works from esteemed authors, one a Nobel Prize laureate. The banned books we are talking about, not sex mags, you perv, include those that received national book awards and were certainly age appropriate for school students.
Jason needs to hide his sticky sex mags back under his mattress, then get his mind out of the gutter and quit relying on the moms (prudes) of liberty for reading recommendations!
The Jojo says
I used to be a staunch supporter of free speech and the right to read, see, or otherwise engage in any topic of interest I wanted, but then I grew up. 60 plus years later I still support the idea that the intention of the First Amendment was to protect a person’s liberties from tyrannical authorities, as we see so often in other countries. However, we are not the same country we were when that notion was as simple as being able to criticize our government without fear of retribution. Our society and culture has degraded so far down the toilet that we are now defending the right to produce graphic violence, pornography, and all other forms of deplorable trash.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good skin flik, and I have to chuckle at the tame depiction of “violence” in the older movies like I grew up with, given what is considered ‘normal’ by todays standards, but at 60 something years old, I can honestly say I would not want children anywhere near that type of content. I’m speaking in generalities here, I don’t care if the content is about gender identity, sex, violence, or any of it. I think the key term here is: Age Appropriate. Whatever number that is, it keeps getting pushed earlier and earlier, until it is not uncommon for 6 year olds to watch condom ads on tv, cuss better than I can, and think its acceptable to disrespect everyone else for no other reason than they simply grew up listening and watching the behavior of their entitled Karen parents, if they are even lucky enough to still have two of them.
I think the spirit of this article is admirable. I would even agree if this were 40 years or more ago when society still had a small shred of morality left, but I agree with Jason, this is not Book Banning, it is removing material that is not Age Appropriate from a venue that caters to that age group. I really had to think about this, because I started out agreeing with the article until his reply said “Is it censorship that the libraries don’t offer Hustler or PlayBoy in libraries? Is it censorship that libraries don’t have books on how to create explosive devices?”. Very wise observation sir!
Who gets to be the arbiter of what is “Age Appropriate” in the schools? That’s a good question, one for far better minds than mine. What should be allowed and not allowed? What a can of worms that is! I do know that I, as a parent, am the final word when it comes to MY children. I get to dictate what they are exposed to until they are old enough to decide for themselves. (An age, by the way, that I also get to decide). It is also my responsibility to teach them to turn away from material or circumstances that they know I would not approve of, at least at that particular time. And before you say “kids will be kids…”, I have known many of my children’s friends who have done exactly that, due to their proper upbringing by their parents.
But how are parents today supposed to compete with a morally bankrupt society, led by morally bankrupt leaders? A seemingly impossible task, to be sure. I suggest everyone who agrees with this watch the movie “The Village”. If only I had the means….
Skibum says
To The JoJo… I just turned 70 and you have to admit that almost every aspect of today’s society, including the information we get from TV and social media in particular, is NOTHING like we all were getting in our younger years. But there were plenty of books back then with objectionable material too. The difference was there weren’t the prudes, the self-appointed fools who not only didn’t want to read certain things themselves, they weren’t outright prohibiting everyone else from their constitutional right to view it if they wanted to do so. We had X-rated movie theaters and pornography back then JoJo, just not the sanctimonious pseudo-Christians preventing the masses from seeing something the few decided was not for them. Today’s world is nothing compared to back then.
Maybe objectionable material has gotten worse, or just maybe the availability to access it, via smart phones, google searches and social media make it so much easier these days and that should be expected if we have respect for the 1st Amendment. But you could say the same thing about the 2nd Amendment and the proliferation of more and more guns of all types in today’s society compared to decades ago.
I would argue that the gun problem in America, with all of the mass shootings we have nationwide on a regular basis, and all of the dead and injured school children, is a much, much more serious problem that begs for solutions than trying to tell school kids what they can and cannot read. Our federal, state and local officials, and people all across America should be spending a whole lot more effort on the extreme harm to our nation’s kids as well as adults by guns.
Books have never killed anyone… concentrate the efforts on what does!
Pogo says
@Skibum “… Books have never killed anyone…”
Swear on a bible that that is true. I prefer a dictionary to any holy book; and even dictionaries fall into the hands of all manner of licensed professionals, and other killers, too.
t.o. Doug says
Did I really just read someone comment that this freedom of speech thing has gotten out of hand?
This is still America, right? Just wow…
The Jojo says
Hey Skibum and Pgo, I absolutely agree with you, times are absolutely unrecognizable from what they used to be. I remember passing at least two dirty book stores biking my way to elementary school, head shops, everything we have today. My thought process is a work in progress though, I think I am more disturbed by the availability and worse yet (at least to me) the promotion of all of it to an audience that it is not appropriate for. Again, that age seems to be getting pushed younger and younger, and I find that kind of revolting.
Believe me, I’m no saint, but I do pride myself on knowing when foul language is acceptable (like NOT at Christmas dinner with the whole family…etc) and when to turn the channel when the kids enter the room. If you grew up like I did, in a moderately proper home, (that means my mother was prim and proper and Dad only slung vulgarities out of her range of hearing…) you probably know what I mean. It just doesn’t seem right to PUSH these materials and ideas onto younger and younger minds. I just think they should be kids as long as they can without having to think about adult topics before they are adult enough to understand them at a reasonable level.
Is my thinking correct? Who knows…but it is correct for MY children, and I think each parent should decide for themselves what level their kids should be exposed to. I am totally pro free speech, but free speech does not mean ‘consequence free’ speech. This topic is such a can of worms, I feel like my grandfather when I curmudgeonly say ” I miss the old days”.
Guns are a whole ‘nuther beast, another topic that has no common resolution. I could argue though, depending on how far down the existential rabbit hole you want to dive, there are many books on suicide, bomb making, drug making…the list goes on…free speech – right? It could be said that books don’t kill people, but only if you argue as well that guns don’t kill people – people kill people. I think that is the root of the problem. But really, what do I know…I moved to the mountains like a hermit to get away from all of that. Now I see society mostly through the eyes of the news, and I am saddened.
Skibum says
JoJo, I tend to agree that there appears to be no limits to what we have to endure on a daily basis. I especially find objectionable the in-your-face tv commercials like those touting whole body deodorant… “put it on your pits, on your boobs, in the crack of your butt” language, yuk. Or those commercials for testosterone supplements where the guy says “your little lady will love it too” wink, wink. Both yukky, rank and I keep wondering why do we have to constantly be subjected to that crap when we are just trying to watch a tv program or movie.
I think when teenagers see stuff like that on tv they probably assume anything and everything is okey dokey, nothing is to be kept personal, no sensitive topics anymore, just say out loud or do anything you want, even in public. I don’t understand why that is acceptable or tolerated.
Pogo says
@Jjo
With respect, lighten up, change the channel — learn the meaning of these words: it’s none of my business.
Moreover, as you say, you’re old enough to know better — stop contradicting experience; stop substituting pompous moral airs for a sober acceptance of this: people do what people do. The best do the right thing whether others are watching or not, whether others know now, or ever, about it or not. And the best don’t thank themselves and remind others that they know, knew, do, did, predict, predicted what is, what was right — or not. The best do no harm, do as they speak, do what must be done — and tell the truth, especially, about their part — of anything.
In the end, the results are all that is real; which probably says a lot to explain so-called human progress.
Related
http://www.google.com/search?q=banned+in+boston
“Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to,”
— Mark Twain
Sherry says
Fascism cannot thrive in an “educated” society of “critical thinkers”!
Of course “parents” should be deciding which books/video games/internet content their children are exposed to.
Regarding guns and contagious diseases. . . that is where intelligent/scientific government “REGULATION” is required. Unfortunately our government is NOT protecting the public safety!