A crowd gathered in the back corner of the store, browsing through newly installed, rainbow-colored shelves displaying multiple copies of some 65 books currently banned from various Florida schools. It was opening night for the shop's "Banned Book Nook," and customers with ice cream cones in one hand helped themselves to novels, memoirs and biographies with the other.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1164284891/book-bans-school-libraries-florida
The free speech group PEN America says book bans in public school libraries this year are on pace to top last year's high mark, when there were more than 2,500 instances of book bans in U.S. schools. Most of those books were LGBTQ- or race-related.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1164284891/book-bans-school-libraries-florida
@WordsmithFL Indeed! 🤬
@WordsmithFL School libraries in Florida have Mein Kampf?
@Coctaanatis My high school library did. In fact, they brought in the local Nazis to address our class one day. They handed out their hate literature. They were given freedom of speech, then hooted off campus.
I often think about that, what the school was thinking. (It was a semi-private Catholic school.) This was 1974, for the record. I think it was a gutsy call for free speech.
@WordsmithFL That's weird. I don't recall much political literature in my public school library, but the town did have an excellent public library that carried such material for those who were interested.
@Coctaanatis Well, this was a semi-private Catholic school in Southern California in the 1970s. I don't recall the priests and brothers having any particular political bent, although I do recall a number of spirited discussions about Vietnam and Nixon. It was that time.
I don't think anyone got bent out of shape when we were taught sex education or slavery or whatever else gets MAGA panties in a wad these days.
@Coctaanatis Thinking about it a bit more ... Our school library had a section behind the librarian's desk that was restricted. We had to obtain permission from him to go back there. I did so all the time; it never seemed to be an issue. Maybe "Mein Kampf" was back there, I don't recall.
@WordsmithFL With the Internet, banning books, except for very young students, seems almost pointless. It's the broad thought bans that are becoming a problem.
#Politics In #Florida under #DeSantis, books about gays and ethnic minorities have been banned, but "Mein Kampf" has not been banned. Interesting, that.