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What does this book or it's banning have to do with critical race theory or any fight against it? As the link provided by srmarm lists, it was banned due to lan

What does this book or it's banning have to do with critical race theory or any fight against it? As the link provided by srmarm lists, it was banned due to language and explicit illustration.

omegaworks 5y ago
The anti-CRT moral panic has created a mass-movement and normalized book banning.
- jonhohle 5y ago
  This has absolutely nothing to do with CRT. I assure you books have been banned far longer than CRT has been a trending topic. Did you read the minutes of the meeting? The content that is against school board policy is enumerated and there is a request to replace the material with something that can teach equivalent lessons. > I've got enough faith from the Director of Schools down to the newest hire in this building, that you can take that module and rewrite it and make it do the same thing. Our children need to know about the Holocaust, they need to understand that there are several pieces of history, Mr. Bennett, that shows depression or suppression of certain ethnicities. It's not acceptable today. We've got to accept people for who and what they are… But Rob, the wording in this book is in direct conflict of some of our policies… I move that we remove this book from the reading series and challenge our instructional staff to come with an alternative method of teaching the Holocaust.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - omegaworks 5y ago
    Banning Maus is endorsed by the people behind the CRT moral panic[1]. It was made all the easier by their effort. Believing that it’s more important to protect middle schoolers from mice that say "god damn" than it is to convey the horrors of the camps is white fragility politics in action. Infantilization to serve fascist ends. 1. https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1486732376369631234?s=20&t=Rsuke8vLw7L0TeuPuE3tcQ https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1486732376369631234?s=2...
wyattpeak 5y ago
Well that's what they've claimed, but with the ongoing spate of race-relaced book-banning, it's a moderately hard claim to believe. How many other books in their library do you think contain the phrase "God damn"?
- jonhohle 5y ago
  > How many other books in their library do you think contain the phrase "God damn"? Did you read the minutes or are you assuming these are just dumb, racist, country-bumpkins? They literally address exactly this point. From the minutes (regarding removing this book): > My bigger concern is that this is probably the tip of the iceberg of what is out there.
  - wyattpeak 5y ago
    So, a few things. 1) I ask you to refrain from personal attacks if you want me to continue to engage. 2) I feel no moral compunction to read a twenty page supporting document to make a one-line comment about not trusting people's claims uncritically. 3) Having now read that document, my opinion hasn't changed. One person tries a couple of times to address the bigger picture about what problematic books are in the curriculum. In both cases he is almost immediately shut down by the rest of the committee who want to discuss this particular book.
    - jonhohle 5y ago
      In what way did I make a personal attack? You made a critique about their state of mind without reading the primary source. There's nothing racially motivated in the minutes or having to do with the boards decision. I don't expect you or anyone else on HN to read the supporting text, but I do expect some level of empathy, assumption of good faith, and seeing past sensationalism. Instead I see a lot of cargo culting, demonizing, and propagation of incorrect information. Having listened to an agonizing number of school board meetings, and having family that is involved in school administration, there are reasons to not let a topic expand past the original scope for the sake of the board, the parents, and everyone else involved.
PaulHoule 5y ago
On HN I flag several unhinged posts a day by people who are complaining that somebody got canceled somewhere, complaining that another post got flagged, asking to delete their HN account because a post got flagged, or how their feelings are badly hurt because somebody downvoted their comment. (Contrast that to five years ago when the most problematic people on HN had some indescribable problem that had something to do with gender and you had to be careful engaging with them because they always had to get the last word.) The right has taken on "free speech" as a cause lately. Big Tech needs to be defunded because Twitter kicked out Trump, etc. It pushes a narrative that the left is against free speech and the right is for it, but as usual, both sides agree they are happy when their tribe wins.
slg 5y ago
As the article mentions, this is not an isolated incident in either Tennessee or nationally. Maybe this book would be banned at any other time. But it is hard to see this book banning as anything but one incident in a larger pattern of censorship in which CRT is the held up as the primary motivation. As the article says: >Regardless of why this decision was made, we’re in a climate where a sustained attack is being made on our schools, our teachers, and the truth. The anti-Critical Race Theory furor ginned up by Republican think tanks for political gain morphed into an excuse for right wing folks to try to cancel diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and things they don’t agree with in general — and now Conservative book-banning is really having a moment.
- MBCook 5y ago
  Gotta ban that stuff. It may make kids feel guilty or sad. Of course I explicitly remember listening to Limbaugh in the 90s or so as he made fun of the “liberal fad” of listening to kids feelings and “protecting them from harm” or having to deal with anything that might be hard or painful. Can’t punish Bobby it might hurt his self esteem. Isn’t that where the term liberal snowflake came from? That they were so fragile they had to be coddled and couldn’t handle the real world? And here we are now. What’s good for the goose, I guess.
  - batch12 5y ago
    I always thought snowflake was pointing at the idea that everyone is unique.
- jonhohle 5y ago
  The article is disingenuous to what happened. The book has contents that violate school board policy. Educators were asked to replace it without changing the purpose of the module.
  - slg 5y ago
    >The book has contents that violate school board policy. Well I guess the kids can't see the phrase "god damn" or see a drawing of a naked woman when they are learning about the industrialized murder of millions of people. Do you not see how crazy that is? These these kids aren't eight. They are teenagers. They are old enough to learn about these things. This policy is asinine.
nsxwolf 5y ago
I would assume someone is itching to accuse the anti-CRT establishment of being Holocaust deniers.

What does this book or it's banning have to do with critical race theory or any fight against it? As the link provided by srmarm lists, it was banned due to language and explicit illustration.

omegaworks 5y ago

The anti-CRT moral panic has created a mass-movement and normalized book banning.

jonhohle 5y ago
This has absolutely nothing to do with CRT. I assure you books have been banned far longer than CRT has been a trending topic. Did you read the minutes of the meeting? The content that is against school board policy is enumerated and there is a request to replace the material with something that can teach equivalent lessons. > I've got enough faith from the Director of Schools down to the newest hire in this building, that you can take that module and rewrite it and make it do the same thing. Our children need to know about the Holocaust, they need to understand that there are several pieces of history, Mr. Bennett, that shows depression or suppression of certain ethnicities. It's not acceptable today. We've got to accept people for who and what they are… But Rob, the wording in this book is in direct conflict of some of our policies… I move that we remove this book from the reading series and challenge our instructional staff to come with an alternative method of teaching the Holocaust.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- omegaworks 5y ago
  Banning Maus is endorsed by the people behind the CRT moral panic[1]. It was made all the easier by their effort. Believing that it’s more important to protect middle schoolers from mice that say "god damn" than it is to convey the horrors of the camps is white fragility politics in action. Infantilization to serve fascist ends. 1. https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1486732376369631234?s=20&t=Rsuke8vLw7L0TeuPuE3tcQ https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1486732376369631234?s=2...

wyattpeak 5y ago

Well that's what they've claimed, but with the ongoing spate of race-relaced book-banning, it's a moderately hard claim to believe. How many other books in their library do you think contain the phrase "God damn"?

jonhohle 5y ago
> How many other books in their library do you think contain the phrase "God damn"? Did you read the minutes or are you assuming these are just dumb, racist, country-bumpkins? They literally address exactly this point. From the minutes (regarding removing this book): > My bigger concern is that this is probably the tip of the iceberg of what is out there.
- wyattpeak 5y ago
  So, a few things. 1) I ask you to refrain from personal attacks if you want me to continue to engage. 2) I feel no moral compunction to read a twenty page supporting document to make a one-line comment about not trusting people's claims uncritically. 3) Having now read that document, my opinion hasn't changed. One person tries a couple of times to address the bigger picture about what problematic books are in the curriculum. In both cases he is almost immediately shut down by the rest of the committee who want to discuss this particular book.
  - jonhohle 5y ago
    In what way did I make a personal attack? You made a critique about their state of mind without reading the primary source. There's nothing racially motivated in the minutes or having to do with the boards decision. I don't expect you or anyone else on HN to read the supporting text, but I do expect some level of empathy, assumption of good faith, and seeing past sensationalism. Instead I see a lot of cargo culting, demonizing, and propagation of incorrect information. Having listened to an agonizing number of school board meetings, and having family that is involved in school administration, there are reasons to not let a topic expand past the original scope for the sake of the board, the parents, and everyone else involved.

PaulHoule 5y ago

On HN I flag several unhinged posts a day by people who are complaining that somebody got canceled somewhere, complaining that another post got flagged, asking to delete their HN account because a post got flagged, or how their feelings are badly hurt because somebody downvoted their comment. (Contrast that to five years ago when the most problematic people on HN had some indescribable problem that had something to do with gender and you had to be careful engaging with them because they always had to get the last word.) The right has taken on "free speech" as a cause lately. Big Tech needs to be defunded because Twitter kicked out Trump, etc. It pushes a narrative that the left is against free speech and the right is for it, but as usual, both sides agree they are happy when their tribe wins.

slg 5y ago

As the article mentions, this is not an isolated incident in either Tennessee or nationally. Maybe this book would be banned at any other time. But it is hard to see this book banning as anything but one incident in a larger pattern of censorship in which CRT is the held up as the primary motivation. As the article says: >Regardless of why this decision was made, we’re in a climate where a sustained attack is being made on our schools, our teachers, and the truth. The anti-Critical Race Theory furor ginned up by Republican think tanks for political gain morphed into an excuse for right wing folks to try to cancel diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and things they don’t agree with in general — and now Conservative book-banning is really having a moment.

MBCook 5y ago
Gotta ban that stuff. It may make kids feel guilty or sad. Of course I explicitly remember listening to Limbaugh in the 90s or so as he made fun of the “liberal fad” of listening to kids feelings and “protecting them from harm” or having to deal with anything that might be hard or painful. Can’t punish Bobby it might hurt his self esteem. Isn’t that where the term liberal snowflake came from? That they were so fragile they had to be coddled and couldn’t handle the real world? And here we are now. What’s good for the goose, I guess.
- batch12 5y ago
  I always thought snowflake was pointing at the idea that everyone is unique.
jonhohle 5y ago
The article is disingenuous to what happened. The book has contents that violate school board policy. Educators were asked to replace it without changing the purpose of the module.
- slg 5y ago
  >The book has contents that violate school board policy. Well I guess the kids can't see the phrase "god damn" or see a drawing of a naked woman when they are learning about the industrialized murder of millions of people. Do you not see how crazy that is? These these kids aren't eight. They are teenagers. They are old enough to learn about these things. This policy is asinine.

nsxwolf 5y ago

I would assume someone is itching to accuse the anti-CRT establishment of being Holocaust deniers.