Banned Book Week

I somehow managed to make it through the public school system in Michigan without reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, so I decided to read it to celebrate the fact that I have the freedom to read during this year's Banned Book Week. Scholastic's website suggested this book for students in grades 9-12 and while reading I found myself wishing that I had read it during that point in my life.

In 2011, To Kill a Mockingbird was #10 on ALA's list of Top Ten Challenged Books. It was banned because of offensive language and racism. Over the years, it has been banned it many different communities and for some reasons that I found surprising. In 1981 it was challenged in Warren, IN because the plot does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and it "represents institutional racism under the guise of good literature."

I admire that these parents were pushing for integration, but I disagree that the best way to accomplish it is by protecting children from literature that depicts institutional racism. Institutional racism was a problem in the 1980s and it is still a problem today. Instead of hiding it from children, a book like To Kill a Mockingbird can be used to start a conversation about past and current problems in our country. This book is still relevant today, when we are struggling to deal with the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

I was in 4th grade on September 11th, 2001 and I remember the fear that I felt because my teacher refused to tell us what had happened. I remember the profound racism that occurred in the months and years that followed. That happened in a time when information spread more slowly than it does today, my parents could tell me to leave the room and that alone would spare me from seeing the videos of people jumping from the twin towers. As it becomes harder and harder to keep information from children, we need to present important topics to them in ways that are understandable. To Kill a Mockingbird is a great way to start a conversation about institutional racism and the ongoing events in Ferguson, Missouri. 14 or 15 years old is not too young to deal with this reality of the country we live in, a reality that African-American students deal with daily. As a white student, that is something that I will never have to deal with, but it would have been worthwhile for me to learn more about my classmates' experiences.



Sources
Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons
Frequently challenged books of the 21st century. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
To Kill a Mockingbird. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/kill-mockingbird#cart/cleanup