Photo: wavebreakmedia (Shutterstock)
In a fresh report, The Washington Post discovered that adults seeking to ban certain children’s picture books in schools were mostly targeting titles that focus on LGBTQ characters and stories. In fact, they accounted for 75 percent of the complaints. The top reason adults were seeking to ban picture books is to stop children from reading about gay, bisexual, transexual and queer people.
Keenan & Kel Are Back in Good Burger 2 – Our TV Pick Of the Week
The second-most-common reason is the books should be considered “inappropriate” and the third is that some stories were “anti-police.” The publication filed records requests with 150 school districts across the country, asking for copies of every book challenge they received during the 2021-2022 school year.
For the book Julián Is a Mermaid, a Pennsylvania woman claimed that the book having a boy dress up as a mermaid will “confuse a child … to use drag clothing and makeup.” For the book A Place Inside Of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart, a Black child deals with police killing a girl in his hometown. However, a man in Virginia said that the story has “very dark and sinister parts” and that “law enforcement is depicted as villains throughout this work.”
Sylvia Loosveldt in Washington said that Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Baby Picture Book should be removed from schools because teaches “young students to become racist” by telling them “they should look at others only on the basis of skin color.” Other books, like Skippyjon Jones, was accused of promoting negative stereotypes about Mexicans.
Zetta Elliott, whose book A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart, explained that despite criticism that the book portrays cops as “villains” it’s a story that needs to be told. “So what do you do with this complicated relationship Black people have to the United States?” she said.
“I wanted to write something that would give a child an opportunity to honor all of their emotions.” As conservatives continue to double down on the war on “woke,” their crusade against books that actually represent what America looks like will brutally continue.
