Amid the Virginia governor’s race, in which conservatives are furiously campaigning to activate their base, a proposed book ban in Virginia Beach schools is playing out a familiar piece of political theater: whipping up moral panic over public education while stoking racial fears. In fact, banning books from schools has become a favorite tactic in the runup to elections around the country.
Among the six books being challenged in Virginia Beach are Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye”; “Gender Queer,” a graphic memoir by Maia Kobabe; “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” by Susan Kuklin; “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison; and “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines. Backers of the ban describe the books as “abhorrent” and “pornographic,” with one parent claiming at a school board meeting last week that the books “groom” young people for sexual predators.
Also in this lot is a book I wrote and illustrated: “Good Trouble: Lessons From the Civil Rights Playbook.” The inclusion of this history of the civil rights movement is both curious and confounding as it is devoid of both sex and profanity, two frequent reasons cited for banning books in schools.
I could pretend to be shocked and horrified, but the truth is, the controversy has helped “Good Trouble.” While my book has been removed from three high school libraries while under review, the ban has raised curiosity among readers about the kind of institutional oppression and racism described in its pages.
Maybe I shouldn’t get too excited, since I’ve learned that Evison, the author of “Lawn Boy” — a widely praised coming-of-age novel — received threats and was called a “pedo” and “sicko” after a video of a mom reading from an explicit scene from the book to a Texas school board went viral on TikTok.
According to the school district, none of the six books had been previously flagged by parents as objectionable. Nevertheless, school board member Victoria Manning and a minority bloc of conservative members on the 11-member board succeeded in having the six titles yanked from school libraries pending review.
That review process is ongoing for five of the titles, and “Gender Queer” has been removed permanently after review by the district superintendent and staff, with a spokesperson saying the book’s images did not meet the division’s “expectations for instructional value.”
“I would like to ask that you pull these books from the shelves and also block electronic access by students to getting these books IMMEDIATELY,” Manning wrote school administrators.
“I’m sickened by what I’ve just looked at and read.”
