Is book-banning the COVID-19 of the literary world? Both censorship and the coronavirus have been spreading like wildfire, transmitting from person to person, school district to school district. We know how viruses are spread, but what is causing the outbreak of banning books? Why is the public suddenly rejecting books taught in American high schools? One text in particular, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, has come under serious scrutiny.
Britanica.com describes the book as “both a young girl's coming-of-age story and a darker drama about the roots and consequences of racism and prejudice, probing how good and evil can coexist within a single community or individual.”
So what’s all the controversy about? In 2018, New York Times columnist Roxane Gay wrote, “Atticus is written as the platonic ideal of a father and crusader for justice. The black characters — Robinson and the family’s housekeeper, Calpurnia — are mostly there as figures onto which the white people around them can project various thoughts and feelings. They are narrative devices, not fully realized human beings.”
The book’s other offenses include the use of the N-word, the humanization of (and empathy towards) Ku Klux Klan members, and the romanticization of white characters attempting to “save” the Black characters. The list goes on.
In 1966, just six years after To Kill a Mockingbird ’s release, the book received its first challenge when a school board in Hanover, Virginia said that the book wasn’t suitable for school use. In the following decades, the book continued to be a source of criticism because of its ‘‘filthy’ or ‘trashy’ content and racial slurs,” said history.com.
Interestingly, both liberal and conservative activists advocate for removing Mockingbird from curricula and school libraries, for different reasons. Progressive typically object to the “white-savior” trope, racist language and stereotypes Lee employs to describe Black Americans. Conservative disapproval, on the other hand, tends to be rooted in the book’s profanity and in the negative portrayal of white characters.
According to the American Library Association’s list of Banned & Challenged Classics, Township Schools in Warren, Indiana challenged Mockingbird in 1981 for its “psychological damage to the positive integration process” and for its representation of systemic racism “under the guise of good literature.”
Fifteen years later, Lindale, TX schools removed the book from its AP English reading list because it “conflicted with the values of the community.” Lindale’s principal explained, “we’re in the heart of the Bible belt and this is a very conservative community that is supportive of the school system and our district has to answer to that and listen to their concerns.”
Crosscut.com reported that in the fall of 2021, three Washington teachers requested Mockingbird’s removal from the ninth grade list, in part because it “romanticizes the idea of a ‘white savior’.”
Schools all over the country are renouncing Mockingbird, but what does Nyack think? For decades, To Kill a Mockingbird has been taught to Nyack’s 9th grade English classes -- until this year.
When asked about efforts to pull Mockingbird from curricula, English 9H teacher Simona Moldovan said, “I think it’s still an important piece of literary history in our country, and I'm also open to teaching other texts in the class …At the moment, I’m happy to let the kids take the lead on it.” Moldovan further explained that she guides her students in deciding how much of Mockingbird they will read.
English 9H teacher Stephen Tesher said,“This is the first year I’ve brought in strictly brief excerpts or references to To Kill a Mockingbird… Last year my students did extensive writing, discussion and argument as to whether or not they believe the book should be taught in schools, based on articles that were written regarding its racist nature.”
In a written statement, Nyack English department chair John Joyce explained that in teaching Mockingbird, “it is important to provide a full understanding of the novel’s historical context and to understand the questions about race and justice that Harper Lee was asking at the time. A purposeful study of any work of literature – and especially controversial works like To Kill a Mockingbird – must include intentional frontloading and historical contextualizing for students.”
Joyce also wrote that “those who want specific texts to be removed from schools often say that “classic” literature is antiquated and can sometimes be offensive to students. Others feel that it is important for the classics to remain in an English curriculum because they invite critical thinking about different historical time periods… In Nyack, the district does not believe in banning or censoring books, but we do believe that all of our students have the right to explore their unique identities and to find their unique voices through the study of literature.”
What do students think? One tenth-grade student said of Mockingbird, “I think it’s a good primary source,” explaining that it reflects the time in which it was written and provides insight into people’s thoughts.
By contrast, a ninth-grade student said the book is “centered around a white family, and often replaces books written by people of color.” A tenth-grader agreed. “We should be taught about racism by someone who goes through it,” not a white woman like Harper Lee who did not experience racial oppression.
This begs the question: By removing Mockingbird, are schools engaging in censorship, cancel culture, and the silencing of free speech? Or simply making room for more relevant and culturally responsive texts?
Nyack, a district focused on racial equity, seems to veer towards the latter; continuing to teach Mockingbird while also prioritizing books written by people of color (Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John and Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, for example).
While censorship of texts like To Kill a Mockingbird seems to have gone viral during the pandemic, questions of representation and equity are as old as the American novel itself. If we are to learn anything from Nyack teachers and students, perhaps it is that examining the past through a critical lens is the best way to move forward.