A parent in Katy, TX asked the district to remove a children's biography of Michelle Obama

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:

NBC News
@NBCNews
·
Feb 1, 2022
Replying to @NBCNews
Many of the books under fire are newer titles, purchased by school librarians in recent years as part of a nationwide movement to diversify the content available to public school children.

NBC News
@NBCNews
A parent in Katy asked the district to remove a children’s biography of Michelle Obama, arguing that it promotes “reverse racism” against white people.

At a district near Austin, a parent proposed replacing four books on racism with copies of the Bible.

nbcnews.com
Book banning in Texas schools: Titles are pulled off library shelves in record numbers
Facing pressure from parents and threats of criminal charges, some districts have ignored policies meant to prevent censorship. Librarians and students are pushing back.
7:15 AM · Feb 1, 2022

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-books-race-sexuality-schools-rcna13886?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

*snip*

Records requests to nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin regions — a small sampling of the state’s 1,250 public school systems — revealed 75 formal requests by parents or community members to ban books from libraries during the first four months of this school year. In comparison, only one library book challenge was filed at those districts during the same time period a year earlier, records show. A handful of the districts reported more challenges this year than in the past two decades combined.

All but a few of the challenges this school year targeted books dealing with racism or sexuality, the majority of them featuring LGBTQ characters and explicit descriptions of sex. Many of the books under fire are newer titles, purchased by school librarians in recent years as part of a nationwide movement to diversify the content available to public school children.

“Why are we sexualizing our precious children?” a Katy parent said at a November school board meeting after she suggested that books about LGBTQ relationships are causing children to improperly question their gender identities and sexual orientations. “Why are our libraries filled with pornography?”

Another parent in Katy, a Houston suburb, asked the district to remove a children’s biography of Michelle Obama, arguing that it promotes “reverse racism” against white people, according to the records obtained by NBC News. A parent in the Dallas suburb of Prosper wanted the school district to ban a children’s picture book about the life of Black Olympian Wilma Rudolph, because it mentions racism that Rudolph faced growing up in Tennessee in the 1940s. In the affluent Eanes Independent School District in Austin, a parent proposed replacing four books about racism, including “How to Be an Antiracist,” by Ibram X. Kendi, with copies of the Bible.

*snip*

[lame54]

1. Books on racism have as much right...

To have genitals drawn in them as any other book in the library

[patphil]

2. The bible could also be considered a racist book.

[rurallib]

4. lots of sex, lots of violence - just chock full of stuff to ban

[keithbvadu2]

26. We don't need dirty books. We have the Bible.

We don't need dirty books. We have the Bible.

[Probatim]

34. I think she missed the irony of that sign.

[Jilly_in_VA]

36. There is actually a novel

titled The Dirty Parts of the Bible. And anyway, didn't some of us, at least those who went to church and Sunday School, look those up during boring sermons?

[Probatim]

38. Ezekiel 23:20 will never make the Children's Illustrated Bible.

[jmowreader]

52. Oh, there are even better ones

Genesis 19:30-36 is always entertaining.

This could be entertaining: Get a text file of the Bible. Change all the names and reformat the text flow into paragraphs rather than the verses the Bible is formatted into. Then go to a school board meeting where they're discussing dirty books and read some of the juicier parts of your altered book. When the book-banners either pass out or form riots, explain what you did.

[NanceGreggs]

54. ...

[milestogo]

45. Donkey balls and horse jizz.

[Aristus]

11. No kidding.

The Israelites straight-up murdered any Canaanite who couldn't pronounce 'Shibboleth' correctly.

[Gore1FL]

21. It seems a silly replacement for non-fiction, too. nt

[Nevilledog]

42. *snicker*

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[brush]

5. Sure are a lot of out and out racists out there.

Banning books on Michelle Obama and Olympian Wilma Rudolph is about as racist as it gets.

[Solly Mack]

7. Miracles of affliction

[young_at_heart]

6. So happy I don't live in Texas

The constant stress would be unbearable!

[LoisB]

8. What are White folks (many) so afraid of?

[LakeArenal]

10. The "others".

[LoisB]

12. Yep. It's crazy to me.

[keithbvadu2]

29. The "others".

[LoisB]

35. Indeed.

[SoonerPride]

13. The truth

[LoisB]

16. Amen.

[IronLionZion]

22. Afraid of what might happen when they become the minority.

Why? Are minorities treated badly in this country?

[LoisB]

48. This has always been my take on it too.

[Caliman73]

47. My take...

There may be concern that as non-White people gain status and power in society, that White people will be treated in the same manner as non-White people have been treated historically in this country.

You see a lot of concerns about White people being oppressed and discriminated against. Typically these complaints come when White people receive some kind of social consequence for being insensitive or overtly discriminatory toward Black, Brown, or Asian people. It shows some, perhaps subconscious understanding that the way people of color have been treated in this country is a problem that White people do not want to experience if the power structure every changes.

[LoisB]

49. Totally agree.

[Claire Oh Nette]

9. None of these parents or administrators have read these books

Maybe the passages with the dirty parts. It's like deciding Shawshank Redemption is porn because there is reference to prison rape.

When I was in middle school, the hot book going around was Judy Blume's "Forever."

It was a coming of age story, and it discussed sex, and STDs, and it was totally appropriate for 13 and 14 year olds.

Are these books being taught as class sets? No. Are they available for check out in the library? yes. Are there books about white straight adolescents coming of age?

Their Bible is filled with rape and promiscuity and multiple wives and incest. Hello Sodom and Gomorrah. Pretty sure these people watch crap like the Bachelor, and the Slutty Housewives of wherever.

The fact that a biography about Wilma Rudolph Michelle Obama is "reverse racism" (that doesn't really exist--what Black institution has historically and systematically restricted and limited and imprisoned white people for loose cigarettes or a broken tail light, or passing a fake $20?) tells me this is 100% about fearful white people being afraid. What next? Should they remove books about Hank Aaron and the racism and death threats he faced when breaking Babe Ruth's home run record?

Fascists ban books when they have no plans to govern. They ban books dealing with the facets of Straight, white, male, Christain about which they are least insecure and most fragile.

Christofascists want to claim "I don't believe in gay marriage." " I don't believe in abortion." "I don't believe in racism." Well, those things exist, whether they believe it or not. Black people exist, whether they like it or not.

Im's so tired of listening to the loud, obnoxious, 20% who refuse to evolve.

[LoisB]

17. Hear, hear!

[Poiuyt]

14. The racists are not even pretending anymore

They don't care if people know they're racists.

[inthewind21]

15. That's because

They don't need to. Like a spoiled child, if they continue to get away with it, they will continue to do it. Putting a kid in time out after years of no discipline won't cut it. And that's about where we are right now. This has been going on for a very long time. And the crazies have been exercised once. Then comes Sarah Palin and the T-Party crazies. Who by the way were given acknowledgement and treated as if they were serious candidates/movement. Gee, where is the Tea Party now? Anyway, it's all snowballed from there. Bottom line, these loons have been a problem since the 50's. Fortunately republicans actually cared about the imagine of the party being associated with such nut bags. But that was then. Now, the loons run amok while everyone wrings their hands, and I mean EVERYONE. Read here about the John Birch Society. A problem that never went away.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/15/john-birch-society-qanon-reagan-republicans-goldwater/

[Poiuyt]

19. Thank you

For a while at least, racists kept themselves hidden and behaved in a socially civil manner. That changed when Trump came along and made it clear that it was okay to be a racist.

Note: I'm a white male, so I don't feel the effects of racism. A person of color I'm sure will have a different perspective on history. Maybe it was just as bad from 1970-2016 as it is now.

[Probatim]

37. The Tear party (d)evolved from it's initial state from obstructionists

to out and out racists - who still block everything but tax cuts.

[ananda]

18. Katy is an awful place.

People there are arch rightwing.

They elect Mike McCaul for my district
150 miles away in Austin.

[SouthernDem4ever]

30. I was surprised to hear some parents can read there

[TxGuitar]

39. Maybe in Katy proper

But in the Fort Bend county part it's not like that. Biden won the county with 54% and the 2020 results overall were pretty blue. It's an extremely diverse area south of I-10.

[people]

20. So STUPID!

These people are do stupid and frightening. I can't imagine being so insulated, isolated and afraid of anyone who isn't white and Christian. Glad I am not in Katy, TX.

[efhmc]

23. Katy is not near Austin. "Katy is a city just west of Houston, in Texas. "

One county over. But while I corrected this I want you to know that I appreciate your locating it, even if not entirely accurately. Often on DU something is interesting to me but I have not an inkling where the heck the location that is mentioned is.

[TxGuitar]

40. It's about 30ish miles

west of Houston, although there's no way to tell where Houston ends and Katy begins other than a city limits sign. You wouldn't know it just driving on the freeway.

[efhmc]

50. My friends who live there know but I had to look up whether to send them a postcard

addressed to Houston or Katy. It was Katy.

[NQAS]

24. Pathetic

First off, the parent almost certainly has not read the book.

I haven't either, but I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in that book to make anyone uncomfortable. And what truly sad is that there are many kids - of all colors, religions, ethnicity - who are likely to be inspired by Michelle Obama. In the same way that they have been and could still be inspired by Malala, for example. People whose race and religion is really secondary to their characters, to their commitment to excel, to their vision and to their desire to give back.

What an environment to raise your kids in. It's damn near akin to child abuse.

[Ilsa]

27. They don't even care that excluding books for content

is illegal. I hope others in the district sue the administrations for caving in to the demands of racists, bigots, and parents who would fail to see their young adult children as they are if they are LGBTQ. Only "pervasively vulgar" content can be excluded.

[ashredux]

28. We must get this pornography out of our schools!

“….Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.”

Yes, this is from a book our children are reading right now!

Opps…never mind…this is from Ezekiel 23:19-22 in the Bible…
My Bad

[malaise]

32. Maybe just maybe someone should define racism

for that parent

[brooklynite]

33. Perhaps Beto should talk about education and book banning, and not about guns.

[Deuxcents]

55. Which issue first?

So many in Texas .. and everywhere, actually. Too many issues n not enough time to address em.. so he picked this one. Maybe some help for this guy hitting the bricks?

[milestogo]

41. I've heard that reading books by the Obamas can make you black.

[DFW]

43. Next for our Texas Republicans

A demand, backed up by guns, to replace all books on biology with 18th century texts confirming spontaneous generation.

[bluecollar2]

44. "A parent in Katy...."

Which parent exactly? How about a name and a face when reporting this?

What the hell is going on here?

What the hell do they teach in journalism schools these days in America?

[BeckyDem]

46. JFC

Sick people, very sick.

[calimary]

51. Try as they might, they can't change objectively documented

HISTORY.

NOR can they erase the FACT of a President AND First Lady of color.

Reality bites racists too.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

53. This lady is a nut case