Banning Books

The recent backlash about school districts banning books about the Holocaust and race issues is very disheartening. For example, the prize-winning non-fiction book Maus by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman about the Holocaust was banned from the school curriculum in Tennessee last month. Instead, it should be required reading since it tells the true-life story of Spiegelman’s father who lived through the Holocaust. Students need to know that this event actually happened and that six million Jews really died in concentration camps or were exterminated in gas chambers during World War II.

This is a shameful part of German history and also world history since leaders allowed it to happen. The U.S. and other countries could have intervened.  People in power had to know it was going on. Germans may not want to talk about it, but it must be acknowledged so that it will not happen again.

Truth-based books about slavery in the U.S. should also be on school reading lists. Young people need to know that slaves were owned by white people and treated shamefully in the early history of our country.  White supremacy and hatred of Blacks are vestiges of our sinful past that need to be eradicated and atoned for. Those who want to perpetuate this racial divide must not be allowed to hold sway in a country that presumes to stand for equality and justice for all. We should be advocating that all lives matter and no one should be discriminated against.