Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
Nov. 11, 2021
By Bill McCann
When I was a kid, a favorite expression was “scaredy cat.” Someone who was afraid to sled-ride down the icy hill or climb the neighbor’s oak tree was a scaredy cat. I heard Mom say those words when a classmate’s mother called to ask her help to get a book she deemed objectionable pulled from the school library. I don’t remember the book, but I recall what Mom said when the call ended: “Scaredy cat.”
Mom was a scaredy cat too. She never drove a car or flew in an airplane in her 70 years. But she didn’t fear books. She encouraged us kids to read at an early age. We absorbed the Hardy Boys mysteries and Zane Grey westerns. I traded books with neighbor kids, borrowed them from the school library, and walked with Mom to the public library. Before I was 12, I had read classics like The Grapes of Wrath and Catcher in the Rye – books that have been banned in various places over the years.
Self-appointed censors have been banning books in our part of the world since the mid-1600s. Typically, censors have cited cuss words, sex and violence as reasons for the bans – often taking paragraphs, sentences or words out of context.
We are seeing a book ban resurgence in 2021 in Texas and elsewhere, thanks partly to Republican-run states that have passed reactionary laws as part of their culture wars. Since far-right Republican leaders and their political operatives have few positive ideas to offer, they have kept their followers in the fold by selling fear, paranoia and hatred. They’ve added race and LGBTQ persons to their list of fears. They are doing it at the expense of public school children and those who teach them. They care only about the next election.
Led by Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas is one of the worst offenders. As a result, concerned parents, guided by GOP fear-mongers, have sought book bans in school districts in the Fort Worth, Houston and Austin areas recently. What do these folks fear anyway? People who are different from themselves? Indoctrination by “liberal” intellectuals? Change? All the above? If they fear cussing, sex and violence, have they blocked their kids’ access to TV and internet?
The Republican-owned legislature passed, and Abbott signed in June, a bill banning teaching critical race theory in kindergarten through 12th grade in Texas public schools, even though it’s taught at the university level, not K-12. Critical race theory is a scholarly concept explaining that racism is embedded in U.S. history, government policies, and laws. The new law’s wording is somewhat fuzzy – perhaps purposefully. It has administrators and teachers, who are already overextended, scratching their heads over how to interpret and comply with it.
The law is becoming a tool for fearful parents to try to ban books about race and racism in schools. They probably never learned the truth about racism’s long history in the U.S. So why bother informing their kids?
Meanwhile, attention-seeking Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, a Texas attorney general candidate who heads a state House investigative committee, recently sent letters on his own with a list of 850 books to selected school districts. He asked whether their schools carried any of the books. The list includes best-sellers and books about racism and sexuality, the Texas Tribune reported.
In a separate display of petty politics, Abbott last week sent his own letter to the Texas Association of School Boards suggesting, without offering evidence, that public school libraries may possess “pornography or other inappropriate content.” The letter called for removal of any offending materials but didn’t offer specifics.
Mom would have called these guys scaredy cats. I call them two-bit political panderers.
McCann is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. He is a retired journalist and may be reached at [email protected].
