Georgia school district is banning books, citing sexual content, after firing a teacher
Georgia school district is banning books, citing sexual content, after firing a teacher
Georgia’s second-largest school district says it has removed two books from 20 school libraries, saying the books had “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”
Georgia’s second-largest school district says that it has removed two books from 20 school libraries, saying the books had “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”
The announcement, sent in an electronic message to parents in some Cobb County schools on Monday, comes days after the Republican-majority school board voted 4-3 along party lines to fire a teacher for reading a book about gender identity to fifth-grade students.
Although not new, book removals have surged since 2020, part of a backlash to what kids read and discuss in public schools. Conservatives want to stop children from reading books with themes on sexuality, gender, race and religion that they find objectionable. PEN America, a group promoting freedom of expression, counted 4,000 instances of books banned nationwide from July 2021 to December 2022.
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I wonder if they included the bible, koran and torah since they cite sexual content and much worse.
I see this commented a lot, and I don't get what the idea is. Are the expected outcomes:
- They will get Gotcha'd so hard they see the error of their ways?
- They will get the Bible removed from schools and lead a consistent crusade against anything sexual?
- They will just keep the Bible and ignore the hypocrisy?
Never underestimate the capacity for Republicans to remain willfully hypocritical. It's literally the foundation of today's Supreme Court.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/21/utah-bible-school-libraries-ban-reversed
Religious conservatives in a Utah school district voted to ban books containing some violent and sexual content, which lead to the bible being banned, which lead to the ban being reversed.
Spotlighting the double-standards and hypocrisy can be an effective countermeasure. I doubt it changed anyone’s minds who voted for the ban, but what matters is that they were forced to reverse the ban.
Exactly this. You want to ban because of content you don’t like, well you don’t get to cherry pick. The content is or isn’t what it is. They learned that.
Did they learn it? A Republican would eat their own shit if it meant a Democrat had to smell it on their breath.
This is not leading to better policies. Just expanded bannings. The physical Bible doesn't play a role in day to day schooling. But some of the banned books would make real differences to people. Republicans lose nothing here, in fact they're getting vocal support for more bannings from people on the left.
I see your point, but I offer this:
This happened in a school, but it could happen at a higher level too. If it truly didn’t affect them that much in day to day schooling, then why the reversal at the school level after this ban went into place?
My thoughts:
It sent a message and despite them not wanting to admit it, they know deep down that the same bullshit hate they are spewing can be used against them at a content level. It didn’t change their minds on how they feel about the issues - no, that will never happen but perhaps it’ll curb some frivolous grass root efforts when the logic is applied to them.
This article only mentions that the school district reversed the ban on the Bible because it “has significant, serious value for minors which outweighs the violent or vulgar content it contains.” It does not indicate that the banning process was removed altogether, or that any other books were unbanned.
This is exactly my point. They don't care about being hypocritical, they'll update laws to be explicitly and overtly hypocritical to get their way. This gotcha means nothing to them.
Malicious compliance is a form of protest.
It’s not an argument made to convince the opponent, rather it’s a comment to highlight the oppositions glaring hypocrisy and bigotry.
Right. They don't care.