Banned Books Week
The ALA's Banned Books Week is coming up in a few weeks. It falls September 26th- October 3rd. More information can be found here: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/ .
I was wondering which banned books are written by authors of color. The ALA's list of banned or challenged classics here cites Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Toni Morrison's Beloved and Song of Solomon, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, Richard Wright's Native Son, James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain, and Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Given the relative paucity of books by authors of color in the Western Canon, it's kind of shocking (and yet, not really surprising) that nearly all of them have been banned or challenged at some point.
And this is the ALA's list of banned or challenged books from just the last year: Right here. I started typing out the authors of color on this list, but there are a lot of them and so I figure it's better to send you to the source.
Banned Books Week is about focusing attention on the way liberal democracy is shaped around the ideas of an informed, open-minded populace. It's designed to remind us that the First Amendment really is the cornerstone of the American way of life. Growing up the son of a librarian, Banned Books Week is more important in my house than Christmas (well, I'm Jewish). I encourage all of us to seek out banned books during the week and especially banned books by authors of color.
And if anybody else knows books by authors of color that have been banned, please post them.
I was wondering which banned books are written by authors of color. The ALA's list of banned or challenged classics here cites Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Toni Morrison's Beloved and Song of Solomon, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, Richard Wright's Native Son, James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain, and Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Given the relative paucity of books by authors of color in the Western Canon, it's kind of shocking (and yet, not really surprising) that nearly all of them have been banned or challenged at some point.
And this is the ALA's list of banned or challenged books from just the last year: Right here. I started typing out the authors of color on this list, but there are a lot of them and so I figure it's better to send you to the source.
Banned Books Week is about focusing attention on the way liberal democracy is shaped around the ideas of an informed, open-minded populace. It's designed to remind us that the First Amendment really is the cornerstone of the American way of life. Growing up the son of a librarian, Banned Books Week is more important in my house than Christmas (well, I'm Jewish). I encourage all of us to seek out banned books during the week and especially banned books by authors of color.
And if anybody else knows books by authors of color that have been banned, please post them.