This holiday season, give the gift of books banned in Florida | Commentary
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
When I moved to Florida more than a quarter century ago, I discovered Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” a powerful tale of oppression and perseverance, set in Florida’s oldest Black city of Eatonville.
Some of Hurston’s lines, written nearly a century ago, never left me. Like when she argued Black women were the mules of the earth, exploited by both White people and Black men in 1930s America.
For generations, the book has been recommended reading for students as an example of Harlem Renaissance literature with unique dialect and a compelling narrative.
Now, however, Hurston’s award-winning novel is just another book caught up in the book-banning fury of Florida — a state that has regressed to value censorship over enlightenment.
As the Sentinel recently revealed, Hurston’s touchstone work is one of more than 300 books pulled from shelves in Collier County in southwest Florida, along with books by Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy and Flannery O’Connor.
O’Connor was one of the authors who inspired me to write as a teen. She was witty, memorable and dripping with Southern Gothic style.
Tolstoy, Sendak picture book among hundreds banned from Florida schools
Collier County has been at the front of Florida’s book-banning movement but is hardly alone. Seminole County has banned or restricted more than 80 books.
“We’re at 97 books removed!!!” that county’s laughably-named Moms for Liberty group cheered on its Facebook page earlier this month.
These folks don’t just want the liberty to keep their kids ignorant, but yours as well. What a warped version of freedom.
That’s why this holiday season might be a good time to buy some of the books being censored in Florida as gifts for others.
More on that in a moment. But first, you should understand that these book battles are being waged all over Florida. Books by everyone from famed children’s writer Maurice Sendak to William Shakespeare.
The list of books banned varies wildly and nonsensically from one county to the next. Sometimes temporarily for review. Sometimes permanently. It’s hard to keep track. And it’s definitely inconsistent.
That was, in fact, the point of the laws passed by GOP legislators and Gov. Ron DeSantis — to sow chaos.
The Florida Department of Education has threatened school librarians with penalties as extreme as criminal prosecution for allowing allegedly offensive books to remain on the shelves, but often refuses to identify which books those are.
New state rules tell school librarians to ‘err on side of caution’ when picking books
Months ago, when I was writing about Lake County debating whether to censor an award-winning illustrated book about penguins — simply because the baby penguin at the center of this true-life tale was raised by two male penguins — I asked the Florida Department of Education if that book should be kept away from students, per Florida law.
District spokeswoman Cassie Palelis responded: “We do not comment on pending litigation.”
That response is, of course, nonsensical. If something is illegal in schools — whether it’s guns, cigarettes or anything else — education officials should have no problem saying so.
Think about it: Why wouldn’t you want parents and teachers to know precisely what’s allowed or not allowed — unless the goal is to create chaos?
To test my theory, I responded to the state’s “pending litigation” comment by asking about three other debated books that weren’t the subject of any litigation I was aware of. “Can you tell me,” I asked, “if FDOE considers allowing students in any grades to access those to be a violation of the state’s ‘Parental Rights in Education’ act?”
That was July 3. There was never any response. Because, again, spreading fear and confusion is the point.
DeSantis and GOP legislators want to demonize LGBTQ topics, but know they may run afoul of basic speech provisions of the Constitution. So they and their bureaucratic buddies sow discord, reminding public schools employees about the possibility of arrest and encouraging them to “err on the side of caution” while refusing to clearly say what they believe is legal.
That’s how we end up with restrictions on books like the award-winning cartoon book, “No, David!” about a naughty little boy who is shown comically streaking down the sidewalk with his cartoon bare bottom visible.
A school district spokesperson in Hernando County where that book was censored told the Sentinel that the bare-bottom picture represented “sexual conduct.” Only in truly twisted minds.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that some parents have legitimate complaints about books with pornographic images in them. And certainly some books are appropriate for students of some ages and not others.
What the book-banners don’t want you to know is that there were already ways for parents to file objections — and for parents to deny their own kids access to literature without denying it to all students.
This isn’t about porn. Zora Neale Hurston isn’t a pornographer. Neither is Leo Tolstoy nor Alice Walker. This is about overly sweeping censorship led by a few parents who often selectively pull book passages out of context to misrepresent a book in its entirety.
Let’s be clear: A book like “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is no more definable by a single rape scene than the Bible is by passages in Ezekiel that describe prostitutes lusting for men “whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.”
Do you think the Bible should be banned as well? I don’t.
Author John Green has words for those trying to ban his book in his hometown | Commentary
And spare us all the claptrap about how these books aren’t really “banned,” since parents can still go to the bookstore.
That’s like ending school sports programs and asking why people are upset since they can still pay for their kids to join private leagues. Don’t ask the rest of us to be that stupid.
Still, there’s something to be said for buying books.
In fact, Floridians who care about literature, education and enlightenment might consider purchasing banned books as gifts this holiday season. Maybe at a local bookstore, many of which have “banned book” sections.
But don’t just give the book. Give it with a note that lets the recipient know they’re receiving a piece of literature banned or debated somewhere in Florida. Maybe along with this column or one of the lengthy lists of books being challenged or censored in Florida compiled by a group such as the Florida Freedom to Read Project.
Society can only be as censored as its members allow themselves to be.
And, as Orlando-raised author John Green, whose own award-winning books have been under fire, said about parents worried their children might hear ideas the parents dislike: “If you have a worldview that can be undone by a book, I would submit that the problem is not with the book.”
