My aunt made me see why 'The Bluest Eye' got banned in her school district

So I was at Thanksgiving last month and my aunt brought up how her school board pulled The Bluest Eye from the 11th grade curriculum. She said it was because the book has 'inappropriate sexual content' for teenagers. I pushed back saying it's a classic about race and identity, but she asked me if I'd actually read the scene with the father. She had a point. It made me wonder if we sometimes defend banned books without really thinking about what's in them. Has anyone else had a conversation that made them reconsider a book you usually defend automatically?

2 comments

2 Comments

willow_ellis2d ago

Did you actually read it before or just defend the principle?

johnthompson2d ago

You know what this reminds me of is that thing where people defend stuff just because it's a classic, same way folks in my town will defend the old diner downtown even though the pancakes have been mediocre for years. I've caught myself doing the same thing with movies from the 70s, like "oh it's a classic" but then I rewatch it and realize half the dialogue is pretty rough. It's like we get so caught up in defending the principle of something being important that we forget to actually sit with what the thing is saying.