Stotan Unplugged: In Defense of Name-Calling - 1 views
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First, a disclaimer. I didn’t say it because Sherman’s stunningly accomplished novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, gets challenged and banned in “conservative” communities with chilling regularity because of realistic language, a hilarious masturbation scene and a mirthfully scathing indictment of the difficulties of a young outsider finding his way through institutional racism. I said it because Sherman is a member of the only group in our country who can legitimately lay claim to taking their country back.
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I’m in Chicago today, hosting the American Library Association’s Great Chicago Readout, kicking off our celebration of Banned Books Week with authors of some of the top ten banned books of 2010. I look over the list of reasons for the challenges and bannings: religious perspective, homosexual content, sexual content, offensive language, suicide. Human things. Things the people who want to “take our country back” don’t want kids to talk about; human things the “conservative right” doesn’t think should be part of human education. Wow.
