Despite it being part of a state-approved eighth grade curriculum, the members of the school board in McMinn County, outside of Chattanooga, banned “Maus” in a unanimous vote earlier this month.
The vote finally received media attention January 27, 2022, just hours before the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The removal has led to backlash on social media from politicians, journalists, organizations and more.
The 10-member McMinn County School Board voted unanimously in a January 10 meeting to remove the book from its eighth-grade curriculum, citing concerns over "rough" language and a nude drawing of a woman, according to meeting minutes posted to the district website. The vote came after discussions about the book's content, how to best teach students about the Holocaust, age appropriateness and the values of the school district and community.
“Maus” remains the only graphic novel to receive a Pulitzer Prize.
(Dan Mangan. “Tennessee school board bans Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’ – author Art Spiegelman condemns the move as ‘Orwellian.'” CNBC. January 26. 2022.)
In a statement posted on its website Thursday, after numerous media articles detailed the controversy, the McMinn County Board of Education said the board voted to remove “the graphic novel Maus from McMinn County Schools because of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide. Taken as a whole the board felt this work was simply too adult-oriented for use in our schools.”
The school board added in their statement that they “do not diminish the value of 'Maus' as an impactful and meaningful piece of literature, nor do we dispute the importance of teaching our children the historical and moral lessons and realities of the Holocaust.”
“To the contrary we have asked our administrators to find other works that accomplish the same educational goals in a more age appropriate fashion,” the board said. “The atrocities of the Holocaust were shameful beyond description, and we all have an obligation to ensure that younger generations learn of its horrors to ensure such an event is never repeated.”
One board objected to Spiegelman’s past work with Playboy magazine and noted that this book “shows people hanging, it shows [Nazis] killing kids.” He then asks, “Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff?” – a genuine demonstration of his own ignorance of Spiegelman’s intent, which was to warn against the evils of the Holocaust by showing its horrific brutality.
Consider the irony. Several members of the McMinn
County Board of Education insisted they did not object to their
students learning about the Holocaust — but they all still voted to
ban “Maus,” which raises questions about how committed they are
to ensuring their students learn.
Culture Wars
Of course school boards and parents should be a part of curriculum decisions in public schools. However, the so-called culture wars have caused conservatives to force local schools to ban books, particularly those written with the perspectives of ethnic and gender minorities.
With the rush to ban critical race theory, conservatives already gave up posturing as defenders of free speech. A mania on book banning is part of their broader attack on public schools – anger over CRT, mask mandates, and even QAnon-inflected fears about pedophile conspiracies. Banning books and ideas that make them uncomfortable is part of the conservative playbook of cultural grievance.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, recently said that during her 20 years with the organization, “there’s always been a steady hum of censorship, and the reasons have shifted over time. But I’ve never seen the number of challenges we’ve seen this year.”
The fight about who controls school libraries is a microcosm of the fight about who controls America, and the right is on the offense. Absent a societal commitment to free expression, the question of who can speak becomes purely a question of power, and in much of this country, power belongs to the right.
Caldwell-Stone said …
“What we’re seeing is really this idea that marginalized communities, marginalized groups, don’t have a place in public school libraries, or public libraries, and that libraries should be institutions that only serve the needs of a certain group of people in the community.”
(Michelle Goldberg. “A Frenzy of Book Banning.” The New York Times. November 12, 2021.)
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, issued a statement condemning the removal of "Maus" in McMinn County schools. He called it "typical of a trend we’re seeing around the country of right-wing politicians attempting to shield themselves from the painful truths of history" and said he hopes to see the school board's decision reversed.
(Mel Fronczek. “Defense of 'Maus' erupts online after McMinn County schools remove it from curriculum.” Nashville Tennessean. January 27, 2022.)
Ban It
Let's look at some other recent decisions to ban books and other so-called “objectionable material …
In October 2021, a Texas school district temporarily withdrew copies of a book, "New Kid," – a John Newbery Medal winner – that explains the unintentional "micro-aggressions" an African-American child suffers because of the color of their skin. The graphic novel follows the experience of a seventh grader navigating life as a person of color at a predominantly white school.
In Virginia, parents fought to have the widely lauded book "Beloved" by Black author Toni Morrison, a winner of the Nobel prize for literature, removed from reading lists. The novel is about slavery – including, but not limited to, the sexual abuse that it encouraged and relied upon as a tool of power. Significantly, “Beloved” is also about a mother, Sethe, seeking to protect her child from the horrors of that institution, which includes protecting her from sexual assault.
In York County, Pennsylvania, the school district that had banned a list of anti-racism books and educational resources by or about people of color — including children’s titles about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. — reversed its nearly year-long decision in September 2021 after backlash and protests from students, parents and educators in the community.
The Central York School District had implemented “a freeze” last fall on a lengthy list of books and educational resources that focused almost entirely on titles related to people of color. The all-White school board had taken months to vet books and materials such as children’s titles on Parks and King, education activist Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography, the Oscar-nominated PBS documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” about writer James Baldwin and CNN’s “Sesame Street” town hall on racism.
In November 2021, a list of nine books has started a bitter battle in a Utah school district (Canyons School District) over pornography and censorship and who can control what students read. The latest culture confrontation began about a month ago, when a mom first emailed administrators at Canyons School District about the titles that she found concerning. She had heard about them on social media and discovered they were in the high school libraries in her district’s suburbs at the south end of Salt Lake County.
Most of the books she listed focus on race and the LGBTQ community, including The Bluest Eye by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison and Gender Queer, a graphic novel about the author’s journey of self-identity that has been at the center of the growing movement over banning books in school districts across the country.
Other books on the list include Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez, about the relationship between a young Mexican American girl and a Black teenage boy in 1930s Texas and Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson, which is a fictional story about a Black girl who goes missing and whose disappearance is dismissed as “just another runaway.” The book delves into racism, mental illness, friendship and consent, received the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
The “Maus” Case
"Maus," written by comic
artist Art Spiegelman, is a graphic novel that tells the story of his
Jewish parents living in 1940s Poland. It follows them through their
internment in Auschwitz. Nazis are depicted as cats, while Jewish
people are shown as mice. The book was published in 1986, and
Spiegelman was awarded a Pulitzer for it in 1992.
Nick Ramsey, senior producer with MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” says the first time he saw the cover of “Maus,” he “stopped cold,” as the drawing on its cover depicts two mice huddled under a large, menacing swastika and the face of a cat sporting the same narrow mustache as that of Adolf Hitler.
Ramsey believes his own experience with “Maus” demonstrates its unique ability to teach students a difficult lesson at just the right stage of development. He was 11 or 12 years old at the time and already a voracious reader. But he had never seen a book like it anywhere, let alone in my public school library.
Ramsey remembers …
“I recognized the swastika, and I knew the Nazis were the bad guys, thanks to 'Indiana Jones' movies and 'Captain America' comics. I had seen books about World War II before, but they were very different. There were clearly fanciful characters on the cover of this one, but they were not superheroes standing up to the evil villains. The ominous cover conveyed that a much more serious story was being told.
“I was even more intrigued when I opened up 'Maus' and discovered not just words, but also a story told in comic strip style. This wasn’t 'The Amazing Spider-Man' or 'Uncanny X-Men.' The story told in these comic panels was shocking, tragic — and deeply rooted in truth.
“I immediately took the book to the checkout counter, then put it in my green backpack and counted the minutes until I could get home and read through its mysterious pages.
“I found the book challenging. It depicts the brutality of the Holocaust in an exceedingly effective manner, with taut dialogue and stark artwork. Like George Orwell in 'Animal Farm,' Spiegelman tells a brutal story with animals. In 'Maus,' the author depicts the Nazis as cats and the Jews they slaughtered as mice. The story is conveyed in flashbacks as a father explains to his son how he survived the Holocaust, mirroring Spiegelman’s conversations with his own father …
“Alone in my room, this exceptional book and its blend of biography, art, history and fiction upended my naive understanding of the depths of human depravity and the heights of resilience. 'Maus' taught me more than the history of the Holocaust. It expanded my understanding of how difficult stories can be told. Spiegelman shared a deeply personal story pulled from one of history’s darkest eras – a story about love and loss and tragedy and brutality and survival – and he used comic book drawings of animals to bring harsh truths to life in a way that words alone never could.”
(Nick Ramsey. “Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, banning the book 'Maus' is a modern-day tragedy.” MSNBC. January 27, 2022.)
Ramsey was so moved by the story told in “Maus” that he eventually bought his own copy. He has traveled with it, loaned it out, and reread it several times. He says that the story continues to resonate with him today and provide new relevance as society grapples with its lessons. He laments that McMinn County students will not have an education that includes the difficult lessons the book can teach them and educators who respect them enough to teach those difficult lessons.
The Author's Reaction
“I’m kind of baffled by this,” Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus,” told CNBC in an interview about the unanimous vote by the McMinn board to bar the book.
“It’s leaving me with my jaw open, like, ‘What?’” said Spiegelman, 73, who only learned of the ban after it was the subject of a tweet Wednesday – a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
He called the school board “Orwellian” for its action.
Spiegelman also said he suspected that its members were motivated less about some mild curse words and more by the subject of the book, which tells the story of his Jewish parents’ time in Nazi concentration camps, the mass murder of other Jews by Nazis, his mother’s suicide when he was just 20 and his relationship with his father.
“I’ve met so many young people who ... have learned things from my book,” said Spiegelman about “Maus.” The image in the book that drew objections from the board was of his mother.
(Minutes of the Jan. 10 meeting available online reveal that the board members said they objected to the book’s use of profanity and an image of nudity depicting the dead body of author Spiegelman's mother, who took her own life at age 56.)
“I also understand that Tennessee is obviously demented,” said Spiegelman. “There’s something going on very, very haywire there.”
(Dan Mangan. “Tennessee school board bans Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’ – author Art Spiegelman condemns the move as ‘Orwellian.'” CNBC. January 26. 2022.)
Conclusion
“'Maus' has played a vital role in educating about the Holocaust through sharing detailed and personal experiences of victims and survivors. Teaching about the Holocaust using books like 'Maus' can inspire students to think critically about the past and their own roles and responsibilities today.”
– U.S. Holocaust Museum's statement posted to Twitter
The Supreme Court upheld minors’ right to intellectual freedom and access to diverse opinions, ideas, characters, beliefs, etc. In the ruling on Minarcini v. Strongsville (Ohio) City School District, the Supreme Court said that “The removal of books from a school library is a much more serious burden upon the freedom of classroom discussion than the action found unconstitutional in Tinker v. Des Moines School District."
In Tinker v. Des Moines School District, it was found unconstitutional for a school to expel students for wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam war. The right to intellectual freedom and to gain knowledge has to come before the right to freedom of expression. Intellectual freedom and freedom of thought influences the freedom to express your opinions and ideas and is vital to the running of a successful democracy.
Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) set the precedent that students maintain their first amendment right at school. The decision says that students “do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.” Students have the right to read freely as upheld by the Supreme Court.
(Cassandra Michel. “Protect Children’s Intellectual Freedom: End Censorship in Children’s Literature.” Luther College. Oneota Reading Journal. 2019.)
This is the ultimate question about censorship in public schools: Do children's books cater to parents and adult cultural gatekeepers, or to young readers themselves?
Paul Ringel – associate professor of history at High Point University and author of Commercializing Childhood: Children's Magazines, Urban Gentility, and the Ideal of the American Child, 1823-1918 – writes in The Atlantic: “As books address issues of diversity face a growing number of challenges, the related question of which children both the industry and educators should serve has become more prominent recently.”
Ringel explains …
“Who benefits when Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian, which deals with racism, poverty, and disability, is banned for language and “anti-Christian content”? Who’s hurt when Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings’s picture book I Am Jazz, about a transgender girl, is banned?
“The history of children’s book publishing in America offers insight into the ways in which traditional attitudes about 'appropriate' stories often end up marginalizing the lives and experiences of many young readers, rather than protecting them.
“This shared sensibility is grounded in respect for young readers, which doesn’t mean providing them with unfettered access to everything on the library shelves. Instead, it means that librarians, teachers, and parents curate children’s choices with the goals of inspiring rather than obscuring new ideas. Such an approach allows kids to learn how to navigate imaginary worlds filled with differences, with the faith that they will apply those lessons to their own lives.”
(Paul Ringel. “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children.” The Atlantic. October 01, 2016.)
And then, who exactly are these culture war bans serving?
James LaRue, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom believes there’s been a shift toward seeking to ban books “focused on issues of diversity – things that are by or about people of color, or LGBT, or disabilities, or religious and cultural minorities,” LaRue says. “It seems like that shift is very clear.”
The shift seems to be linked to demographic changes in the country – and the political fear-mongering that can accompany those changes, LaRue says. “There’s a sense that a previous majority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are kind of moving into a minority, and there’s this lashing out to say, ‘Can we just please make things the way that they used to be?’” LaRue says. “We don’t get many challenges by diverse people,” he adds. In recent years, book challenges have peaked while religious liberty bills were in the news, he says.
For God's sake, the last thing I worry about is a child reading. Any fear I have about the content is assuaged by the fact I understand that child is learning how to cope with the world. And, just look at what is being banned. The themes of the books provide important messages so relevant to today – diversity and historical accuracy often being their primary concerns.
After all, these lists of banned books are not centered on taking out gross pornography or crass materials that advocate sex, violence, drug use, or other entirely inappropriate topics. The book banning frenzy is rooted in fear – fear primarily about how the instruction of the lives and history of people of color (POC), especially Black people, will create illegitimate social engineering – something the right, Republicans, and many religious groups think will undermine their white privilege.
All of this does lead to this ultimate ironic reality – one thing hasn’t changed since the dawn of censorship: having your book banned is very, very good for an author’s sales. “If what you’re trying to do is stop this book from getting into the hands of a minor,” LaRue says, “the surest way to (fail) is to declare it forbidden.”
Reality has a way of slapping us awake, doesn't it? Let's all consider our childhoods and how we found those forbidden fruits to be so satisfying. Who among us can say censors saved us from the horrible fate of falling into somebody's view of salacious literature? Hell, can any of you remember leering over those naked bodies in National Geographic as a kid or your hidden stash of Lolita and Playboys or sneaking out to watch Russ Meyer's Vixen at the local drive-in theater? Don't even get me started on those nasty truck stop eight-tracks of Redd Foxx and others. Oh, of course, I'm just asking. I never indulged … well, at least not too much … that's my story …
Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 156 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2020. Of the 273 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:
The American Library Association’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2020 showed that the books challenged the most concern “racism, Black American history and diversity in the United States.”
George by Alex Gino
Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community”Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all peopleAll American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanityThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the authorSomething Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police viewsTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experienceOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on studentsThe Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuseThe Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message
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