Missouri School Board Reverses Book Ban On Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’
Source: Timothy Fadek / Getty
The Bluest Eye is one of the late Toni Morrison’s most iconic bodies of work and surprisingly has become one of her most controversial as well.
Following a longstanding lawsuit that saw the book taken off shelves at libraries throughout the Missouri School District, a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union has now resulted in the book being returned to its rightful place.
As reported by NBC News, the Wentzville School Board decided last Friday to reverse a decision to ban The Bluest Eye based on its graphic content that describes intense topics of sex, violence, rape, and even incest. While most people understand that Morrison’s intent behind touching on those topics was strictly informational and cautionary at most, conservatives saw it as inappropriate for grade school-age children.
More on this developing story below, via NBC News:
“Daniel Brice, the board’s vice president, said the district should ‘tighten its policies’ regarding some books, but he noted that parents already had the right to request that certain titles not be available to their children.
The district made national news last month when it removed ‘The Bluest Eye’ from its high school libraries. The board has also temporarily banned other books while they are reviewed.”
According to the director of integrated advocacy of ACLU of Missouri, Anthony Rothert, the move is great but still has work to do. “This is welcome news, but the fact remains that six books are still banned,” he said, following up by adding, “Wentzville’s policies still make it easy for any community member to force any book from the shelves even when they shamelessly target books by and about communities of color, LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.”
According to a recent poll, an overwhelming majority of Americans surveyed reject the idea of banning books about history or race and believe students, regardless of race, benefit from learning a non-whitewashed version of American history that tells the truth about the nation’s racist AF foundations.
Given the current debates involving Critical Race Theory, we doubt this will be the last you hear from this issue. Still, it’s a great win for the legacy of our dearly missed sister Toni Morrison.
Click here to check out our list of books about the black experience that conservatives want to be banned.
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