WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Book Banning Works 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.720 M Hey everybody, it's me Josh and for this week's 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:07.160 s Y s K Selects, I've chosen How Book Banning Works, 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:09.399 which is an episode we released all the way back 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.320 in two thousand and twelve, but it's as pertinent today, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.680 sadly as it was back then. I hope you feel 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.680 inspired to go out and read a book that somebody 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:27.280 didn't want you to read, because you can enjoy. Welcome 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.520 to Stuff You Should Know, a production of My Heart 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:38.120 Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.440 I'm Josh Clark. With me is Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.720 and this is stuff you should know. Do do do 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.400 do do do? Just just just did my little best anchor 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.760 man move, getting the papers all in order, reading the prompter. 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.720 Why wouldn't that be great? I don't feel so funny 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.560 these days. Man, Well, we need to get the teleprompter 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.520 writer to juice UF. You're through jokes. I agree. Everyone 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:04.040 knows that, right. We don't actually make any of this 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:05.960 stuff up. We have somebody right the show and we 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:11.559 read it. This is a very very um well rehearsed, practiced, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.880 labored podcast. That's right. I think this is the second 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:20.120 of two good topics today. Yeah. Part one a sexuality huh? 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.160 Part two banning books? Yeah, what do they have to 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:29.000 do with each other? Nothing? I thought I saw a 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.880 common thread. No that I've looked, I've forgotten it. But 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.280 yeah there was something discrimination maybe, I guess. So maybe 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.720 we'll find out. It'll pop up. Possibly it'll be like 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.240 the Peewee secret word of the day. Oh yeah, isn't 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.319 that what it was called? I think so many it 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.520 was cool? So you got an intro proper for this 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.480 or chuck? Yes, are you familiar with the last week 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:56.640 of September? Yeah you are, yeah, through it before. Yeah, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.000 it's after the third week and before the first week 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.600 of October. That's exactly right. It just so happens that 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:07.120 that very weak is banned book week. Did not know 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:11.120 that existed? Well it does today it does. Yeah. Yeah, 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.160 you haven't heard a banned book week before? Uh? No 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.880 I have. I've seen like the subversive um displays outside 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.400 of b Dalton booksellers, and you know, and basically the 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:24.840 whole point of it is, it's like, hey, people have 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.240 tried to ban these books, so make sure you read 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.480 these because it means that there's somebody out there who 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.760 doesn't want you to. That's right. Hey, look what I've got. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.000 I've got to kill a mocking bird over here. Yeah 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:39.240 that's a bit. Yeah. Yeah. So the whole point of 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:44.000 Banned Books Week is to celebrate intellectual freedom. That's because 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:45.920 there are people out there who would take that away 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.920 from you if they could. We know it. You go 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.120 back and listen to some of our podcasts, there's certain 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.760 words that were beeped out because the man has as 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:59.120 under his thumb. Thanks gi um So. I would strongly 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.239 recommend it's coming up. By the time this thing gets released, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.760 will be in September. That's right. We should probably post 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.400 something about band book Week when it comes Okay, yeah, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.720 September thirty through October six Actually, um so, truly the 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.880 first week in October this year. It's weird than they 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.680 would put it the last week of October, first week 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.919 of OCTOBERA or last week of September. Yeah, yeah, that 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.799 was confusing for a second. Let's let's talk band books man. 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.280 More than eleven thousand books have been challenged since Josh, 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.800 that's just since eighty two they've been I was reading 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.880 about The Catcher in the rye um. It came out 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.000 in Wow, man, I wish I knew it came out 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.600 in the either the late fifties or the early sixties. 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.040 At the late fifties or nineteen sixty, because in nineteen 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.280 sixty a teacher who assigned it to his class for 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.800 reading got fired. Really yeah, Um, it's one of my 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.920 favorite books, is it. Yeah? And it's one that I've 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.480 reread several times over the years, and it always takes 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.280 on a little different meaning depending on my age, which 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.120 is interesting. Ye have you read The Catcher's Companion? No, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.160 that's we got that as a gift, right, No, I 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:08.280 haven't ready yet. It's just like footnotes and extrapolations and 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.880 explanations like this guy went into catching the World of 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.000 Catcher in the Rye and like made footnotes of the 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:16.719 whole thing. It's actually thicker than The Catcher in the 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.960 Rye by the way. Okay, so fifty one within nine 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.719 years somebody lost their job because they assigned that book 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.080 to read. That's pretty common. Usually with UM book banning, 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:33.839 it comes out of um the public school system. Um. Yeah, library, 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:40.400 So well, that's it's usually school libraries. So if you 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.200 go on the internet and you look for banned books, 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:48.440 you're going to find a lot of um uh confusion. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:53.279 There's this body called the American Library Association, and a 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.159 lot of people think that they're in charge of banning books. 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.880 It's absolutely the opposite of the truth. The American Library 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:08.320 Association is a it's it's basically the librarians lobby, and 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.599 they're committed to no censorship whatsoever. Yeah, ask any librarian 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.280 and they're they're gonna probably be in favor of not 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.960 banning books right. Um. As a matter of fact, the 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.839 a LA maintains a library Bill of Rights, and in 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.800 this library Bill of Rights is a provision for the 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.560 free access to libraries for minors, which basically says this, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:30.520 we have a bunch of books that we're not going 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.160 to make any judgments on. If we have a book 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.719 that you don't want your kid to read, it's your 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.080 job as their parents to monitor what they read, and 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.719 you can decide what they read or not, but you 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:47.360 that's it. Your opinion doesn't extend to anyone else's kids. 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.760 So that means that if you want to ban a book, 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.520 we're going to tell you no because you're responsible for 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.880 your child, but not everybody else's child too, which means, 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.480 in short, that the a l A doesn't censor books. 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.840 This is a big deal because this happens a lot. 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.960 There's eleven thousand challenges you said since two since nineteen 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:12.600 eighty two, and I think there were in two thousand eleven. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.520 There were three hundred and twenty six challenges last year. Um. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.320 A few of these are the Color of Earth series 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.800 by Kim Dong Hua and The Reasons Why, Nudity, sex education, 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.200 the Hunger Games trilogy, My Mom's Having a Baby, a 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.760 kid's month by month guide to pregnancy. But we certainly 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.440 don't want our kids to learn anything about that, No, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:47.760 especially not with um mom, Uh, Brave New World by Huxley, insensitivity, nudity, racism, um, 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.679 To Kill a Mockingbird, like we mentioned harper Ley's classic 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.839 because of offensive language and racism. And those are just 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.520 the few of the nine I'm sorry, ten most challenged 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.359 books of last year. Right. Um. You'll also of finding 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.560 just about every list. The most challenged series since two 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:09.240 thousand is the Harry Potter books. Um. They received three 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.200 thousand challenges. Um, and that was from up to I 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.240 believe like two thousand eight or nine, maybe to know 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.720 of two thousand ten. They were from two thousands to 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.920 two thousand ten, they received three thousand challenges and and 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.840 it was because it had satanic overtones or undertones, one 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.760 of the two, that's how or mid tones people challenging 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:31.760 it felt at least so for the most part, when 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.679 you see a book being challenged your band, it's because 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.040 people are concerned about its influence on children. But as 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.160 we've seen, the American Library Association says, hey, man, kids, kids, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.000 there's free There should be free access to information for kids. Yeah, 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.920 Judy Blooms Forever is one that's always on the list 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.200 too for that reason because it deals with a uh, 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:57.080 young girls, burgeoning sexuality and confusion and the awkwardness and 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.200 the thrill that comes along with that. And that is 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.000 that was a great description. Yeah from a forty one 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.040 year old man with a beard. Well, dude, that was 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.520 fourteen Once the girls and boys are all like, you know, 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.160 we're all scared and awkward and thrilled. So how do 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:13.560 you how do you do this man? How do you 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.760 how do you issue a formal challenge to a book? 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:18.800 And what does that consist of? What does it mean? 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.120 It means that you have gone to a library, a 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:26.119 single library and said I want to challenge this book, 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.680 and the librarian decides whether or not to ban it. 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.960 So it's as simple as that. That's how book banning works. UM. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.200 And you don't even have to use such lofty language 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:39.360 like I want to issue a challenge. You can just say, like, 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.360 this book needs to be taken out of this library. 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:46.840 This book is filth um, this book is pervasively vulgar. 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.400 That's a big one. Um. And the librarian at that 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.040 moment decides whether a book gets banned or not, and 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.560 for the most part, they air on the side of 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.840 not banning them. But when they say okay, let's take 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.520 that book out, that book has just been banned. So 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.240 it doesn't mean that a banned. That a book has 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.360 been banned, it doesn't mean it's been banned across the country, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.160 although some some countries have like banned books and its entirety, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.280 like the country's entirety. But in the US and in 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.560 the modern world, it usually means that somewhere in the 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.320 United States, there's a group of people, whether it's kids 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.840 in a school district or kids people who are served 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.040 by a public library, who don't have access to a 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:32.359 certain book because one person found it offensive and convinced 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.160 the librarian to to make the decision for everybody else 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.280 based on that person's objections. That's a banned book, Yeah, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.240 person or persons. A lot of times it's a group 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.440 pointed together with like a list, even, and they'll rally 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.120 the troops and say, you know, come on out from 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.880 your your homes and let's get together and submit a list. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.200 And the librarians, like you said, most times will say 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.440 no because they generally have the courts on their side 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.200 if it gets to that point. For the most part, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.120 the courts like to defend the right, you know, the 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.680 First Amendment. But I mean, think about that pressure, especially 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.240 if you, like you are a school librarian and the 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.400 school board is telling you, like, hey, don't forget what 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.200 we you employ you, and we're telling you remove this book, 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:23.040 and the librarians like, no, ts, that's that's against the 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:28.280 First Amendment. Um, so should talk about some of the laws. 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.200 I think we should. Let's talk about Do you want 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.319 to talk about the history of it? Yeah? Um who 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.200 wrote this one? I think this was congered too, and 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:39.560 I don't think so. Oh yeah, it was a freelancer, Okay. Um, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.120 you know, basically since the days of Socrates, they've been 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.719 trying to ban teachings of some sort. At the other um, 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.000 he was heavily scrutinized, and back then if you wanted 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.000 to ban something, he just burned the few copies of 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.440 it that existed and there was no problem. He was 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.520 made to drink hemlock for what he for what? T Yeah? 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.880 But yeah, I feel like if there's two copies of 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.439 in existence and you get both copies and you set 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.640 them on fire, and then what happened? What came along 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:08.600 well the printing press and all of a sudden you 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.360 had to officially try and ban a book because there 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.240 were too many to gather up and burn. And you 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.480 remember the Star Chamber starring Michael Douglas. Did you ever 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.840 watch that? They were the real Star Chamber? Did you? 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.480 Did you? There was a real okay, so the real 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.880 Star Chamber UM that was I think created in Stuart England. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.800 Um Stewart era England. Man, I probably shouldn't even say that, 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.120 because I'm not sure. In England in the seventeenth century, 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.960 there was a group of judges that were in charge 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.760 of like they were like the elite judges. They were 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:48.000 the censor board. Basically was one of their roles, and 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.920 then Henry the Eighth came along and got rid of them, 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:54.160 but he started his own kind of censorship with licensing laws. 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.160 They basically said that the state had the opportunity to 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.520 censor things before they were even published. So that was 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.439 one of the earliest forms of straight up book banning, 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:09.960 book censorship. Good point, it happened a long time ago. Yeah. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:16.960 Two Board of Education Island Trees School District v. Piko. Yeah, 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:21.760 that's a mouthful. Um. They said basically that you couldn't 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.360 remove library material just because like a school official doesn't 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.280 agree with the ideas. They said that the books on 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:33.120 the on their list were quote just plain filthy, and 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.360 some people said, now you were going to sue you 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.400 for that? Well, the Supreme Court said, so basically, it 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.640 has to be pervasively vulgar. I guess that's why they 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.160 use those words, because that's what they can actually ban 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.880 a book if who finds it that is there. I 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:55.040 think society basically well, for for the most part, um 0:12:55.080 --> 0:13:00.640 as far as books go, for banning a book really 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.319 tough to do, as once it reaches the Supreme Court, 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.480 they're going to be like, no, it's a book put 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:12.360 it back. It's obscenity. That's not protected at all. Right, Well, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:17.360 because the kicker there is the number three rule that 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.240 they decided, you know, should be used to determine if 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:26.040 something is I guess filthy, was it could contain no literary, artistic, political, 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.680 or scientific value. And that's the one where you know, 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.560 you can pretty much say claim any book has value 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.800 like that. That's how we have hardcore pornography. Still, I'm sorry, 0:13:35.200 --> 0:14:10.680 so you can say this is art that's true. Um 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.439 So that that case, that two um Island Trees case 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.440 or Pico case, I don't know what they call it, 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.520 that was a really big deal because it took place 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:24.520 in a school library and um it basically the Supreme 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:29.200 Court said school libraries are special places. Schools are places 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.880 of inquiry, and so their repository of knowledge, meaning their library, 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.720 has special protection. Like we understand that you're worried about 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.680 the children's minds being corrupted, but you don't get to 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.920 decide that, like, this is information that's out there, and 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:49.760 as long as it's basically not like hardcore pornography, child pornography, 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.840 obscenity like it should it has every right to be 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.800 in there. Under the first first Amendment. It was a 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.160 big deal. It was a big deal. Uh. So was 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.120 I remember this one because I was on a newspaper 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.720 staff at the time and I got interviewed for the news. 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.280 Oh yeah, yeah, like the local news came out Hazelwood 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:13.920 School District v uh kur maya. Um. That was very 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.480 famously when newspaper. High school newspapers basically were said to 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.000 not have the same rights as like if you were 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.440 an adult running a newspaper, and it was not a 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.680 form of public expression, so schools could, uh, in the end, 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.280 kind of censor what was going in these things, at 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.320 least in like school curriculum. I thought it was in 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.960 the paper in the paper too. I'm sorry, I thought 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.600 you meant in these things meaning libraries. Yeah, no, no no, no, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.320 in the in the but it was extended into classroom 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.000 curriculum too like that, which was a big deal. Yeah. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.040 Did you read that article about Texas. Yeah, let's get 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.520 to that. You want to Yeah, okay, So, um, Texas 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:58.760 has this um very controversial textbook review committee that wields 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:02.120 a lot of power because textbook or Texas is the 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:07.000 biggest textbook buyer in the country, and so if you're 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.120 a textbook manufacturer and one state is ordering most of 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.920 your textbooks, You're just gonna print one and send it 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.320 to everybody. Yeah. It's basically Texas and California are the 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.360 two states that wield the most power because they spend 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.480 the most dough because they have the most school aged 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.960 kids basically, right, exactly, so they basically say what Texas 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.880 decides goes in their textbooks goes in the textbooks for 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.680 a lot of other states as well, not just Texas. Right. Yeah. 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:34.760 I looked at the expense of a textbook and I 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.680 think one of the manufacturers said something like several million 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.400 dollars can go into a like a major biology textbook 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.760 because of like the illustrations and everything that goes into it. 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.600 And they're like, we can't make one of these for 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.600 Texas and one for other states. It's just everyone's gonna 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.800 get Texas version of the truth. Exactly. So Texas has 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.840 this committee that is largely conservative that um starting and 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:04.439 I think two thousand nine, uh basically held hearings on 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.200 revisions that they wanted to see done to social studies curriculum. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.080 These are elected people too, by the way, which is 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.720 important because apparently a lot of them can buy their 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.120 way right on that list. Okay, so social studies, you've 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.040 got history, sociology, economics, and um. A lot of the 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.560 stuff that they were adding in there were like, um, 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.240 I guess kind of slanted everything toward a little more 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.040 towards the idea that the founders of the United States 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:36.399 were Christian. Um, that the the they One of the 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.040 things they wanted to get in there was not just 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.119 Martin Luther King's non violent civil rights protests, but the 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.000 Black Panthers violent civil rights protests were another one. Um. 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.679 And if you're a conservative, you you're like, well, okay, 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:51.880 I I agree with a lot of what these people 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:56.680 are saying. The problem is is what they were saying 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.840 was that there's a liberal slant to ecademy and that 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.160 they were taking it upon themselves to correct that by 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.080 putting a conservative slant. Yeah. One of the other amendments 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.400 was to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.719 who inspired revolutions of the late eighteenth century in nineteenth century, 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.800 and they said let's replace him with Thomas Akenis and 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:24.119 John Calvin instead. Another one in economics, um, they wanted 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:29.000 to add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, champions of 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.399 the free market economic theory. To the list of economist 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.919 studies we talked about, well, Milton Friedman in one where 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.600 basically he used Chile as a laboratory for UM reagan 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:45.320 Omics before Reagan was president, the trickle down economic Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.760 I remember that. UM and then one of the ones 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.560 that was shot down by Democrat Mavis Knight, wanted to 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.159 introduce an amendment requiring students study the reasons for the 0:18:54.200 --> 0:19:00.200 founding Fathers protecting a religious freedom by not saying one 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.080 religion is good above all else. And that was actually 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.640 struck down. They said, you can't put that in this book. Right, 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.440 she was a Democrat who introduced it. Yeah, it was public. 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.760 The Conservatives said no, Well they you know, basically vote 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.440 along party lines. So the vote was tend to four 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.240 or whatever it is. So it was a big deal, 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:20.199 like it had. It was one of those things that 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:25.560 kind of went under reported and underestimated. But there's a 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.560 really good documentary out there that came out and I 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:32.800 think two thousand nine, the Revisionaries UM and I think 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.320 it's up on Netflix streaming right now. It is Scott 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.240 Thurman and uh al I saw it was a trailer, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:39.879 but it looked pretty good, and I mean it was 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.199 a big deal. It's not just like some people in 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:46.760 Texas want to change some textbooks. It's like has national implications, right, 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.040 It's an info war basically, And that's what book banning 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.360 is based on. In a lot of ways as well. 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.760 It's like if you can remove a different viewpoint, especially 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.600 when when it's being presented to kids, and you can 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.320 keep that viewpoint from taking from German eating in there 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:10.320 and they're emerging mind or worldview absolutely, and so books 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.280 like UM, Daddy's New Roommate gets banned. Yeah, about a 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.080 boy whose dad has a new boyfriend. Now he's a 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.639 divorced dad and his new roommate moves in as gay 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.679 and UM Sarah Palin herself asked for that to be 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.680 removed from the library when she was UM the mayor 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.359 of Wasilla, Alaska. Oh yeah, I remember that. And that 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.760 guy came out and said that woman is my mortal enemy. 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:38.359 Really and thanks for the press. That's what he should 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.400 have said to UH. In the meantime, in Texas, UM 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:47.880 Mary Helen Barlanga UM has tried repeatedly to get Latino 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.520 figures um included in textbooks as role models for the 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.880 large Hispanic population in Texas, and she's been repeatedly denied, 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.399 to the point where in two thousand ten she stopped 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:01.440 out of a meeting saying, they can't just pretend this 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.840 is white America and that we don't exist. These aren't experts, 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:10.359 these aren't historians. They're just rewriting history. So pretty hard words. Yeah, 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:44.760 things job. Do you want to hear some other challenged authors, 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.760 Let's man, because there's there's challenges all over the place, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.920 apparently Judy Bloom of course, Robert Cormier or Cormier? Uh, 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:55.600 did you ever read I Am the Cheese when you're 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.359 growing up? Nope? Or The Chocolate War. I think I 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:03.119 read that one Great books band many times. J. K. Rowling, 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:06.679 she is uh, like I said, she is, I guess 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:08.879 of the devil because a lot of people have a 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:12.680 problem with the Harry Potter books. Um, Katherine Patterson Bridge 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:17.200 to Terri Bethia, I'm Stephen King may Angelou can't have 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:21.520 any of that. Yeah. The Alabama State Textbook Committee said that, um, 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.560 I know why the Cage Bird Sings encourages bitterness toward 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.040 white people. R. L. Stein who was sort of like 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.600 a Stephen King for kids. Yeah, goose Bumps. Yeah, and uh, 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:35.400 I think I actually worked on one of his little 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.240 TV shows, The Nightmare Room was a nightmare room, I 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:43.040 think so, uh yeah, back in the day. And John Steinbeck, 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.480 of course, yeah, in nine of Mice and Men was 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.240 banned in Chattanooga because Steinbeck was well known for his 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:55.639 anti business attitude. Um. And then Alvin Schwartz was number 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.200 one and hero one of my favorite sets of books, 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.240 scary stories to tell him the Dark. I never heard 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:03.760 of this. Oh man. They were scary with the most 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:08.359 ghastly illustrations you've ever seen. They're awesome. And those bands 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.399 because they're scary, and I guess so I was probably 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:17.520 satanic to um. So we were talking about how if 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:22.320 if a book is challenged, UM, it's probably if it 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:24.640 gets to the Supreme Court, Supreme Court is probably gonna 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:29.280 rule in favor of the librarian who said no. Um. 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.920 But that's that's not the case with obscenity, like obscene 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:37.800 literature like it is specifically excluded in US case law 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.760 from First Amendment protection. And that's kind of emerged over 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:46.600 the years, um, starting in eighteen seventy three with the 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:51.080 Comstock laws. It basically said like you can't sell obscene 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:57.280 literature in interstate commerce, right, and then people are like, okay, 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:00.520 well then we we won't or don't enforce or whatever, 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:04.680 and it just kind of went went enforced or unchallenged 0:24:04.720 --> 0:24:07.239 for like three quarters of a century. And then in 0:24:07.280 --> 0:24:12.560 the fifties you had um Roth versus the United States, 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:14.840 where all of a sudden, we're like, wait, we need 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:18.639 to start explaining what obscenity is because you can't just 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:23.480 say that's just whatever. That's what they started as though, 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.560 Like in the fifties they basically said obscenity pornography basically 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:32.240 is what that means um has utterly or is utterly 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:37.239 without um social value. That was a big quote, so 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:41.760 that basically was a mark against anybody who's pro obscenity, right. 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:44.960 And then in the seventies there was one called Miller 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:48.080 versus California, and this guy basically sent out a mass 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:53.320 mailer chuck of an advertisement for his adult magazines. So 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:59.840 everybody got him old people, kids, housewives, business meant everybody 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:01.920 into their mail that they opened it up and like 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:08.399 there's like, basically obscene advertising, and so California arrested the 0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:13.520