'Liberals Kill Everything': Tweeps Irate as US School Pulls 'To Kill a Mockingbird' From Book List
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Three high school English teachers made a formal request to the Mukilteo school board outside Seattle, Washington, in 2021 to remove the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird” from the required reading list for ninth-grade students for purportedly celebrating” white saviourhood” and use of “the ‘n’ word almost 50 times”.
A vote by a school board in Washington to pull the iconic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee from the required reading list for ninth-grade students over complaints it was racially insensitive has left social media users fuming.
Some netizens slammed the return of “book burnings”, while others wondered if the school board had even read the iconic “masterpiece” that was “very much about race”.
The Mukilteo School Board, outside Seattle, approved a resolution to remove the Pulitzer Prize winning 1960 novel from the reading curriculum on 24 January, with the move supported by District Superintendent Alison Brynelson, according to a school board agenda cited by the Herald.
The book remains on the district-approved novel list and is not banned from being taught.
During the public comment period of the meeting ahead of the vote, parents, students and teachers had overwhelmingly supported the decision, according to the outlet.
“It was clear from the comments received that there are many legitimate and thoughtful opinions about this novel and its place in school curriculum. The students who shared their experiences and thoughts with the board were especially compelling in their reasoning that there are other novels that can teach similar literary conventions and themes without causing further harm to students,” district spokesperson Diane Bradford was quoted by Fox News as saying.
Netizens went on Twitter to suggest that perhaps the school board had failed to read the book when voting on the issue.
'book burnings' are back ya'll!!
— Girl in the World (@WorldinGirl) January 26, 2022
yay!
liberals kill everything
Washington school board removes 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from curriculum due to racial sensitivity https://t.co/eAGshnGbXO via @nypost
"To Kill a Mockingbird" is now banned by a Washington State School Board for being racist ...
— Lawyerforlaws (@lawyer4laws) January 26, 2022
* The book is about a white man defending a black man..
How is that racist?
We have school boards filled with uneducated buffoons.
smdh. Books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" should be treasured, not banned. https://t.co/lPTG1XnKpk
— Doug Gansler (@DougGansler) January 26, 2022
If the ethical issues raised in To Kill a Mockingbird are too thorny for you to navigate, perhaps you shouldn't be in education at all.
— Steam Ship (@steamtug7) January 26, 2022
The 1960 Harper Lee novel, set in rural Alabama during the 1930s - the time of the Great Depression - is written from the perspective of a young white girl. It narrates the story of a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman and highlights the racial segregation of the time.
The seminal book was translated into more than 40 languages won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961, was adapted into a movie in 1962 and was voted America’s best-loved novel by PBS viewers in 2018.
Brock Peters, who played the black defendant Tom Robinson in "To Kill a Mockingbird," is interviewed by the media before a memorial service for actor Gregory Peck Monday, June 16, 2003
© AP Photo / NICK UT
It is required reading in many schools across the US. However, in recent years, amid an explosion of woke activism and ‘cancel culture’, it has been in the crosshairs for its perceived antiquated portrayal of racial issues.
The decision comes in response to a formal request to the Mukilteo School Board to reconsider the district's curriculum made last year by Kamiak English teachers Riley Gaggero and Verena Kuzmany, as well as Mukilteo Virtual Academy English teacher Rachel Johnson.
The request said the novel was written by a white author and only “conveyed the point of view of White characters".
“Although it is set during the Civil Rights era and addresses racism, it portrays no strong Black characters and instead reifies a White saviour mentality," stated the three teachers, as they decried the racial epithets used in the novel.
Furthermore, the novel, which realistically uses the dialogue of that era, was denounced for its “excessive and harmful (48 times)” use of the N-word.
“The word is never addressed as negative... Our students have been at best confused and, at worst, shamed, insulted, and traumatised by this racial slur," the request said.
