Alabama Republican Wants to Ban Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' from Schools
Source: Atlantic Wire
Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's novel about a little black girl who wishes for blue eyes, should be banned in schools. He only made this statement after GOP members criticized him for opposing a repeal of the federal Common Core standards. The Bluest Eye is on the 11th grade reading list for the Common Core, a set of standards that has been adapted by more than 40 states.
Hotzclaw told the Alabama Media Group, "The book is just completely objectionable, from language to the content." The novel is seemingly the most controversial on the 11th grade reading list, and thus, an easy one to criticize — there have been efforts to ban it in schools and libraries since it was written in 1970. It does contain graphic scenes of forced sex (which the conservative blog Politichicks helpfully provided context-free in a post titled "
WARNING: Graphic) Common Core Approved Child Pornography"
.
The Common Core is the federal Department of Education's effort to make American schools more competitive on the world stage and more standardized across states. It began as a bipartisan project — governors and state superintendents brought together a panel of experts to write the standards, which focus on critical thinking as opposed to rote memorization.
Read more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/08/alabama-republican-wants-ban-toni-morrisons-bluest-eye-schools/68884/
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