Another Banned Books Week has come and gone here in the “Land of the Free”. It comes with a mix of emotions for those at the center of the stand against censorship because this is an issue that exists 365 days a year, not just 7. While it is true that “any press is good press” during the week, sometimes that media attention can turn bittersweet.
This year there was a lot of attention because the Randolph County Board of Education ignorantly chose that week to entrench itself in a censorship effort against Ralph Ellison’s 1952 classic, The Invisible Man. The issue was so heated that it was covered by many news organizations around the world.
Among its various sociological commentaries it touched on such issues as the social and intellectual problems of Blacks in the early twentieth century, Black nationalism, the relationship between Black identity and Marxism, the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, and the concepts of individuality and personal identity.
Invisible Man won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1953 and in 1998, the Modern Library ranked it nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
It should come as little surprise, then, that it would come under fire in a state known for numerous censorship efforts. Leave it to good old North Carolina to, once again, demonstrate that the United States Constitution, reason, and logic all stop at its borders. That magical land where, upon crossing its border, one is instantly transported back 150 years in their mentality.
The RCBE voted 5-2 to officially ban the classic novel from all school libraries because, as Board member, Gary Mason, put it, “I didn’t find any literary value.” Scores of critics would vehemently disagree.
Invisible Man is told, in confession form, by an unnamed narrator whose bright future is erased by racism. It also bluntly and accurately uses the language of the period in which it was written. “I am an invisible man,” the novel begins. “No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe…”
The decision came after- you guessed it- a lone parent filed a 12-page complaint because she found the book’s contents too inappropriate for her 11th-grade child. She also cited its “lack of innocence, language, and sexual content.” The student, along with other juniors, were asked to read a book over the summer (Honors students were assigned to read two), with the choices being Ellison’s Invisible Man, Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, and Passing, by Nella Larsen; all of which deal with race and identity.
The parent, Kimiyutta Parson, feels that the book is too much for anyone to read, not just her daughter. In her lengthy complaint, she said that, “the narrator writes in the first person, emphasizing his individual experiences and his feelings about the events portrayed in his life. This novel is not so innocent; instead, this book is filthier, too much for teenagers. You must respect all religions and point of views when it comes to the parents and what they feel is age appropriate for their young children to read, without their knowledge. This book is freely in your library for them to read.”
After nine days of state, national, and even international heat, the County reversed its decision and reinstated the book, an act that usually requires legislation from the state level.
This isn’t the first time Invisible Man has come under the scorn of censors. According to the American Library Association, it is one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century that have been challenged or banned.
Previously, excerpts from the novel were banned in Butler, Pennsylvania in 1975; that same year it was removed from the high school English reading list in St. Francis, Wisconsin.
It was challenged and retained in the Yakima, Washington schools in 1994 after a five-month dispute over what advanced high school students should and should not be allowed to read in the classroom after two parents raised concerns about profanity and images of violence and sexuality in the book and requested that it be removed from the reading list.
Michael Gill, psychology instructor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania- 300 miles east of Butler, said it best:
“In a free, democratic society it is essential that citizens are able to turn a critical eye on our society and identify areas for progress and improvement! Books that encourage such critical examination are often banned… we cannot let that happen! Some good examples of banned or almost-banned books in this category: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison; 1984, by George Orwell; The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair; Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. Read all of these!”
For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/
Sources: Wikipedia, American Library Association, LA Times, Asheboro Courier-Tribune, The Times-News, Christian Science Monitor, Lehigh University
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions
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