Senator wants Toni Morrison book banned for pornographic content

Senator wants Toni Morrison book banned for pornographic content

By Britt L

     After being criticized by the GOP for opposing a repeal of the federal Common Core standards, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw has demanded that a famous award winning book be banned from schools because of its objectionable language and content.

    The Bluest Eye, written by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, depicts the life of Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year-old Black girl who wishes for her eyes to turn blue so she could be admired by the outside world. The Bluest Eye made the 11th grade reading list for the Common Core and is to be read in 40 states.

According to the Alabama Media Group, Hotzlcaw claims “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,” further explained Hotzclaw.

    “It does contain graphic scenes of forced s*ex (which the conservative blog politichicks helpfully provided context-free in a post titled “(WARNING: Graphic) Common Core Approved Child Pornography”), said Hotzclaw.

In Morrison’s book, there are numerous rape scenes and strong examples of incest and child molestation.

The Common Core – a program initiated by the federal Department of Education, was created to make American schools more competitive and standardized across the United States. State superintendents and governors alike put together a panel of experts to write the standards of the Common Core.

Common Core experts were to create standards that focused on ways to make students think “critically” and not just “memorize” lessons taught in class. In an effort to re-shape curriculum, the group created a list of books that require children to think “in depth”. The Bluest Eye was one of the books on the list.

June of last year, 45 states adopted the standards. However, reports in early August stated that the Common Core’s standards are hard to live by.

According to some, the standardized tests are hard to pass and less than a third of New York students passed the test. Unlike Republicans, Democrats believe the Core’s standards will take time to adjust to and will improve students’ critical thinking skills.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “The federal government didn’t write them, didn’t approve them, and doesn’t mandate them. And we never will. Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or willfully misleading.”

Even if the book is banned, what good will that do for the program? What lesson would the banning of the book teach children? What’s wrong with the truth?