In 1989, the Indianapolis Recorder, a newspaper gearing its coverage to the Black community, published a list of books that had been recently banned in school districts around the USA. Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” was banned in Haywood, California. Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” was taken from libraries in Ogden, Utah.
Indianapolis native Wallace Terry’s Vietnam War novel, ”Bloods,” was considered a ”moral danger to students” in Spring Hill, Fla.
The censorship actions were limited to local school districts. It is nearly impossible for one district’s subjective actions to be in tandem with even that of an adjacent district.
Jump ahead to the Indiana General Assembly in 2022 where Senate Bill 17, introduced by Evansville Republican James Tomes, fuels the fear of books, indeed, the fear of knowledge.
This time, the discussion is focusing on sex using the doublespeak of obscenity and pornography. And that, as Texas is showing us, is troublesome.
Texas parents are trying to ban more than 50 books from public school systems. They are notably attacking books that feature LGBTQ characters. Gov. Greg Abbott has called for criminal charges against any school staff member who provides children with access to young adult novels that some have labeled as “pornography.”
Tomes’ bill attempts to do just that. Currently, public schools, museums, universities, libraries and other entities are protected from criminal prosecution alleging the dissemination of material harmful to minors. They must show that the material was disseminated by an employee acting within the scope of employment, among other defenses.
Tomes’ bill would remove schools and certain libraries from that list. As Tomes explained, “If a book is presented in the classroom, a school library, a public library, that is obscene or pornographic, then whatever entity is doing this cannot claim it’s educational for these kids to see or read.”
He offered a definition: “I certainly can recognize something that’s pornographic …” He knows it when he sees it. The bill’s language, like Tomes’ explanation, is vague, murky and ripe for civil liberties lawsuits.
During a Senate Education and Career Development Committee hearing, a Kendallville father held up a copy of Sherman Alexie’s often-contested “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which he said was assigned reading for his two daughters. In response to the dad’s complaints, one daughter was assigned a different book; a second daughter was switched to another class.
The result satisfied the father. His approach is exactly how the current process should work. It shouldn’t be changed by threatening criminal prosecutions.
The Indianapolis Recorder article concluded with a suggestion that those who fight against book-banning should use weapons similar to the book-banners by speaking at community and school board meetings, writing letters to editors, forming parental groups or picketing.
The recommendation is true 33 years later. Hoosier communities differ in what material, other than standards, should be taught, and they have different interpretations of “obscene.” Likewise, implementation of criminal charges will vary from one prosecutor to another.
In short, Senate Bill 17 is ambiguous and unworkable.
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