By Robert Reich
The real reason
I wanted to read The Catcher in the Rye was it had been banned
from the library. I knew the librarian kept one copy behind her desk, and I was
determined to get it. She reluctantly handed it to me. I read it voraciously.
There’s no better
way to get a teenager to read a book than to ban it.
Before the board
made its decision, teenagers in McMinn County probably weren’t particularly
eager to read about the Holocaust, even in the form of a graphic novel. But now
that Maus has been banned for objectionable language and
nudity, I bet they’re wildly trading whatever threadbare copies they can get
their hands on.
Since it was
banned, half the teenagers in America seem to have bought Maus (or
insisted their parents do). Two weeks ago, the book wasn’t even in the top
1,000 of Amazon’s bestseller list. Now it’s hovering around number 1.
Way to go,
McMinn County school board! Get teenagers all over America excited to read
about the Holocaust!
Even the McMinn County school board has been outdone by the Matanuska-Susitna school board in Palmer, Alaska, which presumably had a more serious problem on its hands than getting teenagers excited to read about the Holocaust. It couldn’t even get them to read the great novels of American literature.
So the
Matanuska-Susitna school board voted 5 to 2 to ban Invisible Man by
Ralph Ellison, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The Things
They Carried by Tim O’Brien, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by
Maya Angelou, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Brilliant! I bet
nearly every teenager in Palmer, Alaska is now deep into these books. They’re
probably having intense discussions about them online late at night, away from
their parents and other snooping adults. “Why do you think Ellison called
himself ‘invisible?’” “How did Angelou come up with those amazing
metaphors?” “Why did Daisy Buchanan reject Jay Gatsby?” “Wait!
Gotta go! My parents are right outside my room! Call back in 20 minutes!”
The Great Gatsby was
required reading when I went to high school. I admit I never read it. Had it
been banned, I probably would have devoured it.
Beginning last
fall, at least 16 school districts in a half-dozen states have demanded school
libraries ban Out of Darkness. It’s a young adult novel about a
love affair between two teenagers, a Mexican American girl and Black boy, set
against the backdrop of the 1937 natural gas explosion at a New London, Texas
plant that claimed nearly 300 lives. The book received lots of favorable
reviews and literary rewards, but only a handful of teenagers read before it
was banned. Now, it’s hot.
It’s the
cleverest marketing strategy I’ve ever seen. Publishers must be clamoring to
have school districts ban their books. (Why haven’t my books
been banned, dammit?)
An influential
group called “No Left Turn” is partly responsible. Just take a look at their website
of books “used to spread radical and racist ideologies to students.” (Here’s
the link: https://www.noleftturn.us/exposing-books/) You can bet
teenagers across America are now lining up to read them.
Robert Reich's writes at robertreich.substack.com. His latest
book is "THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How To Fix It." He is
Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at
Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor
in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written 17
other books, including the best sellers "Aftershock," "The Work
of Nations," "Beyond Outrage," and "The Common Good."
He is a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, founder of
Inequality Media, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and
co-creator of the award-winning documentaries "Inequality For All,"
streaming on YouTube, and "Saving Capitalism," now streaming on
Netflix.