Award-winning books banned as culture wars enter the classroom

Literature tackling race and sexual abuse is being banned as Republican-led US school districts begin a right-wing version of cancel culture.

Novellist Dr Margaret Atwood poses with her award after she was made a Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II following an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Picture: Getty

Books that tackle issues such as race and sexual abuse are being banned as Republican-led school districts target award-winning novels in a right-wing version of “cancel culture”.

One of the authors affected is Margaret Atwood, whose dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, depicting the violent oppression of women, has been turned into an acclaimed television series.

The classroom has become one of the key battlegrounds in America’s culture wars, which pit traditionalists against those with a left-wing agenda. The conflict is often fought over the teaching of critical race theory - the idea that racism is deeply entrenched in society - but more recently the row has spread to the subject matter of some popular children’s novels.

The death of George Floyd, a black man murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, spurred greater calls for the teaching of the theory, but in many areas of the country parents objected.

The classroom has become one of the key battlegrounds in America’s culture wars, which pit traditionalists against those with a left-wing agenda

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association (AMA), told the Axios news website that she had never witnessed such a “volume of challenges come in such a short time” in 20 years. The AMA tracked the targeting of 566 books in 2019 and 273 books during the pandemic in 2020.

“I don’t want my daughter growing up feeling guilty because she’s white,” one Pennsylvanian parent told a school board meeting in York county last year. The generally affluent county, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2020, is dominated by Republican officials. The row led to an order to freeze the availability of books that included references to critical race theory.

“Banning books on diversity is the direct result of this Republican-manufactured crisis on critical race theory,” Donna Bullock, chairwoman of the Pennsylvania legislative black caucus, said.

Actress Elisabeth Moss in the TV adaptation of Atwood’s award-winning, best-selling novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

In October the school district in Katy, Texas, banned two books by the graphic novelist Jerry Craft that describe the experiences of two black boys who fall victim to racist abuse at school after 400 local parents signed a petition.

The ban has since been overturned, but critics argue that school districts are coming under pressure from politicians and that the action amounts to censorship. In some areas of the country proposed bans would lead to the removal of children’s novels that raise issues such as sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and drug-taking.

In November the Spotsylvania county school board in Virginia ordered staff to remove “sexually explicit” books from libraries after a parent raised concerns about their LGBTQ themes.

The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the books that is most frequently challenged on account of its often violent and sexual content. “If you’re a writer and everybody likes you, a) you’re doing something wrong, or b) you don’t exist,” Atwood, 82, told the Associated Press.

“I am happy to be in the company of the Bible, Shakespeare, John Bunyan, Lord Byron, Emily Bronte, Flaubert, James Joyce, Nawal el Saadawi, Angela Carter, Anonymous of A Woman in Berlin and so many others. Lucky me, I live in a democracy, so at least I’m not in jail or being tossed out of a plane.”

The Times