Youth / OPINION : The ‘Challenge Isn’t Being Met but Avoided’

Is anything safe from politics? Is there not one institution left that is free from the egos of the likes of groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and their misguided “concern” to the ultraconservative religious right and their desire to control and mandate our school agenda?

Being a politically conscious student in the conservative suburb of Simi Valley in Ventura County, there’s plenty to keep a person like me busy. The newest local crisis concerns a battle between the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which would like the classic book, “The Cay,” removed from all reading lists, and the Simi Valley Unified School District board members, who, surprisingly, have upheld their right (and duty as educators) to keep this book on the district’s reading list.

The teen-age part of me--as well as that part of me that deplores racism--can empathize and sympathize with the student who felt badly as passages of the book were read aloud in class, unfairly depicting a black character. The student’s parents have argued that because their child was the only African-American in the class, his civil rights were somehow violated.

The NAACP has argued that “The Cay,” like “Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” before it, portrays negative stereotypes of African-Americans. The school board responded by removing the book from the required reading list and placing the novel, instead, on a list where junior high school students may choose to read it for credit, voluntarily. The NAACP is not satisfied.

(The following passage is apparently what caused the NAACP to seek to ban “The Cay”: “I saw a huge, very old Negro sitting on the raft near me. He was ugly. His nose was flat and his face was broad; his head was a mass of wiry gray hair. . . . He crawled over toward me. His face couldn’t have been blacker, or his teeth whiter. They made an alabaster trench in his mouth, and his pink-purple lips peeled back over them like the meat of a conch shell.”)

If only the solution was easy. Can you imagine the precedent set by banning a book (or any other art form) and letting it collect dust in the dark corner of some library simply because it deals with a subject that makes people uncomfortable?

It would be difficult to deny that racism has reared its ugly head, even in our schools. But there seems to be some wonderful opportunity and challenge that is being avoided. In the case of all three previously mentioned books, each portrays negative stereotypes all right, but some sort of love or respect or understanding occurs in spite of racial and cultural differences. And if there is no bridge of respect, understanding or love, let us challenge our teachers in the classroom to use these books as the educational tools they are meant to be, to teach that brotherhood can and should exist between men, regardless of race.

I can’t help but feel that the NAACP has been fooled by someone. Who is it really that is behind the drive to ban these works of literature that, when taught conscientiously, promote brotherhood?