Writing While Black Under Scrutiny

By Alan Singer

Writing while Black in the United States is not as dangerous as driving while Black, but with the rightwing assault on anything that hints of Critical Race Theory, Black authors are facing censorship and book banning. In Katy, Texas, children’s books by Newbery Medal-winning author Jerry Craft were pulled off the shelves in the school library. Craft was also dis-invited from speaking at the school until the ban on the books, New Kid and Class Act, was rescinded. The books focus on the experience of an African American pre-teenager subject to discrimination at the fictional private school he attends where the student population is overwhelmingly white. According to Craft, the books are based on the difficulties his own sons faced fitting in at a similar school.

A local white parent and school board candidate behind a petition calling for the book banning and canceling Craft’s visit told the Houston Chronicle she “checked all the books out and watched all of [Craft’s] interviews and he discusses microaggressions, which is a racial term coined by the conceptual founders of critical race theory. That let me know the ideology of these books.” Apparently she wanted Craft censored because he discussed microagressions, which to her meant he was secretly advocating for Critical Race Theory, which he doesn’t seem to have mentioned.

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Source: Daily Kos