![]() ![]() As long as groups such as African Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latinxs “kept their proper place”-awarded them by a White society-censors rarely raised their voices. Literature about minoritized ethnic or racial groups remains “controversial” or “objectionable” to many adults. English teachers willing to defend classics and modern literature must be prepared to give equally spirited defense to serious and worthwhile children’s and young adult novels. But many contemporary novels for adolescents focus on the real world of young people–drugs, premarital sex, alcoholism, divorce, gangs, school dropouts, racism, violence, and sensuality. As long as novels intended for young people stayed at the intellectual and emotional level of A Date for Marcy or A Touchdown for Thunderbird High, censors could forego criticism. Some groups and individuals have also raised objections to literature written specifically for young people. Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings’s I Am Jazz: “inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group”.Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye: “offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group”.Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia: “occult/Satanism, offensive language, violence”.Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: “promotes racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy”.Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson’s And Tango Makes Three: “anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group”.John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath: “uses the name of God and Jesus in a vain and profane manner”. ![]() ![]() Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: “profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled” Referencing multiple years of research completed by the American Library Association (ALA), the following statements represent complaints typical of those made against modern works of literature: Modern works, even more than the classics, are criticized with terms such as “filthy,” “un-American,” “overly realistic,” and “anti-war.” Some books have been attacked merely for being “controversial,” suggesting that for some people the purpose of education is not the investigation of ideas but rather the indoctrination of a certain set of beliefs and standards.
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