#banned history

[afriblaq]

Hidden History

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

This was removed from all Gannett papers. It's a travesty for many reasons, + though GT is surely fine, it's another example of how conditions for cartoonists keep getting worse + worse: positions eliminated, cartoons with bite being purged, fees decimated, outlets disappearing.

[Ward Sutton]

[soapdispensersalesman]

[singinginthecar]

south africa was banned in the olympics in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988 & 1992. a total of 8 times. for 28 years they didn't set foot in the olympics. you know why? apartheid. apparently the olympics disagreed with the apartheid regime in south africa. russia & belarus aren't allowed to take part in the olympics this year. you know why? because of their involvement in the war in ukraine. several countries throughout history haven't been allowed to participate in the olympics because of various reason from their involvement in war to human rights abuses. now if the olympics aren't blind to all that... why in the world are they blind to what israel has been doing to gaza for the past 10 months? why is a genocidal apartheid nation allowed to participate in the olympics when any other country in its place would've been banned?

[laddersofsweetmisery]

I don't see enough people mourning over the slow death of physical media. And I don't just mean TV shows, video games, or movies--which don't even get me started about how we don't really 'own' anything anymore. It includes notes, journals, and letters to one another...so much of our history is lost when we lose a password, a website goes down, a file/hardware is corrupted, or a platform disappears. History that doesn't seem important until you no longer have access to it. Physical media does a lot for memory recall. How many memories will we lose because we don't have something tangible to tie it back to? Something to hold in our hands and stir up those memories we thought were once lost? Sometimes I wonder what the difference between burning a book and losing access to physical media is when someone can pull the plug and remove your access so easily.

[pantheonbooks]

In 2023, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom found that challenges of unique titles surged 65%, reaching the highest level ever documented by the ALA. Over 4,000 unique book titles were targeted for censorship, with titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals comprising 47% of those attempts.

Now is the time, more than ever, to stand with the banned and boldly read challenged books.

[granolabird]

Hi friends, I am learning this morning that Joost Klein and the Netherlands as a whole may be disqualified from Eurovision. Why is that, you ask? Well, our lovely Dutch gabber chose to do a little heckling during the press conference, shouting"Why not?" After the Israeli press rep told Eden Golan that she didn't have to answer a question regarding why she felt comfortable performing the show when it put others in danger. He also would actively cover his head with a flag during her speaking portions. As well, he explicitly asked for the Isreali team to not record him during some of their video filming. They did anyway. That takes us to today, where, from down the grapevine I hear that comments were made by the Israeli team regarding Joost's deceased father of whom his song is dedicated to, and he retaliated full force. Not sure what this means, or what will happen to him, but I support him in standing up to Isreal on what is at present one of the largest Israeli stages.

[liyazaki]

via the Arkansas Advocate

it’s official: in Arkansas, library staff may now be charged with a Class D felony for providing books to their communities that are deemed “obscene”.

in Florida, school librarians and teachers can be criminally charged for checking out books to kids that dare to touch on LGBTQ topics & gender identity, thanks to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

book censorship in the US is at such an all-time high, book sanctuaries are popping up all over the country.

library staff aren’t physically safe, either. just over the past couple months, threats against libraries and their staff resulted in the temporary closure of “five public library systems due to bomb and shooting threats," ALA. active shooter trainings have become the new norm for me.

the censorship myself and my colleagues have been watching unfold over the last several years has felt like watching a slow-motion car crash.

but this bill? this feels like a death knell for my profession.

via Teen Vogue

when I was a confused queer kid growing up in an ultra-religious household, the library was my refuge. when I asked hard questions, librarians listened and gave me the tools I needed to answer them. in many ways, libraries saved my life. it's why I became a librarian.

I can't believe I'm living in times where future generations of kids may not have access to the same refuge I did, but it's happening.

if you live in the US and you care about protecting open, equitable access to information, please check out the American Library Association for anti-censorship resources in your state, info on contacting your representatives, etc.

you can also report censorship you see in your community and ALA will investigate (1-800-545-2433, ext. 4266; oif@ala.org).

I know this isn't my usual content, but libraries are standing on the edge of a horrifying precipice- one we can't escape on our own.

libraries are free society's canary in the coal mine, and all the alarms are singing. when libraries fall, nations usually aren't far behind.

this matters- and we need help.

[commiepinkofag]

‘Weeding’

Uncovering the Cover-up: How Republican Pennridge School Board Directors Secretly Banned Books

Darren Laustsen | May 28, 2024

Pennridge School District engaged in a massive two-year cover-up of a secret book-banning campaign initiated by two sitting Republican school board directors hellbent on unilaterally purging books without any due process, community input, oversight, or accountability.  According to a sworn Attestation from new Superintendent Angelo Berrios, Ricki Chaikin and Jordan Blomgren ordered school staff to remove books from the library that they had unilaterally deemed were inappropriate. More so, during legal battles over a Right-to-Know request, Pennridge’s law firm, Eckert Seamans, fought to circumvent the state’s Open Records laws and conceal book removals from the public. The scheme involved illegally-doctored public records, the concealment of book removals under fake student accounts, and the eventual disposal of targeted books under the false pretense of librarian “weeding.” …

[naiokiara]

You know what "I want to protect the children" really means much of the time?

"I want to control the future."

Guess what, moms and dads? Nonparent peers of the parents of these children you're "protecting"? You're gonna die. Yeah, we all are, but the way it's supposed to go? Is you die before your kids.

Your kids are the future, and you are the past. The past is yours. The future is theirs.

Your job is to prepare them to face the future - which, I know, doesn't exist yet - but it will. And who will be there? You? No. Your kids.

Those children.

So how about you let them face it and sniff it out and feel it and shake it around and figure out what they need to do to succeed in it, and then maybe have their own damn kids so they can do the same damn thing?

How about you quit acting like you, and your past, are universal, ubiquitous, and timeproof? Because they're not. You're not timeproof, are you? You're gonna die, right? You're going to leave the physical world, at least, aren't you? Have no more say in what happens to it? For the intents and purposes of those still on earth, you're going to be gone.

And so are your intents and purposes, your values, and your needs.

In fact, you are dying right now. Your ideas are dying. I mean, they have to! Time marches on, into a future that doesn't exist yet. So how can you be so sure that your ideas, from your past, even belong there? Guess what - you SHOULDN'T be so sure! So stop acting like you are, and give the future up. Give up on controlling it. It's not yours.

You're supposed to help make sure your kids have a world, physically and socially, in which they can experience the future. So stop treating it like it's the one you'll be experiencing for yourself, because you already had your turn; it's your kids' world now but you're trying to hold it still like you don't know how that works. Society needs to move into the future. Your kids need to practice seeing, evaluating, choosing. You're strangling them. You're strangling your children. You're supposed to teach them how to acknowledge the past, learn from it, observe the present, study it, evaluate their needs, and respond. This is how we move into the future. But you want to keep things as close to the way they were as you can, undoing hard-won progress and turning the clock backward, and you want to cover your children's eyes so they won't find you out. So they can't look at history and see how very much your ideals for the present and the future are the same as the past. You don't want them to see you trying to strangle the world, keeping it for yourself. If what you are doing is right, why are you hiding it?

If it's protection for you, why are you hiding behind the children?

"I don't hate them. I'm just trying to protect children." is nothing new. It has been used throughout history as a justification for tyrannical drug laws, for racism, and for other types of violence.

And that's why they want to ban history.

They want everyone to think that this time is different and that they're actually motivated by a genuine desire to protect children.

[jstor]

As we observe Banned Books Week, we are reminded that literature has always been more than just words on a page—it’s a battleground for ideas, identity, and the stories we tell about who we are. In 1974, Kanawha County, West Virginia, became the stage for one of the most violent textbook protests in American history. What began as a debate over school curriculum turned into a larger conflict over whose voices should be heard and whose stories should be silenced.

The power of the humanities lies in their ability to expose us to a multitude of perspectives, to challenge us, and to broaden our understanding of the human experience. But that power is also why literature and education have often become sites of controversy. The humanities ask us to grapple with life as it is—not life as we wish it to be. In the face of efforts to ban books or limit access to certain narratives, it’s essential to remember that the stories we read, discuss, and even disagree with are the foundation of critical thought.

JSTOR Daily explores the 1974 textbook battle, highlighting how this clash over curriculum foreshadowed many of the cultural debates we continue to face today. The article underscores the enduring importance of intellectual freedom and the need to safeguard the humanities against efforts to restrict access to diverse voices.

Read the full story on JSTOR Daily.

Image: Women from Boston and Charleston, West Virginia, holding signs, demonstrating against textbooks, Washington, D.C., 1975, via LOC.

[die-rosastrasse]

I love you bad art, I love you amateur art, I love you self learning, I love you cheap art supplies, I love you journals, I love you crafts, I love you art available for everyone, I love you second hand art and objects, I love you free museums, I love you handmade gifts, I love you childish drawings, I love you art that nobody ever saw except for the artist, I love you taking time to learn a skill, I love you art history, I love you free tutorials, I love you art as a school subject, I love you things that took a long time to make, I love you art studies that are considered useless, I love you the human need to create and change the world around you to be more beautiful and more meaningful.

I hate you AI art, I hate you generated content, I hate you singe-use images, I hate you mindless consumption, I hate you stealing from artists, I hate you reposting without sources, I hate you lying about using AI, I hate you pretending like art is something unachievable and reserved only for the chosen ones.

Make art!! Make "bad" art that is actually special because you took the time to make it. Make art for yourself that you show no one. Make art for others that they'll cherish forever. See how your whole world changes, see how you start noticing beautiful and inspiring things all around you. Make things with love and devotion. Fuck AI.

[odinsblog]

This is recent history. Ruby Bridges is 68yrs old and she is still alive.

Emily Conklin is thee definition of a racist Karen, and she is trying to whitewash the history white children learn by erasing a rated PG Disney movie that has already been shown for years in Pinellas County schools, usually as a part of Black History Month.

Two immediate thoughts that come to mind are:

“The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school in 1960 now are upset their grandchildren might learn about them throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school.”

and

“IF BLACK CHILDREN ARE OLD ENOUGH TO EXPERIENCE RACISM, WHITE CHILDREN ARE OLD ENOUGH TO LEARN ABOUT IT”

Look, Ruby Bridges was six years old when racist white parents (men and women) threw rocks and hissy fits because she was trying to get an education. A full year younger than most of the white children who are now being “protected” from learning the truth about what their grandparents did.

I guess these delicate snowflakes are so triggered by the racism of their elders that they need to get the Republican governor to whitewash away the truth.

I’m almost 40yrs old and I used to wonder how it was that in college, white kids my age genuinely believed that Martin Luther King, Jr. died of old age. But somehow, every single Black person my age knew the truth. How does that happen?? This is how it happens. This is a prime example of precisely how that happened and still happens—because to “protect” them from the truth, white kids weren’t taught that he was assassinated. It’s literally no different than raising generations of white kids to believe that 2+2=5. There’s going to be serious problems when they hit the real world. But what can I say? Conservatives like ‘em dumb and ignorant.

Anyway, this is how you get generations of fully grown white adults who truly honestly believe foolishness like “racism is over,” or “Martin Luther King basically ended racism,” or, “we don’t need affirmative action because there is no more racism; if anything it’s white people who are more discriminated against now.” (The majority of white people polled said the same thing in the 1960s too, btw).

Keeping as many white people as possible ignorant of the truth does not happen by accident. It’s very intentional. And that’s not to say that ALL white people are ignorant of the truth. Some of them, like Emily Conklin, know the truth, but just do not care.

And make no mistake: The same white people who want to keep their white children “pure” and “innocent” have ZERO problems criminalizing and sending young Black children directly to jail for even the slightest misbehavior in a classroom.

Evil, racist cowards (redundant, I know).

[soy-soi-si]

Okay but imagine

Y/n and 141 during the summer all of them bored so they set up a whole bunch of fun shit.

Y/n pushing for this and I want to know who would use it the most.

Kyle jumping over whoever spinning around on it or being the one almost launched off into space.

Soap getting hit by the person on it or drifting on it before letting go by accident and getting thrown.

Ghost sees it as a fun way to test his grip strength and how long/well he can control himself with the soapy water sending him flying around in circles splashing everyone like those log rides with the drops and splash zones.

Price just chilling to the side adding water to send the huge men flying only for y/n to be the one who gains horrific amounts of air time.

Roach my boy putting huge amounts of soap on the tarp making the speed horrendously fast as y/n literally pulls out a foam board and is flying at the speed of light along with ghost.

[pantheonbooks]

“To die, it’s easy.... But you have to struggle for life.” —The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman

Originally published in 1991, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece has been praised and criticized, lauded as one of the greatest Holocaust tales ever penned, and infamously banned for “rough” language and nudity.