Critical Theory Case Study by MICAIAH ANDERSON-MICHAUD
The main problem with this choice is that their standards for vulgarity and nudity are based on their own experiences of childhood and do not extend to other books. On page 13, Rob Shamblin brings up what I believe to be a crucial question when he asks whether other books would need to be re-evaluated by the same standards that Maus is being judged by. This question quickly gets brushed aside as a topic for another day. Still, I am concerned about whether this same standard would fairly evaluate other books or if Maus is the only book receiving this kind of treatment in the McMinn County Board. Whether it is in isolation or not would be an essential thing to consider when discussing whether or not the McMinn Board had any intent to silence the perspectives of cultures they were less familiar with.
KQED’s forum podcast with Viet Thanh Nguyen and Elizabeth Harris discussed the concept of banning books and silencing diverse voices. Nguyen discusses the importance of having a safe place to learn about complex subjects, such as the ones presented in Maus. He explains that these beliefs were formed from his experiences with texts that shared difficult things. He discusses a book that he had hated because of its depiction of South Asian people, but how he later came to appreciate it because its descriptions were accurate to the way that Americans would have viewed them. In this podcast, he and the host also discuss the concept of empathy, how books can draw us into understanding other people’s perspectives, and how, if there was any antisemitic intent in the McMinn County school board, this book might have appeared dangerous to them because it may help their students to see from the perspective of Jewish people and to sympathize with them. Elizabeth Harris, a journalist for the New York Times, also discussed her interviews with parent-run right-wing organizations backing many of the book bans across the country. She states that a lot of the books they want to ban have to do with content about sexuality and gender being in school libraries and that these parents want the ability to veto books that are permitted to be present on the school campus rather than allowing librarians and educators to vet the books themselves. KQED’s host and guests make a point to clarify that the banning of Maus is not alone and that it is only one of several books that are being banned, with most of the banned books containing a diverse number of ethnicities, sexualities, and gender identities. They point to the problem being essentially part of a political agenda that moves to silence voices that are not the voices of white Americans.
However, the McMinn County school board does not seem to be entirely concerned about this rash of book banning. Their primary concern is for their students and ensuring that they are teaching good ethics and sharing about relevant historical events, such as the Holocaust. Their choice to remove Maus did not extend to other Holocaust-related books in their curriculum; they only took issue with that one because of its profanity, nudity, and the general themes considered too adult-oriented for the 8th-grade age group. This opinion did not appear to be motivated by hate for Jewish people but out of fear that they would teach their children about things that the board considered ethically questionable, including swear words, premarital sex, and violence.
While both perspectives have significant merit, I think it is worth considering that the McMinn County school board is discussing a book about tragedy, war, and violence. The Holocaust was inherently violent, and their concern over swear words and an image that would have been blotted out seems slightly contrary, considering the subject. Their evaluation of what should and should not be taught to 8th-graders is vital to them, but it is challenging to discuss to Holocaust without showing or discussing violence. When listening to the perspectives of actual Jewish people who went through it, it is reasonable to expect that they would be passionate about the subject, which could understandably lead to some crude language usage. Beyond that, it is hard to say that the people who made this decision had antisemitic ideas that backed their choice, mainly because they did not express any verbal intent to silence the perspective of all Jewish people, just the ones who used words they did not like. We are also not able to try and determine more about their actual motives because we don’t know what their personal lives look like.
Ultimately, I do not believe this was the correct decision. It seems clear to me that choosing to ban any book is a form of suppression. Though it was only removed from an 8th-grade curriculum, their reasons were not quite substantial enough to decide to rework their entire module, especially considering that the opinions of several very loud board members seemed to have a significant impact on the rest of the board. I do not think that any of the board members gave enough credence to the people advocating for Maus, and the members who rallied against the book did not care that the vulgarity was being removed, even though that was their primary argument against Maus’ presence in the 8th-grade classroom. Their choice appeared to have been short-sighted and did not have much of a foundation other than the fear of the board members of corrupting their students.
While it is important to be careful what we teach our young people in classrooms, I think it is just as important to consider what we are not teaching them. If we are teaching them about the Holocaust but not presenting the perspective of the people who suffered most from it, the lessons learned will almost undoubtedly be limited in their quality and their depth. In an age of political polarization, it is vital for teachers to share different perspectives within their classrooms to allow for safe, thorough, and guided discussions about hard subjects. While concepts like the Holocaust can be painful to learn about and may contain some amount of vulgarity, learning about what happened is important for teaching children why fascism is so dangerous and why discrimination can be lethal. Children are on their phones, on the internet, and they are undoubtedly encountering racist, violent, and vulgar materials. I think that being able to discuss these concepts with trusted and educated adults is very important to the safety of our future and to the safety of these children. While there are some things that should be limited, the plan presented by Brady would have taken out the offensive material and still left the curriculum with the content that was most important. The focus on vulgarity and nudity, I believe, was more harmful to these 8th-graders than the presence of it would have ultimately been.
Works Cited
McMinn County Board of Education. “McMinn County Board of Education Statement.” McMinn County Board of Education Statement, 27 Jan. 2022, https://www.mcminn.k12.tn.us/o/mcsd/article/639918.
McMinn County Board. “McMinn County Board .” TN, McMinn County, 10 Jan. 2022.
“‘Maus’ Among Latest Titles Banned in Some American School Districts.” KQED's Forum, performance by Mina Kim, et al
Micaiah Anderson-Michaud is a junior pursuing an English major with a psychology minor and received an Associate of Arts in 2022. Selected by Jennifer Stone.