What Is It
The American Library Association reports that last year 1,597 books were challenged or removed from libraries, schools, and universities, a record high number (compared to 273 books in 2020). Most of the challenged or removed books deal with themes relating to race or sexuality and gender, and challenges come from both the right and the left. What are the implications for your thought-provoking summer reading? Josh and Ray talk to Stanford English professor Paula Moya about attempts to remove Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye from schools; activist Chaz Stevens about his crusade to ban the Bible from Florida schools; and Jennifer Ruth & Michael Bérubé about their new book, It's Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom.
Transcript
Transcript
Ray Briggs
Welcome to Philosophy Talk, the program that questions everything...
Josh Landy
...except your intelligence. I'm Josh Landy.
Comments (5)
Harold G. Neuman
Saturday, June 4, 2022 -- 7:09 AM
Laura Snyder's book soundsLaura Snyder's book sounds promising. Looking at getting that.
Daniel
Wednesday, June 29, 2022 -- 10:28 AM
--See a related passage in--See a related passage in Kant's Critique of Practical Reason at A286, where recounted is an event which occurred during one of Leibniz's botanical studies in which an insect was discovered under close observation to obscure the leaf of the plant he was investigating and subsequently removed. But once looked at under a microscope, the harmonious complexity of the creature quickened and seemed to strengthen the powers of his imagination to such an extent that he afterwards replaced the insect on its leaf, preserving the benefit which it had accorded him. How might this relate to Snyder's subject? Does she suggest a spontaneous conservationism of imaginative form brought about by instrumentally enhanced powers of observation?
Harold G. Neuman
Sunday, September 4, 2022 -- 9:31 AM
Heard the Bible got nixed.Heard the Bible got nixed. Along with Anne Frank. Is this authoritarian populism?
johnqeniac
Sunday, September 4, 2022 -- 11:31 AM
Where can I find the actualWhere can I find the actual list of the 1597 challenges? I went to the ALA website and I couldn't find it. Maybe I missed an obvious link to the actual list, but can someone here provide a link to the 'list of challenges'? Thanks!
Also, on reading your intro, I took the "1,597" figure to mean that that many 'different' books were challenged, but only when I started searching for the list did it become clear that the actual statistic is that there were 1597 'challenges' to books. In other words, as far as one can conclude form that statistic, a single book was challenged 1597 times...or anything between that and 1597 different books were challenged - one time each. Dudes, when you quote a crucial statistic, you need to give a direct source to the actual data. I mean that's basic. Otherwise you end up arguing (or philosophizing) about an ill-defined statistic. I'd link to see, for example, the histogram of challenges of all unique books on that list (however many unique books there are on it (one? 1597? Who knows?). Also, the distribution of challenges across the country. I mean, did all 1597 challenges come form a single uber-racist school district? A single uber-woke school district? Who knows?)...I mean, please gimme a little help here. Where do I find the actual list of 1597 challenges? A voucher for a Snickers bar to anyone can find it.
Thanks,
Greg Slater
Daniel
Tuesday, September 6, 2022 -- 1:27 PM
The figure apparently comesYour question is well stated and simply put: Does the figure refer to the number of books challenged or the number of challenges to books? It could indeed be either, which brings up another question: Upon what hinges the significance of this distinction? Your suggestion towards the end that it is informed by the relation of intension of degree on the scale of racism to wokeness, to extension over districts which furnish the boundaries of challenge-processes and their comparison with each other, remains ambiguous on account of the lack of terms-definition for the contents of the intension scale, but some consequences may nevertheless be submitted:
1) If a small number of books are challenged many times, they are woke-based (non-racist).
2) If a large number of books are challenged only a few times, they are race-based (non-woke).
While the problem remains as to what these terms mean when taken together, if anything, they can inform the sought interpretive significance only if they necessarily exclude each other, so that a high number in a woke district favors reference to number of challenges and a low one favors number of books; and a low number in a racist district favors number of challenges whereas a high one favors number of books. What remains to be attained then is the definitions of the two district-predications. As prior condition for the pursuit of the sought documents, then, inquiry is made into the meaning of these capably extended terms.