Texas: School district pulls books without formal challenge process

Arutz Sheva ^ | 27/6/24 | Andrew Lapin

[Eleutheria5]

The superintendent of a school district in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas recently agreed within minutes to a conservative group’s demands to remove 676 books, including some seminal texts about the Holocaust and antisemitism.

Now, weeks later, Carol Perez has been removed from the district she led, just as the Republican governor of Texas appeared to endorse the book removals on social media.

Conservative activists, led by a local pastor and outspoken Israel advocate, pushed the district, Mission CISD, to excise books mostly about gender, sexuality and race. Their demands represented an extreme version of a nationwide culture war over books that has played out in recent years — and ensnared a number of books with Jewish themes.

In Mission, the long list of books on the chopping block includes a recent illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary; both volumes of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir “Maus”; “The Fixer,” Bernard Malamud’s novel about a historical instance of antisemitic blood libel; and “Kasher in the Rye,” a ribald memoir by Jewish comedian Moshe Kasher.

The conservative groups are led by Pastor Luis Cabrera, who is active in Latino conservative circles in the state and whose Instagram profile picture is currently an upraised fist outlined with the Israeli flag. Originally from Guatemala, Cabrera is a member of several right-wing Christian activist organizations and has also posted numerous pieces of pro-Israel social media content.

Cabrera’s groups, the local chapters of Citizens Defending Freedom and the Remnant Alliance, have meanwhile advocated for the removal of books about the Holocaust and antisemitism, lumping them together with books containing sexual content.

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[Eleutheria5]

The "Anne Frank" to which the article refers is the graphic novel version, which is reputed to have some sex stuff in it, but the preview available on line does not show anything prurient. Maus, I recall, had everyone fully clothed. I don't know what the issue is with Cabrera. But I think I'll get ahold of that graphic Anne Frank and see for myself.

Removal decisions ought to have a process for challenges, and executive decisions on removing 675 books from school libraries should be done with some deliberation. But I'm sure there is plenty of basis for removing some, and perhaps most, of the books at issue.

[BobL]

A better option is to REMOVE THE LIBRARIES from the schools and elsewhere, as the Librarians continue to INSIST that porn and much worse is JUST FINE for our kids.

[UnwashedPeasant]

This is silly. All libraries are curated.

Usually the curation is used by the left to suppress good books and promote bad books. How many books by Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Alex Jones are in these school libraries?

[bgill]

Agree on actually seeing what’s what. From the article, it is impossible to know which side of the subject the book covers. Is the Holocaust presented as being real or made up? What exactly is illustrated? To what degree is the sex and what grade level. These days, many books are too extreme and should to banned from schools, even high schools.

[FoxInSocks]

both volumes of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir “Maus”

I have that work. I’m not sure what the specific objection is, but it’s well done and well regarded.

Bernard Malamud also wrote The Natural, which was made into a great baseball movie.

[Eleutheria5]

Fire those librarians. My school librarians were usually vicious harpies who yelled at kids and threatened them non-stop, but they didn’t allow any porn. If you endured them long enough, you might give up reading altogether (unless you discovered porn, which is just looking at pictures). Fortunately, the public libraries were nice, relaxing places, with lots of good books, and no porn.

[Eleutheria5]

I discovered comic books. That’s what saved me from a life of illiteracy.