Trash and Filth.

In 1998 Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon was removed from curriculum in St. Mary’s County Maryland Public Schools for having what some deemed trash and filth in their criticisms of the book. These same struggles are echoed in the writing of Donald A. Downs on Government Censorship since 1945. His article claims that

“We cannot be characteristically human without both the pornographic and the impulse to control it. In our eroticized sexual nature many territories are forbidden; they are closed not over our protests but with our complicity.”

Downs is quoting Richard S. Randall here.

Song of Solomon has some overtly taboo sexual content in its pages. The main character is breastfed until he is four years old. This is 2-3 years beyond what may be considered socially acceptable, but I do not think the authors intention was sexual in nature. Americans struggle with breastfeeding in general. There are movements that support public breastfeeding with vehement counter movements that declare a mother feeding her child in public immoral or lewd. The sexualization of Milkman comes from the people reading the pages out of context and should not be considered filth.

The incest in the book is harder to argue for. While people are exposed to much worse with little uproar in television or movies, requiring that a student be exposed to it as a part of the curriculum is something to be debated. If people are not learning about this in school when are they learning about it? Toni Morrison was writing to capture real experiences, incestual relations with cousins and all. We can sit and pretend we live in a utopian society where things like this do not happen, but the truth is, life is messy.

My assumptions about why Song of Solomon may have been banned lie in racial reasons rather than what is cited as the cause. Conservative families in Southern Maryland probably only opened the book because they saw it was written by a black female and were initially upset with that alone. They searched and picked out things that confirmed their bias and mob complained to the school about the obvious trash and filth in the book.

Downs goes on to reflect on progressive censorship and its impact on universities. While it is easier for people to see that conservatives are being shut down for “politically incorrect” language, it is harder to say this is somehow different than what conservatives have done to minorities groups in the past and present. People, communities, and government institutions attempt to shut down the growth of ideologies that do not represent their best interests. It is typical to advocate your own interests and to repress ideologies you fear, or feel do not benefit you.

What is the solution?

I believe that people should be allowed to have their voice on any subjects unless it is at the expense of someone else’s civil liberties and health. We should not force our own visions of morality onto others unless that morality protects people from harm. Everyone has equal protection under the constitution and laws should be enforced in a way that is balanced and beneficial to everyone equally.