Rosanna and I did not get to interview everyone who we initially wanted to for our research, but I think we still got a lot out of conversations that we were able to schedule with people.
Looking back through the interview transcripts as I performed my edits this past week, I pulled out some quotes that made me think differently about issues of censorship.
The first quote in particular is from Rosanna’s interview with Gene Hyde, where he talks about how an institution’s community standards can hold sway on how censorship is carried out (or not):
“Well, when you say censor stuff, it’s one thing to have it in a formal educational setting and it’s another thing to have it in the privacy of your home and what you choose to do there. There’s the idea of community standards, too, I am not a public school teacher, but I have, however been on the board of trustees of a public library system, so I’ve dealt with it from the public library situation. I think that parents have to make their own decisions about stuff, but I also think that part of what the public education system is going to do is it is, by definition probably going to challenge some of your assumptions, and challenge things. I’m not going to say specifically that this should be banned or that should be banned but I will say, that as a librarian, I agree with the American Library Association’s code of ethics which says that all information should be free, or freely available, actually, I will read you a excerpt from the ALA code of ethics, it says, “As librarians we significantly influence or control the selection, organization, preservation and dissemination of information in a political system grounded in a informed citizenry we’re members of a profession explicitly committed to intellectual freedom and freedom of access to information. We have a special obligation to ensure the free flow of information and ideas to present and future generations.” So, I’m a librarian. This is where I come from. So I personally think that the curricular decisions of an instructor in a school system should reflect that as much as they possibly can within their community standards.” – Gene Hyde
In other words, how a library approaches censorship is going to differ from how a school system will approach censorship since their community values in terms of access to certain materials will have certain distinctions in terms of the communities that they serve. From what I gather, libraries typically serve the general public, so if you were censor information within a library, you would be censoring just about the entire community’s ability to access materials (which is clearly against the ALA’s standards). As we learned from the interview we had with Ken from Pack Memorial Library, censorship can still happen, but it will not manifest in the form of a ban, per say. Instead, certain materials may be moved to a certain section of the library to make it more visible to a certain type of reader or age group. On the other hand, school systems serve students and their parents. And since parents should ideally work with the school system to mold their children, then that’s going to make how schools as institutions approach censorship. And, typically, children in secondary school systems are minors, so that holds sway as well.
Another takeaway that I got from the interviews we conducted was the direction we began to take our research in terms of looking at Buncombe County’s general demography. In this respect, I look to Amanda Glenn-Bradley’s interview in particular:
“I think after reading it [The Bluest Eye] as a student, and – goodness gracious – it’s been like twenty years since I read this book for the first time – but one of the things I think it brought up was a diversity of experiences. I grew up outside of Asheville, but I went to a . . . let’s just say not very diverse school . . . where people lived in the dark, for a lack of a better term. We weren’t a diverse community at all. And it brought different perspectives in. And I think that one of the most important things you can get when you’re reading as a young person. You need as many different experiences presented to you as possible. You need as many points of view presented to you so you can think outside your somewhat limited world view.” – Amanda Glenn-Bradley
Amanda’s reflections made me start thinking about how Asheville is still lacking in diversity to this day. And I think that having that context will be very important as we put together our project site. As I said in previous blog posts, I found a website that gives the run-down on the state of the black community in Asheville. It brings light to how texts such as The Bluest Eye has the potential to provide a cultural learning experience for Buncombe County students.
I was also surprised by Dr. James’s personal commentary on censorship of The Bluest Eye.
“I actually think that The Bluest Eye is more appropriate than Beloved, which is the one that’s taught most often, to seniors. And when I first heard that they were teaching Beloved in high school, I had qualms about it because there’s a lot of stuff in Beloved that is both violent and difficult. And I don’t believe that the book should be censored, but I do believe that if folks are not well prepared . . . if it’s just a book that they give the kids, then we do a fact quiz about it, I don’t think that’s a good way to handle it. The issue I think we’re facing, that universities are facing now about trigger warnings is that so many kids have been traumatized in so many ways, and to re experience that trauma . . to re-experience that in a book that was assigned to you in class . . . so you didn’t really have a choice about reading it . . . your grade depends on it . . . I think that that can be problematic.” – Dr. Deborah James
I don’t think I quite expected a Toni Morrison scholar to have any qualms about high school students being exposed to it in the classroom, but after hearing her explanation, I thought more critically on certain aspects of what may be considered “age appropriate” or not and, most importantly, why.
While we did not get the specific artifacts that we were hoping to put onto the project site and while we did not get as much information about the challenge as we would have liked, I think that this research experience has helped me to personally think about censorship within certain institutions, communities, and age groups more deeply.
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