Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo — Page 486

Apparently a Mississippi school district is deleting To Kill a Mockingbird from its curriculum so as not to offend whiny people. People, you gotta hate 'em, right?

SilverWook said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Apparently a Mississippi school district is deleting To Kill a Mockingbird from its curriculum so as not to offend whiny people. People, you gotta hate 'em, right?

Some of the headlines I’m seeing are making it into an outright ban. The book will still be in the school library. I have to wonder how many complaints they actually got. Bet it was less than three.

I’m reminded how one parent in another town several years ago objected to Farenheit 451. When interviewed on tv admitted they actually had not read the book.

Still flabbergasted when something I read in the 5th grade like A Wrinkle In Time gets targeted this way.

Right it’s not a ban. It’s stupid people offended that their stupid kids might have been made a bit less stupid from reading a classic book. The people that removed it from the curriculum are even worse in my opinion than the people stupid enough to complain about it.

It didn’t say who was complaining. Maybe the complaints came from people that never evolved past Mississippi back in the 60s.

Because they’re stupid.

That really is the simple, easy, accurate answer.

Eh, he could’ve looked it up if he wanted to. Anyone offended by a classic book like To Kill a Mockingbird for any reason is a fool in my opinion. It’s a great example of how most people are incapable of seeing past surface level things in art. But why would I expect anything different?

Idiocy.

This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about when I say that too much stock is given to people’s feelings. It isn’t just that I’m callous and uncaring, it’s also that it interferes with important things like education. I think about the books I read in school (although admittedly most of them I read on my own volition) that changed my life for the better and a lot of them were had “uncomfortable” material in them. That’s often what makes a work of art impactful.

Jeebus said:

TV’s Frink said:

I prefer to link to an article and at least give people a chance to decide for themselves, so here you go Warb.

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/jackson-county/article178572326.html

Kenny Holloway, vice president of the Biloxi School Board said, “There were complaints about it. There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable, and we can teach the same lesson with other books.

You know what makes me more uncomfortable? The fact that the word was ever used at all, now that makes me uncomfortable. Can’t fault the book.

Not to mention that the book was incredibly progressive for its time, and I think it’s still inspirational today. (Although I’ll admit that it’s been years since I’ve read it myself.) Context is important. The mere use of the word shouldn’t offend people when the context is proper. People can’t comprehend context though, because most people are incredibly stupid.

Speaking of which, I’ve been looking into audiobooks of classic novels on Audible since I now have a daughter. One of the books I came across is Peter Pan. First, it has a version read by Tim Curry; second, I remember Gertie and her mom reading Peter Pan aloud in the movie E.T. Well, it turns out the book Peter Pan (and the Disney film) is very much a product of its time. It is both very sexist and very racist by today’s standards. It’s not that I wouldn’t consider it a classic, but I would not read it to my child.

However off topic, I also didn’t like Frankenstein nor The Count of Monte Cristo. I loved Dracula, though.

I’m sure it’s a joke in the sense that it’s exaggerating Pence’s anti-gay attitudes. I don’t doubt that Pence would at least like to see all gay people renounce their ways and become straight, thus “eliminating” (in a sense) gay people.

Warbler said:

TV’s Frink said:

I prefer to link to an article and at least give people a chance to decide for themselves, so here you go Warb.

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/jackson-county/article178572326.html

You know, I think people have to realize that people did use the n-word. It happened. Its real. It was not right. But it happened. I agree the word is offensive. I never use it. But it was used and unfortunately racists today still use it. It is simply not realistic to depict racists and not having them use the word. I don’t see the reason why a book like “To Kill a Mockingbird” should be banned just because it depicts racists using that word. Roots also has racists using that word. Should it be banned? It depicts slavery. How would you realistically depict slave masters and overseers referring to slaves without having them use the n-word? The same it true for racists. This is why the word became so offensive, because it was how the master, overseer, and racist referred to black people. I suppose next we will ban all movies and books about WWII if they have American soldiers referring to the Japanese as j__s.

Up until recently, at least where I grew up, Japs and Krauts were the respective words older people used to describe Japanese and Germans, and that wasn’t too long ago. Also, the book wasn’t banned, just deleted from the curriculum. Context in these books is important too. The fact that certain words appear in a book or film created at any time doesn’t have any bearing on the quality or message of the book.