“We write history, not erase history.” President Joe Biden, 12/10/24
“Deb,” the editor of one of several global publications I write for posed the following question to me and her other columnists who write on issues of culture, religion, race and other issues:
What do you consider the most critical issue facing our nation in 2025?
Wow, where do I start?
Well, after mulling through a list of top of mind burning issues for me, I kept circling back to the first on that list that crossed my mind….banning books altogether or, at a minimum, rewriting ugly aspects of African American history — think slavery — in the U.S.
Now in case you didn’t notice — or didn’t care to notice — concerted efforts to ban so-called “controversial” books are spreading like wildfire across the nation. Legislators in several states, among them Florida, Texas, Arkansas and West Virginia, have introduced a flurry of book ban bills in recent years. Plus, PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, documented 5,894 instances of book bans in the U.S. from 2021 -2023 across 41 states. And if Trump’s Project 2025 blueprint has its way, African American and other cultural histories as we’ve come to know them will be wiped out entirely or watered down under the draconian notion of “protecting our kids.” While race remains the primary boogeyman in the book banning feeding frenzy, themes dealing with gender and sexuality are also on the chopping block.
So, c’mon now, what’s really behind this bone-headedly dangerous effort to drop our country closer to the bottom of the most illiterate countries in the world? Well, there’s little doubt that there are people who’re petrified by the “browning,” the “gaying,” the “foreignizing,” and generally the “otherizing” of America, particularly those aspects of history that may cause guilt, shame and hurt.
Now the nutty thing about those behind banning efforts is that in all probability they’ve yet to turn a single page in any of the books they’re itching to ban. They exist in echo chambers and have opted out of any desire to know what they know and suspect they’d be ashamed of. And if we’re honest with ourselves — a tall order for many — and peel back the proverbial onion, we’ll see that the specter of race is primarily behind this trend.
Given our rocky history in this area, race can disembody and make even the most intelligent person ignorant and gullible. One wouldn’t think that we needed a fresh reminder of that truism when a candidate mouths that they (Haitians) “are eating cats and dogs in Springfield,” and folks are conned into believing that lie. So, there you go.
You know, after all these years one would think we’ve progressed, and we have, but today even the most innocuous hint of the word “race” or its scary derivatives “racism” or “racist” can cause people to freeze and retreat to the safety of ignorance, from the opportunity to learn and unlearn.
A confession here. When I gather up my necessities before leaving home, checking off my don’t forget list includes my wallet, car keys, cell phone and, seriously, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts’ brilliant 2016 book, “Racism in America, Cultural Codes and Color Lines in the 21st Century.” Why? Well, in my opinion, Dr. King’s famous 1963 “I have a dream” speech and Pitts’ 2001 column, “You monster, you beast, you unspeakable bastards,” aimed at those behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks are two of the most powerful pieces in recent history.
In his column, “History Hurts,” written 15 years ago, Pitts started off, “History is not a Hallmark card. Sometimes history breaks your heart. I know that because I have often recounted history in this space, tales of Black men and women bought and sold, cheated and mistreated, maimed and lynched. And whenever I do this, I can be assured of e-mails and calls for chastisement.”
Inarguably, when you write about race in race-obsessed America, backlash, hate and vitriol come with the territory. So, yes, factual history can hurt. And when Mr. Pitts writes that “history is not a Hallmark card,” I’ll amend that by saying that history is not that outworn convenient excuse and escape hatch, “you’re playing the race card.” History is history!
But let’s go deeper. Let’s make it more uncomfortable.
Don’t run, don’t hide, don’t delete.
Silence about a shameful aspect of our history does not make that history go away. It only makes it fester, grow and — quite the opposite — can even stimulate interest by some folks who want to know what’s being hidden from them and why. Folks want to know how banning books makes us smarter. If anyone can produce empirical evidence to support that assertion, I’m willing to rewrite this narrative.
Nikki Giovanni
Okay, attribute it to sheer coincidence, but midway through writing the piece you’re now reading, news broke that renowned African American poet and literary critic Nikki Giovanni, famously known as the “Princess of Black Poetry” and for providing blunt takes on social justice and racism in America, died at age 81. Well before her passing she had a few blunt things to say about book banning.
“I hope that I do write banned books,” wrote Giovanni, “I hope that the people I hate know that I hate them. Because I want the people that I love to know that I love them. Because you can’t have it both ways.” Up until she passed, Giovanni unapologetically wore her “I write banned books” sweatshirt in public.
Now before more Giovanni’s books end up on the banned books list, if they haven’t already, the interested reader may want to purchase copies from her poetry collection, “Black Judgement,” and “Black Feeling Black Talk,” before the Project 2025 psychopaths come gunning for your right to decide what books you and your offspring are permitted to read.
Oh wait, before I go, tell me “Deb,” did I answer your question?
Terry Howard is an award-winning trainer, writer, and storyteller. He is a contributing writer with the Chattanooga News Chronicle, The American Diversity Report, The Douglas County Sentinel, Blackmarket.com, recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, and winner of the Georgia Press Award.