Being an interracial family will always present difficulties, but ignoring what the heart wants is even more tragic. This is just a snippet of what mixed race families and relationships might look like today.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a man and a woman got married, had 2.5 kids, and lived happily ever after in their house with the white picket fence. Now, click your heels together three times and let reality set in. Modern life is messy, blended, childless, nontraditional, urban, homosexual, interracial, and everything in between. Today, there are no rules for what the perfect family should look like, but that doesn’t mean our choices aren’t without prejudice.

Much like my little family, we’re a less conventional bunch. My significant other and I are in a committed relationship, unmarried, and we have a one-year-old daughter. Oh, and he’s half Chinese. Being in an interracial relationship is not new to me, but having a biracial daughter is. And no matter how many times I hear an ignorant comment, not only is it shocking, but with a mixed race daughter, it’s that much more upsetting.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia where it was unanimously decided that states could “not outlaw marriages between whites and nonwhites.” You’d think that after five decades of “acceptance” that there would be more…um, what’s the word? Acceptance.

A 2015 Pew Research Center article released data that revealed about 12 percent of new marriages in the U.S. were between spouses of different races. The information was collected from a 2013 analysis of American Community Survey data and goes on to say, “the share of adults marrying outside of their own group has risen steadily in recent decades, and this trend in turn has helped fuel the growth in the nation’s multiracial population.”

The piece also points out that “the vast majority of single-race whites and blacks who are married or living with someone report that their spouse or partner shares their single-race background.” A closer look at the numbers show that among adults who are white only, 92 percent have a spouse or a partner who is white-only. Single-race Asians are more likely than single-race whites or blacks to marry outside of their racial group (with 64 percent saying their spouse or partner is Asian only and 31 percent having a white spouse or partner). And among multiracial Hispanics living with a spouse or partner, 48 percent identify their spouse as being single-race white. Hispanic-only partners is 19 percent, black-only partners is 13, and Hispanics with multiracial spouses or partners is ten percent.

While the commonness of interracial relationships has increased (in 1970, the stats were less than one percent), we’re still nowhere near where things need to be when measuring emotional intelligence about it.

I wondered whether I had a place to write this article. After all, I am a white woman. But with the racist connotations from the recent election, and hateful vitriol on social media outlets being spread around long after, I was beginning to take it personally, even though I was technically exempt from the ammunition. I unfriended hateful “friends,” and had long discussions with my boyfriend about race, how it impacted him, his family, and ultimately what that meant for our daughter’s future–an aspect of her life I would always long to understand from a first-hand perspective, but will never be able to fully internalize and feel on her level.

Based on the data from the Pew Research Study, that eight percent of single-race white adults who are in mixed race marriages and partnerships is such a small margin that it does begin to put targets on them, as well. While white-only partners will never be multiracial, or face the same struggles, it is possible that they will share some of the brunt of the racism still prevalent today. Just being partnered with someone of another race could mean alienation from friends and family, undue hardship on the family as a whole, and issues for their mixed race children.

The three of us recently ventured out to a new play place exclusively for kids six and under on my daughter’s birthday weekend. It started out great. She wandered around the child-proofed venue, put lots of toys in her mouth (all of which were swiftly dumped at the designated sanitation stations), sized up the bigger kids, got poked in the face by an exploratory hand, and had an all-around good time. I was enjoying her joy and had already begun imagining a future birthday party taking place there. That is, until what happened next.

My daughter plucked a small frying pan from the pint-size kitchenette and teetered towards the business’s owner, who had introduced herself to us upon arrival, and another mother. The mother was holding a toy cat, offered it to my daughter and joked, “Are you going to fry the kitty?”  To which the owner said and chuckled, “maybe if you’re making Chinese food,” right in front of my kid. Fortunately, they could have said anything in that moment and she wouldn’t have understood, but I was honestly so shocked that all I could do was collect my daughter and head to the other side of the building. We ended up leaving a few minutes later and aren’t likely to go back.

Maybe I’m a “snowflake”–that person who’s easily offended or feels wronged by someone’s words. But like a knife, a bullet, or a fist, what we say can be weapons, too. This isn’t the first comment I’ve heard, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it does, unfortunately, mark the beginning of my daughter’s exposure to a lifelong battle with racism and stereotypes.

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The post Navigating the World as an Interracial Family appeared first on EcoSalon.

Well, Christmas is officially over but this video is too good not to share. It’s funny because it’s true.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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The post The Politically Correct Christmas Video You Have to See appeared first on EcoSalon.

We know Jon Stewart works hard and deserves vacation time, but why does it seem like the hugest news stories happen while “The Daily Show” is on vacation?

Well, Stewart didn’t disappoint on this recap of the cluster in Ferguson. He distilled it down to it’s most important and obvious point: that every person of color in this country has faced an indignity because of the color of their skin. We can change that, but first, we have to recognize the truth.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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ColumnLily Allen’s “Hard Out Here” video blurs the lines between satire and racism.

Much like Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Miley Cyrus’ live twerk debacle, both of which Lily Allen openly mocks in her video, “Hard Out Here,” there’s nothing subtle about the message in her new song.

The difference is, rather than supporting rape culture and sexism, Allen’s video suggests that being a woman in the entertainment business is really hard. And being a woman of color? Well. There’s a special spot in the twerk line just for you.

From the opening shot of Lily Allen getting liposuction while her manager stands by, all the way through to the glimpse of (I think) Rebel Wilson toward the end, this video is solid commentary on the objectification of women’s bodies and the unreal beauty standards we’re all expected to live up to.

Between the lipo and Rebel is where it gets messy. We see women being slapped on the ass, phallic banana eating, crotch grabbing, a lurking old white guy manager and Lily Allen in front of balloons spelling out: “Lily Allen has a baggy pussy”—a direct reference to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” hahstag about his big dick. All of that sits just fine with me.

Where Allen blurs the lines is with her treatment of women of color.

What bothers many people is that Lily Allen is a white woman objectifying black women in the name of feminism. This is nothing new. White women and women of color have often been at odds about whether the feminist movement is really open to all women. An important debate but, I think, one that sometimes ends hard conversations before they start and divides us further.

Lily Allen’s response to critics pointing out the racist overtones of “Hard Out Here” isn’t good either. This video is Allen and she has accepted the accolades for it being a smart, feminist response to a summer of sexist hits. She can’t pull a Miley and hope people assume someone else was at the helm.

She should defend her choices, and explain why she thinks this video is satire as social commentary and not racism. She might be wrong, but the conversation would be more productive than her non-apology apology. And, if she ends up thinking, “Shit. I really messed up,” she should say so.

Instead, she writes (in part): “Whilst I don’t want to offend anyone. I do strive to provoke thought and conversation. The video is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all.”

There are two problems with her response. First, I don’t believe her. She is too smart to claim race didn’t affect casting of the dancers; and her comment that if she was a better twerker she’d have her “arse” out there come across as flip and insulting. This video isn’t lighthearted—nor should it be.

Second, I want her to own the fact that she made a choice, as a white feminist, to comment on racial objectification. If people disagree that she has the right to do so, and they will, so be it.

Lily Allen should have the tits, as she herself would say, to have the conversation.

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Image: Lily Allen via YouTube

The post Did Lily Allen Just Make A Racist Music Video?: That Happened appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnRead something different. Sustain your mind.

I’m reading Beloved by Toni Morrison. It’s a good thing too, and not just because it’s a brilliant novel. The truth is that I never got around to this acclaimed classic for all the wrong reasons. In fact, looking back on why this book escaped me brings up something I think I’ve always been aware of, but tend to avoid talking about.

Why have I not read Beloved? A great many people consider it to be a—if not the—Great American Novel. Published in 1987, the book depicts slavery, its aftermath, and its impact on African-American families—specifically mother-daughter relationships. It’s beautifully written, and as arresting and powerful as anything I’ve ever read. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and is consistently on every “best books of all-time” list worth its salt. Yet sadly, it’s within all these points that I find my answer.

Truth be told, and as dry as it sounds, I’m a white, middle-class man. While I fancy myself a progressive thinker, Morrison’s book challenges my fiction comfort zone—that is to say, my “go to” list of what I normally choose to read. It’s not that I ever thought Beloved wouldn’t be a quality read—it’s just that I can be lazy. I’ve always thought of the book as intensely female- and family-oriented, and, of course, it’s focused on an excruciating, criminal and evil part of our cultural heritage. It’s not that I purposely choose to avoid these perspectives and subjects—it’s just that given the choice, I’ll usually default to something “more my speed.” My easy brain says: “Right. Pass. Maybe one day.”

Now I think I do better than most when it comes to reading outside my box. My reviews come in around the 50/50 men-to-women ratio and I even wrote a piece encouraging a good-faith gender exchange of reading material. But the fact remains: My bookshelves are crammed with people like me—white, middle-class men. (Ouch.) Yes, among my collected authors are writers of different genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations. I even have a couple books by conservatives. Hell, I have dozens of books by people who aren’t even like me!

Dozens!

(Yeah. I own many hundreds of books.)

Taking Action

Here’s how I came to be reading Beloved (and how I almost, stupidly, passed on the great book yet again): A couple of weeks back I was writing an InPRINT column on historical fiction. My plan was to mention some examples in the essay portion of the story, and then recommend 10 terrific titles. Because of my audience (and yes, because I have at least some commitment to broadening my brain), I went through my usual drill before choosing which books to include and asked myself: How many of these are by men and how many by women? How many are by African Americans or other people of color? Have I included writers with varying sexual orientations? Then a similar examination of plot lines, characters and themes: Is there a healthy mix? “Hmm. I should add another woman… and another person of color. I got it! Beloved! Two birds with one stone!” Off I went to my local bookstore.

On the way I began to have second thoughts. Was I manipulating my list for gender, race and political reasons? Was I forcing myself to read something that I might not ordinarily pick up because it was the “correct” thing to do? Was I being reactive to the fact that our media and publishing culture has been both sexist and racist in its coverage and promotion of the fiction we read?

“Yes, yes and yes!”

And so I stepped on the gas. And yes, Beloved is an amazing book. (I’ll let you know more about it when I’m finished.)

A Challenge For Us All

It is true that we live in a world that’s biased, bought and paid for when it comes to the fiction that’s proffered in our bookstore windows and on our computer screens. Indeed, this applies to almost all of the information we’re encouraged to take in these days (see what passes as “news”). The largest media outlets, book publishers and bookstores all, for many reasons, seem to have made little progress when it comes to breaking through diversity barriers in terms of gender, race and sexual orientation. And while that could be the biggest story in fiction today, there’s one place we can all start to address the issue—with our own choices.

Each of us can personally challenge ourselves to actively reach out and encounter who and what takes us outside what we know. For those of us who love fiction, there is no excuse not to read about the world from a point of view other than our own. Indeed, it is through the eyes of others that we can best gain a more robust perspective of our culture—its subjective truths and glories and failings as they apply to more than just our own insular lives. For this white boy that includes following a Nobel Prize-winning, master storyteller into the tragic life of an African American mother and slave. Where might it lead you?

________________________

With your help, InPRINT would like to run a follow-up to this column. We’d like to hear from you about your experiences reading a story by someone representing a point of reference or view outside your box. Better still, go out and get such a book now. Take some action to broaden your horizons, and then tell us about it. You can reach us at InPRINT@ecosalon.com.

Editor’s note: News & Culture contributor Scott Adelson’s biweekly column, InPRINT, reviews and discusses books new and old, as well as examines issues in publishing. You can reach him at InPRINT@ecosalon.com.

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Top image: cliff1066TM

The post InPRINT: A Novel Challenge – Take Action and Read Outside Your Box appeared first on EcoSalon.

What’s your nude?

Adding yet another thing to the list of stuff white people take for granted: Undergarments that more or less match their skin tones. While I distinctly remember thinking the “nude” crayon in my big box of Crayolas seemed strange (and indeed, after public outcry, it was changed), and that “skin-colored” bandaids were anything but for darker people’s scraped knees or banged thumbs, I never thought about lingerie. That’s probably because I’m white.

If you are like most (white) women, you probably have white bras, black bras, riotously colorful bras, and at least one or two “nude” colored bras – they’re as great for tees as the classic white button down. There’s the NuBra that’s just two cups that adhere to each breast and attach in the middle – but it only comes in white women’s skin tone (though evidently, only Caucasian women buy this product anyway, according to their customer page).

But NuBra’s not the only guilty party here; Victoria’s Secret’s new BioFit bra comes in both nude and buff, in case you are a really pale white woman instead of a normal pale one. Look at any conventional or boutique brand of bra and you’ll see plenty for white women to cover up with – but little for women of other skin tones.

So what’s a bra-wearing black woman to do? Make change herself, of course. Tara Raines is an African-American psychologist who decided to lobby for darker-hued nude bras. This came not only after her own fruitless searches, but when she discovered that friends and family would buy buff and nude colored bras and dye the bras themselves.

Raines says: “Women of color have tremendous spending power in the U.S. and it’s absurd to think that in 2012 we are essentially disenfranchised when we shop for lingerie,” says Raines. “It’s my hope that this campaign will drive not only awareness, but swift action by bra makers.”

The What’s Your Nude campaign has a simple aim: To get lingerie manufacturers to make bras in a wider variety of skin tones. The campaign is asking women of all colors to “contact their preferred bra manufacturer or bra retailer on February 1st via phone, email, social media or snail mail.” However, you can still call in and participate in social media. Follow the What’s Your Nude campaign on Twitter and spread the word by using the #WhatsYourNude hashtag.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask that bra makers include darker hues when manufacturing their collections,” says Raines. “Women of color deserve to look and feel sexy, and a big part of that is looking like ourselves.”

Perhaps brands should do away with the “nude” descriptive entirely. As Alexandra Phoner-Faury writes in Essence (regarding the nude trend for F/W 2011), “While beige may be ‘nude’ for most white women, ‘nude’ for me would be brown. This isn’t the first time this loaded word has been used in the pages of glossies, but it is the first time that the fashion world’s hidden racism has been exposed on such a large scale and caused many to finally take a closer look at the ingrained language of fashion.”

Image: tanakawho

The post On Defining Nude appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sometimes, you’re better off moving on.

You’re feeling ill-at-ease, and you just can’t quite put your finger on the cause. You’re uninspired. Stifled. Frustrated. It’s time to examine your life, starting with the town you live in. Is the home you’ve chosen holding you back? If any of these 10 signs apply to you, from lack of enthusiasm for eco-friendly programs to intolerance of the differences of others, a fresh start in a new place might just do wonders for your well-being. Or, if you’ve got the stomach for it, maybe you should stay and fight for the things you believe in. Either way, it’s time for a change, baby.

There’s no recycling program

When private recycling companies won’t operate in your moderately-sized town because there aren’t enough residents willing to pay for the service, you know you’ve got a problem. Even when city-run programs are free, many people choose not to go through the “hassle” of recycling, but paid programs often fail spectacularly in areas where such practices are seen as “hippie stuff.” Sure, you could haul 50 pounds of recycling to the nearest big city once a month if you really care about recycling, but you shouldn’t have to.

The people just say no to solar panels

Some say renewable energy projects are ugly. Others are devoted to fossil fuels unto death. And even in towns where there’s some measure of support for them, solar power farms and wind turbines are all too often stifled by the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). Nearly half of all renewable energy proposals are stifled because of local opposition, and while not all of the protests lack validity, it can be incredibly frustrating to see a promising project killed because your neighbors don’t want a turbine poking into “their” skyline. When they stop you from putting solar panels on your own roof, you’ve definitely got a legitimate reason to get the hell out.

There’s no public transportation

America’s sprawl is legendary, and for many parts of the country, personal automobiles seem like the only way to go. Nobody’s going to build a commuter railroad 100 miles out into the country to ferry a few dozen rural residents to the nearest city five days a week. However, cities and suburbs have no excuse for a lack of decent public transportation. With few routes and infrequent stops, poor public transit systems make this greener way to get around virtually impossible to rely upon. And if your town’s not bike-friendly, your options are even more limited. It’s no fun to be forced to drive to work and fight for a parking space when a bus would be so much more efficient.

Health care is conventional or bust

Got allergies? Go take some Sudafed. Ear infection? We’d better give you some super-strong antibiotics, just in case. Oh, you want to find the root cause of your health problems instead of just treating the symptoms? [Blank stare.] Yes, in many towns, you’re hard-pressed to find a health care practitioner that will even consider alternative treatments, even if they’re as benign as vitamin therapy. These attitudes often stem from the patriarchal directive to bow to a doctor’s authority, even if said doctor’s education is four decades out of date. If you can’t find a doc that will delay your child’s vaccination schedule, consider natural childbirth plans or condone the use of herbal supplements, you should look elsewhere.

Pharmacists refuse to carry Plan B

In many states, it’s perfectly legal for pharmacists to flat-out refuse to carry or sell birth control methods like Plan B due to moral or religious objections. Such practices more than likely lead to an increase in unwanted pregnancies, and when these women subsequently seek abortions, they’re not likely to find local services for that either. State laws are shutting down Planned Parenthood branches and other women’s health centers left and right, so many women find it difficult to even get physical contraceptives, low-cost health exams or counseling that isn’t pro-life pressure in disguise. One could argue that such conditions are anti-woman, but there’s no question that they’re anti-choice.

Racial segregation is still the status quo

There are still towns in America – and not just in the South – where a local resident’s tour of the countryside will introduce you to “the white swimming pool” and “the black basketball courts.” Unofficial racial segregation is common even in the most liberal of cities, including the outer boroughs of New York, but it’s a little different when a mixed race couple can’t attend church together, when high school students have “black proms” and “white proms,” and when country clubs have unwritten policies against admitting members of color.

Small biz lost the battle against corporate chains

You’d love to shop local, if only there were places to do it. Your dining options are limited to fast food, Olive Garden and T.G.I. Friday’s, and if you want household essentials, Walmart is the place to go. Mom and Pop shops were plowed under a long time ago to erect another sprawling retail warehouse, and locally-made products are hard to find. Sadly, some towns have opened their arms to big business in the hopes of receiving more jobs and cheaper products, but they’ve lost their identities in the bargain.

Freedom of religion

We are a diverse nation of atheists, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics, Christians and dozens more religions and spiritual traditions, but in some towns, you’d never know it. That’s because the people who don’t attend twice-weekly church services and quote scripture in every conversation are often shamed into staying quiet about their beliefs. If you don’t fit in, you’re not just a heathen, you’re probably a devil-worshipper, and no one will ever loan you a pound of sugar or give you a ride when you’re broken down on the side of the road. Every group is guilty of occasionally marginalizing those who are different from them. That doesn’t mean you have to accept intolerance.

Every other car has an NRA bumper sticker

Sitting behind a monster truck at a traffic light, you’re staring at no less than a half-dozen highly offensive bumper stickers with slogans like “To get to heaven, turn right and go straight,” “Waterboarding works,” “Welcome to America, now go home,” and “I’ll keep my freedom and my guns, you keep the change.” This isn’t an isolated incident; they’re everywhere you go, even on vans full of children. You’re almost afraid to put up your meek little equality sign lest your car get keyed. If only people wore these slogans on their chests every day, you’d know just who to avoid.

Your town just won’t let you be great

You can’t find a good job. Nobody laughs at your jokes. All the single men you meet are behind on their cell phone payments and literally live in their mother’s basements. Sure, these could be signs of your own character deficiencies, but you’d probably prefer to believe that this place just isn’t for you. Don’t let your location stifle your self-expression or hold you back from doing great things. Either get out of dodge, or do them anyway, no matter what anyone else thinks.

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Photo: Maxime Guilbot

The post 10 Signs It’s Time to Leave Your Town appeared first on EcoSalon.

Why racism lingers in the cosmetics aisle.

Many females of Asian, African, Latin American, and Arab descent learn early on that the more European you look, the better. Many cosmetic companies have worked hard to profit from this, providing women of color with toxic “solutions” for having the shade of skin they were born with.

Take skin lightening. Some might compare its harmful effects to tanning and say this is simply a case of people wanting what they don’t have. But the desire to have fair skin is deeper than that and has a much more damaging history stemming from internalized racism, a nasty place that rarely seems to be understood or even acknowledged.

On a recent trip to India, I was impressed by the way the country has sustained its culture despite Westernization and standards imposed upon it by British colonialists. Most local women I came across regularly wore traditional attire and as I rode through the countryside, I saw virtually every male wearing a khadi, homespun garb promoted by Gandhi as a way for people to boycott British products and return to using domestic-made goods. Ever since British rule ended in India in the late 1940s, the country has been renaming its cities to bring them back to their original Indian pronunciations and spellings.

But despite all of the preservation of culture in modern day India, the notion that fair skin is superior – which can largely be attributed to a history of lighter skinned people invading and ruling India – has been feverishly sustained and even expanded to encompass men. Ruthless advertising has further promoted the idea that lighter skin will get you the job you want, a significant other, and generally make all your dreams come true. While some of the most vomit-inducing commercials have been banned from Indian airwaves, there is still an abundance of advertising that needs no translation to show that companies that sell skin lightening products are capitalizing on a popular idea in India that a light complexion leads to a better life. These companies know: white sells.

While India’s issues with skin lightening are fresh examples, this is certainly not the only culture where people have held onto the idea that white is right. Amongst the youth of color I work with, it is not uncommon to hear the word “dark” being used as an insult or to hear a young black male include “light-skinned” on a list of the most desirable attributes of a female he’s interested in.

The acceptance and lack of questioning of this mentality regularly perplexes me. Beyond the obvious – that lingering racism gives an advantage to those in the United States who have white skin – it seems that many have forgotten, are unaware of, or choose to ignore the origins of color discrimination within black American communities: white slave owners forcing themselves upon black female slaves. The “light-skinned” offspring that resulted from this exploitation often had an advantage over their more African-looking counterparts, especially as slavery waned in the United States. Almost 150 years after the end of slavery, an archaic “lighter is better” mindset is still widely accepted, whether it is articulated or not.

In addition to matters of skin tone, black females with tightly curled tresses are likely to be inculcated with the notion that their hair in its natural state is unmanageable – and bad. Many black girls are taught this at a young age, and before they can get to know their hair, many of them have had it straightened with a toxic chemical relaxer. These chemicals sink into the scalp; these harmful ideas sink into impressionable minds. It can take years to undo the physical, psychological, and let’s not forget environmental damage, that is, if it is reversed at all.

If a black woman decides to present herself as she is, she will still have to learn how to explain herself when she inevitably comes across an ethnophobe; she may be informed that her appearance is an outdated relic of the failed “black is beautiful” movement in the sixties.

This mentality is deeply harmful in communities with a history of racism and oppression, but the idea that there’s a singular beauty standard for all women to achieve is rife in our world, regardless of a culture’s history. The solutions to such invented problems are, quite literally, toxic – not just emotionally but environmentally, as well. For women, there is always something to “fix.”

Images: Greg Westfall, Dainis Matisons, Spiralsheep

The post White Sells, and It’s Toxic appeared first on EcoSalon.

Even when the writer isn’t Mark Twain, changing someone’s words is tricky business. I’ve always said the best editors are the ones who are so subtle that you can’t tell what they change in your copy, and yet your piece is better. So, when considering the new version of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” that eliminates the prodigious use of the “n-word” throughout the novel, there are two big problems out of the gate: One, if we can agree that Twain is an American literary treasure, it’s probably no one’s business to give his work what’s referred to as a “heavy edit.” And two, the man’s dead. Game over. If he’s not part of the discussion (and he’d want to be), it’s cheating to have it.

That said, Twain and his work are part of our nation’s living culture (the story was even covered by Entertainment Weekly) and there are bigger issues at play here than simple editing ethics. One is straight-up censorship. The other is laziness regarding our relationship with young adults – the target group for the two options being offered here: The reworking of Twain’s text for “innocent eyes” or kicking the book upstairs to only be taught at the college level (proposed by Lorrie Moore last weekend in her NYT op-ed, “Send Huck Finn to College”).  Both impulses are well-meaning, but are wrongheaded disservices to our youth and ourselves.

Regarding censorship, taking shots at book banning is easy when the would-be banners are reactionary thugs concerned with thought-policing our culture by ensuring that so called subversive reads (from “Catcher in the Rye,” to “Lolita,” to “The Communist Manifesto”) remain unavailable. Taking on attacks by science deniers and bible thumpers that would cut us off access to scientific facts is also a no-brainer bailiwick for anti-censorship types. (A friend who works in publishing recently showed me an excerpt from a faith-based children’s science textbook used for Darwin-free schooling. Oh dear.)

But it’s a lot more difficult when attempts at information control come from those concerned with issues having to do civil rights, be they about race or sex. (I’m recalling now a professor who once hurled a copy of Homer’s “Odyssey” across a college freshman classroom, symbolically excommunicating it from the canon because of its hideous maleness. This same person later refused to be a reader on my thesis on Kerouac. Doing so would be playing a role in legitimizing what she said was his texts’ misogyny.) The “Huck Finn” controversy is a tough one, to be sure. I cringe when I read the n-word in the novel today as an adult, just as I did when I was young. Likewise, as a Jew, Ernest Hemingway’s great “The Sun Also Rises” has always provoked winces at certain ugliness. I do understand the instinct to get the word out of the classroom.  (The term “injun,” it should be noted, is also dispensed with in the new edition.)

But I turn to Katie, the teen liaison at the local library who’s completing her master’s degree in library science with a focus on Young Adults. Katie’s an old-school liberal, feminist, anti-sexism and anti-racism, solid citizen of the best sort. Here’s an excerpt from a paper she recently wrote about a decision she made that she thought was best for young girls:

“I recalled my decision to remove a popular magazine, Seventeen, from [the local library’s] Young Adult collection and replace it with another publication. As I made that decision, I was aware that I was wielding control in an undemocratic way, but I didn’t see my actions as “censorship.”… I was in denial about my act of censorship because I thought I was right. … [But] It didn’t matter that I had a litany of ‘good’ reasons for wanting the magazine removed – I was putting my personal opinion ahead of patrons’ wants and needs. That prioritization is never acceptable and is in direct conflict with my personal philosophy of affording information access. … I saw how, on a practical level, I must be ready to defend access to material I personally find abhorrent. This is my duty as a librarian and a youth advocate.”

This is the type of (sometimes counterintuitive) vigilance we must display to make sure high school students have access to work that, like “Huck Finn,” some of us might find distasteful. I know we’re talking about curriculum here and not a teen magazine – but we’re also not talking about Nazi propaganda. Keep in mind young adults’ access to material is consistently under attack and it is specifically here that we need be on guard to defend our rights to information. Most efforts to ban books are focused on this part of the society’s population under the guise of protecting innocence.

The second option, being floated by Moore and others, is that we suspend teaching the book until college and adulthood. “The remedy,” she says, “is to refuse to teach this novel in high school and to wait until college – or even graduate school – where it can be put in proper context.”

Refuse? This is an example of the laziness of our approach not only to engaging and teaching this age group, but also to understanding and respecting their cognitive sophistication, and to owning up to the sometimes uncomfortable world in which they live and form opinions. Until graduate school? What does that say about ourselves as adults and our ability to think and learn?

No one would advocate handing material on complex subject matter to young students without teaching it. Try this on: Material regarding safe sex has unsettling terms and concepts that teenagers can’t “get” on their own. Best not to teach it. Doing so might create a (gasp!) uncomfortable classroom situation. Come on, people. Our job is to teach our children – to offer them context. This is not always a comfortable task – for them or us. In this case, we’re talking about our nation’s legacy of slavery, racism, judgment and hatred. The notion that high school kids aren’t ready for important subject matter is really an indictment of our own lack of creativity, if not indifference. And for those teachers who are (so unfortunately) intimidated by these ideas, there are myriad aides especially designed to teach this book and the controversies it elicits. Go ahead, type it in: “Twain Finn Teaching Controversy Lesson Plans.” A child can do it.

As parents and teachers, we do have to make some choices about material that is and isn’t appropriate to teach young people. No one’s saying that “Tropic of Cancer” or “Lolita” should be part of standard high-school curriculum. But these books are not “Huck Finn,” and regardless, if kids are reading them, we best should be ready to teach them. Tossing them under the rug and saying “see you in college” is simply irresponsible.

If we want our kids to grow up to be conscious adults, we have to teach consciousness in dynamic and intelligent ways. We can reopen the arguments around what Twain was trying to accomplish in his great work, why he chose the terms he did and his possible motivations (good or bad) behind their use. But I’m going to leave that to the thousands of teachers who have successfully taught the book and the millions of high school students who have read it, were taught it and learned great lessons about our culture and compassion from Twain’s masterpiece.

Image: khrawlings

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