Book Banning In Arizona…Conservative Christians Silence Others, Claiming They’re Victims

Yes, Virginia, They Still Ban Books in Tucson, Arizona…

by Jeff Biggers
September 28, 2012

“When the national  Banned Books Week kicks off on September 30, I plan to read an excerpt from Tucson-based author Leslie Silko’s acclaimed  Ceremony novel, in the  Rethinking Columbus  anthology.

Recipient of a Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, Silko’s masterpiece is not only one of the great American literary treasures. It has profoundly influenced a generation of readers, writers and especially students across the nation.

And yes, Virginia, as part of the  Rethinking Columbus collection, which has been taught in hundreds of schools from Alaska to Maine, Silko’s  Ceremony  excerpt in that anthology was unabashedly  banished from the curriculum of teachers in the outlawed Mexican American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) last year.”  MORE