Introduction to Spritual Gumbeaux: Literacy, Equity, and Banned Books

What if the book you're reading was considered illicit or banned somewhere in the world? Imagine a place where Alice in Wonderland and Captain Underpants are considered controversial. This episode of Spiritual Gumbo explores the power of reading and its role in our personal growth, literacy, and racial equity. We consider the intricate web of book banning, particularly in Georgia, touching upon titles like Lolita in Tehran and popular kids' literature - examining how such censorship affects us on both global and local scales.

How can reading promote literacy and racial equity? We reflect on this by invoking the wisdom of Martin E Mueller's famous quote about freedom of speech. Through the inspiring works of African American authors we discuss how books can serve as knowledge banks for our community.  Get ready for an episode that celebrates the power of reading and the freedom it embodies.

Transcript

Rev Lynne: 0:21

There was a tagline, a popular tagline in the 1970s Reading is fundamental. Well, listeners, is reading still fundamental? Welcome to Spiritual Gumbo. This is our first podcast on this Juneteenth weekend in which African Americans receive the good news of their freedom with the Emancipation Proclamation I am your host, Lynne Washington.

Rev Lynne: 0:48

What is it, Spiritual Gumbeaux? Well, it is a conversation with spiritual leaders, whether secular or interfaith, on how their spirituality and faith informs their activism, their work and their advocacy. In essence, spiritual leadership and activism together. Spiritual leadership is a form of leadership and a leadership tool. The purpose of Spiritual Gumbeaux is to create space for people who allow their spiritual beliefs to undergird their actions for the creation of something good. My congregation's mission is to be disciples of God, facilitating spiritual growth in our community and the world, which is the inspiration for this podcast. We look to have this podcast to be between 15 and 20 minutes not too much of your time and we're still determining whether it will be weekly or bi-weekly. So let's get started.

Rev Lynne: 1:50

Reading is fundamental. Begin with Margaret McNamara, who realized students she was tutoring in the late 1960s did not have access to read books. They didn't have ready access, so Margaret became armed with the idea that all children should have the right to read. Mcnamara began her quest to establish literacy as the foundation for long, long-term growth. Is reading still fundamental in the face of sound bites and technology? I'm a postgraduate student, ordained minister, and I have matriculated at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in their PhD program in leadership and change.

Rev Lynne: 2:40

I received a personal email one day asking me to consider signing an open letter referencing quote" the attacks against learning and racial equity unquote. I will admit, I initially ignored it because I got so many emails right. I'm sure that you experienced the same thing. Then a colleague whom I admire and I listen to sent me a personal email, and it was then that I realized well, maybe this is something I should look into. Now. I must say I hesitate, because signing anything that could make me crazy and come back to haunt me in the future. Well, that gives me a moment of pause. Immediately following this incident, though, there were news stories from Florida referencing the college board test and the state of Florida's insistence to change the African American narrative the narrative in the classroom and on the college board exam.

Rev Lynne: 3:45

So I decided to just look up banned books. As I scan the list, I have to tell you I was mortified. Charlotte's Web is banned because of a talking pig, a Light and the Attic which expresses supposedly anti-parent material. And then, A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline Ingalls. A Wrinkle in Time and that one kind of hit me hard because Madeline was a religious and spiritual woman in my time in the diocese of Southern Ohio. She was there present. She was an B anning her book, they said the reason is because " it opposes Christian beliefs and teaches occult practices unquote, really. And then there were those who said it was too religious and those who said it wasn't religious enough. I kept thinking to myself is this the issue? Ban books that I'm willing to go to, the Madeline? And ironically it has become that issue.

Rev Lynne: 4:59

As I scrolled down the list, I saw what is deemed as what I deem, and many around me, as African-American classics -- Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eyes and Beloved Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, really. I then began to read the information on what is called right to learn day of action in conjunction with the African-American policy form and grassroots activists and educators like Khalil Gibran Mohamed and Kimberly Crenshaw, and I decided I can't be that person who sits there and does nothing because it doesn't affect me directly. I began to, of course, google again banned African-American children's books and it just didn't feel real. I don't know why. I don't know why I was shocked or surprised. It kind of felt a little bit like why are you picking on children? And it shouldn't be of any surprise, because I saw European books banned by European authors or white authors, so why wouldn't black books be banned?

Rev Lynne: 6:19

Then I saw books that I read to my children, books like Nappy Hair, which was given to me by my mother-in-law, Joyce Washington, who was a former adjunct professor at Bank Street College, Principal of the Wakefield School in Brooklyn. She gave them to me when my children were little. Books like the Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and Hair Love by Matthew Cherry and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o. Wow, how could this be happening in this day and this time? And as I began to dig even deeper, I'm slowly taking in the danger globally. Winnie the Pooh is banned in England, Winnie the Pooh. And the reason that it's banned is because they don't want to offend Jewish and Muslim populations because of a talking piglet. And then there's Alice in Wonderland and Captain Underpants. Who doesn't love Captain Underpants. We love this book

Rev Lynne: 7:32

when my children were growing up. and this made me start to reflect and it hit me hard about the controversies around reading Lolita in Tehran and Solomon Rushdie and how reading is so fundamental and it has the potential to broaden who we are as humans. I remember in high school reading Orwell's 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 in Catholic school and the Scarlet Letter, which ironically is not banned to my knowledge, but it was around the time of the first book banning in America in the 1700s and the burning. . . let's not forget the burning of anti-slavery books in 1859 and 1860 in places like Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. The global impact and local impact cannot be dismissed, especially here in Georgia. Senate Bill 226, which changes the process by which Georgia schools can ban books. The process is now expedited to 30 days and it is under the discretion of school administrators.

Rev Lynne: 8:45

Concurrently, I went into my favorite bookstore here in the West End, Medu, and the owner gave me a basket of banned African-American books taken out of a school library to be discarded to the trash. That particular librarian felt it would be better to give them away than to throw them in the garbage. So how this started, this began to really gnaw at my spirit and the reason is, I believe, a spiritual leadership issue is because some of the same reasons or justifications for banning books you can find in the Bible, in the Quran and in the Torah, of which they all have violence, rape, murder, racism, sexism. And then there's that disobedient child named Jesus who chose to go into the temple and teach and go ahead of his parents in the Gospel of Luke.

Rev Lynne: 9:50

At a recent clergy gathering, I mentioned my passion around the issues of banned books and the elder priest in the room who was around 85 years old. After we started talking he stood up and he said he told the story of being a child remembering turning on the TV and watching the Germans burn books when Hitler did not win the chancellorship of Germany. He then looked at us as clergy and said this is an issue that has the potential to threaten our democracy. I also asked myself well, when would become okay to ban the doctrines and books of non-monotheistic traditions? Because we don't like what they're saying and, honestly, this is another way of saying your experiences as African Americans, as brown people, as the LGBTQ+ community, don't matter. My father has always warned me about the slippery slide we are on as Americans that parallel Nazi Germany and the burning of books when Hitler lost his chancellorship in Germany.

Rev Lynne: 11:08

I am reminded of Martin E Mueller's infamous quote -- First they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. And then there are the Constitutional Issues, such as Freedom of Speech. And lastly, as a person of faith, as a spiritual leader, I have promised to respect the dignity of every human being. My hope is to resurrect the love of reading books in our community with book clubs and talks and hopefully becoming a resource or repository for our community to have access to what could and may become obsolete the works of my Angelo, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Abraham Kendi and the 1619 Project by Nicole Hannah-Jones. Have a great Juneteenth Day and Freedom. Thank you for listening.