Aside from mockery online by those who were incredulous that he had not read most of the books already, since several are common in school curricula, some pointed out that Newsom was mocking other states despite California’s own examples of censorship.
To Kill a Mockingbird was recently banned, at least temporarily, by schools in Burbank, California, among other classic books, over concerns about “racism” and the use of racial slurs in the text. As Newsweek reported at the time:
Middle and high school English teachers in the Burbank Unified School District received the news during a virtual meeting on September 9.
Until further notice, teachers in the area will not be able to include on their curriculum Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Theodore Taylor’s The Cay and Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Four parents, three of whom are Black, challenged the classic novels for alleged potential harm to the district’s roughly 400 Black students.
Flashback: Atticus Finch: American literature’s most celebrated rape apologist.
