The school war is declared in Texas where the authorities of this conservative state in the south of the United States are attacking books educating schoolchildren about racism and "gender identity", believing that they make white children feel guilty.
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Illustration of this offensive, a comic book chronicling the unintentional micro-attacks that an African-American child suffers because of his skin color, was withdrawn in October from school libraries in West Houston.
New Kid
, by Jerry Craft, is part of a list of 850 works compiled by a parliamentary committee which investigates in schools books evoking racism or institutional sexism.
The debates on these books
"will multiply across the country in urban areas where there is conservative pressure at the state level but where we are more democratic locally"
, explains to AFP Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston.
"Witch hunt"
Across the country, the newly elected Republican governor of Virginia has promised parents will have a say in what books public schools choose.
During the campaign, he broadcast the testimony of a mother shocked that her high school son had nightmares after studying
Beloved
, a classic by African-American novelist Toni Morrison.
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Pulitzer Prize in 1988, it tells the story of a former slave who chooses to kill her child to avoid him in turn suffering the atrocities of slavery. Conservatives also denounce the teaching of
"critical race theory
,
"
a school of thought that analyzes racism in the United States as a system, with its laws and power logics to the advantage of white people, rather than 'an individual prejudice against minorities. It is about fighting against the woke culture, a term developed by the American left to designate the awareness of injustices particularly related to skin color or gender, and which has led to the blacklisting of books. containing racial stereotypes.
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The Texas Library Association lamented "
the growing censorship
" in that state, saying a "
parent has the right to determine what is best for their child, but not for all children
."
The Texas Teachers' Association, meanwhile, called the parliamentary inquiry a
"witch hunt"
after the passage of a law framing very precisely how subjects such as racial or gender inequalities should be taught.
In Spring Branch School Academy,
The Breakaways
, a comic strip in which one of the characters was born a girl but feels like a boy, was withdrawn and placed on the commission's list, which is based on several complaints from parents against the presence of certain books in libraries.
For its author, Cathy G. Johnson, “
the book ban distracts media attention from (the) real evil that politicians like (commission chairman) Matt Krause perpetuate”
.
She recalls that the Equality Texas association considers this Republican elected official in the running to become a state prosecutor as "
a prolific author of anti-LGBTQ laws
".
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Prestigious award
The
New Kid
book
has finally found its place on the shelves. It has been translated into a dozen languages (
Le Nouveau
, in French) and crowned with prestigious awards. Drawing inspiration from his personal experience and that of his children, Jerry Craft delicately evokes the difficulties of an African-American college student in integrating into a predominantly white private establishment.
"If we worked together and I did something that offends you without knowing it, you should be able to tell me without getting angry," he
told AFP. His detractors "
prefer to close the door and leave things as they are,
" he said
.
Before adding: "
But right now my kids and I are uncomfortable all the time.
"
The tensions created by the book ban prompted New Yorker Alessandra Bastagli to launch a campaign to send copies of
New Kid
to dozens of schools in Texas.
“
My kids were angry and didn't want little Texans to be deprived of this book they love,
” says the mother of two, eight and nine, of Italian-Puerto Rican origin.
She has had two hundred copies of
New Kid
and
Class Act
, another of the author's books,
sent free of charge
to libraries that request them.
On Thursday, the African-American bookstore in Houston responsible for shipping the orders told AFP that all the books were gone.