Thread by @AliVelshi

1/21
If you've been watching our show recently, you'd know that we've been keeping a close watch on the hundreds of books that have either been challenged, barred, or face proposals to get pulled from schools, curricula, and libraries across the country. #velshi

2/21
Hundreds of books, new and old. They’ve been deemed "controversial," for a variety of reasons. #velshi

3/21
These books contain "objectionable language", "outrageous storytelling", they're "too sexually explicit", or they fall into this vague, largely undefined, or mischaracterized allegation of being about Critical Race Theory. #velshi

4/21
In some cases, the problem with these books is that their contents just might make a young reader or, more likely their parents, uncomfortable. Now, a book might do all of those things critics say. And that’s ok. #velshi

5/21
Some books are for comfort, and some are for laughs and some are for love. And some are to expand our minds, help us understand things outside of our own experience, expose us to the perspective of others and maybe, just maybe, make us uncomfortable. #velshi

6/21
I love books, and I like when they make me feel warm and fuzzy about myself or the world. But I’ve had the most personal growth from books and people who present me with ideas that make me uncomfortable. #velshi

7/21
Some of that discomfort relates specifically to my station in life: as a man, as a person with a platform, and as a person of means. I am to not to blame for anyone else’s suffering or lack of equality in society. #velshi

8/21
BUT, I can choose to be responsible, and with that responsibility, consider ways in which I can change things for the better. The discomfort motivates me. #velshi

9/21
What’s weird about these book bans is virtually none of them are the so called "normal" books about the straight white experience. No one seems to find those all that threatening. #velshi

10/21
Once you start talking about the Blacks and the gays, and maybe Black people who are gay or people who don’t think they are the gender which they were assigned at birth-- WHOA! Things start to get really weird, then. #velshi

11/21
There are a host of arguments made against the books-- some are simply prudish, but several are clearly racist or homophobic or transphobic, and most of it is anti-intellectual: the same sort that gets us climate deniers and anti-vaxxers. #velshi

12/21
Titles include award-winning literature like "The Bluest Eye" by the late Toni Morrison, a Black Nobel Prize winner. "Heather has Two Mommies" by Les-lee-ah Newman, about a young girl who has lesbian mothers & realizes that her family is different than her friends'. #velshi

13/21
"Maus," a Pulitzer prize-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman which depicts the horrors of the Holocaust. "How to be an Anti-racist" by Ibram X. Kendi, a book that became a must-read during the nation's racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd's murder. #velshi

14/21
The list goes on. Banning books is bad. It deprives young people- and older people like me- of exposure to ideas, concepts, and world views that are not their own. It stifles curiosity, perpetuates stereotypes, and weakens our ability to think critically. #velshi

15/21
Banning books is going to make us into a stupid society, vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation. You know I tend to prattle on about democracy on this show, but a democracy relies upon an informed electorate. #velshi

16/21
We are less informed when our choices about the range of information we consume is arbitrarily limited. Banning books imperils society. But that’s not all that’s bad. #velshi

17/21
Banning books that humanize people’s experience with race, sexuality, gender, grinding poverty and sexual assault actually reverses the difficult process we are undergoing as a society to change and become better. In doing so, it upholds the status quo. #velshi

18/21
And upholding the status quo sounds ok if the status quo is working for you. The status quo is NOT working for millions of Americans, and banning books that trouble your sensibilities fast becomes a tool of subjugation and oppression. #velshi

19/21
Don’t let this one get by you. Find out what your school or school district is doing about books. Attend school board meetings- very few people do, and very few people vote in local elections. #velshi

20/21
Do these things EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE KIDS, because the kids who don’t read these books today will be our leaders 1 day & I definitely don’t need another generation of people governing this country who cannot empathize with the experience of those whom they govern. #velshi

21/21
Sometimes it feels like there’s too much to fight for and it’s hard to win. But pushing back against book bans is what we call low hanging fruit. YOU can actually make a difference in this one, we all can. #velshi