Flagged for ‘inflammatory’ racial commentary, this book is up for review in Beaufort County
The Beaufort County School District is starting the review process for the books “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You,” and “The Lovely Bones.”
These are the fifth and sixth books that will be reviewed by committees set up to make decisions on 97 titles removed from school libraries in October. School administrators removed the titles for review over possible adult content based on a local conservative politician’s list, District spokesperson Candace Bruder said.
Whether the first four titles remain in libraries will be determined Dec. 1.
These two books were chosen next because “sufficient hard copies were available for distribution to committee members,” and not because of their subject matter, Bruder said.
Mike Covert, who emailed the list the district used, is an outspoken GOP member and former Beaufort County Council representative. For Covert’s own list, he said he used a local Moms for Liberty member’s list and added “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.”
Moms for Liberty is an American conservative nonprofit organization that began in Florida and advocates for parental rights in education. It has been tied to efforts to remove books from schools and has chapters nationwide, including in Beaufort County.
BooksLooks.org, the rating system used to compile the Moms for Liberty member’s list, doesn’t flag “Stamped” as having inappropriate sexual content, despite that being the focus of parents’ efforts to remove the 97 books from the schools. It is, however, a frequent target of those trying to keep critical race theory out of the classroom.
“Stamped” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi is flagged on BookLooks.org because, “This book contains inflammatory racial and social commentary.” The book bills itself as an “exploration of racism—and anti-racism—in America,” and has won multiple awards including the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
It is No. 49 on the list of 50 most-banned books in 2020-21 school year, according to PEN America. It gained national attention when U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz used the book during Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing in April 2022 as he questioned her about her views of critical race theory.
“The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold is not one of PEN America’s 50 most-banned books. It tells the story of how a teenager’s family and friends cope with her rape and murder. The book has won multiple awards, including the American Library Association’s “Best Book for Young Adults” in 2003.
Superintendent Frank Rodriguez appointed the review committees, which consist of seven members: a community member, a district-level administrator, a parent, a school administrator, a member of a School Improvement Council within the district/school, a school librarian and a teacher.
“Committee members will be tasked with reading their assigned book in full and then meeting as a group to share and discuss findings. The value of the book is to be examined as a whole, considering the impact of an entire work, transcending individual words, phrases, and incidents,” a district press release said of the committees earlier this month.
Rodriguez has been unavailable to comment on the review process.
The first meeting for the two review committees will be this week, and the goal is to have a decision two weeks after that, according to Bruder.
