Dorset school ban on book about race is a mistake | Letters

Prof Nicky Marsh says Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give encourages pupils to interact with people whose views don’t coincide with their ownI wish to add my support to those wanting to reinstate Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give to the reading list of Budmouth Academy (Dorset school urged to reinstate banned book about race to reading list, theguardian.com, 26 September). As both an alumna of the school and a professor of English literature, I am deeply concerned about this act.The rationale for the ban for year 10 – that the novel teaches children that “skin colour” makes them “baddies” – is simply not supported by the novel. At its centre is a relationship between young people from different ethnic backgrounds learning about racial difference from each other. The suggestion that “by extension” the novel leads Britain itself to be cast as “a baddie” is deeply worrying. Continue reading...

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