Why is the f-word put on the same level of offense as police brutality, violence, and racism?3/18/2019
One of the biggest reasons a book is banned or challenged, especially if it's a children's book or YA, is profanity. Recently, I came across this image (seen on the right), about an interview with Angie Thomas, the author ofThe Hate U Give, and thought it summed up the issue perfectly. I shared it on my Facebook page where a follower of my page commented with why she still felt language was an issue, including her fear that kids would start to say the words if they read them. I replied, that follower deleted her comment, which in turn deleted my reply. So, I figured, I'd share my reply here:
"I can certainly understand why wanting to be cautious of particular words, especially words that are extremely offensive to groups of people, such as the n-word or the c-word. That being said, I believe the author's point is the situations she wrote about, police brutality and violence and the racism in this country, are more offensive than a curse word like the f-word, as it does more harm than a word like the f-word.
As someone who grew up in a house where we were told to read everything, my brother and I came across many words. It opened the door for discussion and conversation about those words, especially words like the n-word or the c-word, what they meant, how they came about, and why they shouldn't be used. More to the point, just because my brother and I read To Kill A Mockingbird or Huckleberry Finn, did not mean we walked around using the n-word. Similarly, when we came across the f-word in reading, it did not mean we walked around saying the f-word. Just as a kid can learn boundaries, or they can learn that just because Superman can fly in a movie doesn't mean they can jump off a roof and not hurt themselves, children can learn the difference between reading words in a story and using those words in their daily vernacular. My question is, why is the f-word put on the same level of offense as police brutality, violence, and racism?"
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorGathering dust in the depths of my mind, random thoughts dusted off and put out there for the world to see... Archives
November 2023
Categories
All
|
Ellie Lieberman |