It's Not a Black and White World
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Free People Reading Freely, the Blaine County Library Book Club, invites readers to experience the satisfaction of a book discussion by joining them at their next meeting, scheduled for Monday, February 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Blaine County Library. To participate in the discussion, a reader needs simply to select and read a book from the list of Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books.
Free People Reading Freely discussed the final two books on 2017’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books at their fifth meeting on January 14. And the readers present determined that if a book like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM), which celebrates the merits of maintaining civility in the face of bigotry, can be challenged for its violence and use of era and place-specific language, we may have to accept that some people just aren’t able to read past what they consider distasteful elements to find the gems of wisdom and valuable life lessons a book presents.
Because TKAM represents a determined effort to see both the bad and the good in small-town life, the hatred and the humanity, it has been associated with the civil rights movement and celebrated, in the words of the former civil rights activist and congressman Andrew Young, for giving us “a sense of emerging humanism and decency.”
From Atticus Finch, a compassionate, courageous, single dad who is a potent moral force in the novel, readers learn to have compassion for “mockingbirds”—people like Arthur (Boo) Radley, a mentally challenged individual who lives a mysterious and reclusive life; Tom Robinson, a field hand falsely accused of raping a young white woman; and Mrs. Dubose, a morphine addict who battles her addiction so that she can die free from drugs.
“Perhaps those who would seek to challenge or ban such a book don’t want to learn that climbing into someone else’s skin and walking around in it helps us to experience another’s perspective,” book club leader, Donna Miller offered.
Another book discussed, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini has been challenged for its sexual violence and because it is thought to “lead to terrorism” and “to promote Islam.” While the book does indeed feature many disconcerting moments, it is not without its merits.
Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator of Hosseini’s book. From him, readers learn how childhood choices affect one’s adult life. Furthermore, from the multilayered development of Amir’s father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan, readers learn that even for someone who sees the world as black and white, the gray areas are plentiful when Baba’s various layers are pulled back.
“Some people are just meat and potatoes; they don’t want to experience life beyond their black and white, good and bad, right and wrong viewpoints,” one book member said.
“But the world isn’t black and white, so why don’t we talk back to those with strong viewpoints?” another asked.
“Many of us, like me, don’t like confrontation and conflict,” said Blaine County Librarian Valerie Frank.
“Perhaps we can invite those with strong opinions to think of a reading experience from the perspective of a traveler
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visiting another country. As they journey into the novelist’s world and take a look around, they might encounter a place where people’s attitudes, opinions, and beliefs are very different from their own. Encouraging them to withhold judgment and to be curious about difference might give them the eyes of an explorer. Unless we adopt such curiosity when we perform cultural border crossings or historical border crossings or any other crossings, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment or disillusionment. I think that a willingness to be disturbed needs to accompany all learning,” Miller replied.
To complement the book club’s discussion of contentious topics, Miller shared two tools, the Action Continuum and the Pyramid of Hate. Designed by Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, and Pat Griffin, the Action Continuum—with its eight stages of response from Actively Participating to Initiating Change and Advocating Prevention—builds awareness about actions for inclusion and social justice. It not only shows a range of reactions to a given topic but suggests there is room to move.
The Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate shows biased behaviors, growing in complexity from the bottom to the top. Although the behaviors at each level negatively impact individuals and groups, as one moves up the pyramid, the behaviors have more life-threatening consequences. Like a pyramid, the upper levels are supported by the lower levels.
A graphic that can also be applied to a novel, the Pyramid enables readers to consider choices made by people in the past and to apply these strategies to guide their own words and actions for the future. In their daily interactions, individuals choose for themselves whether to act as a perpetrator, an ally, or a bystander when they encounter the bullying, microaggressions, and prejudices that continue to affect communities today. Experiences in using the Pyramid enable individuals and institutions to notice an escalation of hate when they treat behaviors on the lower levels of the Pyramid as “normal.”
“Rather than accepting stereotypes or ignoring microaggressions, we might be motivated to ally behavior and to confronting oppression for a more just world. Our silence is not an effective strategy; it is actually hindering our ability to develop comfort in living and working with those who are different from us—we need to talk about diversity issues so that we can cross lines of difference,” Miller said.
