Review: Alice Walker Banned

When we discuss the importance we place on literature, we must also examine the value with which we infuse the placement of literary achievements in our shared cultures. One of the most vital arenas we have for demonstrating the value of what we have come to call "great literature" is in the classroom. In formal education, we take up the task of exposing our young to the principles and importance of cultural achievement.

At least, that's the theory. For decades now, there has been a surge toward greater inclusion in what constitutes the "canonical literature" of the United States — as well as in classrooms around the world. The questions Where are the women writers? Where are the authors of color? Where are the voices of differences? had for too long gone unaswered. In the final years of the last century, we hoped to move beyond the ghettoization and tokenism of difference, into a realm of larger representation.

Alice Walker Banned points to an irony both regrettably alarming and sadly humorous, in these efforts toward inclusion: at the very moment Ms. Walker was poised to receive an award from the State of California, naming her a "state treasure," the same works for which the author was being celebrated were being banned from California classrooms.

While officials from the Governor's office scrambled to ply the media with assurances that the state "opposed censorship of any kind," the Board of Education persisted in its removal of Walker's work from state-wide tests for 10th-graders.

What does it mean to be a Pulitzer-winning author whose works are considered too incendiary for young minds?

In this volume, readers will find collected three of the "objectionable" writings from Ms. Walker's oeuvre. Here, too, is a keen lesson in what it means — and what it takes — to continue writing about difference . . . as always, from the edges.

A compelling short history for teachers and students alike, we at STANDARDS recommend this work highly, and praise Aunt Lute for publishing the book.