Over the past few days, I've receive a lot of support for my decision to withdraw from the festival as a stand against censorship. (On this blog, especially, because you guys rock!) Other places around the web, things have not always been so positive. One of the most common complaints--or accusations, if you will--is that by withdrawing, we authors are costing the teens more than we are benefiting them.
I have a huge problem with this argument.
When I was a freshman in college, my roommate was Korean. She came back to our room one day and complained that all the Midwestern boys at our NYC school were total Asiaphiles because they'd never been around many Asians growing up.
"That's so cool," I told her, secretly wishing some of those Midwestern boys would like me, instead.
"You don't get it," she said. "Liking someone because of their race is just as racist as disliking someone for the same reason."
Wow! That was a huge wakeup call for me. Until that moment, I'd thought racism was all about the negative, about treating someone as lesser because of the color of their skin. But treating someone better because of it is, if not as bad, then at least the other side of the same coin.
I feel the same way about censorship and the Humble ISD Teen Lit Fest debacle. Censorship is all about a precious few doing the thinking for the innocent masses. To say that teens should not be exposed to a particular author because of the content of her books is censorship, because the precious few are deciding what they think is best for the teens. To say that the authors should not have withdrawn from the festival in protest because teens will miss out is the other side of censorship, because the precious few are suggesting that they know what is best for the teens.
Yes, teens deserve an awesome book festival. But they also deserve a district leadership that respects them and treats them as actual, thinking human beings. And they deserve the opportunity to choose which books to read and which authors to support. And, most of all, they deserve to know that some things are more important than a single event.
To the people who say, "But think of the children," I say, "Let them think for themselves."
Hugs,
TLC
