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QUESTION

Have you faced pressure locally to ban books or remove certain books from your book sales?

0:17:47

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84 sec

Council Member Carlina Rivera poses a question about whether there has been local pressure to ban books or remove certain titles from book sales. In response, Linda E. Johnson, President of the Brooklyn Public Library, states that Brooklyn has not faced such pressure, and typical challenges there involve reconsidering older books that may now be seen as racially insensitive, rather than more progressive material. Dennis Walcott, President of Queen's Public Library, echoes this absence of pressure to ban books, emphasizing the library's aim to offer a diverse collection and noting the rarity of book challenges. Carlina Rivera then comments on the broader context, mentioning how even in Florida, school districts are rethinking overly liberal policies by removing certain titles, indicating a broader trend of reevaluating book policies.

Carlina Rivera

0:17:47

Have you faced pressure locally to ban books or remove certain books from your book sales.

Linda E. Johnson

0:17:55

In Brooklyn, we have not.

0:17:56

And in fact, on the rare occasion in Brooklyn, when a book is challenged, and there's a process.

0:18:02

Typically, it's a 180 degree challenge from the ones that we're talking about today.

0:18:07

It's a and over a book maybe from the 19 fifties or the middle of the century that depicts people of color in a way that's no longer considered acceptable.

0:18:19

And so it becomes a question about whether or not we're being racist ourselves unwittingly, not whether we are providing material that's that's too progressive.

Dennis Walcott

0:18:29

Yeah.

0:18:29

I think one of the things that we face is the request as Tony indicated in his testimony to buy more books.

0:18:36

And I mean, our goal is to have as many books as diverse a group of books as available for people to choose from.

0:18:44

And then we have our policies in place where if someone wants to challenge a book, they have the right to do that.

0:18:50

But we've received very few challenges.

0:18:53

And we have not banned any books at all.

Carlina Rivera

0:18:56

I also think it's interesting that even places like Florida school districts are revisiting their own policies being too liberal as removing some of the titles from their shelves and who can make these recommendations.

0:19:07

So Clear has gotten out of hand even in places where it started.

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