Hi.
Welcome to "Full Frontal."
I'm Samantha Bee.
Book bans have increased dramatically since last fall.
And make no mistake, these bans are censorship,
especially the ban on my new short form memoir,
"Being Inside Me."
Get your mind into the gutter.
Of course, it's about being inside my vagina.
Sadly, hundreds of books are being challenged in school
districts across the country.
The American Library Association
says book challenges are up about 60% this year.
And one school board member in Spotsylvania County, Virginia
took it a step further.
I think those books--
I don't want to even see them.
Like, I think they should be thrown in a fire.
That is crazy irresponsible.
Everyone knows you can't post the books you hate.
Just this fall, the American Library
Association received an unprecedented 330
reports of book challenges.
Right wing activists are making a concerted effort
to purge schools of books written by people
of color and LGBTQ authors.
Over this past year, we've seen parents, politicians,
school board members target books, specifically
by LGBTQ authors, by authors of color.
I think the real issue here is that many of these parents
don't want their students learning about race,
learning about racism, learning about people who identify
as trans or gay or some other marginalized group.
These book bans stem from conservatives campaign
against critical race theory, an academic concept to explore
the role of racism in society.
But conservatives are using the term as a scare tactic
to prevent their kids from learning anything about race.
Critical race theory, as you mentioned,
is something that's taught usually in law schools.
It's not taught in K through 12 schools.
The right to real aims have become clear
as they have broadened their attacks
to any historical topic that makes them feel threatened.
These antics have resulted in the banning of books,
like "Beloved," "The Bluest Eye," "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Basically, they're banning any book that even mentions
race, which explains libraries removing
"The Tortoise and the Hare."
Banning books from public libraries for nationalistic,
political, or religious reasons violates the First Amendment.
So instead, parents are trying to ban books by making it
seem like they're pornography.
Parents comb through books that don't center
straight white perspectives, find
the most explicit passages, and recite them out of context.
I cannot even imagine how I would feel if my child came
home with this type of book.
We cannot un-read this type of content.
Imagine your 11-year-old child or grandchild reading this,
"I like to put on a show, so not only do you have to be hung,
talented, long-lasting multiple comer, but you have to be OK,
effing a sexy 18-year-old."
And I did my best to act dominant
like my favorite porn star.
His body felt great in my mouth.
This is from the book "All Boys Aren't Blue."
"Why won't you admit we sucked each other's dicks?
We shared a Hershey's bar, then you showed me your dick.
I can't wait to have your cock in my mouth.
I'm going to give you the blowjob of your life."
"Not in my league at all, but he had a big dick.
And sometimes, a girl just needs a big dick."
"She did your homework, and you ate her coochie?"
It is obscene to teach children how to masturbate
and which objects young girls should use to masturbate with.
I guess we live in a world now that our public schools
would rather have kids read about gay pornography
than Christ.
I do not want my children to learn about anal sex
in middle school.
I have never had anal sex.
I don't want to have anal sex.
I don't want my kids having anal sex.
Nobody-- and I mean, nobody has had
more anal sex than that lady.
For people who don't want their kids to read porn,
they are turning school board meetings
into real [BLEEP] fests.
Not any [BLEEP] I'd want to attend, mind you.
The last one I hit was [BLEEP] '99.
Limp Bizkit ruined that one, too.
Of course, when we're talking about battles
in the culture wars, everything is bigger in Texas.
REPORTER: Republican Governor Greg Abbott took things a step
further, ordering officials to investigate
any criminal activity in public schools
after complaints about two LGBTQ-themed books, he said,
were pornographic.
In October, Republican state legislator Matt Krause
requested every school district in the state
scour their libraries for a list of 850 books.
The list includes "New Kid," a graphic novel
about a Black student struggles fitting in a majority
white school, "The Letter Q. Queer Writer's
Notes to Their Younger Selves," and the "Cider House
Rules," a coming of age story that features a character
who performs abortions.
Wait, that's what the "Cider House Rules" is about?
Oh, my God, I've been lying to people for years
about seeing it.
I told Tobey Maguire how much I loved his Apple movie.
The majority of the books on the Texas list target LGBTQ issues,
and school districts have pulled hundreds of books for a review.
Similarly, the governor of South Carolina
called for an investigation into the presence
of obscene and pornographic materials in public schools.
And one Mississippi mayor recently withheld funding
from a library system until books with LGBTQ themes
were removed.
He also made them pull any books that mention toilet seats
because that's what his wife keeps
telling him got her pregnant.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, a school board
has come under fire for banning a Pulitzer
Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust
from being taught.
A Tennessee school board has banned the critically-acclaimed
graphic novel, "Mouse."
It is a true story about the horrors of the Holocaust
by Art Spiegelman, and it depicts
Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.
Their specific complaint was naughty language and nudity.
What do you worry is on the horizon if there is a part
of this country that cannot be learning about the Holocaust
in the way it happened?
Well, I think it's already started happening.
Like I said, the dog whistles abound.
There's no gentle way to teach the Holocaust.
Conservatives banned "Mouse" because it
has the words goddamn and bitch in it, as well as nudity.
Folks, if swearing and nudity are
the worst parts of the Holocaust for you, shit--
I don't know, [BLEEP].
But there is some good news here.
The controversy surrounding "Mouse"
has put it back on bestseller lists.
And elsewhere in the country, students
are protesting book bans.
After parents in Pennsylvania pushed one school board
to ban a list of books by or about people of color,
the students fought back.
REPORTER: In all dozens of books were on the list,
including ones written by a Nobel Prize winner, a Supreme
Court justice, several celebrated children's
authors, even a coloring book.
We knew that it wasn't right, so we came together as a group,
and we started protesting.
REPORTER: The school board backed down.
The books were allowed to remain--
a life lesson for the young changemakers.
It's inspiring to see children making a real difference,
especially when they were collectively
born to people like this.
Take her out back, we, boys, figured.
Put it in a cornhole.
All right, not going to lie, I had
to Google cornhole because I have the game
in the back of my yard.
But according to Wikipedia, cornhole is a sexual slang
vulgarism for anus.
It's verb form, to cornhole, means to have anal sex.
She didn't have to google cornhole.
Cornhole googled her.
But it was all worth it for the algorithm to think she
loves it now.
With all of these parents yelling about anal,
critical race theory, and critical anal theory,
it's easy to forget that this whole issue
is really about education.
Do you think the adults have banned these books,
have read these books? - Absolutely not.
No, definitely not.
Absolutely not.
REPORTER: Iris Chang remembers the first time
she saw herself in a book.
It was the "Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan.
So it was really compelling to see this accurate portrayal
of what my culture looks like and what I, as a person,
represent.
I think students of color and queer students
are especially taking this hard.
I want to learn genuine history.
I don't want to learn a whitewashed version.
I want to hear all of it.
I don't want to--
I don't want everyone to be worried about how we feel
because no one was worried about how BIPOC
members of the community felt.
Banning books denies students the imperative to think
critically about the past and their own roles
and responsibilities in the present.
Preventing kids from learning about uncomfortable history
and other people's perspectives doesn't protect them.
It just turns them into assholes who go to school board meetings
to talk about assholes.
We'll be right back.
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