US Book Banning as Racialized Political Strategy

National Narratives, Public Pedagogy and a National Tug-of-Values War

Keywords: Book banning, Racialized narratives, Racialized legal practices, Public pedagogy, Political narratives, European superiority

Abstract

This paper argues that racialized political narratives articulated by US politicians are strategic, as well as potent forms of public pedagogy. In this instance, public pedagogy is defined as education in the public square, instead of in a traditional classroom setting. Such public pedagogical narratives are conceptualized here as designed to achieve yet another goal: demonstrating to large numbers of people that the political party in question aligns with the otherwise covert racialized values of those would-be constituents. My contention is that the current book-banning campaign in the US has been spawned, at least in part, by a powerful national narrative purposefully constructed to attract the votes of the citizenry targeted by this example of strategic political propaganda. Also, this paper will explore how nonpoliticians can use narrative tactics as public pedagogy to thwart biased political narratives. An historical analysis of race, politics, and religion comprises the methodology for this work, along with desk-top theory-building and an examination of recent book-banning research in the US. This paper deconstructs the concept of racialized political narratives to further reveal the complex conceptualizations that undergird this strategy, such as politics and privilege, Christian nationalism, and an idea I have labeled a racialized US values infrastructure (Becnel 2024). My argument is that white superiority and black inferiority are values that were inscribed in the country’s legal, institutional, and social infrastructure during the Slavery Era and largely remain in place today. Those racialized conceptualizations are contended here to have animated the choice of topic – book banning – for recent political campaigns dominated by cleverly-crafted narratives.

Author Biography

Barbara Becnel, University of Edinburgh

Social justice activist, scholar, and author Barbara Becnel has more than twenty years of experience working for prison reform in the state of California, while writing nine award-winning non-fiction books on street gang culture, as well as over one-hundred academic journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.
From leading an international media campaign aimed at preventing the judicial execution of reformed Crips gang co-founder and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Stanley Williams, to organizing an ‘Occupy San Quentin’ rally attended by hundreds in front of the state prison that houses California’s death chamber, she has often shown inspiring leadership and tenacity. Recently, she was appointed by the Scottish Parliament to an Expert Steering Group for tackling racial harassment in Scottish higher education. She also participated in a Steering Group focusing on the development of an anti-racist curriculum for Scotland’s universities and colleges.
Building on her MSc in Social Justice and Community Action (With Distinction) earned from the University of Edinburgh, Barbara returned there to earn a PhD in social justice and criminology. Her thesis explored how death row became a symbol of heroism for America’s street-gang generation. Integral to this was her collaboration with three former-though-imprisoned South Central Los Angeles gang members who were co-researchers on the project.

Published
2024-08-03