Dorset school ban on book about race is a mistake | Letters

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I wish to add my support to those wanting to reinstate Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give to the reading list of Budmouth Academy (Dorset school urged to reinstate banned book about race to reading list, theguardian.com, 26 September). As both an alumna of the school and a professor of English literature, I am deeply concerned about this act.

The rationale for the ban for year 10 – that the novel teaches children that “skin colour” makes them “baddies” – is simply not supported by the novel. At its centre is a relationship between young people from different ethnic backgrounds learning about racial difference from each other. The suggestion that “by extension” the novel leads Britain itself to be cast as “a baddie” is deeply worrying.

It suggests a notion of Britishness that excludes non-white people but does include Americans – perhaps recalling our own migrant and colonial history. There is an irony there that those supporting the ban may wish to ponder.

Finally, as a first-generation academic who learned the importance of literature in that very library, I am keen that we widen rather than narrow the opportunities for reading. Progression into higher education is lower in south-west coastal communities than elsewhere in the country. Budmouth students should be encouraged to read and expand their knowledge of the world – especially when it doesn’t coincide with their own worldviews.

This novel has been powerful in encouraging children to come back to reading and should be celebrated for that. The ban is crude dog-whistle politics and Weymouth’s young adults deserve more.
Prof Nicky Marsh
University of Southampton