COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Cobb County School District has removed Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye from district media centers, but the decision is drawing criticism from parents and community members. The district pulled the book but still posted a graphic excerpt from it on its website and online portal.
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Raven Carroway said she was on the school website searching for information for her first grader when she saw it.
“You all have the nerve to try to take away a book that has to do with Black literature, Black culture,” Carroway said.
The novel, written by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, explores race, beauty standards, abuse and the experiences of a young Black girl.
“That’s a really good book that allows people to kind of relate, you know, in a way that we don’t actually talk about out loud,” Carroway said. “So taking that away from kids, it broke my heart.”
Parent Keith McNulty, who also criticized the district’s decision, believes the removal of the book was politically motivated.
“I have three children who went to Cobb County schools through 12th grade, so I’m very deeply committed to this school district. The book bans in Cobb County fundamentally are about suppressing the experience of the LGBTQ community and also having a full disclosure about the experience of being African American grappling with racism,” McNulty said.
The announcement the Cobb County School District posted about the book removal on the school website and portal includes an excerpt from The Bluest Eye that describes a sexual assault involving a father and his child.
McNulty questioned the district’s decision to distribute the excerpt while arguing that the book itself contains material inappropriate for students.
“By extracting this sexually explicit material and then pushing it out into the email inboxes of all the teachers and the parents and bringing it into the classroom for the students is just completely beyond the pale,” McNulty said.
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The Cobb County School District released this statement in response to parents’ concerns.
“The excerpt was shared so parents could see the actual content under review. As the superintendent said, ‘the words speak for themselves.’ The concerns it has raised reinforce why the District determined the book was not appropriate for student access.”
Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told Channel 2 Action News that the decision to remove the book is based on sexually explicit content in the novel.
“We’re removing access to sexually explicit material that, if a parent wants their child to access, that is a parental decision at home, not in school,” Ragsdale said.
When asked whether he had read the entire book, Ragsdale said he had not.
“Not the entire book,” Ragsdale said. “I read the excerpts that were deemed to be sexually explicit.”
Carroway questioned how a decision could be made about the novel without reading it in its entirety.
“If you had not read the book, why do you feel like you can make the decision to say that they should not read it?” Carroway said.
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