Cobb County School Board Bans Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’

Georgia’s Cobb County School Board is facing scrutiny for pulling Toni Morrison’s book, The Bluest Eye, from school libraries. 

WSBTV reports the decision came after Cobb County Schools Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and his executive board reviewed the book. During a recent school board meeting, Ragsdale read a passage from the book where the main character is raped by her father. 

“The words speak for themselves,” Ragsdale said. “Both as a father and as a superintendent, I think about a parent having to explain to their sixth-grade daughter after she encounters explicit descriptions of child incest and rape in a book provided at school, without parents’ knowledge. As the superintendent responsible for the instruction of 100,000 students, I do not have the luxury of making that decision for other parents and their children.”

WSBTV’s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell questioned Ragsdale on his response to the backlash he will likely face over the decision. “The response is again this is not a book ban,” Ragsdale said. “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.”

So this is messed up for a few reasons. We can’t ignore the racial implications here. I remember reading books like Huckleberry Finn, where Huck Finn was abused by his father and the N-word was thrown around a lot. Yet no one doubts the artistic merit or appropriateness of that book.

It’s absurd to me that we live in a country quick to ban books that might make students uncomfortable, but won’t move a muscle to prevent school shootings. 

Another thing that Ragsdale and the school board seem to ignore is that children endure awful things. My first job out of college was working the assignment desk in the family law department of Maricopa County’s Legal Defender’s Office. That job required me to read why these cases were coming to our desk. I spent five years of my life understanding just how awful people can be to children. We want to think of children as sweet, innocent balls of sunshine, but the reality is we don’t know what happens behind closed doors until it’s often too late. 

Art is a fantastic way to process trauma. I haven’t experienced any of what happens in The Bluest Eye, but I can imagine the book would, at the very least, help a young person feel less alone in their trauma. Perhaps reading the book would make them more comfortable speaking out about abuse they may be experiencing. 

Personally, albums like My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade and The Mountain by Gorillaz have been instrumental during the grieving process after losing family members. There’s a comfort in knowing that this pain is universal. To exist is to suffer, but we don’t have to suffer alone. 

While the school board may think they’re protecting kids by banning books like The Bluest Eye, they may be allowing the student who needs a book like that most to suffer alone. 

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