Quote:
Originally Posted by sircastor
I think some of you are missing the point. Keeping a book out of a public library is not a question of Free Speech. Free Speech and Freedom of the press protect an individual's right to express their opinion without government retaliation. It does not guarantee that an individual has the right to be heard, or for his statements to be distributed. It just means that that person won't be denied his freedoms.
Governments (and by extension, public libraries) are in an awkward position of trying to balance their own responsibilities with the desires of the people. Some say that the government has a responsibility to provide for people who can't support themselves. Others say that that's far outside of the Government's responsibility. And we elect officials that have opinions about how this should be handled. Some say anything that is published should be given the chance to be in a library. Others say that what is put in the library should be "publicly acceptable". Still others would say that only things that are popular belong in the public library.
My point is, material being rejected from a public library is *not* a violation of free speech. If the author, publisher, or distributor were denied his liberty or life because due to the work, that would be a violation of free speech.
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Lest your sensible comment remain unacknowledged, let me say that you are obviously right.
Having said that, I think books in which there are only traces of casual racism/stereotyping that is tangential to the story
and which is normative to the time period during which it was written should not be excluded from general libraries that serve large number of people for whom the content is not an issue. After all, such works are despairingly numerous and have genuine merit despite certain parts of their message being "dated". Personally I have no problem with blatant hate-speech being excluded from libraries or even being downright censored/punished by the government--but I think it would be silly to put books like Tintin, Asterix, Robinson Crusoe, Tom Sawyer, et cetera in even broadly the same category.
It does disturb me though--quite a bit, actually--how outraged some people seem to be at the suggestion that racist stereotypes are harmful... even when contained in otherwise enjoyable books, comics, or classic literature... even if the author was well meaning. That, to me, whispers more alarming things about our collective morality than the availability or lack thereof of arguably insensitive/outmoded books at the library.
- Ahi