MSNBC host Ali Velshi asserted on Tuesday that parents should not be concerned about books that are sexually explicit or stoke racial tensions and instead should focus on gun control if they want to keep their children safe.
Parents are calling for books aimed at children to be removed from school libraries if they contain sexually graphic content or if they stoke racial animus based on critical race theory. Velshi instead accused parents and groups of wanting to do blanket book bans because they make people uncomfortable.
"So, the main themes that tend to get books banned are race, sexuality and then, to some degree, history, mostly black history, things like 1619. We have done, by the way, a couple of books on school shootings. Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus,’ a graphic book about Holocaust, banned in some places. George Takei’s book ‘They Called Us Enemy,’ about how he grew as a young kid in a Japanese American internment camp, banned. Because there are a bunch of people who just don’t want sort of anything that feels like it taints American history or it brings up about our past out there," Velshi explained.
"They think that’s sort of anti-American, but that’s — it’s just how you look at it. It could be the beauty of it. But to your point, the thing most people fear is their kid getting shot in the safe space that is school. If you’re really worried about your kid’s safety, that’s where your energy should go, not banning books," he continued.
BREAKING: after we exposed the pornographic books in @FortWorthISD and they were removed, the person in charge of the library catalog was terminated and they’re also doing a full review of all books in all schools
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 16, 2023
Kids will no longer be subjected to pornography in school! Huge W pic.twitter.com/5UxwLwUuO1
