Qasim Rashid, Esq.

Wow!😳 Texas teacher fired after assigning an illustrated Anne Frank book

Censoring one of the most important works documenting the Holocaust and punishing the teacher who dared teach it is pretty much in line with what fascists do. Horrific antisemitism.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-teacher-anne-frank-fired-18375331.php

Sep 19, 2023 at 9:17pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadschrotthaufenSep 19, 2023
@QasimRashid @aral I honestly wonder how many people will swallow the “BuT tHeY rEaD tHe PaRt AbOuT gEnItAlIa” line.
Show threadTrishademSep 19, 2023
@QasimRashid Shocking. Where will it end?
Show threadMattias SchlenkerSep 19, 2023
@QasimRashid Is Art Spiegelmans "Maus" also banned?
Show threadLipkSep 19, 2023
@mattias @QasimRashid I wouldn't be surprised. I've seen it on a list of banned books somewhere but that was before books had to be approved. So it was actively banned at some schools
Show threadI've moved to [email protected]Sep 19, 2023

@mattias It's one of the most often banned books there is.

@QasimRashid

Show threadHurricane DaveosaurusSep 20, 2023

@mattias @QasimRashid They tried it ... last year I think. It made the front page of one of the papers in NZ, even.

Nazis need to be taught how to be scared again.

Show threadArandmoorSep 19, 2023

@QasimRashid Fascists will fascist...

...and they should be called out every. single. time.

Show threadsheislaurenceSep 19, 2023
@QasimRashid I am really lost with #USA shenanigans nowadays. Anyone from there care to explain what legal ground is used to ban this book? Or is it the US don't have laws anymore? I think I stopped following when the penny finally dropped on the consequences of Trump's #SupremeCourt nominations.
Show threadderptronSep 20, 2023
@sheislaurence @QasimRashid This stuff isn't really new here. This book in particular is often on the chopping block. They don't make it so you can't buy it or read it. They just eliminate it from schools and libraries. I've been around almost 50 years and this has just always been a thing here. "Mom? Why are they burning copies of Fahrenheit 451?"
Show threadCassandra -2024Sep 20, 2023
@crazyeddie @sheislaurence @QasimRashid
I grew up in Texas, and the Diary of Anne Frank was required reading. I remember my senior year as a school field trip, we went to see Schindler's List followed by the holocaust museum. This was in the 90s.
Show threadderptronSep 20, 2023
@Mama_H @sheislaurence @QasimRashid Yeah, and I think it's still done now in many places. Back then there were plenty of the same sorts that wants to ban and burn books. Saw some burnings on the news and pre-Karen blowing up about the children. They were smaller stories that we mostly ignored after being disgusted a while. The Internet has made it so these people get a wider audience and can band together in bigger groups--that's about the extent of change from my view.
Show threadCassandra -2024Sep 20, 2023
@crazyeddie @sheislaurence @QasimRashid
It's sad that we are moving backwards 😔
Show threadsheislaurenceSep 20, 2023
@crazyeddie @Mama_H @QasimRashid i think you are spot on. It isn’t just about #gerrymandering and votes as @craignicol suggests. It is also about how Republicans fully exploited the power of mass-communication on the #internet & specifically #socialmedia while Democrats are late. True, #massmedia by its own nature will favour the viral spreading of fear and anger, rather than boost #organising, which is more complex & doesn’t spread in such linear fashion but: #behaviourscience!!
Show threadCassandra -2024Sep 20, 2023
@sheislaurence @QasimRashid
Essentially, red states are just YOLOing it and hoping they'll get away with it. So far, they've been pretty successful.
Show threadmdub41Sep 20, 2023
@sheislaurence @QasimRashid School districts can ban any book they choose. It only applies to school libraries and classrooms. Anything legal comes after they ban the book.
Show threadsheislaurenceSep 20, 2023
@mdub41 @QasimRashid ooh thanks, that's interesting! It sounds like that's always been the case?
Show threadmdub41Sep 20, 2023
@sheislaurence @QasimRashid Unless the state they’re in has a law against it they pretty much get to pick whatever books they want to have in the library. It leads to some pretty weird stuff in smaller districts, especially rural ones.
Show threadsheislaurenceSep 20, 2023

@mdub41 @QasimRashid Here's interesting guidance to #libraries from the UK you may ask your legislator to put in place. CILIP 2005 states "“#Access [to information] should not be restricted on any grounds except that of the law. If publicly available material has not incurred legal penalties then it should not
be excluded on moral, political, religious, racial or gender grounds, to satisfy the
demands of sectional interest.” It moves the #burdenofproof onto the censor

https://nag.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MLA-guidance-on-the-management-of-controversial-material-in-public-libraries.pdf

Show threadRichy222Sep 19, 2023
@QasimRashid
Show threadSkoobieSep 19, 2023

@QasimRashid
Yep. And they'll phrase it as something like just keeping in line with a policy prohibiting something like sexually explicit material.

Meanwhile, the best way anyone else can phrase it is honestly. They were fired for teaching about the Holocaust. You know, that thing that more and more people are denying ever happened and are gaining momentum in their propaganda from policies like this one.

Show threadMadhouse Muse 😷🦋Sep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid This book was required reading in my school district in California.
Show threadAcetopheles Sep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid Are we just going to gloss over history...

The Holocaust was horrific and nothing to gloss over. When I took those lessons in school and learned how truly terrible it was, it was so impactful and important.

Kids need this, they don't need to be bubble wrapped and protected from the horrors of the past.

Schindlers List and The Boy in the Stripped pajamas we watched in school too. History needs to be remembered, not forgotten and repeated

Show threadRed Angel SophiaSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid - But nonetheless, fools like Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager still support these monsters!!! Do they honestly think that they’ll be spared when these creeps become powerful enough to resume _official_ persecution of Jews?
Show threadLuciferSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid Oh these same idiots also banned a book about a black girl growing up in the segregated south in the 1940s. These people have no shame and it's pathetic, it's clear the culture war crap has gotten out of hand that even Republican billionaire donors are telling Republicans to get a handle on the party.
Show threadRodneyPetersonTalentAgencySep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid

When you have to rely on the Feds to prosecute an immensely corrupt Attorney General and not his own colleagues you know things have turned to shit.

Show threadRodneyPetersonTalentAgencySep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid

To quote Howard Beale “We’re mad as hell and not going to take this anymore.”

Show threadCodeByJeffSep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid

"A Texas middle school teacher has been fired after assigning an unapproved illustrated version

...the teacher was sent home on Wednesday after reading a passage from Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation in which Frank wrote about male and female genitalia."

You can make the argument that it was used as an excuse, but at least make the argument instead of making up an echo-chamber version of what happened

Look how confused the people replying are about the incident

Show threadCodeByJeffSep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid Sadly, you do this a lot.

I don't find you to be much better than Fox & Friends - knowingly telling "outrage" versions of stories to rile up your base

The real reason she was fired should have been plenty to make people upset

Show threadJohn CuttingSep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid
"But this isn't appropriate for children!!"

Anne Frank was 16 and Elie Wiesel (author of Night) was 12 when they witnessed the atrocities of the Holocaust. These crimes happen to children all over the world and other children need to understand them so that they don't happen again.

Show threadAngrySexagenarianSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid
Once again, some real good action from the greatest country on earth, if you ask nobody but US citizens.
Show threadDJ EnnoSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid
Show threadtandoorSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid Not sure if it's antisemitism. Well, it most definietly is but antisemitism is not the goal. I guess they just want to accustom people to genocide instead of dissuading them.
Show threadTheOtherRaeSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid 1 The excuse given was that this version included her comments on male and female genitalia. Eighth graders are at the age where they are experiencing the profound changes, both physically and psychologically of puberty. They know what genitalia are but, even the most enlightened adolescents will have questions and concerns about what they are going through. Banning the book (and banishing the teacher) has deprived them of an invaluable opportunity for discussion and instead,
Show threadCassandra -2024Sep 20, 2023
@TheOtherRae @QasimRashid
I grew up in the 90s. In middle school we had sex Ed where we learned about genitalia and saw a birth on television. I guess that doesn't happen these days?
Show threadTheOtherRaeSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid 2. has just taught them that even the mere mention of genitalia is shameful. Parents and school board busy-bodies need to get over their own ignorance and prejudices and, trust that children, when given the opportunity, can talk about bodies, puberty, identity, sex and sexuality, without it leading to 'disasterous' consequences.
Show threadTheOtherRaeSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid 3. It could also be that this was just an excuse that holocaust deniers were looking for to ban the book, but, whatever the excuse to ban the book, it is those children who will suffer because of it.
Show threadRandy TaylerSep 20, 2023

@QasimRashid Most people probably won't read the article, and see that you're being disingenuous.

The teacher read a passage to the class that describes male and female genitalia.

The complaint was over the sexual content, not the anti-fascism.

Maybe fascists were just using that as an excuse. Or maybe they were honestly just offended by sexual content being read to minors.

Vilifying the people who fired the teacher as fascists or anti-Semites is premature and wrong.

Show threadNellyLoreySep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid american parents should start banning their lower halves because it contains genitalia
Show threadJoeSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid Near the beginning of the article it states "...after reading a passage from Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation in which Frank wrote about male and female genitalia." So it may not be the book but rather how the book was used? It sounds like a provocative move on the part of the teacher.
Show threadPitchfork Dreams Sep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid
Shocking, yet not surprising. Nazis don't like being called out.
Show threadChuck Taggart, Private EyeSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid Every day in every way they move more and more toward becoming Nazi Texas.
Show threadSuz KorbelSep 20, 2023
@QasimRashid calling all lawyers!
Show threadBudgegeria 🦜Sep 21, 2023

@QasimRashid Everytime I read something like this, I imagine that an author of a post or news expects people to be shocked as they should.

But either people rather read newspapers that won't contain such news or they're more like

"Who is Anne Frank? Nevermind, I scroll/read the next headline."
"Why should our kids care about German history? It doesn't concern 'Merica."

Or maybe even something wrong and stupid like this:

"They're doing it right! No room for teaching about transgender."

Show thread#KeinVerblassenSep 21, 2023

@QasimRashid

What does #AIPAC say about it?

Show threadHendrik 🇵🇸🇺🇦Sep 21, 2023
@QasimRashid the news is picked up on Dutch TV. @arjenlubach created this comic take on it: https://youtu.be/4szBd3cSpGg?si=kgcZrEyOqUGgnfga
Texas proof Anne Frank graphic novel | De Avondshow met Arjen Lubach (S4)

YouTube