106
Or, Protect the Kids
Reader,
If you’re paying attention to American book news, you’ll know that book bans have been spreading across the USA like wildfire. Most of the people advocating for them claim that they’re doing it to protect children from degeneracy but it feels to lots of librarians, writers, and readers that the issue here is an acknowledgement of race, gender and sexuality.
Just don’t be queer or trans* or non-white or, gasp, all of the above.
Huw Lemmey, whose work I recently came upon (and so, obviously, binge-read), writes really well about the closet and the idea of gay men as predators in this Substack entry. His examination of the notion of the closet and the gay panic that accompanies revelations of sexual contact between men of different ages had me thinking about the ideas that animate some people’s desire to keep children and young people away from gay men. If one is a danger to society by being gay, they are, ipso facto, to be feared at every turn.
The thing is, though, society doesn’t like children.
Just yesterday, there were revelations about Alice Munro’s complicity in her child’s abuse as well as an article that featured the abuser’s literary references in his defence (it is as horrible as you think it is) that reminded me how often adults choose other adults over vulnerable people, notably children. They may write beautiful sentences or make proclamations about the sanctity of the family but will make no effort to protect and defend in material ways those who need that care. This ranges from the interpersonal (Munro) to the institutional (keeping queer kids away from affirming literature, to some states in the USA refusing money that would feed its poor children in order to stick it to the man).
And now we get to Kenya (you knew I’d get here, even if I took the long route) where the president calmly sat at an interview and claimed that a boy who had been shot by law enforcement officers was still alive (he isn’t). The same country where the recent protests have been, among other things, about a plan to effectively raise the cost of sanitary pads in a country where access to menstrual hygiene products is a major factor in menstruating children’s ability to access, and participate in, education. The Finance Bill that ignited the protests and the subsequent abductions, arrests, and harassment has people reading The Constitution of Kenya like never before and reminding the state what it owes them and those they care about. The number of young people felled in the last few weeks - some in education - has shown how little the state and its apparatus care about them and been a reminder of how much work we still have to do to build a just country for all, but especially the most vulnerable. My heart aches so much for the world and yet I have to remind myself, over and over again in the words of Mariame Kaba, that “Hope is a discipline” and that one needs to persist in the work that freedom demands.
______
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
The Trial of Dedan Kimathi: Play Reading at BaoBox
The Queer Liberation Library, everyone
Free Palestine: A Verso Reading List (includes some free ebooks)
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya
I have finished several books since I last wrote to you (I’ll try to be more regular so I can share titles) and released twelve videos. To catch the videos I’m working on when they’re done, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t yet!
As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.
Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!