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03/15/2023 06:10 PMWhen my wife and I moved to Guilford 13 years ago, friends were skeptical about how an interracial lesbian couple would fare in a small town. Yet we soon were able to reassure them that we had found our forever home, where we’re treated with respect and congeniality at local businesses of all kinds.
I am an immigrant whose family – survivors of the Holocaust – raised me with an acute awareness of how movements targeting books, ideas, and people evolve into campaigns of terror unless confronted and contained. As an African-American, my wife carries the legacy of parents who were forced to flee the Southern United States to escape persistent barriers to their well-being. One lesson from our combined legacies is that when civic institutions engage in censorship, forces that foment hate are emboldened.
Suppressing content about marginalized groups signals to bullies of all ages that those groups are fair game. Removing a book about LGBTQ people will trigger physical or psychological harm to LGBTQ children and families. Altering a curriculum about racism will result in racist attacks on children of color and their families. The success of any ideologically-driven demand to alter what children learn will elevate – not placate – that ideology and lead to demands for more censorship.
The moment our leaders signal that any marginalized group is unworthy of inclusion, all children are at risk of being bullied and taunted. Once a culture of exclusion is endorsed, suffering spreads far beyond the minority under the microscope. When you protect the most vulnerable, you protect everyone.
Guilford leaders must place their well-earned trust in the excellent teachers, administrators, and librarians whose outstanding track records are reflected both in the superb reputation of Guilford’s public schools and in the welcoming environment of the town itself.
Maia Ettinger
Guilford