A school official in a district just outside Wichita had this to say about some books that may be pulled from school libraries. “At this time, the district is not in a position to know if the books contained on this list meet our educational goals or not.” Maybe there’s no better example of the prideful ignorance sweeping America than a local district official doing their own research to determine whether Toni Morrison and August Wilson are worthy of inclusion in their literary canon. Of course, book bannings have been a core weapon in the culture wars for years, so it’s not a huge surprise that they’ve re-emerged as contempt has become the most valuable political currency. There’s some irony (assuming that’s still allowed) that Toni Morrison’s earth-shatteringly great novel, Beloved, is at the center of the current iteration of the book wars. Its key theme is about the importance of abused cultures reappropriating history to reestablish the truth about the past—a goal as unpopular in some circles as establishing the truth about the present. WaPo (Gift Article): ‘I think we should throw those books in a fire’: Movement builds on right to target books.