The Right to Read
October 13, 2023 10:47 PM   Subscribe

“What they’re trying to do offends me at the root of who I am and what I’m about.” - LeVar Burton Wants You to Read Banned Books
posted by Artw (12 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
I see what he did there.
posted by fairmettle at 12:37 AM on October 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


I want you to read this article
posted by chavenet at 1:50 AM on October 14, 2023


Sounds like a dangerous proposition, folks might get ideas or learn how to spell. Kids might learn about people who are different than them or that their parents are ignorant racists. Can't have that!
posted by nofundy at 4:00 AM on October 14, 2023


levar burton is on my "if you could have dinner with any three people" list, though if the opportunity arose i'm not sure i'd be able to do it

i think i'm going to get that tshirt, though. you can't disappoint a tshirt
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 4:36 AM on October 14, 2023 [9 favorites]


LeVar Burton is a mensch. I appreciate him.
posted by humbug at 7:51 AM on October 14, 2023 [1 favorite]


If you’ve offended LeVar Burton, you have really fucked up in life.
posted by The Bishop of Turkey at 9:30 AM on October 14, 2023 [13 favorites]


I've been a long time listener of LeVar's podcast LeVar Burton Reads. He picks a short piece of fiction and reads it aloud. I've heard some really great stories on his podcast that I might never have discovered otherwise.
posted by Roger Pittman at 9:57 AM on October 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


Whoa. Thank you, Roger Pittman. I'll have to look that up!
posted by brundlefly at 10:39 AM on October 14, 2023


I used to hate the "I read banned books" pins, etc, because I felt that books weren't really being banned. But these days, nope. They really are. It's not hyperbole.

> LeVar Burton is a mensch. I appreciate him.

A million years ago I was at a Star Trek convention and he was one of the guests. The Q&A was all the usual Trek stuff, but then a little kid stood up and asked him a question about Reading Rainbow. Burton immediately changed his tone -- not that he'd been doing anything unpleasant before, of course! -- and his attention zoomed in on the kid as he answered the question. It was so cool to see.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:30 AM on October 14, 2023 [17 favorites]


I guess I'll need to grab the shirt, too, in order to match my other shirt in support of reading banned books.

Heads-up : those shirts are teacher magnets. You'll just be out in the wild and teachers will want a selfie, or to talk about books, even if they're working a side-job because we still suck too much as a country to pay them enough to not need a side-hustle.
posted by revmitcz at 5:17 PM on October 14, 2023


I love LeVar Burton.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:43 AM on October 15, 2023 [1 favorite]


then a little kid stood up and asked him a question about Reading Rainbow. Burton immediately changed his tone

He's on record as saying Reading Rainbow is the work he's most proud of, so this doesn't surprise me at all.
posted by asnider at 9:01 AM on October 16, 2023 [3 favorites]


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