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ASHLAND OSF and bookstore at odds over banned books display Festival says racist images have no place in public view Comment By John Darling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 5, 2016 at 3:38 PM Updated Aug 5, 2016 at 3:40 PM By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 5, 2016 at 3:38 PM Updated Aug 5, 2016 at 3:40 PM » Social News Actors and staff of Oregon Shakespeare Festival are objecting to books with racial caricatures on their covers on display in “banned books section” in the front window of Judi Honoré’s Shakespeare Books & Antiques bookstore on East Main Street, a block from the festival. Her display has been there for years as an educational tool, Honoré says, and has inspired much discussion about the evils of censorship. However, OSF Executive Director Cynthia Rider wrote in a letter to Honoré, the books are “hurtful and offensive” to OSF staff and since Honoré has declined to remove them, Rider has told her the festival will no longer purchase goods or services from her. One of the books on display in the front window is “Little Black Sambo,” a 1937 folk tale about a young African boy being helped from a pit by monkeys in the jungle. Its cover shows a black boy and tiger in the jungle. Other books in the section devoted to books banned for racial reasons include "Little Brown Koko," "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Rider, in an interview, said, “The bigger issue is how to make Ashland as welcoming and hospitable community as possible … We wanted to respectfully and with care, communicate about a very offensive illustration in a book. There is a lack of empathy in how it lands on people of color.” Rider said she and Honoré talked at the festival and “she knows how we feel. She continues to display the book.” Opposing the boycott, retired Professor Maurice Bryan Jr., Ph.D., an African-American, 28-year OSF fan and senior level diversity officer with Chico State University and other universities, emailed Rider and OSF Artistic Director Bill Rauch that, “I couldn’t believe it (as the display) demonstrates a shared progressive attitude with the mission and practice of OSF … You are asking (nay, bullying) Judi to censure a display whose very existence is to examine and interrogate censorship. “I assume you would not want patrons to boycott OSF on a couple of plays perceived to be offensive (e.g. Roe or a number of August Wilson plays). OSF has courted controversy — rightly so — as part of its educational and cultural mission.” After hearing of the ban on OSF staff purchasing items from the store, city Councilor Carol Voisin made a purchase at the store and said, “I found nothing offensive about the display, as a whole. I believe in the First Amendment (freedom of speech) as the bottom line, even Hitler’s book. It’s for us to read. We are critical thinkers. We can decide the value of a book. I do not support censorship. I found the display very illuminating.” Both the title and image of “Sambo” are American racial caricatures of black people, said Heath Belden, who works at OSF as a stage manager, who happened to drop by to protest the display while Honoré was being interviewed by a reporter. Belden, who is white, emphasized he was speaking only for himself, not the festival. “My friends are severely hurt,” he said to Honoré, through tears. “It is painful to them and it’s visible to passing children, who will perpetuate the idea that African-Americans are of lesser status than the rest of us ... It’s perpetuating the racism these books espouse. Being black in America today is a painful experience and a sidewalk display like this only carries it on.” Honoré’s display of banned books includes novels by Henry Miller, author of sexually provocative novels "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn"; as well as books by other authors, including “The Scarlet Letter,” “The Bell Jar,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “The Color Purple,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” — along with educational notes about the banning. “Sambo” was previously displayed next to “The Wizard of Oz,” the inspiration for the OSF musical “The Wiz,” prompting African-American actors appearing in the current OSF production of the musical to object in a group to Honoré. With her help, they rearranged items to separate the books banned because of racial caricatures from "The Wizard of Oz," she said. However, when emails circulated at OSF about the events, Honoré said she felt “confused and hurt,” and put the books back in the old arrangement, she wrote in a letter to Rider. In a letter dated July 26 to Honoré from OSF, signed by Rider, she writes, "you have demonstrated a distinct lack of empathy for the experiences of the people of color who brought this matter to your attention and their reactions to your display, and reinstating the display caused continued pain to those individuals and by extension to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival." The festival also said in a letter to the editor to the Ashland Daily Tidings that coverage of the issue has distorted OSF's message. "This decision about business-related purchases is not a boycott," said the letter submitted by Rider and Rauch. "It is not censorship. It is asking a citizen of our community to consider the feelings of her fellow citizens. Not just the words, but the images on the covers of these books reinforce harmful stereotypes steeped in our nation’s history of racism and slavery, and are vivid and hurtful to the people of color who initially approached Judi." Honoré has since once again separated the books-banned-for-racial-reasons from the "Wizard of Oz," also a banned book, in her window display, putting them on either end. The UC Berkeley graduate with a masters' degree in education avows that she is not racist and points to an inventory that includes a range of famous African-American authors, from Eldridge Cleaver to Malcolm X to Maya Angelou. “I educate people to realize how badly black people were treated through history," she said. "If we put books like this in a drawer, nothing happens. The books are staying in the window. We can’t change history unless we face it and learn from it.” Rider, in her letter to Honoré, notes the Festival is “deeply involved in the work of expanding diversity, equity and inclusion here at OSF and in Ashland,” thus the no-patronize instruction. Rider said mediation has not been requested by anyone and “I don’t think necessarily that’s a good idea. I don’t know if there will be anything further … There is nothing I want from her but it would be nice to have a racially insensitive book not be displayed front and center in a bookstore window, with no context saying why it’s on display.” One book in the banned display in a section labeled "Books banned for racism" shows two rabbits, one white and one black, who fell in love and were happy, “a very sweet children’s book, but it is banned in Alabama,” by racists uncomfortable with the marriage of a white and black rabbit, says Honoré. “Sambo” got censored by people on the other end of the spectrum, fighting against racism. Voisin said the standoff should be “nipped in the bud." "These accusations are not good to be made against a small business here," she said. "We all agree racism is not good and let’s work from there.” Voisin offered to gather all parties in her office and “find what’s the common ground. Is there something all sides can agree on, then find where we start to part, then understand each other’s position more clearly.” Bryan, whose doctoral degree in American Studies focused on black male representation in the media, specifically black males in film, echoed the thought, noting, “I would try to get (Rider, Rauch, Honoré, other book store owners and the offended actors) together and have a dialog on the purpose of bookstores and what Judi is trying to do. She’s not trying to do anything different than the Festival. “The people who feel hurt are very sincere and I’m sorry about that,” said Bryan, in an interview. “But theater, arts and movies are not there to make people feel comfortable, but to challenge us and make us grow. OSF is not doing plays to make people feel comfortable. I’m sympathetic to them but that doesn’t mean you boycott and ban books … It seems contradictory. The play 'Roe' would upset a lot of pro-life people. They’re trying to be sensitive to their employees, who feel legitimate pain and hurt, but they’re doing it wrong.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 5, 2016 at 3:38 PM Updated Aug 5, 2016 at 3:40 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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