“Invisible Man” banned in North Carolina

The idea that a book should be banned is offensive on so many levels and a vulgar attack on humanity.

It continues to happen in the US and every time it does I’m so disgusted and angry that book banning is still considered acceptable and that it is carried out.

In this latest incident it involves none other than Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, one of the greatest novels in American Literature, that deals so powerfully with the issue of race and black identity in American society.

The people responsible for banning Invisible Man have never read the book and will never read the book.

They don’t have the capacity to do so.

And it is not a stretch to point out that the race of the author and race as a central theme in the book are factors in the decision to ban the book.

I certainly hope that this vile act of censorship is overturned.

“Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, published in 1952, was banned in Randolph County, N.C., after a mother’s 12-page complaint.

By Carolyn Kellogg

Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man” has been banned from school libraries in Randolph County, N.C. The book is considered by many to be an masterful novel dealing with race in America.

“I didn’t find any literary value,” said school board member Gary Mason before the board voted 5-2 to ban the book.

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