Officials from one school district in Memphis said they were “saddened and disappointed” to learn that the authors of a biography of George Floyd were told they couldn’t talk about racism during a speaking engagement at one of their schools.
According to NBC News, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, the authors of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “His Name Is George Floyd,” said they were “blindsided” by last-minute restrictions they had to comply with at Whitehaven High School during an event for a reading program.
Event organizers issued the warnings to both authors a few days before their scheduled appearance at the school, and a week before the event, organizers also told them that their book wouldn’t be distributed at the reading program.
“I was thinking about the great disservice that they’re giving these students who deserve better,” Samuels told NBC News. “I thought about my personal disappointment and feelings of naïveté that despite all the work Tolu and I had done to make sure the book would be written in a way that was accessible to them, a larger system decided that they were going to take it away.”
“It was really disappointing to hear that our speech was going to be limited,” Olorunnipa also remarked. “Not only for us, but for the students whose access to knowledge is going to shape their journey in this world and in this country.”
Both authors were relegated to discussion points about their personal experiences with racism rather than the overarching topic of systemic racism.
Organizers for Memphis Reads, the organization behind the…
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