Actor and former Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton addressed the ongoing rash of book bans and challenges on The View.
Burton, the former Star Trek: The Next Generation star and longtime literacy and reading activist, responded to a question from co-host Joy Behar, who noted that “over the last few years, there’s been an ongoing push to ban children’s books, especially about race, sexuality, and basically American history.”
“Give us your reaction to that,” Behar said.
Burton’s one-word reply was censored for broadcast, but The Wrap reports that he simply answered: “Bullshit.”
“I’ll be absolutely candid and honest,” he said. “It’s embarrassing that we are banning books in this country and this culture in this day and age. We have this aversion in this country to knowing about our past, and anything that is unpleasant, we don’t want to deal with. This is not going away.”
“So read the books they’re banning,” he added. “That’s where the good stuff is. If they don’t want you to read it, there’s a reason why.”
Burton struck a similar chord in a February appearance on The Daily Show, in which he starred in a segment that featured him hosting a fake children’s reading show.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
