Back in October, Rep. Matt Krause (Q-Haslet) published a list of 850 books that he wants to have banned from Texas schools and libraries. He was then eying a run for Attorney General, though Louis Gohmert’s entry into the AG race in late November prompted Krause to run for Tarrant County (Ft. Worth) District Attorney instead.
Krause’s list of books to burn were…
…theoretically related to House Bill 3979, a so-called anti-CRT bill that bans teaching any materials that could mean “an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex.” Of course, the bill — which is an overreach that has confused school districts about how to follow it — doesn’t actually mention books in school libraries. It’s about curriculum. Nonetheless, with the increase of book bans and challenges recently, Krause appears to want to preemptively remove any books that could be challenged for causing “discomfort.”
Ever since I saw this list, I’ve been itching to dig into it. It’s a bizarre assortment of titles, formatted in a way that suggests it’s copy-and-pasted from library listings. (The format of “Title : subtitle” is common in library records, but not in most other places.) Where did these books in particular come from, and what’s really on it? I went through all 850 books to find out, and I found some interesting and unsettling things.
Those books can broadly be categorized as books on Human Rights, Race or Racism, Sex Education, Pregnancy, Abortion, and LGBTQ+ topics.
It’s pretty disgusting that Krause expected any library to spend a second time investigating any of the books on a list that was slapped together so thoughtlessly. Mistakes like duplicate entries and strange choices that don’t have anything to do with any apparent Republican bugbears display a huge lack of care put into compiling this list.
The call to ban books didn’t stop with Krause’s abortive bid for higher office. As Marissa Higgins noted last week affiliates of the Koch network have been spreading lists of books to burn around the country.
On Monday, the board of Granbury ISD, in the exurbs southwest of Ft. Worth, voted to give the Superintendent to ability review the books in the school libraries.
And today Granbury ISD became the first system in the state to remove books on “Krause’s List.