From: Lisa Ingellis
Columbus
With increased use of genetic testing we are learning that incest resulting in live births occurs at a rate of 1 in 7,000 in the United States. This is a startling statistic given it was believed much more rare. This incidence only reflects the live births; there are many more pregnancies from incest.
The National Intimate Partner and Sex Violence Survey indicates 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under 18 experience sexual abuse — often by those closely related to them.
The novel “Push” by Sapphire is under review by BCSC school board. “Push” is the story of Precious, an obese black teenager and her struggle to “push” herself past her trauma growing up in Harlem, being sexually abused and raped by her parents, and becoming literate. The book is realistically written in her voice. She describes her feelings of shame and self-hatred as her mental health has deteriorated to the point of equating love and affection with rape and abuse — even to the point of her body being physically aroused in the very situations she desperately wants to escape. The book describes the dissociation that often occurs during trauma. Precious escapes by mentally removing herself — imagining movies, herself as a Hollywood star.
“Push” addresses taboo topics in a way that resulted in several prestigious awards and honors:
1. PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (1997).
2. Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award (1997): This award recognizes the book’s significant contribution to African-American literature.
3. Booksense Book of the Year Award (1997).
These awards highlight the critical acclaim and recognition of the novel and its impact on readers and the literary community. The purpose of the book is a story of hope and resilience. The book is not written to sexually excite anyone; it is not pornography.
The book demonstrates what it is like to be a completely illiterate obese black teenage girl, struggling to learn, and adapting after abuse. Despite the hardships, Precious becomes a wonderful mother, a poet, and friend to the girls in her literacy classes.
Again, this is not pornography. It is not written to sexually excite anyone. The book has literary merit. It is written to describe a horrific reality that requires a mountain of resilience to overcome. This book should not be removed from the East High School Library. After reading the entire book and watching the movie “Precious” based on the book, I believe the book is appropriately placed at the high school level. Read it in full if you haven’t. Don’t just read the portions the Christian Nationalists quote for shock value in an effort to generate rage. Hand-picked paragraphs, word counts and subject matter alone do not adequately reflect the literary value of a book, and should never be used to justify censorship. Let those with pornography concerns take on Pornhub and other purveyors of true pornography and let our school librarians do their job.
