Earlier this week, LeVar Burton, host of Reading Rainbow, was hosting the 74th Annual National Book Awards. He started the show with a shot at the book-banning hate group, Moms for Liberty:
I had the tremendous honor of serving as the Master of Ceremonies for the 70th National Book Awards in 2019 and it genuinely means the world to me to join you all on this stage to celebrate the importance of literature to our shared culture. Before we get going, are there any Moms for Liberty in the house? Moms for Liberty? No? Good! Then hands will not need to be thrown tonight.
Typical of the bullies that they are, Moms for Liberty immediately had a meltdown about it and tried to play the victim card, trying to conflate it as Burton threatening them.
The fascist group should not have been surprised, though. Well before the ceremony, Burton never tried to hide where he stood:
“Books bring us together. They teach us about the world and each other. The ability to read and access books is a fundamental right and a necessity for life-long success,” says Burton.
“But books are under attack. They’re being removed from libraries and schools. Shelves have been emptied because of a small number of people and their misguided efforts toward censorship. Public advocacy campaigns like Banned Books Week are essential to helping people understand the scope of book censorship and what they can do to fight it. I’m honored to lead Banned Books Week 2023.”
The group's fauxrage should be no surprise, either.
Burton is a successful Black man whose show is called "Reading Rainbow." Black people, reading and rainbows make the trifecta of hate for these fascists.
