The Right to Read and Fighting Book Bans with LeVar Burton

Ready to supercharge your small business?

Xero, that's X-E-R-O, helps you take control of your finances with easy-to-use accounting software.

With automation and reporting features in Xero, you can spend less time crunching the numbers and more time understanding how your business is doing.

So if you're ready to join the 4.2 million subscribers globally, search Xero with an X or visit xero.com slash SiriusXM.

Terms apply.

Welcome to Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams from Cricket Media.

I'm your host, Stacey Abrams.

While I am better known from my work in the civic and political realms, I'm also a published author.

I've written legal and political thrillers, nonfiction, romantic suspense, and three children's books, including a new one coming out September 24th.

And one reason I love to write is that it gives me the excuse to be nosy.

It also allows me to dive into topics outside of my regular life and to explore new ideas.

It's in fact the first part of my mantra, which is be curious.

The rest is to solve problems and do good.

And for me, reading and writing are foundational.

It's how we understand the world around us and the universe inside us.

Growing up, reading showed me and my sisters and brothers possibilities that our daily lives never could.

And so the idea that some want to restrict access to books is a personal affront.

Yet book bans have once again reared their ugly heads, and the proponents aren't shy about it.

Often, the argument is that the books in question offend someone's moral code.

And many of the arguments presented to challenge or to ban books are about protecting children from sexually explicit content or the incredibly vague epithet obscenity.

This is not a new argument or a new line of attack.

In fact, in 1973, the U.S.

Supreme Court decided to offer a guide in response to the perennial question in a case called Miller v.

California.

In their decision, the court devised a way to assess what is considered obscene in a book, in a film, in a work of art, and it's now known as the Miller test.

Basically, the court instructed states that statutes could classify material as obscene if it, quote, describes or shows sexual conduct in a patently offensive way or, quote, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, educational, or scientific value, unquote.

Yet this test is being ignored or worse, being manipulated to justify prohibiting books that discuss issues related to the LGBTQIA plus community or even basic sex education for older children, including modern classics like, Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret, and similar titles.

Book banning isn't new, but it has evolved.

It used to be that one parent would speak out about a book their child was reading, but today the data points instead to this being an organized political movement.

Conservative groups distribute book lists to their followers around the country for them to demand removal or restrict access to large swaths of books in their local communities.

For 34 years, the American Library Association has been keeping track of banned and challenged books.

And still, their latest report for 2023 had some record-breaking facts.

For one,

the highest number of challenges of unique titles ever were documented by the ALA.

The report also found that this surge was driven by groups and individuals demanding the censorship of dozens or even hundreds of titles at a time.

The ALA also said that book bans were targeting more public libraries, not just libraries and schools.

So, to explain my guest here, targeting libraries is as personal to me as book bans, in part because I was raised by a librarian.

My mother, Reverend Carolyn Abrams, became an ordained minister in 1992, but for the first half of her career, and the first half of my childhood, she was a college research librarian and the head of the college library where she worked.

And because she is my resident expert on the matter, I've asked her to join today's conversation.

Hi, Mom.

Hi, Stacey.

Good to be here.

Thank you.

Mom, when we moved from Georgia to Mississippi in 1989, I distinctly remember dad pointing out that we had more boxes of books than clothing, which was quite a statement for a family of eight.

We might have left some shoes behind, but the books came with us.

Can you talk a little bit about what books mean to you and why they were so important?

Books have always been important to me.

Books have been a lifeline for me.

Books allowed me to

know that there was a better world out there.

My childhood was not perfect.

In fact, I needed books to show me that there was

something different.

Just being able to read, being able to

have access to a public library, we called the public library, and that was a one-room building in the Black neighborhood because it was a segregation time and

we could not even enter the public library in Hattiesburg, Mississippi,

where I grew up.

I just love books.

And I wanted my children to love them too.

Well, you did that.

In fact, I remember sleeping in the stacks at William Carey College as a kid.

You passed on this love of books to me and to my brothers and sisters.

What does it feel like to know that you passed on that love of books?

And for those listening who are trying to encourage their kids to read, What are some of your practices when it came to encouraging us to love reading?

Well, I didn't really know what I was doing at the time that I was doing this, but I want to talk about my oldest daughter, Andrea.

When she was a baby, maybe around

one and two years of age, she would just follow me everywhere.

And when I would take a break, we'd curl up in the bed and read the newspaper.

I would have one section of it, and I'd give her the other section.

And we would do this every day.

And I just longed for the time when she could actually read the words on the paper that she was staring at.

And

with the other children, I chose books that would challenge them.

They started out, of course, with picture books.

And again, Andrea became so fascinated with learning and reading that she organized the school with her siblings, and she would really have lesson plans.

When it was time for Andrea

to read her first chapter book, that is, little novels without any pictures at all, but really the novel, I chose little women for her to read.

Stacy was around maybe about four years old at the time, and I saw Stacy reading the book that I had given Andrea.

And I did not know that she could actually read all those words because she was still in picture books.

And so I told her to read for me.

And

she actually

read the books.

The other thing is that my children read world book encyclopedia for fun.

I watched them and I kind of laughed at myself because I said, they don't know that other children don't actually read the encyclopedia.

Those were their friends.

So well, we had other friends.

You had other friends.

Yes, you did have other friends.

But books, books, just like books were fundamental for me,

books were important to them.

And so all of my children read.

So it's fun for them.

It's not a job.

And that's my legacy, I believe.

I love learning.

I love books.

So one of the things that I learned from you and dad was about the fact that when we

face a challenge,

We have to focus not just on the problem, but on the solution.

And there are a lot of people who are hearing about book bans and will learn about it during banned books week.

And they're going to say, you know, disgust and despair, you know, can you believe this is happening in 2024?

There's nothing we can do about it.

It's a lost cause.

I've watched you and dad fight some pretty amazing battles.

And before we were here, you and Dad were both involved in the civil rights movement as teenagers.

How do we tell my listeners who believe we've already lost the fight, what do we tell them to keep them engaged?

And how can we reframe the issue so it feels more approachable to them?

Well, Stacey, I'm not so sure we need to reframe the issue because what they see,

what is happening, is really happening.

It is an effort to take us back,

to

keep us ignorant of

our past, and to

do what was done to us before.

I see the banning of books as a part of a major move.

And some things they're just putting out in the open, such as

Project 2025.

And all of this leads to stopping us where we are, preventing us from learning about our past.

So we need to see it for what it is.

We need to protest.

We need to form groups.

We need to check with our libraries to see what's going on.

We need to see what others are doing.

We need to just use all the tools at our disposal to stop it.

Well, one reason I wanted you today is that we know that it's not just schools that are being attacked and books that are being attacked.

They're also attacking librarians.

There have been laws passed in a number of states that actually put criminal penalties on librarians for doing their jobs.

Can you talk a bit about what we can do to protect librarians and make sure that they feel the support they need to keep doing this vital work?

Those of us who

know what is going on

need to connect with the librarians.

A lot of libraries will have

committees or advisory councils and if they don't

make sure that they do have some connection with

the community.

Find out

what they need.

Find out if books are being banned in a particular library.

And in states

where

it is a criminal, where they've criminalized

passing out books that are on the banned book lists, contact their legislators, just

the things that you would do if you were protesting or if you were trying to get something done.

When you left the practice of being a librarian, it was to answer the call to the ministry.

And a number of those arguing for book bans claim that it's religion that's making them do it.

What's your response as both a pastor and a librarian to this argument that people of faith should be supporting banning certain texts.

I would say to

the groups, I think one is Mothers for Liberty

and groups like that.

I would say to

church members, to

quote unquote, Christians,

that the same amendment that protects freedom of religion also protects freedom of speech.

Librarians have always

been careful to separate the materials that are in libraries.

You have a children's section, you have an adult section, and

everything else that's needed.

But it's the parents' responsibility to make sure that their children are reading what they need to read, what is appropriate.

And banning books is not the answer.

You heard her say it.

Banning books isn't the answer.

Mom, thank you so much for joining me on Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams.

And before you go, I have one more favor to ask.

Okay.

Would you mind hanging around for a second to help me welcome our special guest, who is none other than the legendary LeVar Burton?

Oh, I'd love to.

I'd love to.

He's one of my favorite people.

Excellent.

Well, more after the break.

Oh, Gecko, I just love being able to file a claim in under two minutes with the Geico app.

Could you sign up?

Sign what?

The app?

Sure.

Oh, it rubbed off the screen screen when I touched it.

Could you sign it again?

Anything to help, I suppose.

Get more than just savings.

Get more with Geico.

Big game today and no way to watch it?

Sling lets you do that with Day Pass.

Get instant access to live college football starting at just $4.99.

One Day Pass gives you 24 hours of non-stop action on ESPN and ESPN too.

Want SEC or ACC Network 2?

Just ask Sports Extra for a buck.

No contracts, no hassle, just pure unfiltered game day.

Sling lets you do that.

Visit sling.com to learn more.

Hi, I'm Kristen Bell.

And if you know my husband, Dax, then you also know he loves shopping for a car.

Selling a car?

Not so much.

We're really doing this, huh?

Thankfully, Carvana makes it easy.

Answer a few questions, put in your van or license, and done.

We sold ours in minutes this morning, and they'll come pick it up and pay us this afternoon.

Bye-bye, Trucky.

Of course, we kept the favorite.

Hello, Other Trucky.

Sell your car with Carvana today.

Terms and conditions apply.

In addition to my deep commitment to the written word, I'm also an avid, or some might say, rabid, fan of television.

One of my favorite franchises of any and all times, assuming there are alternate timelines, is Star Trek.

And I began with a show that relaunched it all, Star Trek the Next Generation.

Name and rank, Lieutenant Commander Jordi LaForge.

Who gave them the right to decide whether or not I might have something to contribute?

Every time you talk about yourself, you use the word we.

We want this.

We want that.

We are all separate individuals.

I am Jordi.

I choose what I want to do with my life.

I make decisions for myself.

Of course, that voice you heard is actor, director, and filmmaker LeVar Burton, playing the iconic Star Trek character Geordie LaForge.

LeVar Burton's embodiment of the chief engineering officer of the USS Enterprise was groundbreaking, a tendency he has in every domain.

Before I met him as Geordie, I already knew him from his award-winning role in Root and as the beloved host of Reading Rainbow, which I watched fanatically as a kid.

He now hosts a podcast called LeVar Burton Reads, and today we're picking his brain about books, book bands, and what we can do to save us from doom.

Thank you so much for being here, LeVar, if I may be so bold as to call you, LeVar.

Of course.

Hi, Stacey, and Mrs.

Abrams.

How are you?

I'm good.

And I'm especially well now that I have gotten a chance to see you, to meet you.

Thank you.

How did I get so lucky?

Before my mom, Reverend Abrams, became a minister, she was a librarian.

And when I told her you'd be joining Assembly Required, she refused to leave.

So

I must tell you, Mrs.

Abrams, that teachers and librarians tend to be my favorite people on the planet.

Oh, great, great.

Well, mom, I know you actually have to go, but I like to start the show by asking people about their origins, because as you know, you taught us to read the encyclopedia, to read books, and to learn about the beginning of things.

So would you like to ask LeVar Burton an origin question?

Yes, I would.

Well, LeVar, as a storyteller, actor, and activist, how how did you start your storytelling and reading journey?

What's the origin story of the LeVar Britton who reads?

That's actually one of my favorite stories.

My mother, Irma Jean Christian, every time I have the opportunity to speak my mother's name aloud, I do.

Irma Jean Christian was my mother's name.

I am the man that I am largely because she was the woman that she was.

And Irma Jean did not play.

You either read a book in Irma Jean's household or you got hit in the head with one.

It was your choice, but you were going to have an encounter with the written word.

Okay.

And of course, I'm kidding.

But

all of, I mean, my mother was an avid reader, Mrs.

Abrams.

She always had at least two, sometimes three books going for her own personal enjoyment.

She loved Louis Lemour.

She loved Westerns, both to read them and watch them on TV.

We took two daily newspapers when I was a kid.

And I tell people all the time that, you know, my mother didn't simply read to us when we were kids.

I have two sisters.

I'm the middle child between two girls.

She read in front of us.

And that's important modeling that I think a lot of parents leave out, right?

If you want your kids to read more, let them see you reading, I tell them.

And then I ask them,

what are your kids, if you want your child to read more, what's your, do you know what what your child is passionate about?

Because it is our passions that tend to drive our reading appetites.

And I've said for years:

if your child loves superheroes, then buy your kid comic books because I simply want kids to read.

Well, mom, thank you so much for joining us.

It was an extreme and joyous pleasure, Reverend.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

And thank you for being here.

Okay, take care now.

Okay.

God bless.

Your mom.

How awesome.

She is amazing.

I am incredibly grateful to have you here.

You were the honorary chair of Banned Books Week last year.

We're airing this episode during Banned Books Week 2024.

In addition to being a bit of an alliterative challenge, what is Banned Book Weeks for?

And why is it so important for you to be a part of this conversation?

It is a week every year where we highlight the effort to ban books, to censor educational materials,

to control the literature that our children have access to and

are exposed to.

It seems that in recent years,

the week, I can't call it a celebration necessarily, based on why we pay attention this particular week of the year to ban books, but it has become clearly and evidently necessary to shine a light, to bring awareness to the efforts coming from different quarters of the country to, you know, to engage in this sort of censorial behavior.

It's simply not okay and needs to be, Stacey, in my view, exposed for what it really is, which is a play

for control.

We all know and have known for a long time that, you know,

the game goes, control the narrative and you control reality.

And that's never been more true than it is these days.

So it shouldn't be, but it has become an important week on the calendar

for me and for a lot of Americans.

You have been such a force for not just literacy, but for understanding why the written word matters.

And as an actor, you've given us this lived expression.

And now in your podcast, you read aloud from short fiction and you talk about the piece for a few minutes afterward.

You offer your perspective and why you like the story so much.

For example, there's one episode from earlier this year where you read a story by Percival Everett, the appropriation of cultures, and you talk about Confederate symbols, the Civil War, and what it means to be woke.

Why is that such a vivid example of how literature can challenge and inspire us?

Well, Percival Everett,

I have to begin by saying, is one of my favorite authors.

And he is a challenging writer.

He does like to challenge the reader.

This particular story

really

grabbed me because it grapples with the notion of

not just the South, but its

love affair with

the Confederacy.

And in particular,

a song that is really,

really established in the lexicon of Southern tropes, right?

And what happens in the story is the song is adopted.

adopted

and adapted by a black man.

And the song is Dixie, right?

I wish I was in the land of cotton,

right?

Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.

Which you wouldn't think that

a black person would

embrace necessarily because of the imagery, because of the meaning, because of

the attachment that the old South had to this song.

And the new south kind of you know holds up as an example of um you know what the south represents.

Um, and I and I know I'm talking in generalities, and I hope, and I know your audience is sophisticated enough to understand that when I say the south, I mean a certain aspect of the south, right?

Um, I'm not you know, painting the entire region of the country with the same brush, and um, and we all know what I mean.

So

there's that.

But it's a challenging, it was a challenging story for me to read.

And

as the host of LeVar Burton reads, I mean, it's my podcast.

I get to read what I want.

And

so I tend to, you know, to lean into speculative fiction, science fiction.

And I read my favorite authors because

Part of my reason for wanting to do the podcast in the first place was being able to continue a relationship with adults now who grew up on Reading Rainbow.

And I'm maintaining a relationship with them around what they're reading and still suggesting to them, you know, authors that they may not have ordinarily heard of.

I feel like it's part of the dynamic that I have

with that generation just in terms of how I relate to them.

And so keeping up with them as adults has been an awful lot of fun with me and challenging them and encouraging them to expand

their literary horizons.

Well, I can tell you it works.

Percival Everett is actually a writer that my siblings and I read.

My five brothers and sisters and I have a sibling book club that helps keep us connected no matter where we live.

In fact, when we were kids, our parents would take us to the public library during the summer to load up on reading for the week.

I think the librarians got a little afraid because you had this swarm of children who could check out unlimited number of books.

And there was a bit of a dispute about how many we could actually take with us at a time because they were surprised that we would take so many, each of us, and decimate the shelves.

But it was for our family and our working class family.

We might not have had an exotic vacation, but books took us everywhere.

And you've, as you said, you not only have this generation of children that are now adults that you're reconnecting with, but you've just long been invested in bringing children to the world of books, to the world of reading.

When we think about book bans, what might we be missing in the conversation about why book bans are so dangerous and so harmful to children in this moment of growth and exploration?

Yeah, it's a great question, Stacey.

I like to say, you know, every book

is not for every child, but there is

a child for every book, book, right?

Every book isn't for everybody, but there is somebody for every

book.

And the idea that we would take it upon ourselves to determine for someone else what is appropriate for them, right?

Which is a conversation that, you know, really belongs between the child and the child's parent.

I grew up in an era in the, you know, I was born in 57, grew up in the 60s and the 70s during the civil rights movement where the line between right and wrong was absolutely clearly delineated.

We seem to live in a world now where that line has blurred somehow, and that truth is not truth, and right is not right, and wrong can also not be wrong.

And

I think more than anything else, I'm just trying to hold on to the reality that makes sense to me.

And

it does not make sense to me to ban books, to censor materials written by Black people, people of color,

to censor materials about Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.

It just does not,

it's not the country that I grew up in.

It's not the country that I believe we aspire to be.

It's pretty low behavior.

Those who have what I consider to be a puniness of heart

are really exercising what I feel is kind of the last gasp of

an outmoded way of thinking and being.

And at least I hope what we are experiencing is the last gasp of an outmoded way of

being.

I know you haven't put politics on your list of things to do, but that was the most effectively political way to state that.

That was very well done.

Outmoded.

I'm going to start borrowing that to describe some of my disagreements.

Well, I think that it's really important in this conversation to adopt language that isn't inflammatory, right?

Yeah.

Because we're all getting our buttons pushed.

And on a personal level, when I get my buttons pushed, all reason goes out the window.

And I'm in, you know, this sort of Neanderthal mode.

And the logical, rational part of me just leaves the situation.

And so I'm trying in my own life to really

communicate.

And I ask myself all the time, do you want LeVar to be effective in your communication or do you want to feel like you're right?

And I'm trying to err on the side of being an effective communicator.

I know I said that with a smile, but I do mean it.

That was an incredibly well-reasoned way to put it.

As someone who often had the responsibility as a minority leader to negotiate with the other side, and it was in my title that we were going to disagree, but it was in my job description that we had to get to agreement.

The ability to create space for people to be wrong in a conversation or to evolve is absolutely essential.

And so I was not being snarky when I said that was a very well-said political phrasing because the more we can do that, the more space we create for people to come in and join us.

And have conversations that we absolutely need to have in this country.

The persistent avoidance of these conversations is what's essentially wrong with America.

It is the thing we must address more than any other.

Because unless and until we do,

there will be this tension

that we, as a nation, have not reconciled our past.

And there's just no moving forward unless you can handle what's come before.

Absolutely.

To the point of things we don't talk about enough.

My mom, who was here, was a librarian.

But what also informed my passion for reading and storytelling is my dad.

My dad is dyslexic.

He went undiagnosed until his 30s.

And you've studied what it takes to teach kids to read and why literacy remains out of reach for millions in this country.

And in fact, it's the subject of your documentary, The Right to Read.

And in the fight over book bans, we sometimes ignore that there are tacit bans that come with the high illiteracy rates and the limited access not only to books, but to learning tools, to reading tools.

Can you share with our audience why literacy, as much as the stories that they, that we get to engage, are so vital to society.

Now we're talking

because this is why

I do what it is I do because I believe Stacey that storytelling is the thing that binds us all together.

All of our hopes, our dreams,

everything

that we have ever wanted to or will ever want to express as a species is done through our storytelling.

It provides the foundation for who we are,

how we move through the world,

both on a personal level and a micro level and a macro level, right?

It is our stories that matter.

It is our stories that shape our points of view and our purpose in life.

I say all the time, you know, that

the stories that we tell are critically important because they are the sum total of who we are, what we are, and

why we are.

We have access to all of that information, and it is contained in our stories.

They are precious and

eternal.

And no one

should have the ability to to censor them to say no this story

this one bothers me this one

let's take that out of circulation um it's just it's it's not okay there is value in all of it as i said before

every book ain't for everybody but there is somebody for every book One of the things that's so important about the way you talk about the right to read is that most of us who have had the privilege to learn to read, we can name specific books that hold a very special place in our hearts.

And part of why book banning feels so wrong is this idea of denying a future reader access to a story, access to a narrative that changes how we understand who we are.

And in fact, you know, we know that the sixth most challenged title in 2023 was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which was published in 1970.

You know, Morrison won a Pulitzer.

She's won a Nobel Prize for her writing.

And yet, still, her stories are being targeted by organized campaigns to erase her works.

How do you make sense of this and why someone would want to prohibit the telling of such a uniquely American story?

And then my second question is: what's the book that you love that you're worried someone might try to ban?

Big questions, both.

I guess,

first of all,

going back to the right to read, we posit in the documentary that literacy is indeed a civil right,

okay?

And that it is as important to the human being as is clean water, safe shelter, right?

These are our birthrights as human beings.

And so,

you know, when we are pulling stories out of circulation and engaging in those acts of denial, what are we really saying?

Right?

When you tell me that

my story should not be represented, right?

Or a story that is valuable to me should be pulled out of circulation, you're telling me that I don't matter,

that I am somehow less than.

It's kind of like, you know,

it's kind of like changing someone's name, isn't it?

Right?

Kunta Kente refused to accept the name Toby.

Why?

Because it was an integral part of his identity.

The stories that we tell ourselves and the stories that we hear and read and absorb along the way in life, these are essential elements that make up who we are.

And

so it doesn't make sense to me.

I mean,

that's what's so confusing to me about this whole issue of banning books, Stacey, is that it just doesn't make sense.

And so I'm trying to look at the underlying cause, right?

And what I keep coming back to is that this is a power play.

It's an effort to exercise control.

And we've certainly seen that before,

you know, throughout history.

One group is always trying to control another group.

We are no strangers to that dynamic in the United States these United States of America.

And so, I recognize this behavior as part of a larger pattern of behavior that has gone on for

a long time in America.

And

every time

things like this happen

in this country, there are people of good conscience who know better,

who rise up and speak out and point out the

fallacy

and the

irresponsibility that's being engaged in.

And as I say,

the downright puniness of spirit.

I could just listen to you talk all day.

You should think about doing this for a living.

You know what?

I consider that at this point in my life, my job is to be LeVar Burton.

And what that means to me is as a storyteller, you know, I'm so lucky to be able to make a living as an actor, a writer, a producer, a director, a podcaster, a public speaker.

I can't make my living just doing one single thing.

And I've never been comfortable, you know, putting all of my eggs in one basket.

Irma Jean used to say, you have too many irons in the fire.

And little did she know that, you know, that that sort of ADD behavior would turn out to be a boon in show business, right?

But

I think that at the end of the day,

it is important and really essential that those of good conscience stand up.

There is a such thing as right and wrong, and no amount of pretending to the contrary is going to

change that

truth.

So,

if me standing up

in a moment where folks are engaging in dubious behavior around the issue of banning books, if that means I need to stand up and say something, then so be it.

Because

somebody has to, right?

And

the behavior of one can certainly inspire the behavior and attitude of many.

So,

you know, I grew up in the civil rights movement.

This is just the work.

This is what we do, right?

This is what boots on the ground means.

Part of a look, there's politics in everything, Stacey.

You know that.

Absolutely.

And to ignore that aspect of life, especially life

in America, it just doesn't make sense to me.

It is incumbent upon all of us to get involved.

And if that means I'm woke,

then so be it.

Because, you know,

it may not mean the the same to some folks, but you know, woke means the lights are on.

Woke means that I'm awake and alive and aware, right?

And ready to take on whatever comes my way.

The alternate is

to be asleep and

willfully ignorant.

And

that's just not my thing.

Well, one part of the question I had for you earlier was about your favorite books.

You spend a lot of time sharing books with others, but when you think about the books that are being challenged, you know, nearly half of the censorship attempts in 2023 targeted titles that were about the lived experiences of the LGBTQIA plus community, of people of color in general, of black people with mind-numbing regularity.

What book are you worried about?

What book have you discovered recently or do you hold as just important to you?

Do you worry might end up on the list?

And I don't want to give anybody any hints about what to put on there, but is there a topic or is there an author that you worry about that we need to protect?

I worry about all the authors, right?

And all the books, but most particularly this subject

about the enslavement of Black people in America and the squeamishness we have about sharing that.

that part of who we are as a nation with school-aged children.

Now, there is such a thing in all things, there is age appropriate, right?

And then age-inappropriate.

And that's certainly true with a lot of the objections to LGBTQIA representation in literature.

So the thing is, we can't allow the views of some to dictate the reality of the rest of us.

It doesn't make sense.

And so it is the history of America that is trying trying to be censored that bothers me.

I really do see the enslavement of Black people in this country and

the original sins of America

as being the key

to moving into a more harmonious future in this country.

Because

unless we tell ourselves this story in a truthful and honest way, which we have never, ever done.

We are going to continue to be plagued by this division and this conflict and this tension,

which is certainly a large part of the American zeitgeist right now.

Hi, I'm Kristen Bell.

And if you know my husband, Dax, then you also know he loves shopping for a car.

Selling a car?

Not so much.

We're really doing this, huh?

Thankfully, Carvana makes it easy.

Answer a few questions, put in your VIN or license, and done.

We sold ours in minutes this morning, and they'll come pick it up and pay us this afternoon.

Bye-bye, Trucky.

Of course, we kept the favorite.

Hello, other Trucky.

Sell your car with Carvana today.

Terms and conditions apply.

You are such

not only an extraordinary spokesperson, but as you said earlier, you come out of the civil rights movement.

You come out of this notion that you have to marry indignation with action, that it's not just, it's not enough to just be mad.

Well, thank you.

Marry indignation with action.

I'm going to use that.

You are welcome to it.

Thank you.

That's

part of the well, thank you.

Thank you.

Well, so one of the missions of this show is to not simply explain what has gone horribly wrong in society, but my mission is to help enlist our listeners to solve the problem.

And as you know, sometimes the problem,

if it's the span of a James Missioner novel, it can feel too much.

And so we've got to pick chapters, we've got to pick scenes, we've got to pick the places where we can enter.

So, LeVar Burton, I am conscripting you today because I need you to fix book bans by walking us through the roles as because I know you're not only an actor and a writer and a producer, you are a director.

And so I'm going to have you through a series of questions walk us through the roles that various actors should play in this fight.

So, number one, let's start with authors like me.

What can we do as authors to protect the freedom to read?

I think one thing that authors don't necessarily think about is having these kinds of conversations with their publishers, right?

And letting their publishers know

how

important this issue is to them.

And I think most in the publishing industry are certainly aware and on board

of this

idea and the effort to ban books.

But I think for authors specifically,

just keep writing, right?

We need the stories.

You are uniquely positioned to provide that kind of sustenance to the soul of the people.

And so I say,

please, please, please keep telling telling stories.

Keep doing what it is you do.

You provide a really essential service to humanity,

one that you are uniquely positioned to provide.

So more than anything else, just

keep doing you.

Keep writing, y'all.

Keep writing and keep writing about what is important to you and what you are passionate about.

Tell good stories for the good of the people.

Well, you raised the issue of publishers.

What role do publishers play?

I mean, you would hear them sometimes say that they're limited by their need to sell books or they don't have the power to join this fight, and yet they are essential players.

So, what do we need publishers to do?

Yeah, we need publishers to open up the ranks.

We need them to pay black writers and people, writers of color.

We need to pay them.

We need more diversity in the editorial staffs of these big houses um you know there have been some fits and starts you know there there have been some recent efforts that have you know sort of fallen by the wayside right

um

so there there definitely is a part that they they need to play

um

and they're not unaware um they're just reluctant okay so we've done writers we've done publishers.

What do consumers need to do to show our support for these important stories and the urgency of pushing against bans?

Find a level

on which you can engage that makes sense to you.

If you're a parent, you know,

get involved at your child's school level.

What's in the library?

What's not in the library?

How's the school librarian doing these days?

They're under a lot of pressure right now.

Both teachers and librarians are under a tremendous amount of pressure around this issue.

Support your school librarian, support your local librarian, read banned books, buy banned books.

The things that we can do on an individual level,

lots.

There's a myriad of things that we can do to get involved.

Make the issue personal to you.

Put yourself in a position where you can imagine that something very near and dear to your heart

in terms of

what's available in the literary firmament is being denied you

for no really good reason.

There is no good reason to ban a book, right?

Like I say,

there are books that are inappropriate for certain audiences, but that's always been the case and that's always going to be the case.

And that's not what we're talking about.

We're not talking about inappropriate material being

given to children.

It's just not going down that way.

So

take it personally.

Take the issue personally.

Take it as a personal affront to your personal freedom.

Put it on that level and see how that moves you towards action.

We are reaching the end of my time with you.

And

unbeknownst to many, I have had the extraordinary privilege to meet you once before,

where you and I were engaged in a trivia contest.

And it was on Star Trek trivia.

And you very rightly bested me.

It is my favorite defeat of all time.

We have spent a lot of time talking about reading Rainbow and books you have, I think, so aptly woven in your seminal work uh in roots and your role as kunta kente

but we have not talked about one of the most remarkable things you've done with your life which is your role in star trek as an avowed truckie

one of the most extraordinary aspects of the star trek world is that while the Federation has tackled these critical issues, despite what people like to say, it's not a utopian world.

And instead, each episode calls for the crew to explore what it means to look for solutions when we don't think we can find answers.

So, I would love for you to talk about a lasting lesson that you took from your time on Star Trek that you bring into the work you do today.

I don't think I've ever been asked this question before, Stacey.

Um, I'm very proud of me then.

I think for me,

essence of Star Trek is,

you know, the idea of peaceful exploration, right?

Gene Roddenberry's,

he posits that there is infinite life in the universe

and that as a spacefaring species, we must adopt a respect for all life and that non-interference rule, the prime directive, right?

Never interfere with another species' natural pace

and pathway of evolution.

Socially, emotionally,

politically, spiritually,

stay out of the way,

which I love about Star Trek.

I really do.

And it promotes a world that I certainly wanted to live in as a kid.

Again, growing up in Sacramento, California, during the height of the civil rights era,

you know,

I watched,

I was in second grade when John Kennedy was assassinated,

middle school when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated.

I grew up in a tumultuous time, right?

And so Star Trek really became, for me,

a safe place.

It was a safe place for me.

It's where I felt myself represented.

Michelle Nichols on the bridge of that ship meant that when the future came, there would be a place for me.

And I think it's the idea of

cooperation.

That crew

is a family.

And

there's conflict, certainly, but there is an underlying love and respect that undergirds all of those relationships.

And these people also happen to be the very best at what they do on the planet.

And so that kind of of

leadership modeling,

I really appreciate.

Star Trek has always represented a world that

I wanted to live in.

And

I guess I have,

by being a fan of the show, tried to fashion the world I live in to more resemble that world as much as I'm able.

Well, LeVar Burton, as long as you are here in this world with us, we will live long and prosper.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for taking the time to join us on Assembly Required.

Stacey Abrams, I love you, and I am so happy that you are here on this planet

in this conversation

fighting this fight.

God bless you.

I love you too.

Thank you, sir.

God bless you too.

Each week, we want to leave the audience with a new way to act against what can feel inevitable.

An opportunity to make a difference and a way to get involved or just get started on working on a solution in a segment we like to call our toolkit.

At Assembly Required, we encourage the audience to be curious, do good, and solve problems.

So, let's start with being curious.

Go to bandbooksweek.org slash events or follow Band Books Week on all the socials for reading clubs to join and webinars to watch.

The theme this year is Freed Between the Lines.

Now, to do good and solve problems.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom is the one that tracks book challenges and it needs your help.

The OIF estimates it probably only learns about 3 to 18% of all proposed bans.

So, if you hear of someone challenging a book at your local library, report it.

Go to ala.org slash challenge reporting.

For those of us who would gladly curl up with a book and wish it was enough to change the world, you can do something pretty close.

Write a letter to a favorite band or challenged author, thanking them for their words.

Look up the ALA's Dear Band author pages for ways to contact them.

Last but not least, organize your own Band Books Week event.

Unfortunately, Even if you're hearing this after the official week, the fight to protect reading never ends.

So, go to the ALA website for resources, ideas, and even a Pinterest page to get you brainstorming.

And as a bonus for the young reader in your life, check out my new children's book, Stacey Speaks Up, which helps kids answer the question, what do we do when a rule or a situation feels unfair?

Stacy Speaks Up is available in your local bookstore or favorite retailer starting September 24th.

If you want to tell us what you've learned and solved, send us an email at assemblyrequired at crooked.com or leave us a voicemail and you and your questions and comments might be featured on the pod.

Our number is 213-293-9509.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams.

Meet you here next week.

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams is a crooked media production.

Our lead show producer is Stephen Roberts and our associate producer is Paulina Velasco.

Kira Polaviev is our video producer.

Our theme song is by Vasilis Fotopoulos.

Thank you to Matt DeGroat, Kyle Seglund, Tyler Boozer, and Samantha Slossberg for production support.

Our executive producers are Katie Long, Madeline Haringer, and me, Stacey Abrams.

Exciting news!

Crooked subscription content is now available on Substack.

Yeah, it is.

If you're already a subscriber, don't worry, this won't change anything for you.

But if you love using Substack and prefer accessing things there, you can now find Crooked's content on Substack.

When you subscribe, you'll unlock ad-free episodes of your favorite Crooked shows, exclusive content like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer for expert insights into the polls and media.

Plus, you're supporting progressive, independent media at a time when media is under attack.

Where everywhere you are, so you can subscribe on the platform that works best for you.

Visit crooked.com/slash friends to learn more.