I know that burning books by authors who were disapproved of in some way might have been fashionable in 1930s Germany but most folks today would see it as a not altogether progressive act. But it seems that among some progressives, it seems to be an act that is coming back into fashion. Among the new liberal book burners is Mr Cameron Williams, a librarian.
The Black Lives Matter activist was working at Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee and posted on the internet a live stream of himself setting fire to books he had taken from the library. Among those books burned were Donald Trump’s ‘Crippled America’ and ‘How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)’ by the conservative author, the great, Ann Coulter.
Williams claims that he was following the library’s instruction to remove any “old, damaged or untruthful books,” but the library said that the books in question did not meet that criteria, a criteria set by all libraries which are part of the American Library Association. And hence Mr Williams was sacked.
Natch he claims this sacking is racist, that the library has discriminated against him, in sacking him, solely because of his race.
“I was treated as a token Black man,” he told the Washington Post. “But as soon as I speak forcefully for Black people, they essentially tried to assassinate my character.”
That seems clear enough. Like covid vaccine packaging, drinking coffee, fancying Priti Patel, Dad’s Army, campaigning against global warming, both dating a person of colour and not dating a person of colour, knickers or mourning the death of Tom Moore, sacking a librarian who burns the library’s books is now officially racist.