It might help if more students were allowed to read "Beloved" and other books by Morrison and writers like her.

The Republican hate group Moms for Liberty works hard to keep books out of children's hands, and Morrison's books are near the top of their hit lists, along with books by or about LGBTQ people.

How are children supposed to understand our racist history and think about what that means for the present if Pulitzer Prize winning novels are off limits to them?

It's hard to understand how conservative Republicans can be so blinkered, bullying, an ultimately fragile.

When I lived in Germany, I was witness to German school children learning in great detail about the Holocaust. The German people in general are proud that their society faces up to the horrors of their past. They're proud that children learn to stay watchful and to oppose any kind of ideology that leads to mistreating The Other.

German children grow up feeling not guilty, but responsible.

We could do that too, but we have to start by facing up to our past rather than by trying to stop children from learning about it.