LeVar Burton joined The View on Thursday to promote a new documentary about Reading Rainbow, and things got heated as the subject of book bans came up. Burton said he feels that the current trend of book bans around the U.S. is a huge detriment to education, literacy and American life in general. He had the show’s censors lunging for the bleep button before long.
Burton spoke to the panel on The View about Butterfly in the Sky, a documentary about the impact of Reading Rainbow – with one quick nod to his recent time on Jeopardy. The actor was as pleased as anyone to hear about how the show had positively influenced young people – some of whom have now grown up to become authors, librarians, teachers or just lifelong readers. He also felt that the show had turned his whole career in the direction of literacy and education, for which he was grateful. With that in mind, the panel asked Burton what he thought about the recent public panic about “critical race theory” and the book bans in many school districts around the U.S.
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“Bulls-,” Burton said without hesitation. “I’ll be absolutely candid and honest, it’s embarrassing that we are banning books in this country, in this culture, in this day and age. We have this aversion in this country to knowing about our past. And anything that is unpleasant, we don’t want to deal with.”
Burton specifically discussed the increasingly skewed definition of “critical race theory,” and the tendency for administrators to ban books that discuss racism both past and present. He addressed the young students directly, saying: “This is not going away. Nothing goes away, especially if you ignore it. So read the books they’re banning. That’s where the good stuff is. If they don’t want you to read it, there’s a reason why.”
Butterfly in the Sky is about the creation of Reading Rainbow and the impact it had on many of its young viewers. The documentary was executive produced by The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg. It was directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb. Reviews so far have been generally positive.The movie premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, but it is not yet available to general audiences. It is not clear if it will get a streaming release in the U.S.
