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The blog post, Book Purges as a Weapon of War,” by Anders Ericson and Mikael Böök, (English translated from Norwegian) provides the background. Calling for all books to be ourged world wide.

Interfax-Ukraine published (in Ukrainian) a very comprehensive plan to discard not just pro-Russian literature, but most Russian literature, including classics, totalling 100 (one hundred) million books. The Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information (IMI) published a summary of the interview here.

https://bibliotekettarsaka.com/2023/02/12/book-purges-as-a-weapon-of-war/#more-36489

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I don't think things like death and love are "white man ideas", but HOW and WHAT we think about death and love can be rooted in our cultural backgrounds. Issues arise when one culture's ideas are presented as an accepted standard which negates the perspectives of others. I think diversity audits serve to ensure that more than one idea about a certain concept is represented in collections. I do agree that removing materials based on the identity of their creators is problematic and dangerous.

On a separate note, as a black female, I love the new movement to incorporate diverse casting and perspectives when presenting classical plays and ideas. I think providing the opportunity to engage is more important than making everything perfectly politically correct.

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One of the things I find intriguing is that when I read books by people who are very different than me - politically, spiritually, culturally, sexually, socioeconomically - and I will find myself somewhere in their stories. We have put so much into what is different that we are losing the sense of what is similar.

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