{"id":2501,"date":"2024-01-04T18:54:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T18:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/01\/04\/pulitzer-book-race-george-floyd-book-bans-culture-wars\/"},"modified":"2025-02-15T18:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T18:46:19","slug":"pulitzer-book-race-george-floyd-book-bans-culture-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/01\/04\/pulitzer-book-race-george-floyd-book-bans-culture-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Pulitzer-winning book is banned"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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Imagine that you\u2019ve reached your long-held journalism dreams. You worked your way to the staff of a big masthead newspaper. Then you moved beyond the breakneck pace and tight word-count limits of that world to the relative luxury of long-form magazine narratives. Then the pinnacle: a book.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Now imagine that your book, which is based on all the work you\u2019ve done before, is banned. Your work has become one more casualty of the current culture wars.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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For Washington, D.C.-based reporter Robert Samuels<\/a>, that journey is no longer imagined. Samuels was covering America\u2019s \u201cchanging identity\u201d at The Washington post when George Floyd was killed under the knee of a Minneapolis cop in May 2020; Samuels was on the team that reported an award-winning series on the murder. (The series, \u201cGeorge Floyd\u2019s America,\u201d was featured in two Storyboard posts<\/a>, one with Samuels and one with then-editor Steven Ginsberg<\/a>.) Samuels then teamed with colleague Toluse Olorunnipa on the 2022 book, \u201cHis Name is George Floyd<\/a>: One Man\u2019s Life and Struggle for Racial Justice,\u201d which won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and was a finalist for a National Book Award. In March 2023, Samuels joined The New Yorker as a staff writer.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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And in November 2023, Samuels wrote about learning that the George Floyd biography had been banned<\/a><\/strong> by a high school in Memphis, Tennessee, under the state\u2019s new \u201cCritical Race Theory\/Age Appropriate Materials Law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The chain of events is non-linear, as are the claims and counterclaims by various school officials. In brief, Samuels and Olorunnipa had been invited to Memphis by organizations involved in a city-wide reading program. Their visit included a talk at Whitehaven High School, a public school with a majority Black student population. Before the visit, they were told there restrictions on what could and could not be read from the book or discussed in a presentation to students. According to Samuels\u2019 essay:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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(A school official) insisted that we discuss \u201cgentler topics.\u201d We were told not to connect policies of the past with contemporary racial disparities and to avoid \u201canything systemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In his New Yorker piece, Samuels delves a bit into his own childhood in the Bronx. He was 14 when Amadou Diallo<\/a> was killed during a stop by New York City police. His takeaway at the time:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Innocent black man. Shot forty-one times. A simple misunderstanding that could get you killed.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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At the same time, he was introduced to a deeper understanding of the Black experience in America through teachers who introduced him to Black authors:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I had once been told that the answer to anything could be found in a book.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Now he found the book he had written with Olorunnipa, the Post\u2019s White House bureau chief<\/a>, closed to young minds that probably were as hungry for knowledge as his had been. The realization, he wrote, was \u201cheartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In a conversation with Storyboard, Samuels described his motivations for writing about having his book banned, and what he learned about the different challenges of writing for newspapers, magazines and non-fiction books. The Q&A has been lightly edited for length and  clarity.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What prompted you to write your most recent essay for The New Yorker about the experience of your book being banned?
<\/strong>Learning the book was banned was horrifying. There\u2019s a lot of mythology about how books get banned, who bans the books and what it does for an author. Some people see it as a badge of honor or sign they\u2019ve done something well. But all I could think of was the fact that these students are prohibited from reading our book. I felt it was important to tell that story so people could understand what the stakes are. A million liberals \u2014 and people who don\u2019t need to be convinced about some of the content or concepts in the book \u2014 do not make up for the fact that high schoolers, at a very vulnerable time in their lives, will not get the chance to read it.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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There\u2019s a lot of mythology about how books get banned, who bans the books and what it does for an author. Some people see it as a badge of honor or sign they\u2019ve done something well. But all I could think of was the fact that these students are prohibited from reading our book.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What were you hoping to achieve with this essay?
<\/strong>Like so many writers, it was important to my spirit to be able to just write it down. It was therapeutic for me. I also hoped people would gain a more fulsome understanding of how this is happening and the reverberating effects of it. This was not a conservative, white government that did this, but a fairly democratic school district that\u2019s predominantly Black. They have to deal with living in a state that can be pretty vindictive about racial issues. I thought it was important for that to enter the conversation. It\u2019s so easy to simplify, but I wanted people to see the complicated mess of the state of books and journalism that we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What has the response been like to your piece? Do you think it did what you wanted it to do, and how do you gauge that in the first place?
<\/strong>When I was working at The Washington Post, a reporter\u2019s email was shared on the article so it was easier to get a sense of the response right away. At The New Yorker, my email address isn\u2019t connected to the article. I was glad to see that readers shared in their sadness and confusion about it. But how it furthers the conversation \u2014 we\u2019ll just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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At the very least, the idea that we were able to have this conversation in a public manner prompted the school district to reconsider their stance. Another thing that\u2019s important here is that an intrepid reporter at Chalkbeat Tennessee, Laura Testino<\/a>, had found this story before we did. I didn\u2019t want to scoop her \u2014 I wanted her to be able to tell the story that she had enterprised. I was so glad that there was a local journalism culture there in which an education reporter was able to do that.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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After Laura wrote her story, there was a lot of content aggregation based on a piece done by NBC News<\/a>, but it was not as precise as the Chalkbeat story. By the time we wrote our piece, there was a good amount of discussion about what was happening in Memphis, and a good amount of manipulation and spin from the school district about what happened. I was glad to be able to set the record straight and redirect the conversation to where it needs to be: If you are in one of these school districts and might feel the wrath of a larger government that sees \u2018acceptable books\u2019 in a different way than your local government does, what happens? There are real effects that emerge when a school district is strapped on cash and needs approval from their state government. They have to make really tough choices. I\u2019m glad that the conversation moved toward that end, as opposed to trying to beat up on Ron DeSantis again.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Robert Samuels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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You\u2019ve gone from doing enterprise work at a legacy paper like The Washington Post to The New Yorker \u2014 which is very much a narrative magazine \u2014 to writing a book. What kinds of different muscles have you had to develop in each environment?
<\/strong>Writing for The Washington Post feels like you\u2019re writing a very tightly knit ball out of rubber bands. It has to move forward as efficiently as possible and you need to make different decisions about the details you use. The New Yorker feels more like a ball of yarn that gets pulled by a cat. It moves a little bit more slowly. One detail has to follow the other detail, but there\u2019s more willingness for rumination.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Writing the book felt more freeing than either newspapers or magazines. You get to make choices about pacing, structure and context. You are creating a world for people. That world only exists in the pages of the book. Whereas even at a place like The New Yorker, you\u2019re writing in the context of a reader battling between you and other interesting things inside the same magazine or website. With a book, you can be more expansive \u2014 and in that expansion, you can actually be more decisive. You don\u2019t owe anyone a nut graf or a \u201cto be sure,\u201d paragraph that acknowledges some other perspective. You\u2019re not writing for a particular publication with a particular style. You have to decide what feels most natural and honors the work. Whether the reader stays engaged is completely on your shoulders.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How do those formats \u2014 writing the rubber bands, the yarn, the whole world \u2014 push you to develop different skills?
<\/strong>Newspapers require efficiency and contextual wisdom. How much can I put into this story with as few words as possible, recognizing that the person only gives me a couple seconds? For a magazine, it\u2019s sort of like: How much can I get away with? You still have to make decisions, but it\u2019s looser in terms of word count and there\u2019s more of a feeling that that natural chronology is key.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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When formulating stories for The Post, the most important sections or nut grafs would come around the 25% to 30% mark in a story. The takeaway or emotional meaning of the piece would come somewhere between the 60% and 75% mark.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Magazine pieces are more casual about it, even if the main thrust or emotional punch still appears around the 70% to 75% mark. The muscle I\u2019ve had to learn working at The New Yorker is trusting that the reader will stay with me as long as I\u2019m captivating.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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With a book, each chapter needs to earn its worth. Each sentence needs to earn its worth.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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With a book, each chapter needs to earn its worth. Each sentence needs to earn its worth. You write a book not so much in the immediate context of what\u2019s going on in the world, but rather, what the main themes of the book are. At the 25% to 30% mark of any chapter, you want to introduce a theme that links it to the previous and following chapters. But who knows when you get to the main thrust of a book? We probably didn\u2019t get to it until three or four paragraphs from the end. It\u2019s very different.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What do you mean when you say the context is different?
<\/strong>If I was writing about a book ban in a newspaper, I would think, \u2018What other stories have been written about book bans? How is this one different? How does this relate to other things that might share the page with this story?\u2019 Magazine pieces are a lot more isolated so a person is making a choice to read it because they think it\u2019s interesting. When you write your nut graf, your proof is like, \u2018This is interesting, stay with me,\u2019 as opposed to, \u2018There are six stories on this page and you need to choose one.\u2019<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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To flip my original question on its head, how do you see these story forms \u2014 newspaper, magazine, book \u2014 as fundamentally similar?
<\/strong>Every sentence has to earn its place. Language can\u2019t be wasted. When we first started writing the book, I had a lot of notes on extended dialogue from scenes in the original stories for The Washington Post that I thought were super interesting, but weren\u2019t relevant for the newspaper story. I thought they could be relevant here. But then I\u2019d realize, \u2018No, we didn\u2019t make this decision simply because there was no space. We made this decision because the extended dialogue actually doesn\u2019t work. It doesn\u2019t add anything.\u2019 There\u2019s a mythology that when you write a book, it\u2019s like writing the story you wanted to write without your editors saying you have to cut it down. But all of those things still apply.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The other mythology is that a book is like writing 10 magazine pieces and putting them together. It\u2019s not.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The other mythology is that a book is like writing 10 magazine pieces and putting them together. It\u2019s not. Even with magazines, you still have to exercise discipline. Just because you could write 8,000 words on a topic doesn\u2019t mean you necessarily should. From a reporting perspective, in both books and newspapers, you want to do it all yourself. In a magazine, it\u2019s a little less necessary for you to re-report other people\u2019s reporting. There\u2019s a lot more trust that other reputable newspapers have done it correctly.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What was the steepest part of the learning curve in terms of transitioning to book writing?
<\/strong>I think the steepest part was holding multiple threads at the same time. When you\u2019re doing an individual story, you do your reporting and live with it; after a couple of weeks, you\u2019re on to the next thing. With a book, you have to hold a much more sprawling narrative and outline in your head. That\u2019s hard. We wrote the book with the same standards and deals we\u2019d made with sources at The Post, which was: If something happens and a source, or a character, decides this project is not for them anymore, they can pull out. But managing sources is a different calculation for projects that will be turned around in a week or two, as opposed to in a year. It\u2019s hard to take people who have taken a risk by talking to you in the first place \u2014 and try to maintain a relationship with them so they still believe it\u2019s the right thing to do \u2014 over a longer period.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How do you pressure test an idea to determine if it\u2019s worthwhile to pursue as a long-term project for a magazine or even a book?
<\/strong>I\u2019m still learning that. For me, the first thing is: What fascinates me about it? Is this something that I can really wrestle with and have different opinions on. Can I find different facets to unpeel the onion? Is each part of that interesting? That makes me feel like we can sit with this for an extended period of time because my innate sense of curiosity will lead the way. I\u2019m fortunate enough to still find lots of things interesting.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Every editor I\u2019ve ever worked with will say that\u2019s both a good and bad thing in terms of me wrapping things up.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Who did you want to reach with your book, and how was that target audience different from The Post readers who were following the newspaper\u2019s coverage of George Floyd?
<\/strong>With the original series, we really tried to make it feel like there was something for everyone. A lot of times when we write about issues of race and racism, we think about it as helping white people. You imagine the well-meaning but ignorant white person who is willing to be educated.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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When we talked about conceiving the book, there were a few target audiences I wanted to hit. I thought about myself as a 16-year-old and then about my friends\u2019 kids \u2014 many of whom are between infancy and four years old, and are Black or kids of color. I wanted them to someday be able to think about this moment they\u2019d heard about and grab something that felt contemporaneous and real. I wanted them to have the opportunity I didn\u2019t have when I was a teenager.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I also thought about all of the people who would hear about this topic and think it would be too depressing, or that it would be some way to martyr a person who shouldn\u2019t be martyred, or people who don\u2019t believe racism exists. I wanted the book to be a challenge for them. If they had a friend or a teacher who was like, \u2018Listen, challenge what you know,\u2019 they could pick up the book and feel that some of these theoretical topics are very real and have tangible effects.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How have the public-facing and promotional aspects of book sales been for you?
<\/strong>I\u2019m fairly extroverted, yet even for me it\u2019s been really hard. Social media has changed this a little bit, but generally speaking, journalists are not usually in a position of promoting ourselves the same way we have to for books. We\u2019re not used to constantly asking people to pick our work up. It\u2019s uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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We were also trafficking in really tough, emotional topics with this book. So many times we\u2019ve gone out and talked about it, and I\u2019ve had to stop myself from crying. People ask for tips for how to prevent their kid from being shot by a police officer. People want to share their own incidents.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The flip side of that is that it\u2019s also incredibly rewarding to connect with people who have taken the time to come see you, read your work and have an in-person discussion about what moves them. You\u2019d never get that interaction in daily journalism. Book readers are also a lot nicer and more appreciative than newspaper readers.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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* * *<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Carly Stern<\/strong> is an award-winning freelance reporter based in San Francisco who covers housing, disability policy, urban life and economic inequality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Samuels’ co-authored book about the life and death of George Floyd was labeled inappropriate for students at a Tennessee high school<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[429],"topics":[],"authors":[8],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-questions","tag-books","authors-carly-stern"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen a Pulitzer-winning book is banned - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/01\/04\/pulitzer-book-race-george-floyd-book-bans-culture-wars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When a Pulitzer-winning book is banned - 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