LeVar Burton is being blunt about his feelings on the conservative push to ban books at a number of schools in the U.S.
Burton, who was host of the hit children’s literature program “Reading Rainbow,” weighed in on the Republican-led campaigns using a word that was a bit more suited to adults.
“It’s bullshit,” he said Thursday on “The View,” in a moment that was cut from the show’s YouTube clip of his appearance. “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.”
“Read the books they’re banning,” he added. “That’s where the good stuff is.”
The U.S. had 1,586 book bans between July 2021 and March of this year, according to a report by literary group PEN America.
A number of those banned books included people of color, topics of race and racism, or depictions of LGBTQ communities and issues, the report revealed.
A poll from February indicated most Americans don’t support bans on books about race or slavery, books critical of U.S. history, or books with political ideas that are different from their own.
Watch Burton’s take on book bans below.