LeVar Burton Calls Book Bans in Schools “Bullsh*t” on ‘The View’: “This Is Not Going Away”

LeVar Burton has never been shy about speaking on politics, so during a appearance on The View it wasn’t a shocker that, when he was asked about conservatives banning books in elementary schools, Burton didn’t hold back.

The former Reading Rainbow host stopped by the daytime talk show to promote his new documentary, Butterfly In The Sky, named for the classic theme song of his show. During the interview, Joy Behar pointed out the number of books that have been banned in schools lately, “especially about race, sexuality and basically American history.”

“Bullshit,” Burton replied bluntly, though the curse was bleeped for air. “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 do deal with.”

Burton added that just because something is unpleasant doesn’t mean the story should be ignored. “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.”

At the beginning of the interview, Burton expressed how excited he was to be hosting a show that encouraged children to read books.

“I believed it could be a really powerful ally, and that’s kind of what I built this part of my career on; using the prevailing technology to promote literature,” he said.

Whoopi Goldberg, who co-hosts The View, is the executive producer on the documentary, and she was also a guest star on Reading Rainbow in the 1993 episode “Amazing Grace”.

Her co-host Ana Navarro asked the Sister Act star why she wanted to be a part of the show. Her response was, “when you’re a fan of someone as I was– still am of LeVar Burton– when someone says would you do Reading Rainbow?” she shouted happily, “I said YEAH! Do you want me to bring a book? Because as a kid who couldn’t really read for the longest time — I understood because people read to me. And someone reading them to me was magical. So I wanted to be a part of anything that furthered education.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.