In years to come, we might call it the Steinbeck problem. Of Mice and Men is one of the most banned books in the United States and will no longer be studied at GCSE in Wales from September – a reaction to the racism and use of racial slurs within the text.

Is this something to mourn, or cause for wild celebration? It is complicated. Indeed, it represents a near perfect literary and moral conundrum for the education system of a multicultural, multiracial society. Especially one plagued with culture wars fought in bad faith.

On one hand, Of Mice and Men is widely considered a literary classic. It was, at one point, studied by 90% of teenagers taking English literature GCSEs, for good reason. It is superbly well written, accessible and a deeply thoughtful moral fable on how we treat each other. On the other hand, some of the contextually necessary yet deeply racist language within it (including the N-word) could be psychologically and emotionally damaging to Black children in particular – especially Black children in super-minoritised positions. Think of the only Black child in, say, a rural school. That’s potentially a life-defining experience – one that I have personally lived.

But should the primary and secondary education system, which is tasked with nourishing the precious young minds of our future generations, really be a place where we are balancing psychological and emotional harm with literary excellence? Asked about Of Mice and Men’s removal from the syllabus, the Granta-listed writer Derek Owusu said: “It’s nonsense, an empty gesture … especially when books like To Kill a Mockingbird are worse because the racism is cloaked in liberalism.” As fate would have it, To........

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