In response to the recent tragedy in Charleston and subsequent (and just) calls to remove the confederate flag from public buildings and monuments, Google last week announced it was jumping on the growing bandwagon of corporations that are pulling merchandise featuring the confederate flag from their shelves. For Google, this means automatically disapproving these “product listing ads” that are uploaded to its popular shopping portal by individual online retailers.

Unfortunately, in their panicked scramble it looks as if Google pulled out a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, and has begun automatically disallowing a large number of book listings that contain the word “confederate” in the title or description. Or perhaps – conspiratorially thinking – Google has decided it’s more convenient to just disappear this sad part of American history through censorship. And don’t doubt for a minute that they can.

Just a few of the “offensive” books that you will no longer be seeing advertised through Google’s shopping portal as a result of this change include:

Author’s note: Just to make our stance unequivocal: we fully support the removal of what has become a symbol of hatred and injustice from all public buildings, monuments and places.