LeVar Burton dropped by The Daily Show With Trevor Noah to do a skit encouraging students to "read banned books." Currently, Republican lawmakers, school officials and parents are protesting against critical race theory and related material they perceive as divisive, according to The 74.

In the skit, the former Reading Rainbow host holds up different books, including Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, which tells the story of civil rights activist Rosa Parks and segregation. Barton speaks to the camera and briefly explains the premise of the book before being abruptly interrupted with a static screen that reads "Please Stand By. Content Violation."

"As it turns out, that book is banned because reading about segregation is divisive," Burton says when his faux television feed returns. "Almost any book with Black people these days is considered divisive."

At the end of his skit, Burton encourages viewers to "read the books they don't want you to, that's where the good stuff is."

The banning of books from public schools and libraries has picked up traction in states like Tennessee, where a school board banned Maus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman, the Independent reports.

Additionally, an Oklahoma lawmaker introduced a bill giving parents the ability to argue against the reading of certain books, according to The Hill. 

Noah criticized lawmakers who are fanning the flames of the book-banning discussion to keep "the culture war going for political benefit."

"You don't just have Republicans in dozens of states around the country suddenly realizing, all at the same time, that there are books that they want to ban in their libraries," he said.

"Come on. It's happening because they think it's a winning issue, or at least they think it's more of a winning issue than Trump is secretly still the president," he added. 

At the end of his 10-minute segment, Noah warned that such outright censorship will not stop at public schools.

"It's happening in schools, and who knows if it'll even stop there?" he said. "Maybe it'll start in schools, but pretty soon, any place that kids go to to find books could become a target."

banned booksCritical-race-theory