The library is as much an idea as it is a place. One that can be a pillar of the community, of a school and in virtue a monument to what it is to be human, but for decades an unappreciated one. In 2023 there were 4,240 unique challenges to ban books, making up roughly a quarter of all challenges within the last 2 decades. Conservative fear-mongering has amassed significant influence across education politics, this will only cause harm to the student.
The push for book bans is not new, but it has definitely intensified, with 2021 having 485% more title challenges than 2020, and 2023 having 1450% more challenges than 2020, a monumental increase. This effort has been spearheaded by local school boards, which can receive national scrutiny but rest well knowing local voters will stand behind them, but statewide efforts in Texas and Florida have also contributed to the movement. In Texas, the 2023 READER act mandated a manual be created for appropriate books by a governor appointed board, and gave the TEA power to create a do not buy list for schools, drastically restricting school libraries access to material, ironic considering Texas Governor Abbott’s promise months later that “Working together, we will deliver school choice and a brighter future for every child across Texas”. Book banning on their part may sound rational—who would want to expose children to pornographic writing or suicide? These are the most graphic of the cases with the rest being heteronormative bans or denying education on sensitive topics like the Holocaust, like with Maus. When unmasked the intention of the parent is not fear for the child, but for the society. It is not enough for the reactionary parent to control what their children need, in times of perceived societal change a desire emerges to control as a form of stability, unto other people, even infringing on others’ rights.
For the modern conservative in favor of book bans, they do not see what society loses, they only see what their idyllic culture gains. They may see that the young minds they mold become more ill-read and more clueless to the realities of the world, but they do not see what they lose. The loss in creativity, cognition gains, stress relief, passion and most relevant, media literacy. This concept is an elementary skill that we should all have at our disposal if we are to engage with modern media, we need it. Media literacy is to understand that a book does not endorse bad things because the book has bad things, that a book is not real life and to reach your conclusions. It means that you do not just have access to media, but have the skill to analyze what you read. In 2019 only 19 states had media literacy education mandates, with California being a notable recent addition. Only 59% of households with children reported having media literacy education at their local public school, despite 84% of adults believing it should be provided in all schools. These same adults have also suffered from media illiteracy, as most did not receive any media literacy education in high school.
In January of 2022, the McMinn school board in Tennessee decided to ban Maus, a gorgeous graphic novel discussing the Holocaust, through the recounting of Art Spiegelman’s father’s memories, and to depict the truths of human suffering. To justify the decision the board cited a naked dead mouse, finding it “unnecessary”. This was a commonplace fact of the Holocaust and to deny it would be to try to make a kinder Holocaust, yet they do so, and ignore the beautiful and devastating story of which this is only one tiny component. They fail to recognize that this is not to normalize something or harm children with unpleasant depictions, but to tell an impactful story and to reveal something about the world, to be thoughtful and reflective and to make more empathetic people. I fear for Tennessee if these are the people who run their school districts if such severe media illiteracy lies at the height of their school districts.
Barnes & Noble has a section titled “challenged and banned books”. It’s a saddening fact that we require a banned books section in order to provide sufficient access to these books, that to access them makes you a rebel, that to read Gender Queer, the most banned book of 2023, makes you a revolutionary to the 56 school districts in which it is banned. Historically, book bans have been carried out by a totalitarian regime, feeding off the fear of the populace or protecting its interests through censorship, but what is most terrifying about this recent wave, is there is no dictator. Censorship is being undertaken by parents, workers and the masses. They remain a minority, but by pushing their movement so far they have made books like Gender Queer into rebellious books, making truly rebellious or revolutionary texts seem ludicrous in comparison.
How could so many people become so afraid? To me, this emerges from the decline of moderate conservatism, as ideological diversity died in the Republican party it became easier to go further right and more beneficial to provoke voters, the concept of Fear Theory as known in sociology, which speaks to how manufactured the book banning spur in the U.S. is. It allows conservative leaders to profit off this political provocation. It is understandable why parents may dislike some banned books, some include semi-pornographic moments, and they fear for their children, though it remains unjustified.
Though children are malleable, they are not fools. They can tell that depiction is not endorsement when educated about it, something many parents fail to recognize. Some books discuss porn or have pornographic sequences not as an endorsement to students, but because it is the state of our world, morphing many facets of human nature today. Ignorance only worsens issues and produces societal rifts as some become out of touch with the reality of our world thanks to the content they consume. To the book banning conservative, the American dream has no space for reality.
A sweeping portion of these books are written by LGBTQ+ authors or discuss the topic. Of the 10 most challenged titles of 2024, 7 of them deal with LGBTQ+ themes. This clearly shows that book banning stretches past the fear of graphic content and of cultural expression and LGBTQ+ identity, to preserve heteronormative writing or conservative culture idyllic of the American dream of the 60s. Whiter, wealthier, privileged areas have more book-banning efforts due to “fear of societal change and loss of traditional privileges”. In a nation that only legalized gay marriage nine years ago, tensions over further victories for LGBTQ+ rights are bound to reveal themselves as the pace of social progress accelerates, outpacing the rate at which conservatives are willing to make concessions, so creating a fear response out of their terror at the societal transformation.
I fear for this moment in America. I hope this is a brief lapse of judgment. I hope this is a small wave of radicalism that soon falls. But I only hope, as behind the thin veil of such extremism hides years of frustration, polarization, provocation, and fear. How fear motivates a society never ceases to amaze or terrify, having emerged from the dissatisfaction of the masses who have flocked to protect a reality they think they knew, by increasingly extreme means each time. A semi-fascist ideology looms over the American conscience, which leaves me only with the hope enough of us defend the right to read.
