Book Bans

The NABWMT fights homophobia and racism. and now needs to be aware that books by LGBTQ and Black are under attack.

In my opinion, book banning is a violation of our First Amendment rights. When the government bans a book, it sends a clear message that certain ideas are not acceptable in society. Sounds familiar in your life?

A society in which bans books is no longer a free society. It is one in which the government tells the people what books to read—and therefore what ideas to encounter and, ultimately, what to think.

Importantly, Black and Gay books are the source of history of these communities.

The Keller Independent School District, just outside of Dallas, passed a new rule in November: It banned books from its libraries that include the concept of gender fluidity.

The change was pushed by three new school board members, elected in May with support from Patriot Mobile, a self-described Christian cellphone carrier.

Through its PAC (political action committee), Patriot Mobile poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Texas school board races to promote candidates with conservative views on race, gender and sexuality — including on which books children can access at school.

Usually, library books are decided between a concerned parent and a librarian or administrator, and resulte in a single title or a few books being re-evaluated, and either removed or returned to shelves.

But recently, a rapidly growing and increasingly influence of conservative groups has changed this.

The organizations describe themselves as defending parental rights with a recent focus on books.

The groups have pursued their goals by becoming heavily involved in local and state politics, where Republican efforts have largely outmatched liberal organizations in many states for years.

They have created PAC’s, funded campaigns, endorsed candidates and packed school boards, fueling challenges to individual books and to drive changes in the rules governing what books are available to children.

These groups claim the books to be sensitive, inappropriate or pornographic. In practice, the books have been by or about Black or L.G.B.T.Q. people, according to the American Library Association.

In Texas, 11 school board candidates backed by Patriot Mobile Action, the PAC formed by the cellphone company, won in four districts this year, including Keller.

The committee’s aim is to eliminate “critical race theory” and “L.G.B.T.Q. indoctrination” from schools.

Even books without sexual content can be problematic if they include L.G.B.T.Q. characters, because they are “sexualizing children,” and “It is normalizing a lifestyle that is a sexual choice.”

Amid growing polarization, books exploring racial and social issues are drawing fire in different parts of the United States.

As book bans explode across the country, librarians find themselves on the front lines of an acrimonious culture war, with their careers and reputations at risk.

The A.C.L.U and other advocacy groups filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Keller school district, arguing that banning books about gender fluidity creates “a pervasively hostile atmosphere for L.G.B.T.Q.+ students.”

The book banners don’t want to use the word ban. Instead they remove, relocate, restrict — all these other words that aren’t ‘ban.’ But it’s a ban.

There are at least 50 groups across the country working to remove books they object to from libraries.

Many of these groups were formed to fight Covid restrictions in schools, some groups adopted a broader conservative agenda focused on opposing instruction on race, gender and sexuality, and on removing books they regard as inappropriate.

Alarmingly there is a Florida bill that gave all county residents, not just parents, the power to challenge a book in a school district. Opponents say it contributed to waves of book challenges.

The Florida Board of Education said districts should interpret a book list. Some librarians and parents are concerned it will have a chilling effect.

Librarians across the state are already self-censoring for fear of retribution, and asking themselves, Am I ready to defend this book, is this worth the fight?

The United States has a long history with book banning, and it’s not only picking up steam in 2022—it’s also becoming more problematic.

Some of the most frequently banned books include the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds.

Here are four reason why banning doesn’t work.

First, students deprived of texts that will enable them to construct their learning rather than have it forced down their throats, don’t learn and, worse, don’t learn how to learn.

The second reason is that we are curious folks and every time a book has been banned, that book has become the most popular book in town—students want to read it to see why it was banned.

The third reason is that students are usually more resilient and knowledgeable than their parents know—they can handle, they often need, the texts some parents want to tear out of their hands.

Reason four is that our democracy was designed for a knowledgeable electorate and having someone dictate what we can or cannot learn does not produce such an electorate.

The NABWMT was formed to educate and did so for over 40 years, let us not allow these book bans to exist. This could erase our history of struggles!

 

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Source: New York Times