Lydia Glenn

News Editor

lmg5921@psu.edu

Book ban efforts in the U.S. have recently been spreading like wildfire. Concerned parents and conservative politicians have been pushing lawmakers to pull books from public school libraries. 

In Wyoming, a county prosecutor’s office was considering charges against library employees for stocking books like “Sex is a Funny Word” and “This Book is Gay”. The prosecutors wanted to assign blame to library employees, which is almost physically impossible to do, given that it is a library, and they are just employees there. 

In Oklahoma, a bill was introduced in the State Senate that would prohibit public school libraries from keeping books on the shelves that focus on sexual activity, sexual identity or gender identity. I find this proposed bill to be unfair. I think it is important for public schools to keep books on hand that may help students with struggles like sexuality or gender identity. I think it is unfair to those students who look towards books for acceptance and inspiration. Taking books that deal with gender identity and sexual identity out of public schools leaves those students who already felt like they were part of a minority feeling like they were even further unwelcome and unwanted.

In Tennessee, the McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from an eighth-grade module on the Holocaust because of “nudity and curse words.” Art Spiegelman spoke out on the issue of his book being banned and challenged in many states. He stated, “It reminds me that things keep changing, but we’re still dealing with permutations of the same struggles.”

I have personally read the graphic novel “Maus”, and it changed my outlook on the art of the graphic novel and the Holocaust. I think banning this book will be a travesty. This graphic novel is a testament to how gruesome and violent the Holocaust was. Spiegelman purposefully chose mice as his characters to take away from some of the heaviness of the topic. 

I think it is very interesting that they banned the book for “nudity and curse words.” The graphic novel is representing and accounting a dark part of history, of course there will be curse words, nudity and gruesomeness. Does this new ban mean that every book which details gruesome history should be banned? What about history textbooks? Do they not portray the same ideals?

The American Library Association spoke out over the rising book ban efforts. They stated that they have received an “unprecedented” number of book challenges, specifically 330 books challenges. However, each book challenge can also include more than one book, which means that the number of books being challenged is at the very least 330. 

Suzanne Nossel, the chief of the executive free-speech organization said, “It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians.” 

Britten Follet who is the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions stated that, “the politicization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past. It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”

The books that are the most frequently targeted by book ban groups are cooks about race, gender and sexuality. One book that has come under fire from these conservative groups is “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson. Two others include Jonathon Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” 

“All Boys Aren’t Blue”, which is about the trials and tribulations of a young, queer black boy, is being targeted due to scenes that depict oral and anal sex and sexual assault. Although the book is recommended for children 14 years of age or older, many parents still have issues with this content.

In recent months, many parents have seen Google Docs or spreadsheets of contentious titles posted on Facebook by local organizations. These Facebook posts are the main ignition to the targeting of specific books. 

Nossel noted, “If you look at the lists of books being targeted, it’s so broad.” She also mentioned that some groups have essentially weaponized book lists meant to promote more diverse reading material for students. The groups are then taking those lists and demanding all titles be banned from school libraries. 

An advocacy which I believe wants to ban almost every book ever written says that they oppose books like “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn and “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. They say that these books are “used to spread radical and racist ideologies to students.”

For context, “The People’s History of the United States” is a book from the perspective of persecuted, powerless and marginalized people that lived in the U.S., changing the tone from previous history books written and focused solely on the pantheon of “heroes and elites.”

The fact that people are working tirelessly to ban a book which illuminates the history brought to us through eyes and mouths that we could never know is frankly an injustice. It is an injustice to everyone who has ever felt marginalized by the U.S. government and society. Taking this book out of school libraries, I believe, is an attempt to shut down voices that have been shut down for centuries. What is so bad about a book where people of minorities share their real life stories? How is the book more racist and radical than the attempt to ban the book?

“The Handmaid’s Tale” explores themes of subjugated women in patriarchal society, the loss of female agency and individuality and the various means by which they resist and attempt to regain their agency. I am unsure what type of radical theories this book is portraying and why this group is trying to have it banned. As a woman and a feminist, I think it is important for young girls to read books with themes of resistance and defiance to a male dominated society. The book explores the regaining of womanhood and individuality and I believe it would be a slap in the face to women’s rights and the women’s rights movement to ban this book. 

The same people who are demanding for those books to be removed also state that it is an issue of parental rights and choice, that all parents should be free to direct the upbringing of their own child. While that is correct, I believe that the idea of upbringing your child mostly ends when you send them off to public school. The school system is designed to teach your child the things you may not know. A parent should not be allowed to control what a student should be learning in school, that is up to the state and the teachers. Any parent who wants to control what their child is reading and learning has a very simple choice: homeschooling.  

Others against the book-banning movement say that prohibiting these books from having a place in public school libraries violates the rights of other parents and students and I would have to agree. Banning books is taking away everyone else’s rights to have access to all literature. 

Unfortunately, many school libraries already have mechanisms in place that stop individual students from checking out books of which their parents disapprove. I understand that parents feel they need to protect their child. I feel as though stopping your child from reading a book that interests them is taking away their free will.

The well-known author Laurie Halse Anderson, whose books are always being challenged, said that pulling books that deal with difficult subjects like racism and sexual assault makes it harder for students to discuss those issues. “By attacking these books, by attacking the authors, by attacking the subject matter, what they are doing is removing the possibility for conversation. You are laying the groundwork for increasing bullying, disrespect, violence and attacks.” 

Christopher M. Finan who is the executive director of The National Coalition Against Censorship said that he has not seen this level of challenge since the 1980s. He stated, “It’s this confluence of tensions that have always existed over what’s the proper thing to teach kids. These same issues are really coming alive in a new social environment, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.” 

With this influx of book challenges, police departments are also being flooded by reports. People who want to challenge a book can also file a criminal complaint, and that is what many are doing. George M. Johnson who authored “All Boys Aren’t Blue” said, “I didn’t even know that was something you could do, file a criminal complaint against a book.” Rather than the police dealing with more pressing issues, they are being bombarded with complaints about books by parents in the community. 

Even though criminal action has been taken against books and librarians, not much has happened. The New York Times states that the efforts to bring criminal charges against librarians and educators have largely faltered. Law enforcement in Florida, Wyoming and other states found that there is no basis for criminal investigations against librarians. At least some states see that charges against librarians are ridiculous. 

Deborah Caldwell, the director of the American Library Association, said that even talking about charges against librarians is enough to make it a spectacle. She also stated that, “It will certainly have a chilling effect. You live in a community where you’ve been for 28 years, and suddenly you might be charged with the crime of pandering obscenity. And you’d hoped to stay in that community forever.” 

Caldwell also feels that aggressively policing books for inappropriate content and banning titles could limit students’ exposure to great literature, and I agree with her. Censoring books for having mildly inappropriate themes is an insane idea to me. Most classic literature works contain some type of “adult” themes, but that does not mean those books are any less important and do not deserve to be read. 

Reading literature and expanding your brain is what I believe to be a basic human right and taking certain books away for middle and high school aged children to read isn’t protecting them. It is only hurting them in the long run. 

As said by Caldwell, “If you focus on five passages, you’ve got obscenity. If you broaden your view and read the work as a whole, you’ve got Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’.”