Over the past year, banned books in schools and the effort to challenge books in school libraries has been steadily building. In local and state governments across the country, school districts and their library systems are facing objections to a diverse range of literature. Not only do many of these bans aim to keep certain books off shelves, they’re also one piece in a larger puzzle that seeks to prohibit the discussion of important subjects like race and gender identity.
Book bans have serious and potentially long-lasting effects on students. When access to books is limited, young people in particular miss out on the many benefits of reading and the ways in which books can transform their lives and minds. It’s important for students of all ages to know about these bans, their impact, and how to stay engaged in the fight to keep books available to all people.
What Are Book Bans & Where Do They Originate?
Book bans occur when books are removed from shelves due to objections to their content and ideas. The American Library Association (ALA) defines the difference between a book challenge and a book ban by stating that a challenge “attempts to remove or restrict materials,” while banning is “the removal of those materials.” Both of these actions limit the right of free expression. Book banning challenges First Amendment rights by censoring information and suppressing ideas. The Supreme Court has repeatedly expanded upon this by upholding the right to receive information.
So why are they so prevalent? According to the New York Times, proponents of book bans claim that the issue is a matter of parental choice, and that parents should be able to dictate, at least in part, what their children are being exposed to in schools. However, those against book bans argue that such bans limit the rights of children to have access to those materials, especially when they’re removed from the entire school’s curriculum or library.
Historically, book bans are nothing new. In fact, they’ve existed in many different forms for centuries. From religious institutions to the Puritan colonizers to Nazi Germany, books have been banned and burned throughout human history. In the U.S., The Comstock Act of 1873 made it illegal to circulate any sort of “obscene” literature and reading materials. These laws were later used to justify the banning of books like The Canterbury Tales and Ulysses.
Throughout the 20th century, novels like The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings were regularly banned by local school districts and state governments. ALA even keeps records of books that are frequently challenged or banned, with many classics making the list. No matter the time period or decade, each of these challenges were aimed at the limiting of ideas.
Unsurprisingly, these bans were met with resistance. Founded in 1982, “Banned Books Week” is an annual event that celebrates reading and intellectual freedom. Typically, Banned Books Week is held during the last week of September and encourages readers to explore challenged or banned books. The event is sponsored by a coalition of organizations that support free expression and is aimed at raising awareness about book banning at schools and libraries.
What’s Happening With Book Bans Now?
In the three-month period between September 1 and November 30, 2021, ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom tracked more than 330 unique censorship incidents involving books — which was deemed “unprecedented.”
School boards and state legislatures are often the primary channels of book ban legislation. At the local level, parents and incensed community members are attending school board meetings and demanding that certain titles be removed from shelves. At the state level, conservative lawmakers are prohibiting entire topics relating to subjects like race and sexuality from discussion. Conservative groups, in particular, are pushing the issue into statehouses and as talking points in political races.
Amanda Khong is the owner of Bookish Brews, a blog dedicated to promoting marginalized authors and their books. Her work keeps her closely tied to the latest developments with book bans and attacks on diverse literature. Khong tells Her Campus that what’s happening is obvious and targeted.
“If you look at which books are being banned from schools, it’s easy to see that most of them are stories that discuss certain marginalizations, primarily racism or any kind of LGBTQIA+ storyline,” she says. “This is detrimental to us because when we push certain voices to the margins, we start to forget that their voices are important. This is, in fact, the goal with book bans.”
The examples of these bans are abundant, and several cases have made national news. In January of this year, the Pulitzer-prize winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale was banned by a Tennessee school board for “objectionable language.” A St. Louis school district voted to ban Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in January, only to then reverse its decision at the end of February due to legal challenges and public condemnation. Author George Johnson’s memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue, which discusses the experience of being Black and queer during adolescence, has been targeted among book ban supporters in at least 14 states. Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer is another popular target.
Notably, The 1619 Project — an anthology of works placing slavery at the center of the American narrative — has been maligned and banned by numerous schools and states. Critics incorrectly use The 1619 Project as fuel for backlash against critical race theory. Legislation passed in response to 1619 and other related works goes far beyond banning books from shelves. Rather, it silences the discussion of race and history altogether. Chalkbeat reports that at least 36 states have adopted or introduced laws or policies that restrict teaching about race and racism over the past year.
Legislation like Florida’s “Individual Freedom” bill — formerly titled the “Stop W.O.K.E Act” — threatens to limit conversations about race in the classroom. This bill goes hand-in-hand with Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, or the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, to prohibit instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for young students. These laws are being put forth across the country to eliminate education on the experiences of people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
“The people banning books know exactly how life-changing stories can be. Knowledge is always power,” says Khong. “But it’s more than that. Banning books cuts us off from the voices of people who we can’t always hear and if we can’t hear their voices, before long we will forget they exist. And that is when we will start to lose our fire to fight back.”
The Impact Of Book Bans On Gen Z Students
Book bans and the far-reaching policies that often accompany them have both immediate and long-term impacts on students of all ages.
Beverly Gearreald, community manager at the college and career prep company Transizion, says that the danger of a book ban lies in its generally silent nature. “In particular, when children are never exposed to certain ideas, they may never realize those issues exist in the world, to the detriment of society at large,” she tells Her Campus.
Additionally, these bans reject the agency and expertise of teachers and librarians. When teachers are limited as to what subjects and material they can teach, it restricts their ability to teach honest and accurate accounts of subjects like history and literature. Likewise, librarians are much less able to connect students with the reading materials that they are seeking. It also makes it difficult for educators to foster inclusive classrooms and learning environments.
For college students interested in pursuing a career in education, it can be discouraging to consider a future career in which they’re not able to equip their students with truthful information or the quality of instruction they hope to provide.
Maya, 19, is a student at Florida State University and works for a social impact nonprofit called BookTalk. She tells Her Campus that she sees book banning as a tactic to keep people away from knowledge and concepts like equality and love. “People trying to keep books with themes that bring students from all backgrounds into the narrative of what is acceptable in literature are simply trying to ban a certain type of story,” she says.
When students are unable to access books and resources on certain topics, it can create a host of negative consequences. Students who are unable to read about people who look like them or who come from similar lived experiences might not believe they’ll ever find a sense of community. This gap in representation can diminish a young reader’s sense of self-worth. Books show how characters and real people navigate their struggles, and give hope that readers can do the same in their own lives.
“When I first started seeking out books that represented me, I gained immense confidence in myself,” says Maya. “Western beauty standards taught me I wasn’t beautiful, that my skin was too dark, my eyebrows too hairy. However, books with brown girls like me taught me to love my brown skin, my thick hair, my rich and vibrant culture. Representation taught me to hold my head high when I did not feel Asian enough or American enough, because seeing myself represented in literature and knowing that my identity was worth writing into a story was validation that I was enough.”
Reading a wide range of material also helps readers empathize with the experience of people whose lives might not be similar to their own. Banning books on difficult topics or on subjects that might be unfamiliar to some only limits our capacity for empathy.
“Book banning makes us less united,” says Gearreald. “By denying the existence of other perspectives, we minimize them and tell them they are unworthy of recognition, further dividing us. This is particularly evident when students go to college and find themselves learning about the Stonewall riots for the first time or not understanding why a classmate may be struggling to decide between buying textbooks or eating. Instead of having these conversations as they are growing up, they are faced with the harsher realities of life all at once.”
Book bans also create a vacuum for credible information. When students can’t access reliable information, they might turn to less-than-reputable sources such as YouTube and unverified social media websites. Banning discussions of topics like race, gender, and sexuality does not make these things disappear; it only lays the groundwork for misinformation to spread. Knowing how to locate and evaluate good sources of information is an important skill that will impact someone in elementary school, high school, college and beyond by allowing them to consider new ideas and ways of thinking.
How You Can Take Action Against Book Banning
The difficulties associated with book bans are numerous, but they can be confronted. Students can take action in a host of ways.
For those aged 18 and over, you can make a commitment to vote in every election. This is especially true for state and local elections where many of the representatives who make policy on this issue are chosen. You can also write to organizations like ALA to notify them of book bans at schools in your area and help them stay informed. Try to discuss the issue of book bans with your peers and keep each other vigilant for legislation that is being proposed in your region.
As a book expert, Khong encourages readers to support authors from marginalized backgrounds. “Buy their books, promote them on social media, review them on sites like Barnes & Noble and Goodreads,” she suggests. “Young adult authors rely heavily on school tours to promote their work, but when their books aren’t allowed in the school, they can suddenly lose a huge piece of their marketing campaign. Show your support for these books wherever you can find them. Remember, books are our culture and culture precedes legislation.”
As always, continue to read widely and support your school’s library, as well as your local library. Consider attending library events and affirm your support of access to books for all.
Books will always offer readers the opportunity to learn something new. They make us think and help us find meaning. Books allow us to connect with those who have come before us, as well as our contemporaries. What we learn by reading materials that are joyful, challenging and unexpected is that life can be experienced in many different ways. Taking that away by banning books is dangerous and it suppresses learning in one of its most crucial forms.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.