September 18 through the 24 was labeled Banned Books Week of this year. The focus this year of banning books centered on LGBT content and racial minorities. The shift to LGBT content from racial justice in the last years has made another disparaged group the target of attack in literature.
Not only has there been a culture war surrounding LGBT literature but there has also been legislative action around restricting these books. Five out of the ten most challenged books by parents and legislature have LGBT content or are LGBT based, according to NBC. Action like this puts educators and librarians in the middle of the fighting between schools and parents.
Diversity is the main catalyst that has parents up in arms about these materials. While diversity may not be the verbalized reason parents are urging for these books to be discontinued in their libraries it is an underlying reason, according to the ALA.
Young students need to learn about diverse topics, according to The New York Times. The topic debated is that if restricting the access and availability of books with diverse topics go against school age children’s rights. Restricting this access also hinders students from being able to be exposed to difficult topics, such as discrimination, and be able to process and talk about those topics when they come up in those students’ lives.
Some parents may say that those who desire to read those diverse topics could go out and buy the book, according to The Week. These students who could easily go out and buy a book on diversity are not the students that need those books the most.
Organizations such as No Left Turn in Education impede the education process by restricting diverse material to students, while other organizations such as We Need Diverse Books promote the inclusion of all types of minorities in education.
Book banning may have never left American schools but it does not lessen the impact erasing history can do to children, according to The Week.
Toni Morrison, author of highly banned books such as The Bluest Eye and Beloved, said that banning books is “censorship designed to appease adults rather than educate children.”
Morrison, who died in 2019, saw through the facade that is banning books. Banning books is discrimination against a certain demographic or group and getting rid of books on those topics is how discrimination can show itself, according to CNN.
Banning books may not be an action of the past, but it can be combated. Social justice movements and activism can give the oppressed the representation that they need in education and libraries.