Book banning is an unfortunate development stirring in America today. According to data from the American Library Association, 1,597 books were removed or challenged in 2021, the highest number since data-tracking for banned books started 20 years prior. The organization also acknowledges that the majority of these disputed books happen to be about or written by Black and LGBTQ+ people.
Some of the potentially banned material includes famous works like “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger and “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, which details their experiences and hardships with their nonbinary and gender non-conforming identity. “The Hate You Give” by Angie Thomas is also being challenged by lawmakers. In it, the main character, Starr Carter, witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend by a police officer and struggles to seek justice for him and combat police brutality.
Given America’s current polarized political climate, it’s almost expected that conservative politicians would stoop so low. This is a bold-faced attempt at shameless censorship and is astonishing considering the progress America has made in open-mindedness in the last 20 years. It appears as though some truly pathetic individuals are still attempting to reset all the headway the U.S. has made.
This is a bold-faced attempt at shameless censorship
It’s important to realize how much book bans will affect America’s youth. While conservative parents may believe that they’re protecting their children from these ideas, what they’re really doing is allowing their children to be more misinformed and uneducated than they already may be. BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities will always exist, even without visibility. It’s impossible to simply wipe these identities from history. Allowing for children to be misled by censorship will do nothing other than make them less capable of understanding the hardships these communities have endured. These communities’ existence and their struggles are a part of America’s history and current issues. When people are unaware of these struggles, it doesn’t diminish their existence. Rather, it simply contributes to ignorance and heightens racism and injustice. Ignorance breeds bigotry, so to vanquish those problems, people, especially from a young age, must learn about and be acquainted with identities that they may not be familiar with.
These book bannings are especially detrimental to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ adolescents, who may not have ever felt truly represented in literature before. It’s important for children and teens to be represented in literature. Not having these kinds of books easily accessible could prove harmful to their well-being.
Adversity and maltreatment have always been prevalent, and while oppressed communities fervently contend with this, it is nonetheless disappointing with a government as dilatory is America’s. Conservative politicians consistently abuse their rights as government officials and carry out oppressive legislation, damaging and impairing minorities while maintaining that this shameless persecution is for the better of America.
In order to protect the youth of America, people must combat these book bannings with full force. If not, there will be no record of the struggles of oppressed communities and children will be as ignorant as some of the politicians in power today. The goal of the newer generations is to better society and improve for future generations. To do so, children must be informed of these topics, no matter how uncomfortable it makes their parents and right-wing politicians.
