Censorship of Banning Books on the rise

 

·        Book bans and challenges doubled from 2020 to 2021, according to the American Library Association.

·        LGBTQ books account for one-third of all attempted bans.

·        Some conservative politicians are leading the charge.

·        Libraries are fighting back and expanding access to books.

All that know me to know I don’t do censorship at all, I could care what others are reading, watching or listening to, just as long as you are not causing harm to others. And reading a book that someone else doesn’t like is not harming or harming anyone. And before anyone turns this into a political thing both political parties are to blame for it, they all have people that want to ban things they don’t like. Its also not a religious argument either because is not the same for everyone and remember the Bible Torah and the Qur’an all have been banned by someone or some group. They remember the US Constitution that the right-wing nuts keep bringing up and don’t want to defend our bill of rights unless it is against their own thoughts, because there is that little thing called freedom of speech, and press, which makes censorship unconstitutional and illegal.

Restricted books are not new; however, they have acquired new pertinence in a heightening societal war that puts books focusing on prejudice, sexuality, and orientation personality in danger in government-funded schools and libraries. A sensational increase in tested books over the course of the last year, a heightening of control strategies, and the organized provocation of educators and custodians has consistently invested book-prohibiting amounts of energy in news titles. Would-be book pennants contend that peruses can in any case buy books they can never again access through open libraries, however that is just valid for those with the monetary assets to do as such. For the overwhelming majority, especially kids and youthful grown-ups, schools and public libraries are the main means to get to writing.

·        Summer Boismier, a former high school teacher in Oklahoma, resigned in opposition to a new state law that bans certain race and gender concepts from schools. Oklahoma Secretary of Education Ryan Walters has called for her teaching license to be revoked.

·        Tennessee schools removed more than 300 books from library shelves as state legislators made proposals for banning LGBTQ books, including books the district labeled “Black Lives Matter.”

·        A west Michigan's only community library might close in a battle over LGBTQ books. After library staff refused to pull queer-themed books from shelves, Jamestown Township residents voted to defund their only library. 

·        Librarians are becoming targets. When Amanda Jones, a middle-school librarian in Livingston, Louisiana, spoke up against book banning at a local library board meeting, she became the target of an online harassment campaign calling her a "pervert" and "sick pig."

·        A Texas school district pulled all books from library shelves and classrooms that were challenged by parents, lawmakers, and other community members in the last year — including the Bible. Keller Independent School District removed 41 books while they undergo a review.

·        A Pennsylvania school district is instituting giving any district resident the ability to challenge books available in schools.

·        A small-town Iowa library briefly closed its doors and was without a director following a string of resignations and criticism over the hiring of LGBTQ employees and certain books in the library.

At the point when a book is effectively "prohibited," that implies a book has been taken out from school educational plans as well as open libraries on the grounds that an individual or gathering has had a problem with its substance. An endeavor to get a book eliminated is known as a test. Most government-funded schools and libraries have blocks made of chosen authorities (or individuals selected by chosen authorities) who have the ability to eliminate books from the schools and libraries they regulate. A book boycott is huge on the grounds that it limits others' admittance to books, and the thoughts held inside those books, in view of someone else's frequently philosophically or politically roused complaint.

The American Library Affiliation (ALA) monitors difficulties and boycotts the nation over, and the latest information is disturbing. In 2021, the ALA recorded 729 book difficulties focusing on 1,597 titles. That is over two times 2020's figures and the largest number since the association started keeping the information in 2000. The genuine numbers are possible a lot higher: A few difficulties are never revealed by libraries, and books prudently pulled by curators out of dread for their positions are excluded.

A new examination by PEN America found that many tested books centre around networks of variety, the historical backdrop of prejudice in America, and LGBTQ characters. As a matter of fact, one of every three books confined by school locale in the previous year highlighted LGBTQ topics or characters.

Here are the 10 most challenged books of 2021, according to the ALA: 

1.     “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe

2.     “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison

3.     “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson

4.     “Out of Darkness,” by Ashley Hope Perez

5.     “The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas

6.     “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie

7.     “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” by Jesse Andrews

8.     “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison

9.     “This Book Is Gay,” by Juno Dawson

10.  “Beyond Magenta,” by Susan Kuklin

Many books that were historically banned ended up becoming literary classics that are still taught in modern classrooms. Accordingly to the ALA, frequently banned classics include:

·        "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee

·        "The Catcher in the Rye," by JD Salinger

·        "The Grapes of Wrath," by John Steinbeck

·        "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker

·        "1984," by George Orwell

·        "Brave New World," by Aldous Huxley

·        "Native Son," by Richard Wright

·        "Slaughterhouse-Five," by Kurt Vonnegut

·        "A Separate Peace," by John Knowles

·        "The Lord of the Flies," by William Golding

Book restricting first stood out as truly newsworthy this year when the McMinn Province Educational committee in Tennessee cast a ballot 10-0 to eliminate Workmanship Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning realistic diary "Maus," about his folks' insight of the holocaust, from its educational programme. From that point forward, there's been a generally safe push to eliminate specific titles from schools and libraries, at times with government officials driving the charge, including:

During his fruitful run for Virginia lead representative, the conservative competitor Glenn Youngkin ran a disputable promotion highlighting a mother who had a problem with her teen child being doled out Toni Morrison's "Cherished" in English class. In April, presently Lead representative Youngkin marked a bill requiring Virginia schools to tell guardians when their kids are relegated to books that contain physical express satisfaction. Henry McMaster who is a Conservative South Carolina lead representative upheld an educational committee's choice to eliminate "Orientation Eccentric," referring to the book as "profane." Ron DeSantis a Conservative Florida lead representative likewise reprimanded "Orientation Strange" and this year endorsed into regulation a bill expecting schools to make all books and materials more straightforward so guardians can "blow the whistle."

American Library Association: Every year, the ALA and libraries across the country celebrate Banned Books Week in September. This year’s Banned Books Week runs Sept. 18-24 with the theme "Books unite us, censorship divides us."

Foundation 451: A fundraiser in Florida to buy challenged books and distribute them to students spawned thousands in donations and has morphed into a nonprofit organization. The organization has distributed books at about a dozen events, setting up tables at festivals, churches, and local businesses.

Nashville Public Library: This Southern library protested banned books this year with a limited edition library card with the special message: "I read banned books." The bright yellow cards are part of the library's Freedom to Read campaign celebrating the "right to read."   

Margaret Atwood: Author of the frequently banned dystopian feminist novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” promoted the auction of a specially commissioned unburnable edition of her book made of Cinefoil by unsuccessfully attempting to incinerate a prototype with a flamethrower. The stunt brought in $130,000, with proceeds going to PEN America.