By Sunita Sohrabji. Ethnic Media Services.
“Public school libraries have always been essential features of our democracy. But what we are seeing now is a real polarization of what should and should not be available, driven by a few” – Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read Program.
The culture wars are raging, especially in public school libraries in the South, with an unprecedented number of bans on books written by people of color or LGBTQIA authors.
“Public schools and their school libraries have always been essential elements of our democracy. And there have been times in history where this has been challenged and there have been pressures around what is and isn’t offered in public schools,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read Program, in an April 24 interview with Ethnic Media Services.
"But what we're seeing now is a real polarization and a real escalation of what should and shouldn't be available, according to some. Of course, it's never according to the many. It's run by the few," he said.
Banning the classics
Many of the books now banned are timeless classics, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," published in 1970, and Judy Blume's "Forever," published in 1975.
During the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, 1,477 cases of individual books were banned, affecting 874 unique titles, according to the Report «Banned in the USA» ‒Banned in the U.S.‒, published April 20 by PEN America. More than 130 books were removed from library shelves each month during that six-month period, the report noted.
Book bans were most prevalent in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina, driven by a confluence of local actors and state-level policies, PEN noted.
Book bans in California and New York
But even progressive states have banned one or more books. Some New York school districts have banned Layla Saad’s “Me and White Supremacy” and Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: a Memoir.” Juno Dawson’s “This Book is Gay” is banned in California’s William S. Hart Union High School District. The full list of PEN America books from the past six months can be found at: consult here, indexed by states.
In March, the American Library Association (ALA) published new data documenting 1,269 challenges to censor books and library resources in 2022, the highest number of book ban attempts since the ALA began collecting data on library censorship two decades ago. The 2022 data was nearly double the 729 challenges recorded in 2021.
Depopulation of library shelves
A record 2,571 unique titles were subject to censorship, an increase of 38 percent from the 1,858 unique titles subject to censorship in 2021, the ALA noted in its report.
In an interview with Jeffrey Brown for PBS NewsHour, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, noted that advocacy groups like Moms for Liberty and No Left Turn in Education go to board meetings and demand the removal of up to 100 books at a time.
"This has led to a real depopulation of the shelves of many libraries, especially in states like Florida and Texas," he said.
National Library Week is celebrated from April 23-29. This year’s theme is “There’s More to the Story.”
freedom to read
The COVID-19 pandemic spurred activism, as parents organized to reopen schools or keep them virtual. That activism then extended to course curricula, the books being taught, as well as book bans, Meehan said.
“There has been a real effort to be more inclusive and more representative in school libraries and in classrooms, to have books with LGBTQ plus characters, books with characters of color. This is the backlash to that effort, to make sure those books are not included,” she said.
“When we think about what the freedom to read means, it means being able to access a diverse range of ideas, stories and knowledge that represent ourselves and also allow us to see and learn about others who may be different from us,” Meehan said. “Books that reflect students who have historically not been able to see themselves represented in school library materials are now subject to bans.”
"It's certainly detrimental not to have that opportunity to see yourself reflected in the characters in books, and in your family, your religion and your culture. All of these things are so important in learning and in reading and free reading," Meehan said.
A broader range of prohibitions
In the six-month period analyzed by the PEN report, 30 percent of the unique banned titles were books about race or racism, or featuring characters of color. Meanwhile, 26 percent of the unique banned titles featured LGBTQIA characters or themes.
The PEN report also reveals that book bans during this school year are affecting an increasing number of titles, including those depicting violence and abuse (44 percent), dealing with health and wellbeing issues (38 percent), and dealing with death and grief (30 percent).
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