BOOK BANS AS A FORM OF OPRESSION BOOK BANS IN AMERICA: THE BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITIES UNDER ATTACK

 

Introduction

            As more people are becoming vocal about their beliefs throughout the United States, there are some that are introducing those beliefs into laws throughout the country. The current issue affecting libraries around the country are book bans that seem to be coming in droves many these regulations are driven by faith based and political lines. Much of the focus of these bans is targeting materials that parents deem inappropriate but are also targeted towards two very specific communities. This raises the question, are book bans becoming their own form of oppression to people in marginalized communities, particularly the Black Indigenous People of Color and those in the LGBTQIA+ communities? As many of the books at the forefront of these bans are written by and about these communities, it feels more like a form of oppression than any reasonable form of critical thought.

These issues currently facing libraries and bookstores throughout the country come from litigation against books, ongoing book bans and legislation against books from marginalized communities, which has only increased in recent years. Without resolving these ongoing issues many communities will be left without books on topics that they can relate to and with characters that they feel connected to. Without these books, and those who not only write them but speak on these topics, what would stop those most vocal from erasing them from our known memories.

Book Bans: the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Communities

            There are two communities that are most affected by book bans, those in the BIPOC community and those in the LGBTQIA+ community, and it’s hard not to sense the political motivation behind these bans, as many of them are coming from one side of the aisle, ignoring the voices of those that they serve. The loudest voices are always overheard over those who are silenced by them, as they know if they make waves they’ll be heard, but those who try to speak against will be ostracized even though they’re in the majority.  

“This act, book banning, has affected no one more than students and school librarians. Students find that the people who are supposed to advocate for them, parents and guardians, are often working against them. Two issues stand out. One of these issues is student voice and representation—or, rather, the lack thereof. The other is how book banning can affect students’ lives, not only on an educational and informational level but on a deeper, more personal level.”[1]

Who can students most affected by bans turn to when those who were supposed to be there to protect them are the ones causing the biggest problems. Parents, who grew up in the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s, when events like the AIDS epidemic was on it’s rise, when people rioted over unjust actions towards the BIPOC community, when one of the first major school shootings happened and the whole world saw. Why are so many of them against the things that they saw growing up? If television was anything to go by, many of the things that they want to keep from their children they did themselves.

First we need to look at those students in the LGBTQIA+ communities, as some of the most well-known banned books from the last five years deal with LGBTQIA+ topics, whether fiction or non-fiction. The graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, a story of the author’s experience with growing up and learning about self-identity, asexuality, and what it means to explain to their loved ones about being non-binary,[2] was published in 2019 and almost immediately the book was banned from schools across the country, including in areas where it normally these kinds of challenges haven’t become the norm, New York City. Patricia Sarles, who works as a Coordinator of Library Services for the New York City School Library System, stated that the challenge came from a parent, the book had only been in a few of the city’s public-school libraries when it happened. It was challenged along with the book The Pants Project by Cat Clarke, what did these two books have in common, they were both about LGBTQIA+ people. One exploring gender binary and the other about a transgender boy.

            On the other side of this are books from the BIPOC community, books that teach about the history of an entire community, books that want people to think critically, fictional stories with characters that go through the same things that the readers would go through. What happens when non-fiction and fiction are banned when it comes to certain communities? You also erase the history of these communities, as you read about the book against topics such as Critical Race Theory, slavery, the trail of tears, or fictional stories like The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, because these topics are too advanced for some students, or is it that they teach a truth that some would rather no one remember.

How can people expect school to be a place for learning and growth, but at the same time push for restricting material and inhibiting students from educating themselves on timely topics?[3]

When did it become about banning books for the sake of the of the children, when even the children don’t want those books banned, when the vocal minority decided that they had the authority to ignore the first amendment rights of over 300 million people.

            How many of these bans were for books by or about these two communities, according to the American Library Association out of 1,247 demands, 47% of these were, titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals.[4] ALA President Emily Drabinski, further illustrated that importance of having diversity in library books especially in diverse communities, and how these book challenges are an attack on our freedom to read.[5] As illustrated in figure 1 book bans have only continued to grow in the last two to three years reaching new heights in 2023 alone with over four thousand bans. These bans are further illustrated by Pen America’s research on the topic and their own litigation against Escambia County School District, in a federal lawsuit, where they were joined by the students of the district as well as Penguin Random House against the removal of books from the public schools in the Florida County.

Figure 1 Pen America Graphic Tracking Book Bans

 

Current and Past Litigation and the rise of Book Bans

            The rise of book bans has also brought forth a rise in litigation, many of these lawsuits have come in the last few years, challenging school districts and lawmakers in cases that put the first amendment rights of everyone in the country in the forefront of this very important conversation. It also brings to the center the involvement of political officials in what can or cannot be taught in public schools, what those under the age of 18 can check out of the library, as well as the safety of patron privacy. Who is protected when Libraries can no longer protect patron privacy? Libraries have an obligation to protect their patrons, they are also a center of knowledge, without them many would be without not only books but also resources such as computer access, workshops on resumes, and many other resources that are provided by public libraries. It also puts forth who has the power to control the flow of information because if they can ban a book from a library, there’s not telling just how far they would go to ban a book from everywhere else. So, lets take a look at what the outcome has been from current and past litigations and what would the far-reaching consequences be if someone is able to ban books not just in a county, but also throughout an entire state.

Litigation: Little et al v. Llano County et al

Little v. Llano County, is one of the most current litigations in regard to book bans, Where three people had complained to an Llano County judge about “pornographic and overtly sexual books” and where the instigating books that were challenged were about “butts and farts”[6] Which led to the removal of several books from the libraries, these books varied in topics, most of which were books about LGBTQIA+ and books about the history of racism. Many of the arguments in this case were about whether a library had the ability to judge what books should be allowed and what shouldn’t, it would also leave a librarian powerless when it came to the removal of items from the library collections. “It would perversely require librarians to “balance” legitimate scientific volumes with reams of quackery.”[7] The ruling on June 2024, stated that all of the books must be reinstated, though the future of this litigation is still unknown as it can be appealed at any moment.

Litigation: Fayetteville Public Library et al v. Crawford County et al

            There are few laws that make it into record when it comes to book bans without a fight, but in the case Fayetteville Public Library et al v. Crawford County et al, the fight against book bans came from SB81/Act 372 “CONCERNING LIBRARIES AND 9 OBSCENE MATERIALS MADE AVAILABLE TO MINORS,” the law which would give permission for books in libraries in the state to be banned if “challenged the appropriateness of material available”[8] The bill also gave parents the right to access their children’s patron records, which would put minors in the LGBTQIA+ community in jeopardy in a state that wasn’t very friendly to those who were a part of that community. A lawsuit was filed almost immediately citing violations of the first amendment as the new law was unconstitutional.

Litigation: PEN America et al v. Escambia County School District et al

            The PEN America et al v. Escambia County School District et al, is probably the most prominent of all three of these lawsuits, as it is the first one to involve not only the students, but also some of the most well-known authors and one of the major publishers within the United States. The suit was against the biased nature of the removal of materials within the school district and their own lack of acknowledgement of the rules set forth when it comes to the review of books that were challenged.

What makes all three of these suits similar is the blatant ways in which the school districts and states made sure to attack books by and about race and LGBTQIA+ stories. They were deemed to be inappropriate due to the nature of their content, whether it was one singular line in the story, a short passage when it comes to an event or the acceptance of sexuality. What is it about a book that makes one community hate it so much that they would go as far as to challenge it and force change? If you think back to when Angie Thomas released the book The Hate U Give, and what was happening in the country at the time politically, it is clear that its challenges were motivated by what the story was centered around. What do people have to fear when the truth is presented to them in the form of literature? They have everything to fear because when people learn, they know that they can change what is considered the status quo, they can change the course of history. Book bans can lead to book burnings, which can lead us to events like those in George Orwell’s 1984, where everything, including the language you use in everyday life, is monitored, where freedoms no longer exist, though they tell you that you are free.

Another troubling aspect of many of these laws is the violation of patron privacy, why should someone know what books we have checked out of the library? Libraries use that information to understand those who use their services, a teenager reads a book about LGBTQIA+ issues, and so the library thinks maybe they should have more like it. A young girl being abused reads a book about who to talk to about what is happening to them and finding help, so the library thinks that there should be more like it, or in the case of a school library in which there are mandated reporters, they can see help that young girl get out of the situation. If their parents knew about what they were reading, what’s to stop them from kicking the LGBTQIA+ teen out of the home, what’s to stop them from isolating that girl from safe spaces. Patron privacy is an important aspect to libraries, because it not only protects the people checking out books, but its also the patron’s right to privacy.

The Present and Future Consequences of Book Bans

This brings us to the consequences of what Book Bans would bring to our near future, and the unconstitutional state that they are currently in. You don’t have to go far to see the consequences, all you would have to do is look at the current law in the state of Utah. H.B. 374 – Sensitive Materials in Schools was signed into law in 2024, and is currently in effect in the state, though it is not without its problems, one of the most major is that that law itself gives the authority to ban a book on a scale that gives too much authority to those who would want to ban a book. It takes three school districts to challenge a book before it is banned from every single school statewide, so if three school districts in rural areas wanted a book banned, it would also be taken off the shelves in their most populous school district which is in Salt Lake City.

What is notable about the bill is the vagueness of how it was written, lines 14 through 15 state that the bill “defines certain instructional materials as sensitive materials; and prohibits sensitive materials in a public school.” The issue with this is that historical topics would fall under these guidelines, topics such as war and internment would have sensitive materials in them in the form of first-person accounts of the events that would have happened. This would give the state control over what can or cannot be taught in schools, it would put English, History, and Social Studies classes under intense scrutiny over STEM subjects. Which would pull many away from liberal arts education which is as important as any STEM subject, because they provide critical thinking, writing, and many other skills that STEM doesn’t. Does this bill actually do that? It would take a lot of research on how the bill is enacted to find out if it was done so. There is also the fact that children and teenagers can easily find the materials that the districts want to ban easily, in an era where access to the internet is one of the easiest things in the world, the parents would have to monitor every single thing that their children look at, and when many of them were raised with an iPad in their hands, they probably know more about how to navigate parental controls than their parents do.

Another way to look at this topic is in the trends illustrated by PEN America, how they sought to bring forth the conversation about the biased nature of these bans is by looking at them in trends and how they target specific groups. In Table 1, which shows the six different trends that they found through research of not only the current litigation but also the takeaways of why these trends are specifically targeted, there are three main groups which have been targeted by the bans, and their stories are the ones that show the most impact on what the current state of American politics is. When the vocal minority takes over, others will suffer for it, they will take away what is a freedom and turn it into an evil, even when they know they’re in the wrong, but they feel righteous over their thoughts.

In an article published by the Salt Lake City Tribune Senator Todd Weiler made a statement on Utah’s H.B. 374 bill, “We’re not trying to ban books simply because sexuality is mentioned or sexual encounters [are] briefly described, This bill is designed to ensure that material our children and teenagers have access to does not include explicit content that they are legally [unable] to consent to yet.”[9] Yet, they don’t speak out on the fact that this would also effect books about slavery, the holocaust, the interment of Japanese Americans during World War II, what’s to say that a parents says that a story published about a true event is too sensitive for their child. The parents consent to have their children attend public schools, but the materials taught are too sensitive for them, how will they learn about any subject if the parents deem them too sensitive for their child. The bill is a gaping hole in the consequences of book bans, it’s too open ended, and yet it was allowed to pass through the Utah State legislature.

Table 1
PEN AMERICA Trends
Trends	Case District	Takeaway
Trend 1: Censorship of Sexual Violence	West Ada School District, Idaho	The book banning movement explicitly targets books featuring scenes or themes of sexual violence by weaponizing the concept of “obscenity.” Aided by websites like Book Looks, activists seek to ban books about rape and sexual assault. In doing so, they cut off a vital lifeline for students and target books that disproportionately impact women and nonbinary authors.
Trend 2: A Continued Hostility Towards LGBTQ+ Books	Boyle County Schools, Kentucky	Another casualty in the campaign against “sexually explicit” content has been LGBTQ+ narratives. Entrenched stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people as inherently sexual or inappropriate have been rolled into legislation policing “human sexuality” in schools, creating a catalyst to spur book bans nationwide.
Trend 3: Transgender Narratives in the Crosshairs	Troy City Schools, Ohio	Transgender identities and narratives are under particular scrutiny. A barrage of legislation policing gender expression in schools and heightened rhetoric about the alleged harms of “gender ideology” have resulted in disproportionate bans on books that include trans characters and antagonistic environments for trans students.
Trend 4: “Critical Race Theory” Backlash	Lexington School District Two, South Carolina	An overwhelming number of books about race and racism have been banned since 2021. Since the beginning of the current movement, inflated rhetoric about “critical race theory” and “wokeness” has aided a coordinated attempt to whitewash American history and remove diverse books from shelves.
Trend 5: Vocal Individuals or Small Groups Disempower Parents and Students	New Hanover County Schools, North Carolina	The book banning movement proclaims to advance “parental rights” but actually advances a censorial agenda. Coordinated efforts by a small group of individuals and organizations have created an environment of intimidation in public schools that has supercharged book bans, over the objections of most parents, teachers, and students.
Trend 6: There’s Hope—Resistance is Rising	Case District: Nationwide	Students in districts nationwide have been instrumental in efforts to roll back book bans. Student resistance exemplifies a broader trend, also seen in legislation and the courts, to fight back against encroachments on the freedom to read and learn.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

            One of the biggest hopes to book bans is those who fight against them, throughout the years, it’s those who stand up against them who fight the good fight to keep them on the shelves of school libraries, public libraries, and even bookstores. With every new law there is someone there to fight against it, it’s tiring work, but it’s the work of the people. Many of the laws introduced into state assemblies are unconstitutional, they go against the first amendment rights of those who wish to have access to the materials. The laws are vague for a reason, because even law makers know that they have a short amount of power to enact them. Coverage on a topic such as this gives us the power to see it from the legal side, but when you speak with the people most affected by it, you can see that they’re not aligned with what others want. Throughout the research I did while working on this paper, several things stick out the most prominent is that the voice of the people is stronger than the voices of the few. The vocal minority can only cause so much chaos before they’re met with the full force of those against what they’re saying, and when those voices finally speak out, the whole world will hear them drown out those vocal few against it.

            So, what does the future hold for these bans? They will happen, we can all acknowledge that, there will be books out there that should be banned, and others that shouldn’t. What we know for certain is that it’s not up to one person to decide what someone else can or cannot read, we cannot violate a patron’s right to privacy, we shouldn’t stop a teenager from reading about LGBTQIA+ stories, or a BIPOC kid just looking for someone in a book who looks like them. There are stories that need to be told, and it shouldn’t be up to a few to determine that those stories should not be told.

 

 

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Connelly, DeborahS. 2009. “To Read or Not To Read: Understanding Book Censorship.”

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Ginsberg, Simone. “Book Bans and How They Actively Silence the Voices of Marginalized Groups.” The Science Survey, January 26, 2024.

 

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https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/static/HB0374.html

Kobabe, Maia. Gender queer: A memoir deluxe edition. Portland, OR: ONI PRESS,US, 2022.

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Lisonbee, K. (2022, May 18). Opinion: What you should know about the new law against pornographic books in your child’s school. Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2022/5/18/23077850/opinion-utah-legislature-new-law-against-pornographic-books-schools-hb374/

McKellar, K. (2024, March 19). Utah governor signs bill making it easier to ban books statewide • Utah News Dispatch. Utah News Dispatch. https://utahnewsdispatch.com/briefs/utah-governor-signs-book-ban-legislature/

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Nesbitt, C., & Schott, B. (2024, February 21). Automatic statewide ban for certain books in Utah schools? Bill heads to gov. Cox’s desk. The Salt Lake Tribune. https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2024/02/21/automatic-statewide-ban-certain/

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[1] Joshua Spilka, “377 BOOK CHALLLENGES TRACKED BY ALA IN 2019-AND THE PROBLEM IS GROWING: Book Banning and Its Adverse Effects on Students.” Knowledge Quest 50 (5) (2022): 31.

[2] Maia Kobabe. Gender queer: A memoir deluxe edition. (Portland, OR: ONI PRESS,US, 2022).

[3] Joshua Spilka, “377 BOOK CHALLLENGES TRACKED BY ALA IN 2019-AND THE PROBLEM IS GROWING: Book Banning and Its Adverse Effects on Students.”: 32.

[4] "American Library Association reports record number of unique book titles challenged in 2023",

American Library Association, March 14, 2024.

[5] Ibid.

[6] “Leila Green Little et al v. Llano County et al, No. 23-50224 Document 164-1(Texas. 2024)” United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: 3.

[7] Ibid, 74.

[8] SB81/Act 372 – Arkansas 94th General Assembly CONCERNING LIBRARIES AND 9

OBSCENE MATERIALS MADE AVAILABLE TO MINORS.” (31 Mar 2023).. https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=/ACTS/2023R/Public/ACT372.pdf.

[9] Nesbitt, C., & Schott, B. (2024, February 21). Automatic statewide ban for certain books in Utah schools? Bill heads to gov. Cox’s desk. The Salt Lake Tribune. https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2024/02/21/automatic-statewide-ban-certain/