CENSORSHIP IS HAPPENING NOW
What is a Banned Book?
Challenged Book: a book in which attempts have been made to remove or restrict it—typically complaints by parents or community members— but no action has yet been taken.
Banned Book: a book that was previously accessible but action has been taken to remove or restrict it—especially without following proper and/or equitable channels.
If a book is removed from student access while a challenge is being evaluated, this is still considered a ban—even if it is temporary.
Diminished access to a material is censorship as well as complete removal or restriction, unless proper pre-established review channels are followed. Books that are de-assigned from a school’s curriculum or taken out of a library as a result of a professional educator or librarian’s regular unbiased, content neutral evaluation and maintenance are justifiable, and books whose accessibility is altered via these channels are not considered banned. School districts and libraries should have clear and specific processes for how books are evaluated; it is when these processes are not followed that book bans happen.
Why are Books Banned?
Mis- and Dis-Information
Challenges are commonly motivated by a desire to protect children, typically from material claimed to be sexually explicit, offensive or generally unsuitable for an age group. However, the books that are challenged for these reasons are often challenged on unfair or incorrect grounds. Passages from these books circulate online without context, angering community members and parents, so that sufficient research and consideration is quickly disregarded in favor of heedless demonstrations of outrage and calls to restrict access to these books.
With a steep rise in social media use, more and more people get their news from social media sites such as Instagram, X, and Tik Tok. These sites make news and activism more accessible; however, they also breed misinformation due to clickbait, misleading headlines, and the capacity for anonymity. Additionally, the fast-paced and high-consumption nature of social media leads to a lack of fact-checking and other poor media literacy practices, contributing to the spread of misinformation fueling the current book banning and educational censorship crisis.
Discriminatory Biases
A disproportionate amount of banned or challenged books feature diverse characters or themes. In the 2022-23 school year, 30% of banned titles include characters of color or themes of race and racism; likewise, another 30% of banned titles feature LGBTQ+ themes or characters. Challenges to diverse books come from places of both conscious and unconscious bias; however, both are harmful and hateful.
Control
Book bans seek to control adolescents’ developing viewpoints as a means of cultivating or maintaining a particular political climate at both the local and regional level. They are often motivated by a desire to preserve power and eliminate that which challenges or threatens the status quo.
How are Books Banned?
Lack of Proper Policies
Proper channels to evaluate books after they are challenged are not being followed, allowing for book banning on a mass scale. School districts should have set practices following a formal challenge or complaint filed by a parent or community member regarding a book in the curriculum or library. However, out of the 76 districts that banned books from school’s libraries in 2022, only 43 have transparent policies that are similar to the guidelines recommended by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and American Library Association (ALA), and only 11 have reconsideration policies and have followed them consistently, according to PEN America. These 11 districts made up less than 2% of 2022 book bans.
“Of 474 bans solely on curricular and classroom materials in the Index, only a handful, three, appear to have been the result of established, transparent procedures. Rather, many have been the result of ad hoc decisions and snap judgments in response to parental complaints, establishing a troubling trend.”
— PEN America
Moreover, only 4% of 2022 book bans were the result of formal challenges, according to PEN America. All other bans were initiated by school administrators or board members, rarely following the proper channels that the districts require or should require.
Courtesy of NCAC
Award-winning author Elana K. Arnold speaks on her experience as a banned author. According to Arnold, she has found her books on banned lists simply because she is an author of banned books, not because of any objection to the specific content of the book in question. Video by the Golden State Readers
Courtesy of PEN America
Common Misconceptions
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24% of banned titles in the latter half of 2022 were Adult books; it is not just Young Adult novels being targeted.
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Restricting children’s access to literature does not protect them, it violates their right to read, learn and express themselves. What an individual child reads is up to the child and their family, not the government or school boards.
Ignorance is not protection. In an ideal world, no teenager or child would have to experience violence or abuse, but the harsh reality is that many teenagers and children do. Literature that describes these experiences serves to educate and inform young people about the realities of the world that they live in and speak to those who have lived through these experiences themselves. Books are a tool to learn how to navigate the world; it is not the responsibility of individuals or small groups in power to control the availability of these resources.
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The term “pornography” describes the “depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement,” according to Merriam-Webster. Most, if not all, of the books that have been challenged for “pornographic content” do NOT fit this description. In fact, labeling books as “pornographic” is often a fear-mongering tactic used by those with discriminatory intentions in order to provoke outrage among parents and community members.
Between 2021 and 2023, only 27% of banned books contain sexual experiences between characters. However, 38% of banned books contain themes of health and wellbeing and 30% contain themes surrounding grief and death— both topics that are real and relatable experiences to the target audience of these novels. The idea that challenged books all or mostly contain sexual experiences is either misinformation or recklessly conflating other real world experiences such as health with sexual activity.
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Since proper evaluation standards are not being followed, many books are banned without being contested at all. And, if they are challenged, it is often the challenge of a single community member. School board members and administrators will preemptively ban books in order to prevent future challenges from arising. However, this only hurts students and the community more, and is an improper practice.
Only 4% of 2022 book bans were the result of formal challenges, according to PEN America. All other bans were initiated by school administrators or board members.
Radical Groups
There are numerous radical groups across the nation fighting for mass book banning. These groups circulate out-of-context passages and long lists of books that they deem obscene and offensive in an attempt to raise support for their cause through fear.
The guidelines for educational book evaluation suggested by the NCAC and ALA are in place to prevent important decisions from being made on the grounds of prejudices, biases, assumptions, misunderstandings, or outside pressure. They are intended to ensure that each evaluation is unique to the individual title and is handled by people qualified to make the decision regarding the accessibility of that book. When groups such as “Moms for Liberty,” “Citizens Defending Freedom,” and “Parents’ Rights in Education” utilize fear tactics– and even occasionally harassment– it further prevents proper channels from being followed and greatly augments the issue of educational censorship.
Book evaluation should be an intentional, nuanced process, not a hasty fear response to propaganda. Yet, these groups are responsible for causing enough community outrage that books get removed without proper consideration, further contributing to the current state of educational censorship.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has published guidelines illustrating the best processes to have in place to handle book challenges. These steps include:
Informal meeting to discuss complainant’s concerns
Written complain in which complainant should describe their specific concerns as well as their familiarity of the work as a whole
Convene a diverse committee to further investigate. This should consist mostly of educators such as teachers, librarians and administrators but should also include the perspectives of students and community members.
Establish clear criteria for the committee to follow in all cases.
Specify who makes the final decision and what an appeal would look like.
View the file linked to the left or visit ncac.org for more information.
What Can You do?
Educate. Advocate. Donate. Unite.
Educate yourself (see resources below). Read about book bans, and read banned books. Follow banned authors and advocates. Start keeping up with your local school district’s board meetings. Find your school district’s policies on literature review; if they do not have a written procedure, they should— advocate for one.
~Make sure your information is coming from a reputable source — always fact check. Check out Teens for Press Freedom to learn about Media Literacy.
If you are a student, consider starting a banned book club at your school. Your club could focus on reading banned books, on advocacy or on both. Inspire others to start their own clubs, connect with other banned book clubs, and think about ways to expand your clubs’s influence beyond your school. Consider reaching out to organizations such as PEN America or the Golden State Readers for support and advocacy opportunities.
Change will never come without individuals stepping up, uniting with others who care, and fighting for the cause. If this is a cause you care about, learn all that you can. Read banned books. Use your voice to educate others. Donate to reputable places, if you can. Caring is the first step towards change, and you’re already there.
More Resources
American Library Association (ALA)
PEN America 2023 Banned Books Report
Teens for Press Freedom (media literacy and reputable news reporting)
Unite Against Book Bans (Action toolkit, news, data)
National Coalition Against Censorship
New York Public Library Teen Banned Book Club (virtual; open to non-NY residents)
Places to Donate
Why it matters.