I used to think book bans were just about old books in schools

Three years ago, a library in my town tried to pull a graphic novel about a gay teen off the shelves. I figured it was just a few loud people. Then last month, I saw a list from a group in Texas that wanted to ban over 800 titles from school libraries in one go. The reasons were all about politics, not if the books were any good. It made me see this isn't about protecting kids, it's about controlling what ideas they can find. Has anyone else seen a list from their own area that shocked them?

2 comments

2 Comments

casey90915d ago

Our district in Florida released a spreadsheet last year with 176 books flagged for review. Half of them were just biographies of famous Black and Latino people. The notes next to them said things like "critical race theory" and "divisive concepts.

kellygrant15d ago

Yeah, seeing "divisive concepts" on a list like that is the whole game. My kid's school district in Ohio had a similar review list. They wanted to pull a picture book about a kid with two dads for being "sexually explicit," which is just wild to me. It was literally about a family going to the zoo. Once you see them call a biography of Rosa Parks "too upsetting," you realize the goal is just to wipe out any story they don't like.