More than 1,500 book bans have been instituted in American school districts in the past nine months, according to one study, as part of a right-wing censorship effort described as “unmatched in its intensity.”
pen america, a nonprofit organization that works to protect free speech in the united states, analyzed efforts to ban certain books from school libraries for its “banned in america” report. The organization found that 1,145 books were attacked by right-wing politicians and activists, including the work of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison.
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The report shows the surprising impact of the continuing effort by conservatives to censor literature in schools. Bans have largely focused on books that focus on racial and lgbtq issues, and a large number of banned books are written by non-white or lgbtq authors.
pen america tallied the efforts between July 1, 2021 and March 31 of this year, in what it said was the first “book-by-book, district-by-district report of which books are banned, where of the country and through what procedures”. . found that 1,586 bans were implemented in 86 school districts in 26 states.
“This kind of data has never been counted, and frankly, the results are shocking,” said jonathan friedman, director of education and free expression for pen america.
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“Challenges to books, specifically books by non-white male authors, are occurring at the highest rates we have ever seen. what is happening in this country in terms of banning books from schools is unparalleled in its frequency, intensity, and success.”
The data confirms that this was a specific theme of the book bans. Of the banned titles, 41% included “prominent leading or supporting characters” who were people of color, according to Pen America.
About 22% of banned books “deal directly with issues of race and racism,” while 33% “deal explicitly with lgbtq+ themes, or have prominent lgbtq+ leads or supporting characters.”
pen america found that the three most frequently banned titles focus on lgbtq+ people, “or touch on same-sex relationships.”
genderqueer: a maia kobabe memoir has been banned in 30 school districts, while george m johnson’s all the boys aren’t blue and jonathan evison’s lawn boy are also among the most targeted.
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out of the darkness by ashley hope perez, a novel about the romance between a black teenager and a mexican-american woman, has been banned in 16 districts, and the bluest eye, the story of a young black woman’s experiences in the decade of 1940 in america by toni morrison, has been banned in 12 districts.
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“This is an orchestrated attack on books whose subjects have only recently gained a foothold on school library shelves and in classrooms,” Friedman said.
“We are witnessing the removal of topics that only recently represented progress towards inclusion.”
Censorship of books has been accompanied by a wave of right-wing legislation dictating what teachers can and cannot discuss in schools. Florida passed a “Don’t Say Gay” bill in March, which bans “instruction” about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
Some states have also banned discussion of the modern day impact of historical racism on the us. uu., an issue that has become a workhorse for Republicans at the state and national level.
Censorship has often been pushed by conservative groups linked to wealthy right-wing donors. Groups like Moms for Freedom and Parents for Education have been instrumental in efforts to ban books in the United States, often posing as small “grassroots” efforts when in fact they have ties to prominent and wealthy Republicans. /p>
However, there is some evidence that efforts to censor literature that focuses on racial and lgbtq issues are having the opposite effect.
“Banned book clubs,” where children and young adults gather to read and discuss titles that have been censored by school districts, have sprung up across the United States, while sales of the book maus, a winning graphic novel of the Pulitzer Prize on the Holocaust, soared in January after it was banned by a Tennessee school board.
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