A survey reveals that efforts to restrict books accelerated significantly over the previous year, with hundreds of volumes banned in tens of thousands of schools – frequently those addressing ‘culture wars’ problems such as gender, sexuality, and ethnicity.
PEN America reported on Monday that there were 2,532 cases of specific book bans affecting 1,648 titles at around 5,000 schools with 4 million pupils during the 2021-2022 school year.
The group compared efforts by politicians and newly-formed parents’ organizations to remove materials from school libraries to the anti-communist McCarthy era and early 1980s “Moral Majority” purges.
Titles that are frequently banned include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and adapted into a 2018 film.
This trend has resulted in more and more students losing access to literature that prepares them for the demands and complexities of democratic participation, according to Jonathan Friedman, the author of the research.
Frequently, the banned books were works of young adult fiction, particularly those that dealt with lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and queer themes or featured queer protagonists, as well as those that addressed race and identity.
PEN America, a nonprofit opposed to censorship, reports that censors have been active in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
PEN America, a non-profit writers’ organization, asserts that novels dealing with LGBTQ and racial themes are most often attacked.
The books Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas are banned in classrooms.
America’s five most-banned books:
Maia Kobaba’s memoir Gender Queer: A Memoir was prohibited by 41 school districts. According to advertising materials, the illustrated text details the author’s “journey of self-identity” and “what it means to be nonbinary and asexual.”
George M. Johnson’s collection of personal essays, All Boys Aren’t Blue, was banned in 29 school districts. This “memoir-manifesto” describes the author’s childhood, adolescence, and college years.
The novel Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez is about the love between a Mexican-American girl and a black guy during the 1930s in Texas. It was prohibited in twenty-four districts.
The novel The Bluest Eye was prohibited in 22 districts. The debut novel by the renowned author Toni Morrison depicts the narrative of a black girl’s inferiority complex as she grows up in the 1940s.
Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give was banned in seventeen school districts. The 2018 film was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement and focuses on the police violence against minorities.
Texas had the highest number of prohibitions, at 801 across 22 districts. According to the survey, campaigners have also been active in Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was the most commonly banned book, having been eliminated by 41 school districts. It describes the author’s “journey of self-identity” as well as “what it means to be nonbinary and asexual.”
It was followed by George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, which was prohibited in 29 school districts, and Ashley Hope Pérez’s Out of Darkness, which was banned in 24 districts, according to researchers.
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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, whose works mostly deal with race, are also routinely banned.
Moms for Liberty, US Parents Involved in Education, and No Left Turn in Education were among the approximately 50 groups recognized by PEN America that actively advocate for book bans. The majority of the groups founded after 2021.
Suzanne Nossel, the organization’s chief executive officer, stated that the widespread prohibition was no longer the result of “individual concerned people” but rather a planned effort by “sophisticated, ideological, and well-resourced advocacy organizations.”
Frequently, the prohibited publications were young adult novels with lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, or queer themes or protagonists.
Race-themed novels by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and The Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini have been banned.
The Central York school board in southern Pennsylvania banned a children’s book on Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography in late 2021, prompting protests by activists.
Their actions are frequently associated with Republican politicians, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who attempted to limit classroom talks on gender and sexual identity, and Texas Representative Matt Krause, who initiated an investigation into school libraries.
Nossel stated, “This censorious movement is transforming our public schools into political battlegrounds, dividing communities, forcing teachers and librarians out of their professions, and chilling the spirit of open inquiry.”
Those in favor of removing materials from school curricula argue that they are combating wokery in education, defending the rights of parents, and removing novels that are overly sexual or that confuse adolescents about their gender.
Frequently, they target literature that, according to them, promote critical race theory, which asserts that years of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws have baked racial bias into contemporary U.S. laws and institutions.
The co-founders of Moms for Liberty, Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, told DailyMail.com that they were fighting for the right of parents to have a role in their children’s education.
“The teacher unions’ stranglehold on public education must end,” they declared in a statement.
They urged candidates in the upcoming midterm elections to “stand with parents and expose those who chose to defend special interest organizations over children’s best interests.”
The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has campaigned for restrictions on how race, gender, and sexual identity are taught in schools.
Two Florida mothers, Stephane Ferrell, left, and Jen Cousins, second from right, joined Boone High School students in front of the Orange County Public Schools administration in Orlando to protest censorship.