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The Increase in Attempts to Ban Books is a Sign of Danger
Here are several reasons why this indicates danger in a society
Attempts to ban books in the United States surged in 2021 to the highest level in two decades, according to the American Library Association.
According to the American Library Association data, the biggest reasons for banned books are racial issues, damaging lifestyles (“damaging” seems a relative term since a damaging lifestyle to me might not feel damaging to someone else…), blasphemous dialog, sex (uhh…last time I checked, sex was a totally natural and normal, vital aspect of humanity?), violence/negativity, witchcraft, religion, politics (really? So we want our kids to grow up ignorant of what’s going on in America right now?), or just age-inappropriate (again, super relative term).
Schools, school libraries, and public libraries are the institutions that constantly challenge written work. The states with the most challenges are Texas, North Carolina, and Oregon.
Interestingly, most targeted titles as of late are about Black and L.G.B.T.Q. people, which suggests that as much progress as we’ve made, we are still quite the racist, prejudiced, fearful country. Hence all this rampant attempt on banning books…
This rise in attempts to ban books is quite concerning for a number of reasons.
Thus, all authors, readers, literary agents, and publishers should be paying close attention to this so they can do everything in their power to not allow this problem to pick up speed.
Banning books and “cancel culture”, since these are sides of the same coin, are grasping for what they believe is “safety”, while we are sacrificing learned resilience, real wisdom, and the opportunity to truly learn about life.
America is on a particularly crazy crusade right now in which many want to isolate themselves from anything that upsets, unsettles, or offends them.
If it bothers us, it’s bad or wrong, period, with no wiggle room for alternate interpretation. We believe trigger warnings will…
