ANONYMOUS
Engiish 9/Mr. Davis
Los Alamos High School
People are still burning books, a recent event of such happened in 2022 in Tennessee. This event was held by a revered pastor who led the people to burn “demonic influences” (“Tennesse Pastor Leads Burning of Harry Potter and Twilight Novels”) which included Twilight, Harry Potter, and other objects he deemed “demonic.” The same practice that was used in Nazi Germany in the 1920’s.(sentence fragment) The return of burning books both literally and figuratively is incredibly alarming. The amount of banned books per year has increased from 458 in 2003, to 1,269 in 2022. Half of these books should not have been banned at all because they are not inappropriate for kids. Books that express individuality and opinion should not be banned from schools and libraries.
Almost half of the books that are banned are about or written by people of color. “22% of the banned books directly address the topic of race and racism” (Randall). (Redundant) What do these books have in common? They discuss racism. The concerned parents and governors should not be banning or covering up stories about racism. The Civil War and our country’s history with slavery is something that is also getting censored. Even though these are terrible things that happened, it’s important that we learn about it so that history doesn’t repeat itself. Some might say that because it’s such a bad thing that happened, children shouldn’t be learning about it. However, it’s our teachers’ job to teach us the good and bad parts of history and then the students can form their own opinions. If these books are censored, students won’twouldn’t learn about racism throughout history, they won’t learn about why it’s so bad. Kids need to know so they can form their own opinions instead of being spoon- fed them by their parents or teachers or even the elected leaders who play parts in censoring literature. Even if someone’s opinion is different from your own, you can’t censor history or what is actually happening in the world. You should only be able to form your own opinions and let others form theirs. People’s writings should not be censored when they are not inappropriate and simply give the truth of the matter and allow the reader to form their own opinions.
Books that are about diversity and how people are different make for a diverse world. Full of interesting and accepting people. In such a diverse and wonderful world there is no room for the practice of book burning, both literal and figurative.
The other problem with banning books is that some kids need these books and these resources to help form an identity. A lot of kids who have never heard of LGBT or race can become very confused if they aren’t taught about it. If they aren’t exposed to our differences they could become prejudiced. It’s the same reason we have health classes for middle school students: so they can go out into the world and be safe. Yes, some parents take their kids out of that class and teach their kids themselves. Some parents don’t want their kids to know about these things. But ignorance leads to violence. They can be hurt by not knowing the full facts. There was a poll taken by NBC News that asked if you had ever heard of the Hholocaust. The survey found that “among adults under 40, 1 in 10 respondents did not recall ever hearing the word holocaust.” (Ramgopal). This gap in knowledge comes from a lack of education. There have also been cases where kids have died from accidentally taking drugs not knowing what they were. If you don’t teach them, they are going to find out about it themselves. (I can read between the lines of the connection you are trying to make. Explain this connection! How is informing about diversity like informing about other things?) Whether they discover these safely or violently is up in the air. These people who are censoring and banning kids’ books are doing it out of a sense of wanting to protect these kids. But in doing so it can lead to more harm. This same logic (appeal to protecting children) was used by Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler
Keeping children safe is a common goal shared by most people throughout the world. Most of the requests for banned books are made by concerned parents. Even if they are made with ignorance. However, some of the books that have been banned make sense to be taken out of schools. Some books that have been banned are explicitly sexual or disturbing in other ways. Those books that are banned for a good reason and are taken out of schools should still be kept in the public libraries though. Books that are banned in schools for disturbing or sexual content should be removed from the kids sections in libraries and moved to the adult section. They should not be taken out. A library is a public space frequented by people of all ages, not just kids and teens. It’s up to parents and guardians to protect their kids. Therefore it’s their job to let their kids read age or maturity appropriate books. It is not their job to parent other people’s children or the other adults who frequent the library.
45.5 percent of 2,571 books that are banned were written about or written by LGBT people. Banning these books (also) leads to ignorance in our children. We are supposed to move forward as a society, not backwards. It takes a village to raise a child. We need to protect our kids from genuinely bad things like underage drugs, sexual predators, bullying, etc. We don’t need to protect them from opinions and facts we simply don’t agree with.
Kids whose parents sheltered them from the truth get a wake up call when they realize the world is huge, and it’s full of diversity. Censorship isn’t the answer to having a different opinion about a social topic. It’s a parents responsibility to raise their own children, it’s not their responsibility to attempt to govern everyone around them into violence. Books that express individuality and being the most genuine person you can be should be encouraged, not banned. Learning all sides of a conflict before you make a decision is how you make an informed decision. If kids don’t know all sides to an argument, if they don’t have every option available to them, how can they form their own opinions? How can kids become the future leaders, and adults in our world if they never learn to accept differences? How can they become informed if they are only exposed to one side of the story? They can’t, which is why banning books that shouldn’t be banned is so bad. (wrong?)
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Annotated Bibliography
Bouranova, Alene. “Don’t Say Gay: Speaking Out on Book Censorship.” Boston University Alumni Magazine, 2023. Bostonia, https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/dont-say-gay/#:~:text=But%20the%20recent%20ban%20attempts,local%20legislation%20to%20support%20them. Accessed 7 May 2023.
Edwards, Chris, editor. “Book Banning on the Rise- New Mexico Book Burning and Ban Attempts.” 2nd Life Media, 2023. 2nd Life Media AlamogordoTownNews, https://goodfaithmedia.org/why-christian-nationalists-want-to-ban-books/. Accessed 7 May 2024.
Lyons, Alyssa. “Book Bans Impact Students World Views.” Contexts, 2023. Contexts, https://contexts.org/blog/book-bans/. Accessed 12 May 2024.
Perfas, Samantha Laine. “Who’s Getting Hurt Most by Soaring LGBTQ Book Bans. Librarians Say Kids.” The Harvard Gazette, 2023. The Harvard Gazette, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/06/lgbtq-book-challenges-are-on-the-rise-heres-why/. Accessed 7 May 2024.
Ramgopal, Kit. “Survey Finds ‘Shocking’ Lack of Holocaust Knowledge Among Millennials and Gen Z.” NBS News [New York City], https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/survey-finds-shocking-lack-holocaust-knowledge-among-millennials-gen-z-n1240031. Accessed 14 May 2024.
Randall, Mitch. “Why Christian Nationalists Want to Ban Books.” Good Faith Media, 2022, https://goodfaithmedia.org/why-christian-nationalists-want-to-ban-books/. Accessed 7 May 2024.
Yang, Maya. “Tennessee Pastor Leads Burning of Harry Potter and Twilight Novels.” The Guardian, 4 February 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/04/book-burning-harry-potter-twilight-us-pastor-tennessee#:~:text=Tennessee%20pastor%20leads%20burning%20of%20Harry%20Potter%20and%20Twilight%20novels,-This%20article%20is&text=A%20controversial%20Tennessee%20pa. Accessed 7 May 2024.