Graphic by Tula Winton
Book banning has a long and controversial history, and its newest chapter is currently in the public spotlight nationwide.
It began back in the days of the Puritans, but the practice significantly increased from 2020-2021, with several thousand books having now been banned or challenged in school districts and libraries from Florida to Alaska.
“It’s definitely happening at an increasing rate. Challenges are definitely experiencing an uptick.” Said Riverside media coordinator Tara Gold.
Dr. Gold is a librarian at Riverside, carefully selecting and curating appropriate books in the Riverside library.
According to The American Library Association (ALA) , most books are banned at local levels, schools and public libraries. The result of “challenges” brought forth by individuals, sometimes encouraged by lobbies, against a book or an author. These challenges are primarily made due to concerns about sexually explicit material, offensive language or content unsuitable for a certain age group.
The most commonly banned books on the ALA’s 2024 list were All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
An ALA report identified a “wave of book censorship” since 2021, which lead to “unprecedented levels,” of bans. Classics have also been banned in schools throughout the country. According to The Article, 1984 by George Orwell is regarded as a significant literary work in its cautionary message and themes regarding authoritarianism and totalitarianism. However, it features sexual content, some vulgar language, and other topics which are regarded as “controversial.” It is for this content that the book has often been targeted by censorship initiatives and challenges, as many do not approve of younger audiences being exposed to such subjects. However, adding to the often contradictory reasons behind book censorship, 1984 was “deemed inappropriate” in Jackson county Florida, citing communist ideology, despite the book being acclaimed as critical of communism. Illustrating a the nuances of book bans.
While banned books are the more polarizing discussion, most books, which often fall under the categorization of a ban, are actually “challenged,” requiring a review and a discussion on the validity of issuing a ban. Though, according to Gold, the district committees to certify or refute the challenge process are not standardized, and can leave the power of judgement to as few as one person.
“Our process involves a team of people, parents, teachers, students, and administrators, coming together to read the material and determine if it’s appropriate. Then, it could go to the district if the parent isn’t happy with the decision. They then do the same thing with a similar type of committee. Where that can break down though is in some districts where it can go straight to one person in the district who is making that decision on behalf of everything,” said Gold.
“I don’t think [the current system] is fair to anyone,” said Riverside media coordinator Jenna W Wine. “I am happy to have a conversation with that parent, and then respect it and try to work with that child and parent, but if you just want to blindly let the entire school not be able to read that book, I do have an issue with that.”
Under this system, lobby groups, such as the Moms for Liberty, have pushed for widespread banning of books across the nation.
Durham does not have a local Moms for Liberty chapter, but the Wake County chapter unsuccessfully tried to have 20 different books banned in school libraries.
“They will just try to blanket challenge every single thing on that list,” said Gold.” And the lists are shared by these groups on a state or national level, and then individual people are going to the schools with that list. That is why it is systematic. It is an agenda to remove those books from every library that they can.”
“There are lots of websites that will post a library’s entire collection, which has happened to Riverside,” said Wine. “We get a lot of like, ‘we’re grooming kids’ because we have queer books, and we do have books that have sex in them, and they don’t want to think about that… but again, books are going to have that.”
Politics play a role, too. This year, the North Carolina General Assembly has filed several bills that would ban books with sexually explicit material. Another would allow school media coordinators to face criminal prosecution if a library has books that contain material deemed harmful to minors. Neither bill has earned enough votes to become law.
Wine notices another trend when she sees the ALA’s “Top 10 Banned Books of the Year.”
“It is almost always about queer individuals, trans books, and books that talk about race, especially racism,” she said. “Always [books with] sexual activity, and a lot of those will also stem from queer books, too.”
“Riverside has a large population of black students, trans students, LGBTQ students, and if they see books with content pertaining to them being banned, what they’re being told is that, ‘who they are, at their core, or issues important to them, are not appropriate age wise,’” said Gold. “That can be really hard to hear when it comes to feeling safe at school. And to feel like the life you are living is not appropriate or age appropriate, even when they are living these experiences.”
““It’s always very sad to me,” said Wine. “I’m part of the queer community and it’s really upsetting to see so many books being banned because of that. It’s also so frustrating to see books that are talking about racism, that maybe our history books don’t include, being banned for reasons that aren’t actually extreme.”
Both Wine and Gold noted that some books are obviously unsuitable for kids.
“Generally, everyone can agree that maybe a 14-year-old doesn’t have to be reading a book for an adult,” said Wine. “I have looked at some lists [of banned books] before and thought, ‘that makes sense,’…because the themes in the book aren’t great.”
“Most middle school librarians will not put books in their libraries that have on-page, explicit, sexual activity,” said Gold. “That’s even a standard we have here in high school, there are going to be very few books that have descriptive, on-page, sexual activity.”
Riverside’s media coordinators hope that, despite the strong opinions from parents and politicians, they will get to make their own decisions about what to put in the school library.
“As librarians, we’re supposed to have the expertise on what books should be in the library, and there’s resources saying, ‘this book is an adult book, but it does function as a new adult book, which is still good for young adults,’” said Wine.
“We have 13,000 books in our library… we purposefully select them, based on a very rigorous set of criteria, to be appropriate for our students,” said Gold.
“In any dystopian book, the first step is banning books…” said Wine. “And then it just goes downhill from there.”
