“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
Arundhati Roy
Dear Reader,
When politicians ban books, I often hear this simple solution: “Buy banned books!” Buying banned books isn’t a panacea for governmental book bans. This is particularly relevant when the government targets library books or books taught in schools. Sometimes children only have access to books through their teachers and school librarians. Kids can’t drive themselves to bookstores and buy banned books. If they have conservative parents, they might not be able to ask for these books. In fact, they might not even know these books exist. And when a book ban targets a multitude of small marginalized authors (rather than massive authors like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling), it can ruin these authors’ incomes regardless of whether or not you buy a few books; it’s better to address the root cause. Moreover, the simple act of reading will not singlehandedly stop political extremism.
Sometimes there’s an instinct to characterize right-wing politicians as comical dummies who’ve never stepped within a 500m perimeter of a book. This speaks to a deeper issue: the idea that bigotry is a result of one individual’s “unintelligence,” rather than a broader systemic issue like white supremacy, transphobia, or homophobia. And there’s something a little odd about equating classic ideals of intelligence with automatic moral purity. Maybe it’s the historical association with eugenics, or maybe it’s the fact that Ron DeSantis graduated with a magna cum laude B.A. in history from Yale University1 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. These politicians have studied history and they know what they’re doing. They aren’t spinning with their eyes closed in a library and pointing at random books; they intentionally target subject matter like race and LGBTQ identity. This censorship is entrenched in societal power dynamics.
Many states have introduced book bans and educational gag orders, but the situation in Florida under DeSantis is particularly alarming. His “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” outlawed critical race theory (an academic examination of the way the world is shaped by race and ethnicity, commonly misused to refer to any teaching of racism or Black history) in the same breath as literal Holocaust denial, which is in fact Holocaust distortion.2 The Florida Department of Education completely whitewashed their civics curriculum, including implying that rejected an A.P. African American Studies course and the College Board coincidentally stripped out several key topics (like the Black Lives Matter movement). This is all part of a larger pattern of discrimination against marginalized groups. In fact, most American book bans occur in the prison system, which disproportionately targets people of color, particularly Black people. I’d be remiss not to mention that DeSantis signed a law (arguably a poll tax) making it significantly more difficult for formerly imprisoned Floridians to regain their right to vote.
Utah’s largest school district recently banned students’ access to LGBTQ books with diaphanous justification of “pornographic or indecent” “sensitive material.” We can’t consider this in isolation from Utah’s new law restricting transgender kids’ access to gender-affirming healthcare (despite plenty of evidence showing that gender-affirming hormones significantly improve the mental health of transgender kids). The sponsor of the law stated that there is “a radical and dangerous push” for children to receive gender-affirming healthcare. Over the last few years, there’s been an increase in rhetoric equating any mention of LGBTQ identity (particularly transgender identity) with “grooming” or “sexualizing children.” Mere days after the Club Q shooting (which occurred at the end of a drag show), Tucker Carlson displayed a graphic reading “STOP SEXUALIZING KIDS” in relation to drag performers and hosted a guest from “Gays Against Groomers” who said that shootings would continue “until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children.”
I find this entire trend deeply frightening in its enormity. So…where do we start? Reading banned books won’t automatically stop political extremism, but banned subjects like racism or activism do shed light on our present moment. Yes, read banned books…and then take action. There’s a long and vibrant history of activism in response to inequitable/inadequate education or censorship: the 1964 Freedom Schools, the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children Program (which likely engendered the USDA’s School Breakfast Program), and yes, Banned Books Week. Unite Against Book Bans (founded by the American Library Association) offers a helpful toolkit here. The ALA also maintains a database for materials threatened with censorship, the form for which is here. And recently Refinery29 published Brea Baker’s article which concludes with some fantastic ways to take action.
Extremist politicians depend on hopelessness. If it’s too exhausting to face the onslaught of horrific laws or if we believe nothing can change, it’s extraordinarily difficult to act in response to things like book bans. Reading helps me maintain a belief in a better world. It’s necessary to recharge through books, especially when they’re scattered with stories of survival (like so many banned books are). A cynic might say this is survivorship bias, but the simple truth is that many people have found ways to escape persecution, fight back, and strive towards a brighter world. I have to believe we can, too.
Love, Lily
P.S. Here’s my great thing this week: Not to make that age-old shift from a Very Serious Topic to a recipe, but I’ve been eating this spicy tofu as my latest hyperfixation meal and it’s delicious. Plus, it’s basically impossible to mess up. At one point I ran out of onion, sesame oil, green onion, and garlic (I substituted a heap of garlic powder in the sauce), and through some miracle it was still tasty. What’s one great thing you experienced last week?
Not that you need to graduate with a magna cum laude degree in history from Yale to be properly qualified in history; this just isn’t a simple fear of the humanities.
To add irony to irony, these “anti-critical race theory” laws likely pose a danger to Holocaust education.
Cover Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash