That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America

by Amanda Jones

You only mock people who have awards when you have no real accomplishments of your own.

Libraries are important to our society, with the American Library Association reporting that there are more than sixteen thousand public libraries in the United States. Smithsonian magazine reported that more Americans go to libraries than the movies, and “visiting the library was ‘by far’ the most common cultural activity among Americans in 2019.”

In 2022, the Office for Intellectual Freedom received a record 1,269 book challenges, the highest number of demands to ban books reported to ALA since the association began compiling data about censorship in libraries. This nearly doubles the 729 book challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom in 2021. Pro-censors challenged 2,571 books in 2022, a 38 percent increase from the 1,858 books targeted for censorship in 2021. Of those titles, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community or by and about Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.” Many of those books were challenged from multiple people across the country.

The American Library Association believes that as many as 97 percent of challenges are not even being documented.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who once said, “Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore. The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police.”

“The accusations that someone, a teacher or librarian, is trying to harm a child is, really, it’s indefensible and the emotional toll that it’s taking is significant. We have people leaving the field. We have people who are staying in the field but can’t sleep or are experiencing the ravages of chronic stress and are afraid to speak out about it.”

“It’s not school libraries that parents need to be concerned about. It’s their phones. If we’re really concerned about the deleterious effects of pornography on children’s brains, that’s where we should be focusing. Not on books or literature.”

The rise in book challenges, outright book bans, legislation, and attacks on authors, librarians, and the LGBTQIA+ community have caused a rise in soft, or silent, censorship. Soft censorship is when librarians do not purchase books for fear of reprisal, whether that comes in the form of personal attacks on social media, book challenges, or even losing their jobs.

At the end of the day, the pro-censorship movement is about privatizing education and privatizing libraries for a group of people who are seeking to line their pockets. And to achieve those goals, otherwise well-meaning people have been enlisted in a social movement that goes against everything America stands for. That’s the really sad and tragic thing.

MLK Jr. said in his blueprint speech, “When you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.”

Rule number one: Don’t fuck with librarians. —NEIL GAIMAN

Michelle Obama famously said, “When they go low, we go high.” In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, she said, “My purpose in life doesn’t revolve around taking care of my own little ego, but instead to ensure that I am a positive role model for the next generation and I am creating positive change. There is a bigger purpose for me out there. So when I respond to something, I have to think about that.”

So, yeah, I can smile and say I took the higher road, but the higher road is pretty lonely when you discover you’ve lost friends you never really had in the first place.

Haters are like crickets … they make a lot of noise, you can hear them, but you can’t see them … when you walk right by them, they suddenly get quiet. —ORIGIN UNKNOWN

There are times when I should think before I speak. Posting things like that make me no better than them and I regret it, even if it did make me laugh that night.

Instead of focusing on truly protecting children, white Christian nationalists are focused on banning books. Politicians are quick to say they want to protect children but spend legislative sessions focused on culture war issues like books and anti-LGBTQIA+ bills. If they were really in the business of protecting children, they would take steps to stop child abuse and neglect.

What I see is a society growing more open-minded to people who are different from them, and a backlash from a segment of people who are uncomfortable with this.

We hold the power within ourselves to make the world a better place, and our reactions are key. To choose to perpetuate hate makes that person and everyone around them miserable.

The next time you hear someone say there are sexually explicit materials in children’s sections of your library (which is not true), here are some suggestions: 1. Ask this person to give you a title of an actual book. Look on your library’s catalog to see if the book even exists and/or if it is even in the children’s section. You can usually see for yourself that their claim is false. Then YOU don’t have to perpetuate the rumor and can stop it in its tracks. 2. Check out the book and read it for yourself. Remember that every book might not be your cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean the book is sexually explicit. If you object to a title, fill out a formal request for reconsideration if you feel that is necessary. Keep in mind that a book in the adult section must fail the Miller test to be considered obscene and sexually explicit. Books are taken as a whole and based on literary merit—not just one page out of context. 3. Ask yourself if they have a hidden motive. Once you can prove to them that their claims are false and they continue to spread the lie, ask yourself why. You’d be amazed at how many people simply want to spread lies, even if they know they are lies. That’s called chasing clout. They want to feel important and/or were fed disinformation that they did not take the time to verify. 4. See if they or a family member is running for office. Are they just jumping on the bandwagon of using the library as a punching bag to stir up drama so that they can say they w...

We should all want to have truth taught to our children and libraries that are inclusive to people from all walks of life. We should be able to have open conversations without name-calling and personal attacks just because we disagree with someone.

Just because you don’t want to read it or see it, it doesn’t give you the right to deny others or demand its relocation. If we remove or relocate books with LGBTQ or sexual health content, what message is that sending to our community members? Why is your belief system any more important than others’? What will be next if you accomplish your mission? Parents have a personal responsibility to monitor their own child’s reading and nobody else’s.

author Stephen Chbosky: “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”