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Op-Ed: Book banning is back in style as the MAGA crowd’s war on truth heats up

Around the country, parents, politicians and school boards are challenging the content of books at a pace not seen in decades.

Art Spiegelman, author of the acclaimed graphic Holocaust novel "Maus," which was banned by a Tennessee school district.
Art Spiegelman, author of the acclaimed graphic Holocaust novel "Maus," which was banned by a Tennessee school district. - Copyright AFP Luis Acosta
Art Spiegelman, author of the acclaimed graphic Holocaust novel "Maus," which was banned by a Tennessee school district. - Copyright AFP Luis Acosta

Around the country, parents, politicians, school board officials, and activists are challenging the content of books at a pace not seen in decades. In all probability, the effort is being fueled by an attempt to rewrite history.

Rich Barlow, writing a commentary for WBUR, quotes President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had been president for six months when he gave the 1953 commencement address at Dartmouth College.

“Don’t join the book burners,” he told the Ivy League graduates. “Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.”

Eisenhower was correct then, and his words are just as correct and meaningful today, especially when the American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.

“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.

Groups today are not going bonkers just because a book might have sexually explicit material in it, but now their list includes books about racism, or about LGBTQ themes considered offensive to some parents’ and politicians’ sense of propriety.

Book burning will not get rid of history.

Banning books has become a political weapon

And somehow, the tactics behind the calls for banning books and the venues where they play out have changed. It has become politicized, with the MAGA crowd leading the way on a war on truth.

“The politicization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”

Let’s look at Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has decried “pornography” in public schools and he’s made conservative-minded education a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. Last week he unveiled a “Parental Bill of Rights.”

And while Texas state Rep. Matt Krause, from Fort Worth, has a 16-page list of books that he says will make students feel uncomfortable, Axios contends the move to ban these books stems from fears over Texas schools teaching critical race theory (CRT) and other issues related to race and sexuality.

And Texas is certainly not the only state doing this. If you really look into this book-banning situation, just about every state with a Republican governor and majority GOP legislature is doing the same thing.

And the list of books is growing by leaps and bounds. Of course, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – voted the best book of the past 125 years in a survey of readers conducted by The New York Times Book Review is a frequent title on banned book lists.

Banned book display. Source – Charles Hackey. CC SA 2.0.

But in today’s political climate, efforts to ban books are more sweeping. Perhaps no book has been targeted more vigorously than “The 1619 Project,” a best seller about slavery in America that has drawn wide support among many historians and Black leaders.

What is the 1619 Project? The project explored the history of slavery in the United States and was released to coincide with the anniversary of a ship carrying the first enslaved Africans to the English colonies.

But, as I have written a number of times – No one can rewrite history, however, we can learn from history. And books are precious beyond words. Banning a book will not make the truth disappear, nor will it alter history.

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Written By

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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