LOS ANGELES.–Warning about an acceleration of the book-banning movement, non-profit PEN America, an organization committed to free speech, said that book banning has hit crisis levels around the United States. Mostly stemming from conservative circles, book banning has been focused on Critical Race Theory, sex and gender issues, especially with the LGBTQ+ community. Saying the book banning frenzy has hit a crisis point, PEN America warns that the trend spread in the first half of 2024 to unprecedented levels, threatening not only the First Amendment but, more importantly, the livelihood of publishers, authors, publicists, editors, illustrators, book designers, printers and everyone else linked to the book industry. Conservative groups, in their zeal to deny access to information and literature, have eviscerated the free market, allowing state bureaucrats to rob American citizens of basic civil liberties.
Religious or political groups objecting to the free flow of books, whether fiction or non-fiction, have violated the civil rights of everyone connected to the book publishing industry, regardless of the content. “There were over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of this school year—more that all of last school year as a whole. This is a marked increase in comparison to the last spring semester, in which PEN America recorded 1,841 book bans,” said PENN’s report “Banned in the USA.” Whatever the rationale, based on morality or social standards, there’s no excuse for denying authors the right to Free Speech but, more importantly, to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, from the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, embodied in the First and 14th Amendments. Book banning violates every principle Americans have fought-and-died-for in U.S. history.
Book banning accelerated in conservatives states like Florida and Texas after the 2019 New York Times Nicole Hannah Jones “1619 Project,” where she raised questions of how slavery affects every African American in today’s society, raising the slavery reparation movement as a means of equalizing what’s known as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [DEI], something designed to level the playing field in American Society. When Jones first raised the issues of how slavery continues to impact African American community, Black authors began writing more vigorously about Critical Race Theory, raising issues of White Privilege or the anti-racism movement, now manifesting in today’s fiction and non-fiction books especially by Black authors. Book banning seems to accelerate with certain elected officials raising objections to Critical Race Theory in newly published books.
Critical Race Theory created strong objections in conservative circles largely because it called for political action within the Black community to return to a new type of affirmative action, giving preferential treatment in hiring and school admission to African Americans. Objections from conservatives stem from the presumption that all of White society are racists by virtue of being White and owe the African American community some kind of reparations, whether in cash payments or preferential treatment. Conservatives in-and-out of government object to the end of American meritocracy, the cornerstone of the U.S. education and workplace success, where only hard work and competency are recognized for success, not racial preferences. Book banning then extended to the morality police, objecting to sex and gender-related issues in today’s literature.
Books written by LGBTQ+ community found themselves in the same boat as the Critical Race Theory bans, insisting that gender identity was not appropriate of school-aged children, thinking somehow it was brainwashing youth, advocating gender identity issues, rather than providing a resource for anyone seeking factual information. Conservatives, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, made it a flash-point to push for book bans when it came to exposing youth to LGBTQ+ issues, thinking it was influencing youth to adopt fringe gender-identity issues. Banning books, thinking it influences young minds, is preposterous. It’s flat out un-American, not only denying the right under the First Amendment to Free Speech but, the rights of authors to make a living under U.S. commerce laws. Like today’s abortion bans sweeping the country, book bans represent the worst possible outcome in a Free Society.
Whatever one thinks of Black Liberation ideology, DEI or slavery reparations or the LGBTQ+ community, book bans are as un-American as its gets in an open society touting its difference with the authoritarian world. “Those who want to ban books are attempting to use obscenity law and hyperbolic rhetoric about porn in schools to justify banning books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics [and in particular trans identities]. In doing so, they have also disproportionately targeted books by women and non-binary authors,” PENN America said. Every American should be outraged by book banning because it’s as un-American as it gets in a so-called Free Society. Every American voter should look carefully at candidates that support book-banning, something that robs U.S. citizens of the right to earn a living in Free Society requiring the open flow of all information.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
