I think it’s safe to say that most of us have been leading lives that were minimally impacted by the choices of our government. It’s not a secret that President Trump has made some extremely intrusive and questionable decisions while passing some laws that have negatively affected a lot of people (ironically, that pool includes the very same individuals who voted for him, imagine that).
In recent times, it’s been hard to ignore the increase in books that have been banned in the U.S. after Trump took office and hyper fixated on shutting out topics relevant to Black History and topics surrounding racial justice and identity. This poses a threat to many, especially younger children of color in school who will not get the proper education about their people’s history. This is extremely damaging when a president forces his own personal agenda that ultimately impacts our people the most. This also affects the prices if we wanted to purchase them as he has placed a high tariff on imports.
The Bigger Issue at Hand
Our rights are being violated in real time as banning certain reads goes against representation and freedom of expression. These actions severely censor the Black voice and threaten to erase our history as the new generations aren’t getting the proper exposure to our stories and art. Although they are being restricted in libraries and schools, the literature itself is still available for purchase, but that isn’t the point to be honest. There shouldn’t have ever been any reason to eliminate these books from the beginning, and it’s hard to ignore that this is, on some level, racism handed down directly by our own President of the United States. While the messages that Black authors have aimed to shed light on has consistently ruffled feathers, it has been awakened by the “Make America Great Again” movement.
What Books Are Affected?
According to Pen.org, 10,046 book bans were reported for the 2023-2024 school year, with books with people and characters of color occupying 44% and those featuring the LGBTQ+ community and themes taking up 39%. The site goes on to further highlight how “nearly 60% of these banned titles are written for young adult audiences, and depict topics young people confront… including grief and death, experiences with substance abuse, suicide, depression and mental health concerns and sexual violence.” While the list is fairly long, some 10 notable books on the ban list included the following:
Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye, Beloved
Angie Thomas – The Hate U Give
Jason Reynolds – Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (with Ibram X. Kendi)
George M. Johnson – All Boys Aren’t Blue
Layla F. Saad – Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
Jacqueline Woodson – Brown Girl Dreaming
Maya Angelou – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Emmanuel Acho – Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy
Juan Williams – Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary
Ellen Labrecque – Who Was Maya Angelou?
What Can We Do?
Fascists are thriving right now, but we can’t let that stand in the way of us teaching our younger generation and exposing them to what they need to know about the history of their people. From the books on the banned list to overall topics that have been removed from schools’ course curricula, it is up to us to have these discussions. Authors of these books and other minority writers are banding together to fight back, joined by advocacy groups along the way.
Social media has began the hashtag #LetBooksFly and Banned Books Week to bring awareness and point a spotlight on an issue a lot of people don’t notice, especially if you aren’t someone who reads often. There have been several lawsuits filed to correct this matter, including PEN America v. Escambia County School District that challenged “removals and restrictions of books from school libraries that violate their rights to free speech and equal protection under the law.” This further proves claims that the state of Florida continues to have one of the highest rates of book removals in the U.S. If you want to get involved, you can join discussion groups, subscribe to newsletters, and even donate to support the cause.
Overall, this is truly the beginning of something ugly. It starts with books but has the potential to expand into more forms of media and aspects of our daily lives. What if documentaries about the struggles of our people and our history start to get yanked from streaming platforms? What if holidays like Juneteeth and Martin Luther King Day are no longer observed and corporate doesn’t allow you company time as some jobs currently do?
This can be very discouraging for the younger generation to see so much of who they are get stripped from the history books in real time. We were supposed to be past that, but it seems things have just amped up either further with our new president. If all goes well, these next four years will breeze by and our next person in leading the country will put an end to this and restore some normality.