Jihad On The Written Word

In case you missed this ongoing skirmish in the larger culture war there's plenty of folks working overtime to make sure they control what you and your children or grandchildren read. 

Beginning in July of 2021 PEN America began tracking public school book bans and has documented nearly 6,000 instances of banned books including 3,362 bans affecting 1,557 unique titles covering the 2022-23 school year.  This included 1,480 authors, illustrators and translators.

New Christmas Ornament for 2023

This represents an increase of 33% from the 2021-22 school year.  Having wrested the title from Texas, Florida now leads the nation in book bans.  

Drivers of these trends include vaguely-worded legislation, national advocacy groups pressuring local school boards with the threat of penalties, lawsuits and criminal prosecution escalating the book bans to record levels.

In the first nine months of 2023 the American Library Association reported more than 1,900 titles challenged, a 20% increase over the same period in 2022. 

Singled-out for particular attention are people of color or anything associated with the LGBTQ community.  When the final three months of 2023 are included the total will certainly rise.

Major findings:

• More than 40 percent of all book bans occurred in school districts in Florida.   Across 33 school districts, PEN America recorded 1,406 book bans cases in the sunshine state, followed by 652 bans in Texas, 333 bans in Missouri, 281 in Utah and 186 bans in Pennsylvania.

• Overwhelmingly, book bans target subject matter on race or racism or featuring characters of color as well as books with LGBTQ characters.  Banned books also include books on physical abuse, health and well-being and themes of grief and death. Notably, most instances impact young adult books, middle grades, chapter books, or picture books specifically written and selected for younger readers. 

• Punitive state laws, combined with pressure from vocal citizens and local and national organizations have created difficulties for local school districts forcing them to either restrict access to books or risk legal and financial penalties for educators and librarians.

In the face of this there is a small measure of poetic justice to be found between the pages of banned books.  Bridget Ziegler, book ban queen and Moms for Liberty member from Florida, and her husband Christian Ziegler, now former Florida Republican Party Chairman, have found themselves embroiled in the fallout from a police report of a consensual sexual threesome including sexual battery allegations against the deposed GOP chairman.

Sniff Sniff.  Do you smell what I smell?  I suspect it's a whiff of schadenfreude in the Florida air. 

A free people do not censor speech or ban books.