Book Banning: A Practice We Thought We Had Left Behind

Trump’s second presidency has given us much to talk about. The mass book banning the US is currently facing has been given precious little attention. For a conservative movement so committed to protecting freedom of speech in America, they sure were quick to violate others’ rights of expression when they took power.

PEN America, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about freedom of speech in the US, recently referred to the current level of censorship as “unprecedented”. Books and education have been victims of multiple censor-like laws at various political levels, from local to federal. Apparently, the origins of bans can be traced back to The 1619 Project, a journalistic anthology aimed at reframing US history by centring the narrative around the contributions of Black Americans in building the country. First published in 2019, Trump deemed it “anti-American literature”, a subjective and damaging label that was later used to remove books containing gender, racial and equity allusions from schools. Book censorship has proven stronger in Republican states. For example, Florida stands out for having the highest number of book bans in the past year (4,561 instances of banned books across 33 school districts). Republican Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, established himself as a leading figure. It does not compute, however, that such practices should be beneficial for the Government, since they are remarkably costly, amounting to between $34,000 and $135,000 a year to districts. One must be a fierce believer in one’s values to endanger local administration budgets just because the recurrence of a particular topic in literature irks you somewhat. 

An astonishing case of federal book banning is the one that Pentagon military families’ schools are facing, affecting 67,000 children worldwide. Under the Department of Defense, these schools had to withstand a reviewing (more like a purge) of books related to gender or “discriminatory equity ideology topics” aimed at the “radical indoctrination” of school children. The underlying message seems to be that women’s, people of colour’s and the LGTBQ+ community’s rights are simple ideologies, and not de facto universal human rights. These actions are an important setback for the fight against gender discrimination and racism. On the gender front, school documents were forced to use the term “sex” instead of “gender.” In addition, access to school facilities, programmes and activities have been limited by children's biological sex. What 's more, school groups such as the Pride Club and Women in STEM have been shut down. Meanwhile, racial celebrations like Black History Month have been instructed to cease. 

It is difficult not to compare today’s US with authoritarian regimes of the past. In fact, book banning is nigh on universally an early sign of authoritarianism. From Hitler’s Germany to Stalin’s Soviet Union and Communist China, cultural censorship and intellectual suppression were common practices. Managing director for US free expression programmes at PEN America, Jonathan Friedman, warns that we must be aware of subtle censorship. According to Friedman, avoiding using the word ban is the reason behind some cases not being broadcasted by the media. Instead, authorities prefer milder language, like removal or withdrawal, not to bewilder people. It might be frustrating to raise our voices, especially when Trump dismisses all complaints and arbitrarily stops investigations on books bans. But we owe it to ourselves to say it how it is and shame those who strip our freedoms of expression. 

Tiktok user @ravennnnnrzz brought to my attention the relevance of banned books to understand today’s repressive measures. The entry for THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1942 in the banned book Diary of Anne Frank reads:

They knock on every door, asking whether any Jews live there. If so, the whole family is immediately taken away. If not, they proceed to the next house. It's impossible to

escape their clutches unless you go into hiding. They often go around with lists,

knocking only on those doors where they know there's a big haul to be made. They

frequently offer a bounty, so much per head. It's like the slave hunts of the olden

days. [...] No one is spared. The sick, the elderly, children, babies

and pregnant women -- all are marched to their death.

[...]

I get frightened myself when I think of close friends who are now at the mercy of the

cruelest monsters ever to stalk the earth.

And all because they're Jews.

Immediate chills run through my skin as I read and reread. The modus operandi of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is an exact replica of Nazi Germany. Since Trump returned to the White House, ICE aggressiveness has worsened. Immigrants are not safe in their own homes, the possibility of receiving an ICE visit is now a reality. Proposals to offer bounties for information that leads to the arrest of undocumented immigrants are already being debated at the Senate. ICE agents can now enter schools, so even children are unprotected. The US lacks concentration camps for now, but it is eyeing the possibility of new immigrant detention centres and bringing back the controversial practice of family detention. Immigrants are this century’s Jews.

Censorship has metastasised from books to research. As per the Washington Post, Trump’s January executive orders have resulted in the targeting of research containing words that include “diversity”, “minority” and even “women”. Scientists who receive funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) were put on notice to cease any activities that do not comply with the recognition of the existence of only two genders and related beliefs. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian novel where the US transforms into a patriarchal regime in which women have lost complete access to politics, education, their own freedom and sexuality (you’ve guessed it: also banned), has always said that she had taken inspiration from events that had occurred at some point in the past. I wonder if Atwood ever foresaw that she could also take inspiration from the future. A female character in the series got a finger chopped off for committing the crime of reading a book out loud in front of a male audience. No one is chopping fingers off now, but the symbolic display of power over women's bodies and minds is equally alive. 

There has long been a debate on whether books worthy of being censored exist. I argue that though some might be potentially dangerous, that does not mean we should hide them away. Knowledge and ideas born from divergent perspectives must coexist peacefully. Literature has always been a means to make sense of the world, experience different realities, broaden our minds, satirise and protest over our own existence. When we are robbed of something so inherently human, we must reflect if we have conceded power to the wrong people, and show our teeth unapologetically. After all, the intolerant do not tolerate the tolerant.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/German Federal Archives (Klein)

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