Dale Farris: Book banning continues to spiral out of control
Writing for the Beaumont Enterprise, resident Dale Farris calls for an end to the book banning panic.
Book banning is now out of control. Across the nation, zealots bombard public school boards and city councils with vicious demands to ban particular books from libraries. The nonprofit literary organization Pen America published the latest April 2024 results from its ongoing study that tracks the nation’s book bans. In early 2023, Texas led the nation in school book bans, followed closely by Florida.
Across the country, 4,349 book bans in 23 states were recorded during the 2023 fall semester, with more school bans during the first six months of the 2023–24 school year than in 2022–23. Four Texas districts notched the most book bans. The Frisco ISD banned 368 books, followed by the Keller ISD with 85, the Conroe ISD with 79 and the Texarkana ISD with 58.
The selection of banned books in Texas is varied. The usual suspects include books about race, gender and sexuality, with some surprising titles. “Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays” by acclaimed astronomer Stephen Hawking got the boot in one North Texas district, while even the Bible was ousted in another. Titles from the “Lord of the Rings” series by J.R.R. Tolkien were banned, as were books by Margaret Atwood, including “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Those who want to ban books use obscenity law and inflamed rhetoric about “porn in schools” to justify banning books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics, especially transgender identities. Their efforts disproportionately targeted books by women and nonbinary authors. The movement to ban books also focuses on other hot-button themes of race and racism by advancing rhetoric disparaging “critical race theory,” “woke ideology” and the effort to ensure library collections are diverse and inclusive. And, of course, history books that tell the truth about America’s sordid extended support of slavery and our nation’s indigenous population holocaust were banned.
Right-wing extremists frame their ridiculous rant as a way of resisting supposed “liberal indoctrination” and spew conspiracy theories about “sexual grooming.” In their baseless accusations, “grooming” refers not only to pedophilia but also to LGBTQ+ teachers and librarians who are falsely accused of “indoctrinating” children into an LGBTQ+ “lifestyle.” This is classic homophobia.
Books that make you uncomfortable are the books that make you think. This is what a school is supposed to do — Make you think! Alas, not in Texas.