- 29,694
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
Today--Sunday, September 26th--marks the start of the 39th annual Banned Books Week in the United States (which is also promoted around the globe by Amnesty International), and while there are free speech and First Amendment (in the United States) implications, I thought interesting discussion could be had regarding specifically the prohibition of books in the "free" world.
The right to publish amd distribute isn't typically infringed upon per the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and publisher's discretion, regardless of motivation, simply doesn't qualify. Private purveyors of print get to similarly exercise discretion for any reason, though both may have to face consequences, particularly reduced market share, for these decisions.
However, children are still frequently deprived of literary works in public schools and libraries and that this is broadly tolerated, even by the United States Supreme Court, is disconcerting. Children are frequently not beneficiaries of rights protections in the way that adults are. "Won't somebody please think of the children?"
First banned by the Concord Public Library in Massachusetts for "coarse language" mere weeks after its release, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is recognized as one of the most widely prohibited works. Often cited as justification for prohibition is the subject of racial discrimination and its liberal use of the n-word (it appears on more than 200 occasions). Indeed, issues of race are frequently given as justification for depriving children of access to books. Ruby Bridges Goes To School, a book in which Bridges herself gives an account as the first black student to integrate a New Orleans public school, which was first published in 2009 and has since been proposed for public school curriculum, has recently been condemned by "Moms for Liberty" because it doesn't depict white people who opposed black children in their own children's schools in a positive light. Robin Steenman, chair of a Tennessee chapter of the group, doesn't want children to be taught this kind of history.
Similarly panned are works that address topics like sexuality, gender and gender identity. Children are just too impressionable.
Strega Nona is the first book I remember pulling off of a public school library shelf to read myself, and I was dumbfounded to learn probably close to thirty years later that it had been banned in parts of the Bible Belt because it glorified witchcraft. Insane.
The right to publish amd distribute isn't typically infringed upon per the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and publisher's discretion, regardless of motivation, simply doesn't qualify. Private purveyors of print get to similarly exercise discretion for any reason, though both may have to face consequences, particularly reduced market share, for these decisions.
However, children are still frequently deprived of literary works in public schools and libraries and that this is broadly tolerated, even by the United States Supreme Court, is disconcerting. Children are frequently not beneficiaries of rights protections in the way that adults are. "Won't somebody please think of the children?"
First banned by the Concord Public Library in Massachusetts for "coarse language" mere weeks after its release, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is recognized as one of the most widely prohibited works. Often cited as justification for prohibition is the subject of racial discrimination and its liberal use of the n-word (it appears on more than 200 occasions). Indeed, issues of race are frequently given as justification for depriving children of access to books. Ruby Bridges Goes To School, a book in which Bridges herself gives an account as the first black student to integrate a New Orleans public school, which was first published in 2009 and has since been proposed for public school curriculum, has recently been condemned by "Moms for Liberty" because it doesn't depict white people who opposed black children in their own children's schools in a positive light. Robin Steenman, chair of a Tennessee chapter of the group, doesn't want children to be taught this kind of history.
Similarly panned are works that address topics like sexuality, gender and gender identity. Children are just too impressionable.
Strega Nona is the first book I remember pulling off of a public school library shelf to read myself, and I was dumbfounded to learn probably close to thirty years later that it had been banned in parts of the Bible Belt because it glorified witchcraft. Insane.