Rebel, Rebel

This article was originally posted 26 September 2018 on Library Sustenance. It has been updated to reflect current data about banned books in America.

When we think about book banning, we may picture book burnings, huge bonfires of information. We may be tempted to say, “That doesn’t happen anymore.”

A member of the SA throws confiscated books into the bonfire during the public burning of "un-German" books on the Opernplatz in Berlin. This photo is in the public domain.

But it does.

Every year, hundreds of books are challenged or banned in schools and libraries across the country. These books are removed from classrooms and book shelves because they are labeled obscene, vulgar, inappropriate. These books are dangerous, criminal. 

Their crime? They present ideas that may clash with one person's values.

Book banning has larger consequences than the simple removal of a book from the shelves; book banning kills ideas, cultures, perspectives, and truths. The voices in banned books are silenced, and the intellectual freedom of the entire community is undermined for the sake of a few individuals.

That’s why we celebrate Banned Books Week every year: to fight censorship and to lift up the voices of people and authors that have been silenced. Because, often, these are the voices of minority authors or minority characters. These are voices that enrich a community rather than endanger it.

Banned books are a symptom of a larger issue, though; George Orwell, the author of the perennially banned book 1984, once wrote, 

Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.

In other words, information is power. Our right to information and our freedom of expression are being challenged in so many other ways beyond book banning. Deep fakes have exploded across the internet. The internet is restricted in places like China--and the restrictions are engendering apathy.

People in powerful positions control who has access to information and what information their community members may consume. They define truth for our society.

So what can we do to protect our access to information and defend the silenced?

We can educate ourselves. Seek out minority voices and opinions. Listen to multiple sides of every issue. Ask yourself why a piece of information is being called “dangerous.” 

We can speak up. If we see an instance of censorship, we can name it (there is incredible power in naming) and protest it. We can send tweets, write letters, make phone calls, and show up. Our voices, like the voices of the banned, are powerful.

We can make change.