Banned Books Week helps bring awareness to censorship in books

The week of Sept. 22-28 may have been homecoming week, but there was also another event going on during this time. Every year, the American Library Association sponsors Banned Books Week, which dedicates one week in September to bring awareness to all the books that have been challenged or removed from libraries. The reason for these challenges is that people feel as if kids should not be reading about certain material at such a young age for various reasons. Sometimes parents don’t want their kids being exposed to swear words, because they will—without fail—go their whole adult lives fully able to avoid them all. Even worse, some people believe that if children are exposed to certain topics—such as LGBTQIA+ relationships, discrimination among minority groups, politics, sexuality, mental health, religion and so much more—before they can force their kids to shun them, then they might—dare I say it—accept them.
According to the American Library Association, the most frequently challenged book in the 2000s decade is “Harry Potter.” Why would people want a book about a wizard and his friends using their magical powers completely stripped from libraries? Many Catholic schools believe that “Harry Potter” contradicts the Bible and its teachings against witchcraft, evil magic and demons, according to multiple sources, because kids can absolutely cast spells immediately upon reading any three words in the “Harry Potter” series. This may seem trivial to some, but for most books facing the chopping block, the reasons as to why they are there indicate some serious underlying issues when it comes to homophobia, transphobia, racism and erasure.
In the American Library Association’s list of the top eleven most challenged books of 2018, six of them were because it included LGBTQIA+ content. “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher made the list because it addressed teen suicide, and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas made it because the book—depicting the devastating effects of police brutality—was deemed “anti-cop” by challengers.
The First Amendment, as many of us may know, grants us the right to both freedom of speech and freedom of press. A classic example of the First Amendment is the newspaper and other sources of news media. In the news, the First Amendment is always on the table when it comes to what people should and should not censor. But what about books? They’re practically the same as newspapers; they are both on paper, they both are printed on ink, they both have words and, most importantly, they both have ideas that have every right to be read by the human eye.
Children have more neuroplasticity—the ability to form new brain connections and make changes in and to the brain—than adults, and even teenagers. This means that the most valuable time for people to learn is when they are young and still figuring things out. Why would adults try to encumber their children’s learning processes in order to make them more closed-minded just to satisfy their political and religious beliefs?
Authors write about these things so we can learn about them. These books that are constantly being brought down are also the books that give people the representation that they would not otherwise have. Children are supposed to read books to become inspired as they learn more about the world around them. What are we teaching them when we continue to restrict this privilege? That expanding their knowledge outside of what they are used to believing is bad? This is the type of learning and growing that will make our future generations become the change that we need in the world right now. Censorship is only limiting the very freedoms that the United States Constitution granted us the right to have. If society wants to see positive change, then let’s start by enabling our future to learn and develop into the most hard-working, kind, courteous and compassionate people with every book they can get their hands on.