We are “celebrating” national Banned Books Week this week—if indeed “celebrating” is the right word to use in conjunction with a week that honors books that have been banned in various venues.Those venues can be anything from a geographic location (e.g. a particular city) or, more likely these days, specific schools or libraries, or even bookstores. In my childhood, Boston was known as a prudish city and the phrase “banned in Boston” was commonplace to denote books (and also movies) that were too sexual in content to be acceptable in Beantown. The phrase “banned in Boston” served to titillate book-readers or moviegoers in other areas who might want to read suggestive materials or see movies with steamy scenes.
But the books Banned Books Week is shining its light on this year have nothing to do with steam or raunch. Their only “crime” is either promoting diversity in print or in some cases being written by African American or other non-white writers. To be sure, ethnicity is not the only cause for challenge. Books with gay themes or characters have come in for their share of banning, and even a few books about people who are differently abled. It all falls under the broad umbrella of diversity.
In many but far from all of these cases, the books were written for children, like the well-known HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES. But surely THE COLOR PURPLE was not written for a youthful audience. Yet it, too, made the Banned Books list.
Even in the cases of books written for kids, however, does any school or library have the right to withhold books because they feature characters of color, characters with disabilities, or even characters who are <gasp!> gay? And are they doing their youth any favor by withholding these depictions? How can we expect our children (or grandchildren) to learn about the “real world” if they don’t have access to literature that depicts the world as it really is?
Is YOUR public library or school deliberately excluding books that promote or reflect diversity, whether ethnic or otherwise, and whether for children or adults? Put pressure on the institution! Is your local bookstore refusing to stock books because of diversity content or authorship? Demand that they start stocking them and threaten to buy your books elsewhere if they don’t. This is no Orwellian 1984. Nobody but you—no governmental or private entity—should control what books are accessible to you or your children.
When there are no more banned books, we’ll all have something to celebrate! And then “celebrate” really will be the appropriate word.