By: Sam Kuforiji

Throughout history, literary censorship and book banning has occurred as a means by powerful governments to suppress intelligent thought and the exchange of controversial ideas held by minorities. The 1933 German book burnings saw many famous works written by Jews, communists and anti-fascist authors set to flame in the thousands, and today it serves as one of history’s most prominent examples of how certain groups will censor ideas in literature that run opposite to their agenda and beliefs. 

It has nearly been a century since 1933, and while most people condemn the Nazis for their ignorant, fascist conduct, the United States has seen a disturbing trend of censorship and book bannings across several states that has only grown in recent years. In particular, Florida and Texas have experienced a spree of book bannings in the hopes of preventing their children from being exposed to certain “inappropriate materials.”

It is by no means criminal to want to ensure that one’s child is not exposed to material that will be harmful. The idea of protecting students from material detrimental to their health and learning is commendable, but the problem is that the banning of books considered harmful or inappropriate rarely, if ever, truly protects children. The censorship of information through literary censorship only serves to keep the population ignorant and uninformed. If the information contained in a story or historical text is unpleasant, then all the better to read so that we can learn to be better where others have failed. Instead of taking this approach, however, many states take the hardline option, banning books that involve any situations discussing race, racism, police brutality, gender, sex and LGBTQ identity on a critical leveling.

While some parents justifiably believe they withhold the right to inform their children on what they believe to be right regarding these subjects, they also withhold the possibility of more meaningful discussions and thoughtful explorations of these topics. When parents labeling any books that cover even the slightest controversy as “inappropriate” or potentially permanently damaging to a child’s psyche, they remove any possibility of nuance in their child’s growing worldview. The mind of a child is imaginative, creative, and it can endure the introduction of a strange new way of thinking without being permanently altered or somehow corrupted by the taint of  the “inappropriate.” Perhaps it is fair to shift some readings up to higher reading levels depending on the content they depict, but to ban a book or withhold its presence in learning spaces entirely is ridiculous. It only serves to hinder the learning and growth of a bright mind on the false basis that the slightest exposure to adult themes will permanently scar a child. 

The truth is that the world is a vast place full of many differing opinions. The censorship of ideas through book bannings only serves to narrow our view of the world to a self-serving, personalistic sliver of what could otherwise be a nuanced environment filled with people of many different backgrounds and upbringing. Children will grow into adults, and adults will experience what the world has to offer regardless of whether they want to or not. In that sense, wouldn’t it be better for them to be prepared for the differences of thought and opinion  they will undoubtedly experience? Wouldn’t it be better for children to be taught to be thoughtful and curious, rather than to stifle their environment by sealing away any differing views as harmful materials capable of contaminating young minds with pornographic and satanic ideas? History has taught time and again that book banning is not the way of a democracy, but of oppressive governments frightened by the power of thought and ideas. America is a place of such thought, and the freedom of literary expression both in the classroom and out will only help to shape a generation of intellectually capable, free-minded individuals.

Please, America. Don’t ban books.