Book banning: Reverse psychology

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you either have or will read a banned book at some point in your life. For example, one of the most famous banned books of all time is Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. What people who ban books don’t seem to understand is that if people are told they are not allowed to read a certain book, the first thing people will want to do is read that book.

Taking a look at the top ten most challenged books of 2017 is eye opening. Four of the books in the top ten were banned because they had at least one queer character (George, Tango Makes Three, I Am Jazz, and Drama). Four were banned for addressing issues about race; one of these four, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was banned for “promoting Islam.” For all the strides toward acceptance society has claimed to make, the list shows just how far there is left to go.

So the question remains: If these challenged books are so controversial, will people read them even if they’re banned? It’s hard to tell. According to a 318-response survey by The Office for Intellectual Freedom, 42% of book challengers are patrons. Thirty-two percent of book challengers are parents, 14% are board members or administrators, six percent are librarians or teachers, three percent political and religious groups, and only one percent students. That’s right. Only one percent of students in the survey (that’s not even four people!) have a say in the challenged books.

With that data, knowing that the majority of the people who challenge books are patrons: hypothetically, these books could be the reason patrons stop sponsoring. Schools like Moorhead’s are underfunded: taking a look at the bathrooms of the school makes it very obvious just how badly we could use some money. This raises the question of whether or not it is ethical to ban books in school districts in order to keep what little funding schools already have. But, as the data suggests, this question isn’t up to students to decide.

People should be able to read whatever they want to read, regardless of whether or not they deem banning books acceptable. Hopefully, society will continue to learn about and accept differences in the world around them, and challenge books that portray books that face such challenges less and less.