Censorship overview + Trevor Noah’s views on book banning

The fight over book censorship in the U.S. has taken a turn. We are in the midst of a culture war and each book challenge is a deliberate attack. People are pushing to remove stories that reflect race, gender, sexuality, mental health, and anything else that challenges a narrow version of what's “appropriate.” Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime has not been immune to these attacks, being removed from school reading lists in places like Florida and Massachusetts. Schools have given a few different reasons for removing Born a Crime (Young Readers Edition). Some say it’s because the book talks about racism, poverty, or abuse. Others didn’t like Trevor Noah’s political views. In one case, a school removed it after he spoke about Israel and Palestine. But really, a lot of the push back seems to come from the fact that he’s a biracial South African telling honest stories about apartheid, identity, and inequality, and that makes some people uncomfortable.

Born a Crime is Noah's funny and honest take on growing up in a world that wanted to keep him invisible. And now in a cruel twist of fate there are still people who want to intentionally keep him invisible. Who want to keep all the authors and stories that don’t fit into their agenda invisible. On The Daily Show, Noah didn’t hold back. “They’re banning books about race, about gender, about sexuality, about emotions, about history,” he said. “Guys, that’s all books” (The Daily Show & Noah, 2022). It is indeed, all the books.

Noah has spoken publicly about how censorship isn't just about a few controversial titles, it’s about manufacturing outrage. “This isn’t about books,” he said on an episode of the Daily Show. “This is about keeping the culture war going for political benefits” (The Daily Show & Noah, 2022). He’s made it clear that the sudden, coordinated push to ban books in dozens of states didn’t appear out of nowhere. “You don’t just have Republicans in dozens of states around the country suddenly realizing all at the same time that there are books they want to ban,” he told viewers. “Come on. It’s happening because they think it’s a winning issue” (The Daily Show & Noah, 2022). The real thing being attacked is the people and perspectives represented in the stories. Banning a book is a symbolic way to say certain stories, voices, or identities are not allowed.

This is the key aspect that Noah finds so dangerous. In his view, banning Born a Crime or similar books is about power and controlling whose stories are acceptable to tell in society. In order to do this “People are finding the most scary parts of the most scary books,” he explained in an interview, “and then they’re making a bad faith argument that kids are being bombarded with all this stuff. So, all the books have to go” (Morehart, 2022). These bans often use cherry-picked passages out of context to justify banning entire works.

At the 2024 ALA Conference, Noah reminded the audience what’s really at stake. He spoke about his childhood library in Johannesburg, a space that gave him the freedom to ask and explore questions. “The book is powerful,” he said, “but the library is the energy behind that power” (Op de Beeck, 2024). Libraries are places where people can engage deeply and get introspection into lives beyond their lived experience.

Noah continues to speak out because he knows how much access to stories can shape a life. And because he’s lived through a system that tried to silence his existence, he doesn’t take intellectual freedom for granted.