“Burn It”: How Book Banning Impacted My Community

Image source: The New York Times

In my eighth grade English class, the first book that we read that year was Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451. It tells the story of a dystopian, futuristic society in which reading books is outlawed and any contraband literature is burned by government-employed “firemen.” When I read this book at age 13, I was aware of how such attempts at censorship had happened in the past, such as in Nazi Germany which was part of Bradbury’s inspiration for writing this text. Yet the notion of an active threat to my access to books seemed far-fetched. 

But only six years later, in October 2022, a group called Citizens Defending Education (CDE) from my small hometown of Glen Ridge, New Jersey–the very same town where I learned about the dangers of book censorship–petitioned to remove six books from the town’s public library. 

Petitioners filled out a form to request the reevaluation of these books by the Glen Ridge Library, and they were asked what they would like the Library to do about each text. One respondent had one simple demand: “burn it.”

Suddenly that dystopian future Bradbury warned about felt entirely too present.

The titles that CDE sought to ban included the following: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, Here and Queer by Rowan Ellis and Jacky Sherdian, It’s Not the Stork by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley, It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley, This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, and You Know, Sex by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth. If the pattern wasn’t evident, all of these books include queer themes and aim to educate young people on gender and sexuality in order to help them better understand their own and others identities. 

The subtext of the protestors’ actions could not have been clearer: young people need to be protected from inappropriate topics of gender and sexuality. Thus, they imply that queerness itself is inherently dangerous and perverse.

The actions of these aspiring book banners do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they are the product of a national rise in conservative backlash to education that exposes young students to apparently controversial topics such as gender and sexuality, racism, and misogyny. 

According to the CDE’s website, “not all parents want their children indoctrinated in race-based theories…or being taught in the classroom to question their sexuality or gender identity.”

This thought process assumes that reading literature that center white, cisgender heterosexual narratives is somehow morally neutral. As if books about straight, cis het white people cannot possibly be pushing an agenda if they don’t explicitly proclaim that their identity is better than all others. But when those narratives are the only ones being presented, implicitly they do. Excluding the stories of queer people and people of color declares loudly to the world that their perspectives, insights, and experiences are not valuable. 

When the Library denied the CDE’s request to have these six books removed, they filed an appeal to the Glen Ridge Public Library Board of Trustees to reconsider the decision. This sparked local outrage and the formation of Glen Ridge United Against Book Bans, a campaign dedicated to keeping these books on the library’s shelves.

The impact of the campaign was swift and immense. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey issued a statement condemning the attempts at censorship, an interfaith group of clergy and religious leaders in the area organized in opposition to the proposed ban, and most impactful of all, All Boys Aren’t Blue author George M. Johnson released a statement. 

Johnson, whose work was the second most banned book of the 2021-22 school year, called out the deeply bigoted nature of the CDE’s goals: “As a Black queer person, I know what it’s like to read books that don’t tell my story. So in this hunt to ‘protect teens’ does it ever cross your mind that removing or restricting this life saving story for LGBTQ…or Black teens [only] harms them [more]? Or do you not care because that’s really what this fight is over? Removing LGBTQ stories and Black stories.”

On February 8th, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to keep all six books on the Library’s shelves. But the victory still feels undeniably hollow.

I am glad that Glen Ridge was able to make the right choice this time but there is still so much harm being perpetrated against the LGBTQ community and people of color across the country in the name of “protecting children.” 

Florida recently banned Advanced Placement African American Studies from being taught in its schools. Tennessee governor Bill Lee just signed a bill into law that criminalized “adult cabaret entertainment,” which includes “male or female impersonators” on public property or in any location that it can be viewed by minors.

And even in more liberal leaning areas of the country like New Jersey, conservatives aren't always being defeated. In January this year, a town in South Jersey voted unanimously to remove Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye from its freshman honors English curriculum on the basis of its sexual explicitness and inappropriate content. 

So let’s look at Glen Ridge for what it was: a rare moment in which a community made the right decision to protect queer and POC voices. But let’s also not forget that progress is never straightforward and there is still so much work to be continued.

References

Amendment No. 1 to HB0009. https://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/113/Amend/HA0011.pdf 

Burvey, Melanie. “A South Jersey school district has pulled Toni Morrison’s ‘Bluest Eye’ from its curriculum.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. February 22, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/news/book-ban-washington-township-toni-morrison-bluest-eye-20230211.html. 

Lavietes, Matt. “Tennessee governor signs first-of-its-kind bill restricting drag shows.” NBC News. March 2, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/tennessee-governor-signs-first-its-kind-bill-restricting-drag-shows-n1303262.  

Martin, Jennifer. “The 50 most banned books in America.” CBS News. November 10, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-50-most-banned-books-in-america/50/. 

Varn, Kathryn. “Florida education officials: African American Studies AP course ‘lacks educational value.’” USA Today. January 19, 2023. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/01/19/florida-ap-african-american-studies-class-rejected-education-officials-desantis/69823224007/.  

“What’s Next.” Citizens Defending Education. March 25, 2023. https://www.cde-glenridge.com/whats-next.