By Jacob Onken, Contributing Writer
There is a banned book epidemic that is making its way across America. It seems like with each passing day there is another book banned. However, books are not banned for no reason. Often books are chopped when they contain racial issues, sexual situations, violence or negativity, and religious affiliations.
A lot of the qualifications for a book to be banned are vague. At some point in the United States, history books like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Hate U Give,” versions of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Maus,” and “This Book is Gay” have been or are still banned (depending on the county and state). One of the problems with the vagueness of these rules is that “The Diary of Anne Frank” isn’t banned for something like violence, but instead is banned for sexual situations.
Dr. Burgsbee Hobbs, an English professor at Saint Leo University, taught a class on the Holocaust during the Spring 2023 semester. Hobbs gave his thoughts on books like “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Maus” being banned in certain parts of America.
“The controversy wasn’t about protecting youth from the exposure to the ideas of violent culture. It was about hiding young readers from a thirteen-year-old’s curiosity about puberty,” stated Hobbs.
Sexual situations and sexual orientation seem to be a big reason for books getting banned, hence the banning of “This Book Is Gay” in Hillsborough County, FL.
“If something causes fear for either an individual or group who already have firm worldviews, then the books containing those ideas become a sort of metaphorical boogieman that must be eliminated, destroyed, or prohibited,” explained Hobbs.
The banning of books is equivalent to the banning of knowledge. An example of this is with “This Book Is Gay.” It is banned in Hillsborough County middle schools for being too inappropriate for children in that age group. Middle school is the age where kids start to form their own identities, and banning books prevents this. The vague nature of the different qualifications for these bannings causes political views to overvalue the process of education and growth.
