Censorship and the Library.
A big cause of contention that has been found throughout the history of libraries is the topic of censorship. Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information. Libraries in the United States of America report the amount of books that are challenged each year. This information is then compiled in multiple lists to present to the pubic.
The idea of censorship is incredibly frightening for me. The idea that groups or individual people can control what they think we (as people) should read is preposterous. I believe in the freedom to be able to read what we want, and when we want it.
The idea of book challenges and book banning has long been a controversial one. Many of the reasons for censorship range from sexual content to religious viewpoints. The most prominent reason for challenging books between the years 1990 and 2010 was sexually explicit content. 3,196 challenges that pertained to sexually explicit content arouse in that time period. Another common topic that has been challenged is witchcraft. Surprisingly, one of the most challenged books is Harry Potter. This is because some people and organizations believe that it promotes witchcraft and Satanism. They fear kids will attempt to cast spells on their classmates. Most of these banning attempts have not been successful or are still in a consideration process.
People should be able to decide what they read.
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But who has the right to make censorship decisions? Many principles, teachers and courts make those decisions for us. I believe that it should be a personal choice. We should be able to censor ourselves, but others should not be able to make the decision for us unless we ask or want them too. Some of the explanations behind certain groups choosing to challenge a novel are that they don’t think it’s appropriate for the age group, or that it contains offensive material. I find it really offensive that someone would think that I could not handle a topic because of my age. I believe that everyone is smart enough to not only make their own choices on what they read but also smart enough to find the theme of a story or learn from the mistakes of characters. A lot of book lovers know how to handle certain situations because they have read about them in a book. I know for me this is true. I have been able to handle certain things in my life better than I would have if I hadn’t read as many books as I did. Those that try to take away certain literary works don’t realize this. They don’t believe that people can take away good things from the bad. [AG1] They don’t realize, or choose to ignore, the fact that many of these books aren’t promoting the things which they want to censor. In fact, by censoring this material, they might be preventing someone from seeing how wrong something is, or coming to their own conclusion about their opinion on the topic.
Overall, I think censorship is more harmful than helpful. People may think they have other’s best interests at heart when challenging a book, but they should worry about their own thoughts and what they are reading themselves. As for me, I will continue to read what I want, and take away from it the best message possible.
Article adapted from this webpage