'What’s With All The Book Bans?'

Or, Why The Tyrannical Right Is So Scared of BOOks

A month or so ago, after I’d shared yet another post about book bans and the right (for now) to read freely, a friend DMed me: What’s up with all the book bans? 

My brain immediately went back to yet another DM from yet another friend, who, the morning after the election, wrote: Time to get the room ready. 

This friend was one of the few people I’d told my lifelong secret: That after reading both The Diary of Anne Frank and Corrie TenBoom’s A Hiding Place, I have always, in every house I’ve lived in (or stayed in for any period of time), figured out where I’d “hide the Jews.” 

This sounds perhaps off-color today, but in reading those books as a child, I promised myself that I would be the kind of person who was willing to hide others, to save others. No matter the cost, I’d be on the right side of history. (What a gut punch to realize that many Trump supporters must’ve read those same books and wiped their brows when the Franks were found!)

Of course, it was easy back then—to make those self-promises. Back when I never actually thought there’d be a need in this country.

But alas, as my friend suggested she would ready spaces where trans people could find sanctuary if needed, I gulped—and re-upped my promise. 

So yeah, that’s up with the all these book bans. 

States like Utah, South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio are on book-banning rampages, claiming it’s to “protect the children.” Of course, it’s to protect The Tyrannical Right, to protect The Powerful, to protect White Nationalism from the dangers of none other than empathy. Specifically, the empathy that reading fosters.

And if you’ve been paying attention to the moves of The Tyrannical Right, you know that there is a war on empathy—even in “Christian” circles. The Sin of Empathy is an actual title of an actual book by someone who claims to be an actual Christian. And the idea of empathy being weak, evil, and anti-Christian—even by folks who would disavow this particular author—is catching on. I see it in the messages I receive from folks on The Tyrannical Right all the time. They imagine my loved ones must be this, that, or the other thing for me to speak out against the oppression of certain people groups. They cannot, they tell me, understand why else I’d be interested in fighting against anyone else’s oppression. 

It’d be laughable if it weren’t so evil—especially from the mouths of those who claim to follow Jesus (though, in fairness, their Jesus is spelled T-R-U-M-P).

Anyway, back to book bans. Let’s consider another example, one not about the atrocities of a previous Fascist regime and one instead about the atrocities of a current Communist regime (The Far Right and The Far Left—I’m nothing if not for equal opportunity!). Let’s consider my friend Tina Cho’s amazing, award-winning, must-read-of-a-graphic-novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow. 

This book has not, as far as I know, been banned or challenged. And I pray it never is. 

But it could be. 

After all, it’s about non-white children who escape North Korea in an attempt to find freedom and new lives in the United States. All along the way, they sneak across borders and bribe officials. The characters’ illegal actions threaten their return to the brutal dictatorship of North Korea or prison in the countries they sneak through. Let’s not sugar coat this: These children commit crimes. As do the pastor and missionary who help them.

Of course, as readers, as humans, that’s not how we internalize the story. We don’t see their actions as crimes or the characters as criminals; we see heroes. We see freedom-seekers. We see sons and daughters of God risking literal life and limb to escape tyranny and oppression—or at a more basic level, to find food. 

As readers, as humans, we feel for them each step of the way. Our hearts pound. Our palms sweat. Our stomachs inch up into our throats. We cheer for them. We champion them. We can’t put the book down until we know—please, God—that they are safe. 

And that’s the problem. 

When we read books like Cho’s, the scales of “the other” fall off, and our shared humanity is left exposed, raw.

And so, when we move out of stories and into real life, when confronted with the realities of the thousands, millions of people risking life and limb, sneaking across borders, seeking freedom and opportunity and food like the characters in The Other Side of Tomorrow, we see them differently. We understand them—and their plight—differently. We might end up voting or speaking up or speaking out differently because we see a shared humanity.  

And The Tyrannical Right can’t have that. 

The Tyrannical Right needs us to see the oppressed as less than, as other, as either not-so-bad-off or not-deserving-of. They don’t want us to see others as people just like us—people who want to be loved, who want to live into our callings, who want to be free, who want themselves and their children to have opportunities, who want to eat.

This is why The Tyrannical Right speaks of non-white migrants (and citizens) as animals. As murderers. As rapists. As criminals. It’s why The Tyrannical Right speaks of LGBTQIA+ people as perverts or deranged. It’s why The Tyrannical Right speaks of the disabled as unworthy of protection or opportunity. (Important to note that with The Tyrannical Right, accusation is confession. Always.) And this is why most banned books are about or by people of color or the LGBTQIA+ community. 

This is how The Tyrannical Right wants to see others. This is how they raise their children—and try to raise ours.

The Tyrannical Right does not want us to see others as human, as children of God, as bearers of the Image of God, as brothers and sisters. They must remain “other” for The Tyrannical Right to remain in power. 

And reading—widely—erases the other. 

This is what’s up with all the book bans. 

But the good news is that book bans are a losing proposition. Bills keep being defeated, lawsuits keep coming because organizations like Authors Against Book Bans (of which I am a proud member) keep up the fight.

So on this #RighttoReadDay, keep practicing this right we have (for now) to read freely. Keep supporting libraries and independent booksellers. Keep thinking. Keep feeling. Keep fighting. And keep encouraging others to do the same.

This administration can take away a lot of things, but they can never take away the life- and world-changing power of a great story.