Banning Books in schools can be harmful to marginalized communities

Question

 Banning books in schools often targets marginalized voices and can harm students’ ability to think critically and empathetically. PEN America, a nonprofit organization that tracks censorship, found that over 3,300 books were banned in U.S. schools in the 2022–2023 school year, with a large portion of these books featuring LGBTQ+ characters or themes, and stories about people of color. They argue that this trend disproportionately silences underrepresented voices. American Library Association (ALA) reports a record number of book challenges in 2023, stating that most targeted books address race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The ALA emphasizes that access to diverse stories promotes empathy and prepares students for life in a diverse society.

https://pen.org/book-bans/index-of-school-book-bans-2022/

https://www.ala.org/bbooks/aboutbannedbooks

Answer 1

https://www.adl.org/resources/article/diverse-and-complex-narratives-cultivate-empathy-and-action

According to research, viewers of TV shows with prominent marginalized characters such as immigrants have viewers with a higher likelihood to stick up for said marginalized groups on social media and in the real world. In 2017, only 7% of new children books were written by black, native, or latino authors. 

In another study, higher support for in-class diversity was correlated with less bullying, and higher empathy. Little is known about the effects of diverse characters in books and their effects on empathy, but these studies would lead one to assume it could be true. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32643183/

Comments

Your answer about media representation's impact on social attitudes is really interesting . The correlation between TV shows with marginalized characters and increased advocacy is significant. Exploring similar effects in literature, despite the 2017 data on children's books, could offer insights into empathy and bullying reduction. This could promote more inclusive storytelling across media.

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In your response you use a reliable array of sources as well as in-depth further research into the matter you're responding to. Including a separate source from the same site used in the original post may be slightly mislead, and could lead to potential bias as the source is the same.

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All though your response is focused on media and is interesting based on connections the focus should be about the banning of books in schools and how that affects marginalized groups. So because of the banning of books regardless of who writes them is impacting the target subjects about things like race and sexual identity. And with the lack of access to these topics it does not prepare kids for a diverse society.