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.

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I think you did a great job highlighting how TV shows with marginalized characters can encourage empathy and action. The statistics you shared, especially about children’s books, really help to show how representation is lacking

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I think you response was very well thought out and adressed the claim head on. I appreciate you including research that has been done about this subject. Specifically the study on how viewers of TV shows with marganilized characters are more likely to stick up for those in the real world. This helped me understand the positive effects in protecting books with marginilized voices from being banned in schools.

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I really like your answer to this claim, it stays away from the emotional pull of it and is full of good sources.

Answer 2

through my own research of this claim I can conclude that yes, banning books can harm students and their ability to think critically and empathetically. in an article named "book bans don't protect children, they limit learning" written by Sydney Kelley, its explained that there is an unbalanced bias present within these bills that introduce the ideas of book banning's, specially targeting themes of Race, racism, and LGBTQ+ topics.  she states "in an analysis of books banned during the first half of the 2022-2023 academic year, about 26% of banned books address LGBTQ+ topics, and 30% discuss race or racism." within this related article named "banned in the US" in the band content and titles section, the study included a listing of 874 books that show this statistic more spread out including other topics in relation to the book banns, however many of the books overlap with multiple different themes. also within this article it provides the books that were the most banned in the early 2022-2023 year, those totals including, "gender queer", "flamer", "tricks", "the handmaids Tail" etc. , which are all books discussing hard hitting topics such as LGBTQ+, race, trauma, or love, that are all essential topics for a student to learn and be educated about. the banning of these books can hinder the learning process of caring about difficult things that happen in the world. reading for children, about others and different experience from their own can also teach and help kids learn more about empathy and understanding difficult life experiences. it is important to have diversity within the classroom, not just as means of representation, but also using an educational tool to show and represent the diversity and diverse experiences of those around them and the world. without these books discussing different and diverse topics, we are actively stripping children from the important lessons of life. 

https://firstfocus.org/update/book-bans-dont-protect-children-they-limit-learning/

https://newsdetective.org/28814/banning-books-schools-can-harmful-marginalized-communities

https://readingpartners.org/blog/reading-improves-kids-emotional-intelligence-increases-empathy/