Yes: it’s obvious. Banning books is something only the small-minded, fearful little people do. If it wasn’t such a destructive hobby, you could feel sorry for people so determined to show the world how terribly afraid they are of other people, life, and everything around them.

I try to feel sorry for them, I really do. Some days I can do it; some days – when I read about the damage and hurt and injury these terrible people are gleefully inflicting on the rest of is – I can’t feel even a small amount of sympathy.

So, read this article excerpt, from an author talking about having her book banned, and what it feels like to be part of a terrible process of harassment. You can read the whole article here.

“Women of color are taught from a young age to take up as little space as possible: to be soft, to be quiet, to be careful.

So when I learned that my book about young women of color owning their confidence and learning to code was banned last year, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Because at its core, the ban on my book isn’t about books at all. None of them are. Rather, book bans are about oppressing girls—especially girls of color, queer girls, and nonbinary people—by making us believe that our stories aren’t worth sharing, our aspirations aren’t worth pursuing, and our identities aren’t worth celebrating.

Today, on International Women’s Day, it’s more important than ever that we fight back.  

Being a banned author is certainly a dubious honor, but hardly an uncommon one. Books like mine are being stripped from shelves across the country, with a particular focus on erasing stories centering Black and queer voices. From July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America tracked over 2,500 book bans, novels pulled for uncovering systemic racism and honoring trans lives, casting light on teen activism and celebrating religious diversity. If there was a common thread uniting these titles, it was that each offered an underrepresented point of view—one that could empower someone who shared it to challenge a broken system, and rebuild it in their image.

In that sense, book bans are part of a larger, manufactured culture war to keep young people from understanding and uprooting harmful systems of oppression—all under the guise of, ironically, shielding them from harm in the first place.

To be clear: every student pays the price for this so-called “parental rights” battle—and indeed, girls are hardly the only group, or even the primary group, being targeted. But girls, and especially Black and brown girls, queer girls, and non-binary kids, are disproportionately affected by these bans—and they’re the ones whose futures will suffer for them…

Coupled with the rapid backslide of the body positivity movement, the toxicity of social media, and the prospect of coming of age with fewer rights than their grandmothers, and it’s no wonder American girls are in crisis. Last month, the CDC recently reported that 60 percent of female students experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness, with nearly a third of high school girls reporting that they seriously considered suicide—double that of their male counterparts.

And so goes the insidious cycle of book bans, much like any means of withholding education from minoritized populations: make girls feel like they don’t matter, so they don’t pose a threat—economically, politically, or socially—to those making them feel like that way; rinse and repeat.

But if there’s hope, it’s that the opposite is true, too. Because as I have experienced firsthand, when you offer girls books that tell them how their differences make them special, they believe it. When you share stories that show them their dreams are possible, they pursue them. And when you give them proof that their world is changeable—and that they can change it—they won’t just do it; they’ll lead the charge. 

Indeed, history has shown time and time again that there are few things more powerful than a teenage girl armed with equal parts self-confidence and righteous fury. Today, from Austin, Texas to York County, Pennsylvania to Wentzville, Missouri, empowered girls are wresting back control of their education in order to create a better future for themselves, their friends, and every person touched by these bans.

Against all odds, these young activists are brave enough to spark a movement. Now, we need your help to grow and sustain it.”

Read the whole article here!