Texas librarians: Book bans are a political power play and your kids are the pawns
With its creation of an advocacy group to oppose statewide book bans, the Texas Library Association is sending a message: the loudest voices don’t represent everyone.
Politicians’ outcries about “inappropriate” reading material belie the fact that “there are millions of Texans who want to support these rights,” TLA president-elect Mary Woodard said at a press conference Tuesday at TLA’s annual conference.
TLA launched Texans for the Right to Read in March in response to the recent rise in book bans across Texas libraries. It aims to get opponents to the movement involved at the community level, where decisions about censorship are being made.
Between July 2021 and March 2022, 1,586 books were banned in 86 school districts across 26 states, according to a recent report from free expression organization PEN America.
Texas topped the list with 713 book bans in 16 school districts, including Granbury, where three books were removed from shelves and its review of material prompted intervention by the ACLU of Texas.
Politicians have taken notice and are bringing attention to the issue “to win elections,” said Shirley Robinson, executive director of TLA.
“It’s easy to see this is an election year ploy designed to sow mistrust between parents and educators and divide our state based on party affiliation and ideology,” said Robinson.
In October 2021, state Rep. Matt Krause of Fort Worth wrote a letter to the Texas Education Agency, asking districts to investigate the presence of more than 850 books in school libraries. Krause, a Republican, is running for Tarrant County district attorney.
An analysis by the Dallas Morning News found of the first 100 titles listed, 97 were written by women, people of color and LGBTQ authors.
Days after Krause’s letter, Gov. Greg Abbott penned his own missive outlining the Texas Association of School Boards’ responsibility to ensure students are not “exposed to pornography” in Texas public schools.
“Each of our schools should have an appropriate and transparent process to vet library materials before they are used,” he wrote.
Procedures around appropriate book selection already exist, said Woodard. The processes in place provide appropriate opportunities for parents to exert control over the content their children read, but should not allow parents to control what other children read.
“For those who say that Texans for the Right to Read and TLA want to remove parents from that equation, let me be clear, you are 100% wrong,” said TLA president Daniel Burgard.
Collections of books with high literary and artistic merit are carefully curated by Texas’ experienced and educated librarians, Woodard noted.
The book ban movement, she said, “is an all-out attack on them.”
A county prosecutor in Wyoming considered criminal charges against library employees for stocking books such as “This Book is Gay.” While charges were not pursued, the possibility of prosecution has a chilling effect, advocates attest.
“It’s a scare tactic to keep us from doing our jobs,” said Roosevelt Weeks, Austin Public Library.
It’s pushing librarians to self-censor in their book selection. “Shadow-banning” or removing books deemed controversial from display, is also becoming increasingly prevalent, said Robinson.
In addition to the harm book bans pose librarians, the censorship of titles that address race, sexuality and gender identity allow children to feel seen.
By banning these works specifically, “You’re telling a generation of people: you don’t matter,” said Weeks.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 4:48 PM.
