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Comment by slg | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how the proponents of banning books like this don't have an "Are we the baddies?" moment. What precedent is there for history to look kindly on this type of behavior? Is there a single fiction book that you can point to that was banned in that past that let's say 60% of people today would agree was necessary (i.e. it would be in schools if there wasn't a ban) and appropriate to ban? It always seems like within a generation or two, most people agree the prior efforts to ban books were wrong, then a little time elapses, and we start banning new books again.

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The people screaming at school board meetings about gay characters in books aren't going to have an "are we the baddies" moment. They'd just ban gay people from existing in public entirely if they could.

school boards are elected, county and state governments are elected, if you want a policy changed at a school then change it. This is like saying a policy requiring a school uniform bans wearing flip-flops. Here's the top 10 list of banned shoes...

Call me when you're arrested or fined for buying/selling any book in US.

It's interesting that people are responding like this rather than answering my question. I know how democracy works and that includes the occasional instances of tyranny of the majority.

That still doesn't address my original question. Is there historic precedent for this type of micromanaging of school libraries (if you're adamant that we shouldn't use the B word) that most of us would still agree with today? Because many of the books on the list seem more likely to follow the path of eventual school classics like The Grapes of Wrath or To Kill a Mockingbird than they are to continue to be banned decades into the future.

Freedom of speech (in the US) protects book publishing too, or do you think school boards are elected, county and state governments are above the constitution?

How does not stocking a book in a school library due to community complaints or even a state law conflict with the first amendment?

Curation is not the issue. The librarians already selected and purchased the books, the state is forcing the librarians to remove them for political reasons. The state could hire qualified activist librarians who only want politically conservative "approved" books who curate only those books, but I will let you guess why they can't find qualified conservative librarians.

Who said curation was the issue? Where is the assumption that libraries don't have political reasons even coming from? The state handpicks librarians? What is with the implication that there are no "qualified conservative librarians"????

What in the world are you talking about? Why are you spouting a bunch of bigotry that isn't relevant to anything?

I'm very sorry but a bunch of bigots getting on the school board still shouldn't be able to unilaterally say "there must be absolutely no representation of gay people in any books in the library because the presence of LGBT content is pornographic."

  Call me when you're arrested or fined for buying/selling any book in US.

Are you offering pro bono representation?

See the others here not only justifying the censorship, but downplaying that they're even censored. "Oh they're just not stocked? It's not a ban.", etc.

How are children supposed to develop into adults, if they are denied reading about the experiences of others?

I am not a proponent of any of these bans, but it seems like someone needs to decide which books are featured at schools, and these 'bans' are just vetoes of certain books enacted by parents or school boards. I am not sure why a librarian or some school administrator should have complete authority to select any books they may prefer. This seems similar to a curriculum, in that the citizens and/or school board direct the educators what they should be (and should not be) teaching.

Well I certainly don't want school boards to determine the curriculum.

> I am not sure why a librarian or some school administrator should have complete authority to select any books they may prefer.

Because it's their explicit job function. Librarians aren't hired to watch over unchanging collections of books like cryptkeepers. They have budgets to buy books with.

> I am not a proponent of any of these bans, but it seems like someone needs to decide which books are featured at schools

Yes. This is normally done by a school librarian, who has extensive training in curating collections, and who is hired by the school board.

There are no "banned books" in the US. Using that term is inaccurate, and IMO a bit of an insult to people living in countries that actually do ban books.

What there actually are, are books that schools refuse to carry in their libraries because they don't think the content is appropriate for children. I would assume this happens in every country.

>books that schools refuse to carry in their libraries

You are just fundamentally wrong on the facts here. This list is specifically books that were removed from libraries due to outside forces. I'm not worried about school librarians deciding that a book's content makes it unsuitable for their students. These are situations in which parents or government officials are telling the school to remove a book already present.

https://pen.org/book-bans/book-bans-frequently-asked-questio...

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