New data reveals US authorities ban most books on race and gender topics

Today, more than half of all American schoolchildren are people of colour, yet across the country there has been a concerted attempt to reduce students’ access to literature on race.

Digging into the details of the books banned, PEN found that of historical and biographical books banned, 44% featured people of colour with 29% specifically featuring Black people.

“This targeted censorship amounts to a harmful assault on historically marginalized and underrepresented populations – a dangerous effort to erase their stories, achievements, and history from schools,” said Sabrina Baêta, senior manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Read programme.

“When we strip library shelves of books about particular groups, we defeat the purpose of a library collection that is supposed to reflect the lives of all people. The damaging consequences to young people are real.”

Often books on LGBTQ+ themes are accused of exposing children to sexually explicit material as justification for their bans. However, PEN analysed that of the 4,218 books banned, 31% had references to sexual experiences but with minimal detail with just 13% describing sexual experiences “on the page”.

There were over 10,000 book bans across the US in the timeframe, according to the PEN research. They point to an alarming rise in “white supremacist and Christian nationalist ideology” as the root cause of these bans and why they statistically target race and queer literature.