In the ever-escalating culture wars, schools have become a battlefront, with fierce arguments raging over curriculum content and ownership of particular books. Debating literature and ideas to teach students is the hallmark of a healthy democratic society. But coming amid assaults on the right to vote, the right to protest and respect for dissent, these efforts to suppress disadvantaged ideas and books must be recognized as part of a larger attack on democracy itself. same.

Since January 2021 more than 150 invoices were introduced in 39 states that would restrict the teaching of certain curricula, primarily on issues of race and gender. Of these bills, more than 103 have been introduced since the start of 2022. Twelve have already become law. About two-thirds of the bills target K-12 schools, with the rest focused on higher education, libraries and state agencies. Sixty-two include mandatory penalties for those who violate the bans.

Initially, most of these measures used the misnomer of “critical race theory” in an effort to push back against teachings that supposedly overestimated the role of race as a driving force in American history and culture. But the restrictions introduced more recently go beyond any single concept.

South Carolina House Bill 4605 seeks to protect students from material that may cause “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” because of their “race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin , heritage, culture, religion or politics”. belief.” Such language, common to many of these bills, is dangerous. It is incredibly broad, opening the door to the elimination of an endless range of works and subjects. It also undermines one of the very goals of education, which is to help students go beyond their existing assumptions about the world.

Most book bans target works by and about people of color as well as LGBTQ topics and storylines. Polk County, Florida ‘quarantined’ 16 poundsincluding “Beloved” by Toni Morrison” and “The Bluest Eye”, based on complaints from a group called County Citizens Defending Freedom. And as calls to ban the books grow, so does the vitriol that accompanies them: Last fall, two members of the school board in Spotsylvania, Va., called for books banned in the county from being burned.

International examples offer a disturbing clue as to where this might lead. In the 20th century, the South African apartheid state banned 12,000 books, at some point commandeer a steelworks furnace in order to burn insulting texts. And in the 1930s, the Nazi Party railed against “non-German books,” featuring book burnings of Jewish, Marxist, pacifist, and sexually explicit literature.

More recently, in 2018 Iran has banned the study of English in primary school to ward off “cultural invasion”. Legislation passed in Hungary last year prohibits any program referring to homosexuality schools in the name of “child protection”. In 2014, Russia passed a new law adding Nazi propaganda to the topics it prohibits and restricts – LGBTQ content, attacks on traditional values ​​and criticism of the state are among others. The booksellers were so afraid of breaking the general law that they pulled Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from stores because of the swastika on the cover of the book, despite its powerful anti-fascist message. Last month, a school board in Tennessee banned “Maus” from its curriculum.

Book bans and curriculum debates in the United States have erupted episodically over time as shaken communities have sought to curb social change in areas such as evolutionary science, sexuality and the acceptance of ethnic differences. Although some of the arguments made today – about protecting innocent students from corrupt ideas – echo traditional reasons for banning books, the current crusade has a more sinister twist.

Peak figures – what the American Library Assn. called an “unprecedented volume” of book challenges, including more than 155 unique “censorship incidents” between June and November 2021 — indicate that something organized is afoot. In many cases, the new bans are not simply spontaneous initiatives by local citizens. Donors, think tanks and conservative organizers drafted and purchased model lawslobby lawmakers, recruit parents and community activists, and provide manuals on what to ban and how.

Some of the same institutions and funders that fuel the book and curriculum bans are mounting parallel and partisan efforts to restrict assembly rights, make it harder for members of minority groups to vote, commandeer election administration and cast doubt on the integrity of the elections. It’s all part of the job of a vengeful political movement bent on trampling on civil liberties in order to gain and retain power. Organizers have found the bans a powerful tool to excite suburban parents with an issue that affects their own children’s schoolbags.

The techniques used to enforce these bans are fueling an already threatening atmosphere of political schism. School board members in Redding, Connecticut, and Eureka, Mo., resigned last year after receiving death threats during school battles. In an incident reminiscent of Cold War-era purges, a Colleyville, Texas school principal was investigated for his teachings on issues of race, finally resign under pressure after being accused of “encouraging the disturbance and destruction of our neighborhood”. School officials across the country were similarly targeted.

The book and curriculum blitz is one flank in a broader attack on institutions and norms, aligned with part of our nation’s resistance to the political and social implications that come with demographic and ideological shifts. Holding on to democracy means holding on to the books, defending the judgment of teachers and librarians, and vigorously defending the rights to read and learn.

Suzanne Nossel is Executive Director of PEN America and author of “Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All”.