Key Takeaways

1. One big takeaway from this class is that a lot of the books we see being banned are ones from diverse perspectives that do not align with the traditional, white male-dominated, hetero-normative standards of society. It seems as if a lot of these bannings come from a place of fear of change and a fear of elevating the voices that our society has squashed from the start. People do not want to acknowledge the privilege that some carry and how that has shaped the world we see today, and many feel that this can be brought up through conversations surrounding these banned books. Overall, I think it is important to really analyze a text and its reasons for being banned in order to get to the heart of the argument being made because it is much deeper than just banning books.
2. A second takeaway is to evaluate who is really affected by banning these books. It is one thing to have a book be banned and to assess and acknowledge why it truly was banned, but it does not do as much good if time is not taken to think about the children and minorities this will hurt. In order to rectify the impact of banning books, you need to consider what is being taken away and the consequences of denying a student that resource. Banning a book is not going to stop kids from learning the information contained within it, rather they are going to learn it from a source that was not intended for young audiences, which can be incredibly damaging. Not only does it expose children to a new sense of trauma and hurt, but it teaches them their identity is not important and that can have generational impacts that will negatively impact every facet of the world around them.