By DERRICK GALINDO, Senior Reporter
NWOSU’s Sigma Tau Delta Chapter and Writer’s Roundtable read banned books last Thursday at their annual banned book reading.
In room 109 of the Education Center, students and faculty gathered to read books that were challenged or banned, as well as play kahoots for prizes. From children’s books to graphic novels, literary classics to those with recent acclaim; attempts were made to censor or ban the books they read that night.
According to the American Library Association, in 2023 alone, people attempted to censor 1,247 books and other resources. This was a 65 percent increase from the year before. Along with this, 4,240 books were targeted, many of which had LGBTQIA+ themes or BIPOC experiences.
The act of reading banned books was actually started by libraries, said Dr. Roxie James, the sponsor of Sigma Tau Delta. The purposes of these readings are to highlight what challenged and banned books are, why they are challenged or banned and why that can be problematic. The main problem of banning books is that it hinders what readers are able to learn because of a seemingly sensitive topic, James said.
“I love it when people read,” James said. “It makes me happy when I see people who want to read, like to read and want to talk about reading. When there are books that are banned and challenged, it kind of breaks my heart a little bit. That is knowledge – that is a story that someone won’t get to experience.”
James brought up the example of “Harry Potter”, which is heavily banned because of themes, including the promotion of the occult and witchcraft, the darker tones of later books, confusing children and leading them astray.
“When parents or schools don’t allow students to read that [“Harry Potter”], then they miss out on the bigger story; overcoming adversity and good vs. evil. If we are so focused on what’s bad, we don’t have a chance to learn what’s good.”
Rose Negelein, a senior biology major from Cleveland who read “The Tell-Tale Heart” at the event, said formed judgment is one thing, but banning is not the right thing to do.
“I understand parents not wanting their kids to read certain things, but that’s up to them at home. You shouldn’t be able to just take things out of the public eye like that.”
Tyler Blankenship, a senior English education major from Macomb, said that a lot of the processes of banning books could be solved if it were an opportunity to discuss instead of silence.
“I believe they are banned because they provoke something inside of certain people that is just offensive or seems intolerable, or just seems to go against what people believe,” he said. “I think it is valuable not to ban books, but go over them and talk about the hard subjects. The more you ban them or suppress them, the more you have to deal with them.”