[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 2, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Banning Books

  Now, on book banning, an entirely different matter, over the past 
year a truly Orwellian trend has spread across our schools, libraries, 
and State legislatures. With an intensity not seen in decades, far-
right extremists at the local and State level are engaging in efforts 
to ban hundreds of book titles from the shelves of schools and public 
libraries.
  These efforts are framed as attempts to regulate obscene or 
inappropriate content, but if you even take a passing glance at the 
books under scrutiny, it is clear the goal here is to censor and 
suppress materials that deal with matters of race, sexual and gender 
orientation, and, more broadly speaking, social injustice.
  In Texas, for instance, State legislators have been demanding that 
schools send lists of titles to be scrutinized and, in some instances, 
have already pulled hundreds of titles from their shelves, from mere 
fear of repercussions.
  In Mississippi, one mayor withheld funding from local public 
libraries and said he would only relent when all books exploring LGBTQ 
themes were removed. That is patently disgusting.
  And in Tennessee, one school even banned a Pulitzer prize-winning 
graphic novel depicting the Holocaust because some mice weren't wearing 
clothes.
  These new and unprecedented efforts by the far right to ban books 
that explore matters of injustice and racism are deeply disturbing and 
downright Orwellian. Many of the titles under attack have been well 
known for decades. Some are Pulitzer prize-winning works. Others are--
get this--children's picture books--children's picture books. The list 
is broad--dizzyingly broad. Many of these works are vital to our 
society because they can do only what literature can do--explore timely 
social issues and expand people's understanding of the world around us.
  We don't need to look that far into history to see what happens when 
we go down the dangerous road of censorship and suppression. When free 
expression is weakened, the mob is empowered. The groundwork is laid 
for further discrimination, intimidation, and, God forbid, increased 
violence.
  It is one thing for families and local communities to have good-faith 
discussions about the best way to help our students learn and grow, but 
what we are seeing here today isn't that. These modern-day efforts from 
the far right to ban hundreds of books from the top down are dangerous, 
patently un-American, and this right-wing cancel culture should be 
resoundingly condemned.
  I yield the floor.