What Are They Banning?

Banning books is a regular practice on the way to authoritarianism

Banning books is a regular practice on the way to authoritarianism. History teaches us that. Tyrants require people not to think or read things that could make them think. Despots want people to obey and not to reflect or ask questions.

When friends began writing to say that one of my books, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America had just been banned, I was, of course, startled. But I was not surprised when I saw all the other books which were banned by the U.S. Naval Academy library. As the press coverage came in, a pattern was easy to see. The banned books were about race, or race and gender, and finally about America’s history and future. What they were banning was the truth about American history in regard to race.

When I brought in my New York Times on Saturday, April 12, I quickly saw the front page article, Angelou’s ‘Caged Bird’ Is Out , But Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Stays: 381 Books Are Banned From Naval Academy. That’s where I started my Saturday morning reading and discovered that a word search had been done to find books that “needed further review.”

Half of those books were then banned by an order of the Trump Administration with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in charge. As the Times headline said, the books that were banned, including Angelou’s historic 1970 memoir which had remained on the their list of best sellers for two years, were dramatically contrasted by the books left on the shelves of the Naval Academy Library.

One such book, The Bell Curve, states that Black people are genetically less intelligent than White people. That one stayed, but a critique of The Bell Curve was removed. A novel that features an immigrant take over of the Western world, The Camp of Saints, also remained. Embraced by white supremacists, it is also a favorite of White House Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller. The Times said, “The Department of the Navy’s purge of 381 books there picked sides in the racism debate, and those that examine and criticize historical and current racism against African Americans lost.” I think all those books and any others should remain on the shelves of libraries for future leaders to read.

---

---

When I shared the news with my very diverse Ethics class at the McCourt School of Public Policy– and told them one of the books they were reading was now banned at the Naval Academy– they also didn’t seem surprised and offered their professor warm words of affirmation.

This week, The American Academy of Religion hosted a webinar with several of the banned authors of books on race. I was in the great company of kindred spirits and friends: Michael Eric Dyson, Anthea Butler, Bryan N. Massingale, and Robert P. Jones. Here is a new bookshelf piece by Robby Jones about all our banned books. It was quite a wonderful conversation about what was being banned– the truth– and what those consequences were for American society, as we come up to the nation’s 250 year anniversary. The deepest meaning of freedom is now at stake in America. And as Jesus reminds us, only the truth can make you free.

The banned authors and our books are not the real issue here. I invite you to listen to this conversation about the core questions of truth and freedom with my esteemed and beloved colleagues. It’s a great back and forth about the past, the present, and the future. At the end, we engaged in a discussion of the meaning of hope–especially at a time like this. Please take a listen and I think you’ll be glad you did.

---