The Kids Are Alright

"This is censorship."

Students across Texas are forming banned-book clubs and distribution drives as Republican lawmakers in the state target books that focus mostly on themes of race, gender and sexuality. https://t.co/6OZHoMMamQ

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) March 7, 2022

In Katy ISD, students have distributed hundreds of novels challenged by adults in Texas. They’re getting the books free of charge from a political advocacy organization and publishers. And Leander ISD near Austin, students are coming together in a banned-book club to discuss those books. Some students are starting to attend school board meetings to fight for the freedom to choose what to read.

Yeah, the kids are not the problem.

As far as I have seen, parents have been the center focus of the movement to ban books and remove them from libraries, where students have been at the forefront of advocating for having access to these books,” Samuels said.

It’s always the parents. But, you know…books don’t just come from libraries. And the irony, which is to say the usual outcome of trying to ban something (have none of these people read Tom Sawyer?), is that they’ve promoted reading .

Clouds. Silver linings. That kind of thing.