The Momentous Issue of Censorship
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Dylan Lister
This is a submitted letter to the editor.
“[People of color] don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book.”
“[People of color] don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book.” -Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
In 1918, Congress passed the Sedition Act, which prohibited casting the government or the war effort in any negative light. It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. In 1954, the Communist Control Act was passed. Many government officials sought to outlaw the Communist Party by declaring that the party, as well as "Communist-Infiltrated Organizations" were "not entitled to any of the rights, privileges, and immunities attendant upon legal bodies."
These are not the only examples of censorship. In our state alone there are dozens of banned books ranging from titles like 1984 all the way to Art Spiegelman's Maus. These book bannings almost always address prominent issues plaguing society, topics surrounding minorities, or dystopias warning about totalitarianism. Even the popular children's novel series Captain Underpants has come under fire recently for its supposed “illicit” imagery. It is an issue that continues to fester in our school systems because shallow-minded people don't understand the philosophical, metaphorical, and historic portrayal in books. Because of this miscommunication, people enrage themselves with a thirst to censor anything deemed “controversial.”; however the youth that is not to read such titles will suffer.
Perhaps I am not saying that there are no good reasons to be upset about books, or control sensitive information, but that is in rare cases. Books like The Turner Diaries, which influenced the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing have a dangerous potential, but books like The Color Purple serve a good purpose in society. They enforce morality, not inflict it. They confront the truth, not avoid it. They inspire change, not destruction. The ideas which spark from these novels form the basis of change.
But once again, books are not the only targets. A federal act of Congress in 1996 restricted “Indecent Obscenity” on the WWW (World Wide Web). These restrictions included some pornography sites; however, there was also the banning of several non-pornographic materials, such as Lolita, a novel about a young woman overcoming an abusive relationship. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, several Republican state legislatures began introducing bills written by the National Right to Life Committee which criminalize the dissemination of information on how to obtain an abortion.
The Alien Registration Act of 1940 is a United States federal law that made it a criminal offense for anyone to knowingly advocate, or to even teach the object of overthrowing the Government of the United States or of any US State by force or for anyone to affiliate with any association which teaches such mannerisms.
A known proprietor of restriction is the notorious FCC (Federal Communications Commission). They lobby censorship on live TV, restricting use of words like “sex” “gay” or even “crap.” The FCC has been restrictive on almost every form of multimedia you know. Let’s try something: stop reading this article right now, look up your favorite show on google, and type next to it, FCC. Did you see? What was that for? Ask yourself: “Why do they censor that?” “Aren't there bigger problems in the world that our government could be spending the $26 billion in revenue the FCC collects from your taxes every year?”
So I encourage you readers to help protest the censorship of media nationwide, be it by doing something as simple as reading a book.
