The fight to keep school libraries and librarians free from repression

Book banning has become popular lately, part of a surge in America toward the right. Conservatives believe, or claim, that librarians purvey "child pornography" in school libraries, a recent move in southern red states and New Jersey covered in this new film. The most recent purge began in 2021 with a list of 850 books circulated by Texas state representative Matt Krause. It turned out that over 60% on his list were books with LGBTQ+ themes; others are often about race. Rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis joined the bandwagon. He was followed by Moms for Liberty, a rightwing parents’ rights group crossing over to multiple states and supported by billionaire bigots bent on buying repression. The documentary filmmaker Kim A. Snyder and her editors have blended footage about Nazi book burning and bits of classic films and TV to further illustrate this film.

What it lacks somewhat is a broader historical perspective. The bigots H.L. Mencken made lively fun of early in the twentieth century came from a simpler time, apparently, but how were they different, specifically? Probably things spread faster in this age of electronic media. Snyder's film focuses on the school librarians, but the librarians point out the greater victims are the school children having books taken away. A world where growing and exploring ideas through books is cut off by name-calling bigots is an ugly, impoverished place. So is a world where librarians we hear from here - innocent, gentle victims - are losing their jobs for standing up to the book banners.

A particular focus is on Texas and Florida. In Granbury, Texas, Monica Brown, a mother of nine, wants her pastor to choose the books in the local school library. These issues are hotly debated in school and town meetings. Ms. Brown's gay son also comes to speak up, and has very different ideas. How ugly the mood is shows when a man yells epithets like "pornographer" and "pedophile" at librarians. And a new concept in our era is the ugly, false one of "grooming." Librarians leading young people to books that show them, as Monica's gay son needed to be shown, that being gay is okay, are accused of "grooming" the young to be pedophile victims. The right spews really ugly, mad ideas. A man at the Granbury meeting brings a firearm and mutters, "I know where you live" at a librarian. Another man explains that he is moving away: it's clear why; he says the town has changed.

Texas Gov. Abbott enters the war by sending a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards that says, "I’m calling for the immediate removal of this graphic, pornographic material." This "material" could be Toni Morrison's Beloved, or The Color Purple. Interestingly, this time no literary classics seem to be included, though this is not mentioned. The film could use more sense of the scope of the culture wars it depicts. Several times rightist women arguing for bannings in public meetings say there are thousands of books in the library, so these few banned ones won't matter. A curiously immoral argument.

Among the librarians is Army veteran Suzette Baker. She loses her job as head of the Llano County library system for refusing to remove books that included How to be an Antiracist and Between the World and Me. Also heard from is Amanda Jones of Louisiana. She writes a prizewinning book, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, and has become a prominent spokesperson for the anti-censorship movement. Martha Hickson is a librarian who researches books named for banning locally and finds the list came from out of state; local bigots are following a playbook, not conviction and this may be one of the new things.

If only more who join the bigot bandwagon did research, as did Courtney Gore, a Granbury school board member who looked into the banned books and found there was no evil, no pedophilia, there, and switched to the other, anti-banning, side.

This is an important issue and also a disturbing one because the bigots trade in hatred, fear, and ignorance. Reading books, any and all books you please, is essential to a democracy.

The Librarians, 92 mins., premiered at Sundance Jan. 2025 also showing in SXSW, Full Frame, Miami, Sarasota, and dozens of other festivals, mostly American. Opening locally Dec. 4. Metacritic rating: 83%.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.