Analog Dope Store’s banned book section isn’t without its surprises—or impassioned questions.
In what world is E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web too controversial for classrooms? Who decided that titles by Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison should be hotly contested? Why is George Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue topping the Most Challenged Books of 2023, when its author has openly described it as a “love letter to Black queer stories?”
Charlie Luster, who founded the Arts District bookshop with her wife, doesn’t have all the answers. But that doesn’t make book bans any less personal.
“Being Black in America, off the top, our stories are banned just because they’re our stories,” Luster says. “There’s a lot of trauma in our stories, so a lot of times, people don’t want to face trauma, even their own trauma. It just made sense to have those stories there in our space, especially because every voice needs to be heard.”
In recent years, lawmakers, school boards and political groups have taken it upon themselves to challenge books about racism, sexuality, gender identity and history, many of which are written by LGBTQ and BIPOC authors. And to a chilling degree, they’re succeeding.
A startling report by PEN America, a nonprofit organization committed to defending free expression, found that 10,000 books had been banned in public schools between 2023 and 2024. Florida and Iowa lead that wave of censorship by a large margin, but even neighboring states like Utah have issued a blanket ban of 13 books statewide.
With tensions mounting so close to home, some have wondered if Nevada might start banning books next. Alexander Marks, director of strategy for the Nevada State Education Association, says it’s highly unlikely.
“I think the right people are getting into trusteeships. The right people are getting into the Legislature. These are not issues that are on the tops of a lot of parents’ minds,” says Marks. “A lot of times, this is just certain politicians or parent groups trying to distract or fuel fear. They’re the Moms for Liberty folks just intent on dividing citizens by challenging books that represent marginalized and oppressed peoples.
“But when it comes down to it, when folks are casting their votes, that’s not where Nevada citizens are at.”
Nevada remains one of the few states in the country currently without a book ban, but there are efforts in place. Moms for Liberty, a political group that gained traction during the pandemic, has adamantly fought to ban books. Two CCSD school board candidates—Lorena Biassotti and Lydia Dominguez—were once tied to a local chapter of Moms for Liberty but have since distanced themselves.
In the last year, Washoe County in Northern Nevada has been the target of an aggressive number of book challenges, facing off against anti-LGBTQ activists, religious leaders and parents—all in the vocal minority.
“Do parents have the right to monitor and select or disagree with certain materials? Of course they do,” Marks says. “But it’s inappropriate for them to do that for everybody and everyone else’s kids.
“There are a lot of dangerous attempts to stoke fears, rewrite history, diminish folks’ stories, whitewash injustices, and that prevents educators from challenging our students to live in a more equitable society,” he continues.
Much is at stake when it comes to banning the voices of our communities. For one, you’re silencing “a whole demographic,” Luster says, and dooming future generations to repeat the mistakes of our forebears. Children also run the risk of losing quality education. And by denying students access to different worlds, cultures and stories, they’re in danger of losing much more than that.
“A lot of times when these groups ban the books, it’s trying to erase a portion of history, not just a story,” Luster says. “If you can control the books, you can control the narrative, the information, then you can control the masses. By having it available, it’s keeping history rightly told or told in the most accurate way.”
The majority of Nevadans are right where they need to be on the issue, which explains why book challenges are so strongly opposed.
“We don’t want to limit intellectual freedom,” Marks says. “This is just something that stifles curiosity and creativity, denies representation, and now, more than ever I think, is a time we should be exposed to more ideas and people we’ve never encountered, and take away what we can to learn and improve ourselves. That’s what reading books is supposed to be about.”
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