We are undergoing one of our periodic waves of what is commonly referred to as book banning. The term is not strictly accurate. A ban, as in the heyday of the Comstock Act and its state counterparts, is a criminal or civil prohibition to publish, distribute or possess the work. Except for matter like pornography that is not protected by the First Amendment, outright bans are a thing of the past.

What we have instead is an illiberal political movement, driven by demographic and moral panic, to restrict the availability of certain books, and the teaching of the ideas they contain, in the public schools and school libraries. It has two targets: works that focus on the historical harms inflicted by white supremacy, and works that imply that any form of sexual identity or activity other than that taught by the Bible is normal, natural and morally acceptable. Its objective is to prevent public schools from teaching children anything that might inculcate either historical guilt about race or openness about sex.

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