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Though we have been deep in the current wave of book bans for over two years, new groups and organizations continue organizing campaigns to raise awareness of the situation. There are so many big and small groups doing good work on the issue, and they have done tremendous work in not only ensuring that people know about book bans but that they have access to resources, tools, and support to take action.

Unfortunately, were well past the needs of more hashtag activism and online resources to bring attention to book bans. This is not what groups like Moms for Liberty or No Left Turn in Education are doing they are not wasting precious time and energy creating hashtags or portals with web links to resources that are the same ones on so many other resources.

Theyre showing up to school board meetings, hosting in-person meetings, and doing the work on the ground.

Because heres the thing: the people who dont know about the book banning fervor are not online. Theyre not on Twitter or Facebook and if they are, theyre not engaging with the groups who are putting together these awareness campaigns. These people are in their homes and communities pursuing other things. Book bans are the furthest thing from their minds, especially since so much information about local book bans goes unreported or sits behind paywall.

Hashtag activism has a purpose, but were years past its effectiveness for changing the fascism underlying book bans. The people who need to know about whats happening in their community are not going to see them, not going to read them, and not going to see their impact. What these campaigns do is allow the organizations behind them to have their name attached and as such, bolster their own image. Unfortunately, this is the way of the left: everyone wants to be the singular hero without bolstering or collaborating with those who are and have been on the ground doing the hard work since the start. The people who dont have the shiny spotlight on them because theyre too busy coordinating the next move.

No amount of online resources, no amount of hashtags or glossy campaigns, and no amount of screaming on social media is going to change the fact that the only way to truly make a difference is to show up.

Illinois held elections earlier this month for school and library boards. Despite how much more attention these municipal elections have had online, the turnout was still abysmal. My county, which had several contentious elections for school board, recorded an embarrassingly low turnout in my town specifically, 10% of the electorate showed up. TEN PERCENT.

What would help is seeing more community engagement. Seeing more money poured into awareness campaigns on the ground, with actionable tools and scripts for people to use to get out in their communities would make a difference. Because the reality is, this is what the book banners have, and this is what theyre doing.

It is akin to thinking that the radical solution to the dissolving of our First Amendment Rights is to sell or donate scads of banned books to kids whose schools have removed them. It makes a nice NPR story one NPR conveniently ignored those countering this method about at least three times and it might give a few minutes of name-recognition. But until we give a shit about the people who arent already in the know about this and until we show up and do something, itll all be a lot of hot air.

A few celebrities, either those with name recognition to the general populous or those known to the chronically online, are not going to move the book ban needle unless they have direct calls to action: vote, run for office, host community information meetings, and show up in person to school, library, and city council meetings. You have been given the tools already in the form of templates, in the form of the game plan, and in the form of ceaseless coverage by leaders in fighting book bans since they began in earnest in 2021.

How many hashtag campaigns have the right-wingers used to ban books? The answer is zero. Theyre following the leaders in book banning and implementing those tactics on the ground in their own community. They sow the seeds of fear and ignorance in person, where people are far more vulnerable to their cleverly-crafted rhetoric.

Until we do the same, were going to keep digging ourselves in this hole.

Were going to keep disappointing the kids who need us to be there for them and not for our own selves. Were going to keep considering it a problem in THOSE states, in places where THOSE people have the majority mindset (neither of these are true and both are also quite bigoted statements from those claiming to be open minded people of color and queer people live in red states, too).

Book banners are in the offices of their representatives, coxing from them bills which codify hate and censorship. Theyre not taking pictures of themselves in anti-book ban shirts on Twitter to show their support of anti-censorship. Those people are doing something.

At the end of the day, these glossy campaigns railroad the people putting in the work on the ground and do little more than allow the groups behind them to pat themselves on the backs and call it good work. Its easy to do that when there are not deliverable or measurable outcomes in direct action or financial contributions.

Go here to see the original:
The People We Need to Reach Arent Online: Book Censorship News, April 14, 2023 - Book Riot