Illinois Becomes First State to Outlaw Book Bans in Public Schools and Libraries

On the surface, the Illinois law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday appears to protect free speech. But Pritzker could give a flying fig about free speech. “Book bans are about censorship, marginalizing people, marginalizing ideas and facts. Regimes banned books, not democracies,” said Pritzker, a Democrat. “We refuse to let a vitriolic strain of White nationalism coursing through our country determine whose histories are told, not in Illinois.”

Who’s making book bans political now?

It’s not about “white nationalism.” Even someone who has only a passing familiarity with the issue knows that. Nor is it about “whose history is being told.” To believe that there is only one version of American history is why parents are pushing back against the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the 1619 Project. There are many different perspectives on American history, and choosing one is a fraught exercise in partisanship.

Pritzker and the Library Association that pushed this through the legislature want to castrate parents and Illinois communities who have a vastly different idea of what might be “appropriate” reading material for their children.

“Age-appropriate books’ may mean one thing in Chicago and another thing in my small, rural home of Streator. “That’s why ‘community standards’ must be protected. This law shreds the ability of communities to govern themselves. It’s as tyrannical a law that has ever been passed in Illinois.

CNN:

The measure, which takes effect January 1, says public libraries must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or their own statement prohibiting book banning to be eligible for state money.

The association’s Library Bill of Rights states that reading materials “should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” or “excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.”

The signing comes amid record book challenges, laws and policies to limit books available in public schools and libraries.

I will be the first to say that book bans are far too common today and much more care should be taken in defining what’s “Inappropriate” for children. And as I predicted when pushback against CRT began in earnest, parents and advocacy groups went too far in airbrushing uncomfortable facts about America’s past from classroom instruction.

But those errors can be corrected with dialog and discussion. The left didn’t even try. Like Pritzker, they turned the issue into their favorite whipping boy — white supremacy — and made an argument from them an exercise in Reductio ad absurdum.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who was the main force behind the legislation, totally missed the irony in his statement that accompanied the signing of the bill. “The concept of banning books contradicts the very essence of what our country stands for. It also defies what education is all about: teaching our children to think for themselves,” Giannoulias said.

Pritzker and the librarians are using the power of the state to impose their own community standards on all 102 Illinois counties. If this is how Pritzker wants to “define what education is all about,” he would have been better served to mandate the reading of Mein Kampf in Illinois classrooms.