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John Stossel's Censored In America

823 Words4 Pages

As John Stossel would say, “Wake up America!” Our rights are being taken from us every time we turn around and it’s up to us to realize this and make the change. People are becoming weak to words and just falling back with no fight, finding comfort in just conforming with the popular opinion. America’s youth is growing up in a completely controlled society with biased opinions and we need to wake up!
Oversensitivity is a reoccurring problem with America today. In John Stossel’s “Censored in America”, he discusses how some colleges offer “safe spaces” for people who are feeling uncomfortable or offended. People, instead of debating head on with their oppressors, go to a room where they can “recuperate” from the “trauma”. When colleges provide …show more content…

Teachers of public education are restricted to certain books they must cover or are not allowed to use. Most of these books are satirical and received bad reviews when first published, mainly to sway people from reading them, but are considered some of America’s greatest literary works now. The Grapes of Wrath, for example, was banned in 1939 because of profanity and references to sexual behavior. The Grapes of Wrath, however, tells the tale of the Dust Bowl and how poorly the government treated its citizens. Exhibit B is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, banned in 1884 for being “racially insensitive” and “oppressive”. The satirical effect here was how wrong America was for capturing and trying to possess another human being. Both books were pointing out fallacies in the government and both happened to be on the list of banned school reading materials. Banning books not only limits what teachers may teach in their classrooms, but also is violating the author’s right to their free speech as well. The school, state, or federal government is declaring that what the authors wrote is not allowed to be seen by America’s youth, taking from their free speech, but also violating the youth’s rights to an unbiased education. America’s leaders only want us to read and learn what they see fit. Times have changed and they’re stuck in their

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It’s appalling that the issue of schools banning books from students is still an ever present issue to this present day. Fact of the matter is, comfort is being prioritized over education. The school boards and their staff are rejecting truth because it contains inappropriate topics such as nudity, violence, and derogatory vocabulary. Katz and Vishny write how the Tennessee education board states these exact topics to their reason for why they chose to ban Maus. The school board's reasoning is how it is determined that they choose to prioritize comfort for the students.

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American literature has always been a form of entertainment and education. When slaves were introduced as characters in books, they were always negative, stereotypical characters, but not until 1883 when Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a change made. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book about a southern white boy in the 1800’s that runs away with an escaped slave on the Mississippi River. For years, schools have been debating on if the book should be banned in schools or not, and it is already on a variety of banned lists. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be banned in schools because it is an anti-slavery novel that teaches students valuable lessons and informs students of the past culture.

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In the 21st century, many books are challenged and banned for their content, some of these include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Animal Farm, and Fahrenheit 451. Many of the reasons given for banning are the same. The reasons include violence, language, symbols, and religion. This makes it very difficult for educational professionals; which books should be taught and which ones should be banned, when does protection become unnecessary censorship? Although Fahrenheit 451 shows some dark themes such as banning books, disregard for human life, and suicide, it should be included in the school curriculum because it shows the dystopian future that awaits the world if the events in the book become a reality.

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Ironically, Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most banned books in American schools. The book was seen as evil for ideas like opposing the suppression of freedom by parties that presumed they had all the answers. Books such as Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, The Giver, and The Hunger Games have been banned in schools, and they all explore the themes of suppressing freedom, information, and intellectual thinking. Prohibiting these books will only lead less thought; it will lead to the ultimate demise of society. If we do not learn from them, we will become them.

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Book banning is not as common as it is made out to be in the U.S., but it does put a restriction the constitution’s first amendment. To ban a book, in the U.S., from a public or school libraries, for offensive content, a challenge must be made against the book. A challenge can be made by anyone but of the challenges made between “1990 and 2000, there were 6,364 challenges reported... sixty percent were reported by parents, fifteen percent by patrons and nine percent by administrators” (Schools and censorship: Banned Books). Most of these challenges sent to the American Library Association do not get accepted and officially ban the book.

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