Let’s collectively pretend to be in shock with this news: it turns out that the arrival of Donald Trump to power (not yet fully effective, but very close) has led to an almost immediate rollback of rights and the censorship of books, oppressing the most vulnerable. To be more specific, and hiding it as “protection of children,” censorship has begun in the school districts of Tennessee, which will soon be left without manga to read in their libraries. Yes. Without manga.
Little leeway
Obviously, we can all agree that there cannot be hentai manga in student libraries in any country in the world, but under the pretext of banning any material that contains “nudity, shows sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excessive violence or sadomasochistic abuse” in schools, titles like Attack on Titan, Akira, My Hero Academia, Hunter X Hunter, Fire Force, or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, among many other titles, have been removed from the shelves, taking us back to past times we thought were long gone.
And in their attempt to ban “pornographic books,” classics like Wicked, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or Tower of Dawn, a novel from the Throne of Glass series, have also been removed from the shelves. And we can add up to 150 titles that have absurdly been thrown into the fire without reason due to fear of the unknown. And if all this reminds you of 1930s Germany more than it should, perhaps it’s time to consider why.
