The writer of the most challenged book in the USA is “by no means going to cease telling the story” of Black and LGBTQ+ folks.
George M. Johnson‘s novel All Boys Aren’t Blue launched precisely 5 years in the past Monday. Since then, it has turn out to be essentially the most banned ebook within the nation, in accordance with the American Library Affiliation’s annual “State of America’s Libraries 2024” report. To mark the anniversary, the author posted a video to Bluesky urging marginalized communities to proceed talking their fact.
“Understanding who my ancestors have been, understanding that we have been individuals who have been denied the flexibility to learn and write, it makes this battle much more vital as I transfer ahead in it,” Johnson mentioned. “We have all the time been checked out because the inferior race. They’ve all the time tried to erase our tales, erase our historical past, steal our tradition, steal the entire issues that make us who we’re right this moment. However one factor that I do know is that folks do not die when you proceed to inform their story. And that is why I do the work that I do right this moment.”
Blissful 5 yr anniversary to All Boys Aren’t Blue. Now essentially the most challenged ebook in America. The battle continues 💗💕💗
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— George M Johnson Garçon (@iamgmjohnson.bsky.social) April 28, 2025 at 2:54 PM
The ALA documented over 820 makes an attempt to censor books and associated LGBTQ+ providers at libraries and academic services in 2024, which included 2,452 distinctive titles that have been challenged or banned. The most typical causes for challenges have been “false claims of unlawful obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and coping with subjects of race, racism, inclusivity, fairness, and social justice,” in accordance with the report.
Johnson mentioned that the effort to ban books has gained traction over the previous a number of years as a result of conservatives “don’t desire the younger adults of right this moment to have empathy for each other.”
“They need to have full management over our minds. Once we are watching what’s occurring right this moment on the subject of ebook banning and it involves the entire rights that they are attempting to remove, that is one thing that they’ll see bodily,” Johnson defined. “They’ll see how that bodily harms us, however the issue is they can not cease our creativeness. I’ve all the time acknowledged that the creativeness is the place Black freedom resides as a result of that’s the one place that we are able to think about a special sort of future.”
“The place we are able to think about a world with no hurt, no violence to us,” he continued. “A world with no policing, the place we are able to think about the greatness that we’re and the way outstanding we might be with out the oppression.”
