Book challenges are now spreading to public libraries and university collections and, increasingly, are accompanied by social media posts labeling library workers who resist as “groomers” and “pedophiles.” The Proud Boys and other far-right extremist groups have also joined censorship events, deepening the risk of vigilante violence.
In January, I attended the American Library Association’s winter conference, where these pressures and hostilities were a central theme. At the conference, I spoke to dozens of library workers. As a reporter who’s covered conflicts of all sorts for more than two decades, I’m used to vulnerable sources speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about fear or oppression. But I was chilled by such requests coming from low-wage American librarians, some of whom had served generations of patrons in their towns only to find themselves suddenly labeled “pornographers” for refusing to remove age-appropriate materials that deal with race or sexuality.
