Author at Bucknell: 'Protect storytelling'
Feb. 28—LEWISBURG — A growing culture of banning books is a "very dangerous chapter" in America that needs to be challenged, according to New York Times bestselling author George M. Johnson on Tuesday night.
Johnson, an award-winning writer, author and executive producer, spoke on the theme of "Freedom of Expression" on Tuesday in the Leanne Freas Trout Auditorium in Vaughan Literature Building at Bucknell University. Their debut young adult memoir "All Boys Aren't Blue," which chronicled their experience growing up as a young Black queer child in New Jersey, was the second most banned book of the 2021-22 school year.
"What I encourage everyone here today to do, when you see that storytelling is under attack, show up at school board meetings, call your local officials, put pressure on people and politicians to know that our position is strong," said Johnson. "This group of people is attacking storytelling, they are very organized, but they are also very unintelligent. The intelligent people in this room need to become just as organized as them to protect storytelling across our country."
Johnson was listed as one of "The Root's" 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2020, "Out's" 100 Most Influential LGBTQ People in 2021, and in 2022, was honored as part of the TIME100 Next, "TIME Magazine's" annual list of rising stars, rising leaders and up-and-comers.
Johnson's first memoir in 2020 was also named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York and Chicago public libraries.
Johnson is now one of the author plaintiffs in PEN America, et al. v. Escambia County School District, a federal lawsuit that charges the district violated constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection under the law. They are joined as plaintiffs by parents in the district and the publisher Penguin Random House. In January, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II ruled that the lawsuit challenging these book bans could move forward.
Johnson's second memoir, "We Are Not Broken," released in September 2021, received the Carter G. Woodson Award, which recognizes books that "accurately and sensitively depict the experience of one or more historically marginalized racial/ethnic groups in the United States." The book also received the Young Adult Nonfiction Honor from the International Literacy Association.
Having visibility
Before the discussion, Johnson told The Daily Item the books are geared toward a younger audience, specifically those young people of color and those part of the LGBTQ+ community.
"It's tough when you grow up and you don't have visibility and you don't have representation and you don't see people that look like you or read about characters that look like you," said Johnson. "One, I wanted to write the book that I wish I had. That's what I did. I wrote about a character that I could have used when I was 15 years old to help me process everything I was going through."
Secondly, they added, the current generation of young adults is the most diverse group of young adults who have ever existed in the country. They are the next generation of people who will come into power.
"It's important for that Latinx students and white students to read about Black students or what Black experiences are," they said.
"It's important that heterosexual students read about what queer experiences are. And vice versa. I grew up and had to read about experiences that didn't match any of mine.
The difference now is the classroom got so diverse, everybody gets to read about everybody else, and everybody gets to read about the walk of life everybody else has."
Johnson said they were encouraged by messages from young people who saw themselves in Johnson's book and by older people in the Black LGBTQ+ community who said they never felt so seen in a book in six or seven decades of living.
Book challenged
Johnson first learned their first memoir was being challenged in September 2021 in Kansas City, 17 months after the release. By November, eight counties in eight different states removed "All Boys Aren't Blue" from the libraries and a school board member in Florida filed a criminal complaint, claiming the book's presence in some schools in the district violates the state's obscenity laws.
"I knew the book would be challenged, I knew what was in the book," said Johnson. "I expected a few challenges from a few homophobes or a few people it was a little too graphic for their child, and you read a different book. I thought it would be something like that. I never thought it would get to this point. I never thought it would get this large and be such a hot topic."
Johnson said Toni Morrison and other great authors have been banned in the past. They said the attention gave them a platform to talk about the issues and opened the book up to people who might have needed it and didn't know it existed.
"You must be writing something good if you're getting banned, you must be writing something important if you're getting banned," said Johnson. "If it's changing minds, that's cool. The bans have brought about visibility. A lot of people didn't know the book existed."
'So seen'
Students, staff and members of the community expressed their appreciation for Johnson.
"I felt so seen," said Bucknell freshman Cheatra Chheang, of Cambodia, about Johnson's book. "I can relate to their story."
Freshman Hazel Corona, of New York, agreed.
"It was really great, and I enjoyed the talk," said Corona. "I learned about book banning, and what's being targeted. It's important to advocate for ourselves and minority groups being affected."
Johnson is the fourth of five nationally renowned speakers participating in this year's Bucknell Forum — a speaker series that since 2007 has featured national leaders, scholars and commentators who have examined various issues from multidisciplinary and diverse viewpoints. Academy Award-winning actor and activist Jane Fonda, the final speaker in this year's Bucknell Forum, will appear in person at 7:30 p.m. March 19 in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts.
