By Rayna Reid Rayford ·Updated July 18, 2023
Over the past two years, Kanakee Public Library staff have built a substantial social media following on their TikTok account. But the latest video from the Illinois library featured a surprise guest: former president Barack Obama, “who is shown drinking out of a library-branded mug and leafing through a paperback.”
The 44th president has joined forces with “Unite Against Book Bans, a campaign led by the American Library Association (ALA),” in the wake of a surge in books that have been banned as well as accompanying legislation.
In the past year alone, the number of books challenged was twice that of the previous year. In addition, over the past two years, almost half of the states in this country have introduced legislation that would penalize anyone who provided a minor with “’harmful,’ obscene or sexually explicit books,” though the bans have been used widely to police books about race and diversity.
This is the first released TikTok video in a series of videos that Obama has filmed with libraries across America to promote access and defend banned books.
“To have someone like President Obama appreciating the work that we do, and also sharing our mission for intellectual freedom, it just couldn’t come at a better time,” said Linda Stevens, program director for Harris County Public Library system, which includes Houston, Texas.
Although not yet published, the Houston library clip was shared with The Washington Post, which reports that “Obama stars opposite Curbside Larry — a character who has brought the library national attention by touting its services in the high-decibel tones of a used-car salesman — and tells him to pipe down.”
“‘I’m sorry, Mr. President,’ Curbside Larry exclaims. ‘I can’t help it, ’cause I’m just so excited about how the Harris County Public Library is making all kinds of books available to the community!’”
Obama’s TikTok on Monday was also accompanied by an open letter directed to American librarians, where he wrote, “Some of the books that shaped my life – and the lives of so many others – are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives,” continuing “And librarians are on the front lines, fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas available to everyone.”
“It’s no coincidence that these ‘banned books’ are often written by or feature people of color, indigenous people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community…the impulse seems to be to silence, rather than engage, rebut, learn from or seek to understand views that don’t fit our own,” penned Obama.
The letter also referenced the spate of book bans in schools, with Obama incisively writing, “the world is watching. If America – a nation build on freedom of expression – allows certain voices and ideas to be silenced, why should other countries go out of their way to protect them?”
TOPICS: Barack Obama book ban
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