Inkthirsty parents, hungry for inappropriate content, barge into the haven of the

library. They begin assaulting it with barrages of e-mails and complaints (that would

have made President Trump proud), criminalizing entire shelves of books because of

vaguely profantic or explicit content. After the massacre, tons of books and ideals have

been eradicated from their places. The haven of learning and diversity that was the

library is no more. Parents claim that they have saved the community from poisoned

influence and material, but all they have really done is blocked a major outlet for kids to

connect and explore other cultures and ideals. This is why no book, including

Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi, should ever be banned because of some

inappropriate content.

Firstly, parents don’t have the right to control an entire children’s community

reading experiences. Procon.org reports that in the article Censorship and the First

Amendment in Schools: A Resource Guide by “The National Coalition against

Censorship explained that ‘Even books or materials that many find “objectionable” may

have educational value, and the decision about what to use in the classroom should be

based on professional judgments and standards, not individual preferences.’” Banning

books is similar to removing foods in supermarkets. Parents don’t have the right to take

cookies off the shelves because they don’t want their children eating them. What if

another family’s children want cookies but they aren’t there because a selfish parent

complained the store until they removed them? Parents also don’t have the correct

experience or knowledge to fully understand the situation, thus making their decisions

bias or illogical. In addition, Procon states that “banning them would deprive students of

essential cultural and historical knowledge, as well as differing points of view”. This

basically means that by taking these books away, it would damage the children instead

of helping them and would create a very homogeneous community. Like stated before,

there can also be a higher educational value that outweighs the objectionable content.
For example, what if there was a really helpful math book that explained tough subjects

really well, but was banned because it contained a couple of swear words or poked a

little fun at other religions.

Per contra, people may point to the argument also made by procon which states

“Books in the young adult genre often contain adult themes that young people aren't

ready to experience.” They could argue that kids could wrongly interpret the material in

the book (like drugs or sex), and then commit it. It can also be more damaging, the

inappropriate content outdoing the educational value. However, even if some of the

themes are “for adults”, the kids should at least be mature enough to know the difference

between right or wrong. They should be perfectly capable of making the right decisions

based on what they already know and feel. And even if they are unsure, there are many

resources available to them, such as parents, teachers, and guidance.

Secondly, Books such as Persepolis 2 help reveal and shed light on

misinterpreted and stereotyped cultures. An example of this is about women wearing the

veil. Most people believe that muslim women must enjoy wearing a veil, because they do

it all the time. However, a large number of women dislike the veil, it’s just that their

government is forcing them to do it, which is explained in the book. This shows that

people are actually struggling to fight against what many people thought they wore out of

liking.

In conclusion, no books should be banned because the people reading them

should know what’s right and wrong. The banned books could also contain different

perspectives and content that could help reverse stereotypes. If they’re gone, then

nobody will learn and people might continue to make the same prejudice decisions.