#BannedBooksWeek: I Celebrate Diversity!

From September 25th to October 1st, authors, readers, publishers, and constitutional right advocates will celebrate books that have been banned for whatever reasons. This year, Banned Books Week is looking at diversity. Although diversity isn’t a new word, some may imagine diversity as a person of color. Diversity, however, includes people who are of different appearance, ethnicity, religion, gender and gender identity, age, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, military status, and economic status.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has shown that 52% of the books challenged or banned in the past 10 years were from diverse content (Association of American Publishers).

Without diversity, there wouldn’t be an anime industry since anime and manga come from Japan.

Did you know that Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama is a banned book in the United States?

Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa has been challenged–not quite banned but noticed–for its discrimination and violence.

There are other manga and graphic novels by Japanese creators who have faced or are currently facing censorship around the world. Can you think of any others?