As instances of book bans continue to skyrocket year over year, it’s important to know that they overwhelmingly target stories about people or characters from marginalized groups. According to PEN America, from 2021-2023: 37% of all book bans targeted books about...
Book Bans
Read This: The Growing Movement to Ban Books
There is a growing movement to ban books. Book bans have very real, harmful consequences for children. All this harm is being caused by a loud but small group of people. The majority of us — more than 80% — don’t want book bans, so we also have to be loud and push back.
Do This: Help Warn Your Friends about the Dangers of Book Bans
Did you know that one of the most effective things you can do is talk to your friends and family about issues affecting our communities? That’s because people trust their friends and family and are more open to learning from them than from strangers. For this week’s...
Watch This: Author Jodi Picoult Talks about the Problem with Book Bans.
Some of our favorite authors are getting banned, and it’s usually for very questionable reasons. Check out our conversation with best selling author, Jodi Picoult as she shares how one parent had 20 of her books banned in one county. If you want to hear more of our...
Read This: What’s Up With All The Book Bans?
These days it might feel like everyone is talking about book bans, from the U.S. president to the PTA. That’s because these bans are happening all over our country, and affecting every community. Whether it’s a ban in a school, a bookstore, or a public library, these...
Recent Posts
Read This: Five Reasons Why We “Go Local”
Lately, you may have seen Red Wine & Blue say, “When they go low, we go local!” What do we mean by that? Almost a decade ago, Michelle Obama made famous the phrase, “When they go low, we go high.” This was the Obama family motto for responding to cruel, hateful...
Do This: Unite Against Soft Censorship
The only way to end censorship, whether it’s the quiet removal of books from library collections or in-your-face book bans, is to fight it head on. We saw a huge example of this – and a big win for free speech – this week when ABC and Disney returned Jimmy Kimmel and...
Watch This: Learn How to Spot Soft Censorship
A lot of people are talking about freedom of speech right now. As Americans, it's a right that has always defined us and that we all hold dear. That’s why the majority of us oppose book bans and censorship. The rise in book bans over the past few years has been well...
Read This: The Quiet Danger of Soft Censorship
We’ve been fighting the explosion of book bans since Red Wine & Blue started. PEN America reports 16,000 book bans in public schools since 2021 — a level not seen since the 1950s during McCarthyism. This increase has been driven by organized groups with a...
Do This: Start Talking About Racism
Anti-racism is not just a state of mind, it’s an active way of living our day-to-day lives. It’s the intentional practice of taking ongoing steps to confront racism in an effort to end it. Sometimes that might mean calling out overt examples of racism when we see...