‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ black-queer memoir, banned from libraries
06.02.2022 - 00:41
/ qvoicenews.com
Over the past several months, school districts and libraries around the country have been grappling with increased pressure from parents over what knowledge students have access. Many of these battles have sparked around books that center on sexuality, gender identity, and race. One that’s gotten attention over its honest and real telling is “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson.
Over the past few months, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” has been reportedly removed from libraries and schools in eight states.
‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’
The young adult book, which Johnson declares as a memoir-manifesto, details their experiences as a young Black queer person navigating the world as they grew up. It is composed as a series of essays.
Johnson’s work has been well-received and Gabrielle Union-Wade’s production company has optioned the memoir for a series with Sony Pictures TV.
It was given a visual reading at Newfest with Dyllon Burnside attached earlier this year. It has also made bestseller lists.
But, even though it was published back in 2020, over the last few months a backlash against the book has materialized.
Now, libraries in eight states including Iowa, Florida, and Missouri, have removed “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”
In Missouri, Shawnee Mission School District even changed their process of logging complaints after multiple parents complained to the school board at a meeting.
“We knew that at some point, once the pandemic shifted (schools) to more in-class (instruction), where parents could get a hold on what was going on in the curriculum and the reading list and everything that this moment would probably come,” Johnson tells The Advocate. “A book isn’t held that long before people start to make these particular types of