The 2010 book ‘The New Jim Crow‘ is banned in some New Jersey prisons, apparently because prison officials don’t want inmates reading about bias and corruption.

I don’t like censorship. I find it morally repugnant, and I don’t think it should happen in a democracy.

On an individual level, censorship is a violation of personal autonomy. Your free will is taken away if different ways of looking at the world are hidden from you. It’s paternalistic and authoritarian. On a social level, censorship is detrimental to the health of democracy. You need to share and discuss ideas for democracy to work. That’s why freedom of speech is one of the pillars of democracy. Democracy isn’t just voting freely. It’s also reading and writing freely. Censorship is anti-democratic.

One way to fight back is by reading and promoting works that people are trying to censor. I think of it as my democratic responsibility to seek out the ideas that people are trying to suppress.

Here is a link to buy the book if you’re interested.