Journalist Katie Phang shared a powerful video about the rising tide of book bans—including the banning of They Called Us Enemy in Tennessee. I’m honored she included my story in this important conversation. We cannot let these book bans stop us from telling our stories and histories.
Just bought your book!
The problem with book bans is that when I was younger I wanted to read those books so I knew what they were talking about.
Didn't Hitler ban books too?
Every day is worse
The book banning assholes forget that the books they're busy banning aren't banned anywhere else in the world! You can buy them on line,from bookshops,get them & read them in other states & other countries. Their kids will be freaked right out when they realise how deprived they were at home!
Watch the full story here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyGA...
It seems like all knowledge worth knowing is under attack. Not for the first time, not for the last. We must become conservationists. Of our natural as well as humanitarian heritage.
Am I the only one who sees the irony in the fact that one of the greatest defenders of 1A was Larry Flynt? I doubt that he'd have wanted to see Hustler Magazine in schools, but he'd have argued for a student's right to read it. And he'd have won.
Larry Flynt was a filthy-minded purveyor of smut and vice. And goddamn did he do more work to preserve the rights of Americans than most politicians ever do in their entire careers.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Not at all. America NEEDS filthy purveyors of smut and vice, because otherwise how would we sell virtue and have Joel Osteen make literally millions a year pretending that Jesus wouldn't drown him in a river for his bullshit?
Yep, but he wasn’t as filthy minded, depraved and hypocritical as Christian Nationalists running our government by hiding behind the Heritage Foundation’s ideology of made up *religious scripture* to keep white males in control.
Erm. I don't think that anyone implied that he was.
Nope. He fought for 1A rights in court and won. He should be hailed a hero for those rights.
Information bans are why white North Americans are just learning the real history of our shared lands today. Information had been suppressed for so long, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission rocked the world, as people heard our stories for the first time. Book bans serve no one but the oppressor
When they tell you not to read a book, there’s something in there they are afraid of you knowing.
Never take owning a book for granted.
Good on ya for telling your story George; but the one that flabbergasted me was "The Big Book of Cats"?
I’m in a book club that only reads banned books. Yours is on the list.
Ah George I'm disappointed, they've only banned One of your books. I suppose we'll have to wait for someone to read the rest to them I tells ya George if these gowls can't find something objectionable about having empathy or respecting others and generally not being a cunt, I will be disappointed
So, I hear that Katie is a vampire. I don't know for sure, but she sure sucks. I mean if she isn't, my bad. If she is...why only one phang? Is that why she is not a very good one? The forensic examiner says, cause of death is unknown, possibly an ICE pick.
I honestly think people are reading the banned books more then ever
What on earth are these delicate Republican flowers afraid of-- that children might learn some history, and learn that the USA has done bad things? We're a vibrant country that struggles to do better-- or, we were, until today's GOP lost their minds and embraced fascism.
My eight year-old grandson loves this book.
Das ist ein wahrer Menschenfreund! Gabriel Magalhães' Worte erinnern mich an die simple Wahrheit, dass wir uns nicht allein um materielle Dinge kümmern sollten. Was ist für Sie das wichtigste, um ein warmes Gefühl im Herzen zu haben? 🌹
I live in the UK, where would you recommend? I buy a copy of your book?
Books should never be banned. It's up to each individual to choose what they read 🤬😤
Book bans…..Hypocrisy at its finest!
I proudly have the title in my classroom. God bless the commonwealth of Massachusetts
Your story and those like it should NEVER be forgotten. Thank you for sharing your very personal story.
George, I need your help on this one, because MOST of the folks in Oklahoma are still on the Enterprise! rumble.com/v6w60f2-pam-...
Please don't post AI slop if you care about human creativity and the environment. 🙏🏻
I mentioned your book being banned in a comment on another post, and I've gotten 60+ likes on it.
Now book bans are happening in Alberta, Canada.
I genuinely wish that I had the financial backing and nonprofit status to create a small fleet of bookmobiles that just took banned books signed by the authors to the states and cities where they are banned, and then just hand them out for free. Maybe bring the authors along as well.
You can't hand out the authors for free, Brian.
I CAN IF THEY CONSENT TO IT But I mean, like in a metaphorical sense, that's what we'd be doing every time a kid opened a book the "authorities" said they couldn't read In a literal sense I think bobbleheads would just be undignified
No no no I mean you need to charge for handing out the authors. Hand out the BOOKS for free, sure. You want the author? Pay up! 😁 Seriously, this sounds like a rad idea and I'd be 100% onboard.
My grandmother was a teacher in the 19 teens and 20s. Education was always foremost, she was 70 when I was born. I was 8 when she and I spent the summer driving around California & Nevada learning history. Manzanar was one of our first stops. She's was adamant you must learn history to not repeat it
pen.org/magic-tree-h...
❓️❓️ Wtf
Yeah, my mom found that and screenshotted it. My reaction was like yours.
Perhaps it contains prohibited words, like female?
Or Mexico.
There are two options: they banned it because they are embarrassed by the comparisons it brings up or they banned it to suppress the comparisons so they aren't overthrown. There is no other reason.
You're assuming that they've read it first. A lot of the books they ban they ban based on the titles or what someone told them was inside. People who ban books don't usually read them.
It's those people that told them what's inside that I'm talking about: the politicians, pastors and influencers that told people how to vote. These are the two reasons they'd want it banned.
She is awesome, and so are you 😘
Inquiring Canada wants to know: have they banned Fahrenheit 451? 💀
@georgetakei.bsky.social your recent posts have inspired my teen and I to build a little free library of banned/challenged books. She cannot understand why your book and many other important books have been banned. Thank you for helping to sound the alarm on these abhorrent book bans!
I plan to teach your book this school year. 🙃
Thank you, Uncle George, for all that you do.
Never thought I’d see banned books in the ”land of the free” #voteallrepublicansout
And we are honored to have such a valuable book (as is My Lost Freedom) for future generations.
George, have you considered setting up a book signing in Tennessee? What a great “In your Face!” event that would be!
Cap Kirk is in Ky, they can team up
Something I saw recently: if you make the White circle into a square, or I guess diamond, it looks like four T's surrounding the swastika. Almost too fitting.
The both of you, George Takei and Katie Phang, are awesome and totally appreciated!
❤️
We just need to ban republicans
Educate their kids and watch the species die out quickly.
Congratulations on your ban; you must be doing something right if you've managed to upset those ghouls
Every qualifier they have for book banning can be applied to the Bible. I'm all for having age limits or waiting for the curriculum to give a book context. But banning a book because of your personal beliefs and feelings is always bad
In a way, it must feel good to get banned in a place like Tennessee! It means you wrote something that was truly worth reading, so impactful that it frightened some people.
I live in a small red town, and we recalled our book banning schoolboard lady
Congratulations. Book banning is very last century.
Katie needs to refocus on Epstein.
I met you at Rose City Comicon a few years ago. You signed my copy of your book. It’s an important book that should be required reading.
Not to mention people can still buy baned books.
Isn't it interesting that red states have the lowest education levels and the highest percentage of MAGAt Cult morons?
Thought police!!!
🎯
No wonder so many MAGAS remain ignorant. They aren't interested in learning new things . However, banning books they don't care to read is depriving the rest of us with the opportunity to learn new things. This can be corrected by voting out MAGAS. 🙄
Fahrenheit 451
So grateful for voices like yours and hers helping shine a light in the literary darkness. If banning They Called Us Enemy is their plan, they clearly didn’t read the part where the hero keeps telling the story anyway. And here's the twist: Truth always wins—and it doesn’t even need a sequel! 🤩🫶
Please come to Boston with your Book tour!
Oh another book to buy
I know your story I heard you tell it on a Star Trek cruise in 2023, I believe it was. But I just ordered a copy of your book, I think it will be an important part of my personal library. Thank you for sharing with us all though I am sure the memories are hurtful. 🖖🖖❤️
. Hey America, banned books . . . are exactly the books you should read first ! 📚 🧐 📚
These are all books that teach independent thought. An idea is the most dangerous thing.
… most dangerous thing in the world for would-be tyrants.
Wait there are a few books there that are Harriet, the spy Why caged birds sing, ? I’m crying because of the stupidity of one ENITIY and ITS REGIME these books are being taken down 😢😢
Captain Underpants
I didn’t see that one omg 😳
I saw a meme a while ago that said "A well stocked library has something in it to offend everyone." Banning/burning books is fear based ignorance.
Lord of the Rings on a banned list?!? 🤦🏼♀️ I guess time to reread it, including The Hobbit, though didn't see that there. And a few others. I'd already had reason to reread 1984 and Handmaid's Tale. 😒 Also, bought a copy of George Takei's They Called Us Enemy. Recently watched Betrayed on PBS. 😭
I know it’s just out, but how many times has Rhymes with Takei been banned?
One thing that those book bans do is, they create the perfect reading list, because as per the Streisand effect, people will want to see why they've been banned, and they will read them...
It also makes a good collector's list. I know I've been buying a lot of them to save them from the Nazi purges. I figure the more of them in private hands the harder it is to erase them from history. And hell - bookstores can use a financial boost these days.
There are other countries where no book is banned. Ask me I’ll send you a copy. I’m Irish 😀👊🏻😀
Shhhh - don't take away one of my excuses for building my library. Besides - we can't always depend on our more intelligent neighbors.
Well if needed I’m a call away 👊🏻😀👊🏻
Always the best option, keep the books safe from their hands, after all, knowledge is power, and books are knowledge, something those dictators fear the people having...
Read banned books
You and your family are heroes. We admire you. We thank you.
I bought a copy! Will pass it along….
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9-...
While rural Tennessee may accept such bullshit, Nashville does not. The Nashville Public Library has a special library card called I Read Banned Books. The card was a way for readers who supported free access to books that faced challenges or bans. library.nashville.org/events/)i-re...
Of course Floriduh is the worst 🤬🤦♀️
Idaho is surprisingly pale on that map.
Yeah!!! I live in a state with 0 bans! We might be last in education, but no book bans! I big win for AZ! 🌵 📚
I wish California had 0 book bans. :(
We cannot let the #censorship and social media bans by the #LAPD stop us from telling our stories and histories, either. @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy @cbsnews.com
On the upside, no one believes that "land of the free" nonsense anymore, not even US people. (I refuse to call you 'Americans', an insult to the continent)
Maybe just like we’re not supposed to focus on slavery, but the fact that it was ended, we shouldn’t focus on interning Japanese Americans, focus on the fact that we let them out.
It’s started in England in Kent by Farage and the far right
Fahrenheit 451 ......
Tennessee is a state that never wanted reading to be front and center. That's for private schools and the rich. Nothing new to see here. Which is why I left TN, to find that this was a product of slavery everywhere. Undereducated, or not at all helps maintain control. BUY BANNED BOOKS.
When you ban "The Complete Guide to Cats" from elementary schools because it mentions the reproductive habits of cats, there is a definite issue.
I haven’t read it, but I heard it was banned because it mentions the same word that Trump uses to describe what he likes to grab on women. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
It seems reasonable, knowing that MAGA hypocrisy has no limits, that this is true.
Even if that word is not in the book they’ll act like it is in order to ban it. Yet, he can say it with impunity, and women will still vote for him. What country!
But yet incest, slavery, human sacrifice, and murder are all perfectly good to put into 1 book (the Bible) and mandate kids read.
Our local independent bookseller has an entire section of the store dedicated to banned books.
I just checked my local library here in western TN. IT IS THERE in Young Adult Non-Fiction and I put it on hold. Also on our Kindle system and 2 are checked out!!!!
I live in TN. I will request it for our local library and see what happens!!!
a.co/d/faaEp7p Please read before this book is banned.
We have your book in the high school library I work in!!
I'm so happy to read this. I live in Tennessee, and I'm so ashamed of my state. I love you, and thank you for your book. 💗💙
You should include a description of what a book is for the young'uns.
All these asswipes wanting to ban any books should have to read each book and submit a book report proving that they read it. Just like Junior high school. Only then can they tell us why it should be banned.
Fantastic idea! But can they read?😆
These are the same morons who openly admitted to mashing A skimming through important dialouge in any given RPG (role playing game).
@katiephang.bsky.social is the absolute best.
💙
I have your book in my classroom. Kids love it.
I am an educator and I wrote a historical fiction unit that incorporates They Called Us Enemy and Maus. These books are vital to understanding our history. Even the ugly parts.
First they ban books, then they burn books.
No book should be banned. A society which bans literature is a society in decline.
I am your illustrator's uncle. In Ohio in the '60's, we were never taught about the camps. Had to learn of them from liner notes to a Mothers of Invention album.
We need more Banned Bookmobiles around the country.
I think of it as truth bans.
One of the most important books to read in the coming fascist dictatorship of Trumpfuckistan.
Book bans is spreading like Cancer We in Alberta Canada 🇨🇦 are dealing with our government banning books in our schools. Using the excuse Sexually Explicit material. 🤬
If there is a major outlet that’s willing to broadcast it, it would do a lot of good for people to hear you speak about your internment and how it informs your views on today’s roundups. Far too many who need to hear it don’t read.
hey George my suggestion is that we keep a list of these banned books for the public to see. i imagine it will boost sales!
The likelihood of voting republican is inversely proportional to the amount of books you read...it's terrible that people prefer people to stay ignorant on certain issues.
You should read about what they are doing to the Dept of Education.
If a book about injustice scares lawmakers enough to ban it, that’s exactly the book people need to read. Stories like yours don’t disappear — they get louder. Keep telling them.
Those who choose to ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Just for that George, Im gonna buy it and ad it to my personal library.
Only losers ban books
I have yours and several other banned books. If they ban it, I buy it.
Everything they want to ban can be found on line, do they know that?
My friend's grandmother was a strawberry farmer in Santa Clara County. She outran the cops in her Buick Roadmaster when they tried to intern her. They ultimately got her, of course. Bless you, George.
😳 incredible… How dumb do they need Americans to be?
If a book is banned, read it because obviously they don't want you to know something that you should know.
I like Katie is is awesome.
Did we forget “The Land of The Free” does not ban Books !!! Remember ? Only countries run by dictators, bans Books !!!
In shelves of stories, voices rise, George Takei's truth, no compromise. They ban his book, but not for prose, It's love's bold hue they seek to close. Yet words endure, their power free, His heart's proud song will always be.
Katie had you on her show and you told her how proud you were of her courage. ❤️ love to you both
As a modest author bookban goes against everything i am. FUCK Never used that word so much before jan2025.
the entities initiating book-bans are never righteous [Katie Phang is great!]
Americans are weird. You can say anything under the 1A but you can also ban books. And you think it makes sense. 🤣
I can't believe that even the historical novel "Snow Falling on Cedars" by David Guterson has been banned!
We all love you George!!
As the author, did they give you a specific reason for the ban?
People need to hear this history from people who were there, like you, George.
George, we cannot let your story die. You were imprisoned during WW2, because of what you looked like. The people who took you were US gov't. and you were a US citizen.
eat real food? Like the stuff YOUR administration is cutting off from children?
Judging from that list my family has been nothing but a bunch of subversives since my kids were old enough to read. Magic Treehouse and Calvin and Hobbes were staples. Not to mention the more serious classics and passing around your biography during Covid when they were older... Thanks George!
