Morning Briefing: Book Bans
Morning Briefing: Book Bans
School districts in 26 states have banned or opened investigations into more than 1,100 books, driven by a right-wing campaign to target books by or about people of color or LGBTIQ people.
Morning Briefing: School districts in “26 states have banned or opened investigations into more than 1,100 books.” The districts “represent 2,899 schools with a combined enrollment of over 2 million students,” according to a report from PEN America.
Texas led the country with more book bans than any other state—713.
The American Library Association reported that “there have been more challenges to books than they have seen since they started tracking it in 2000,” and that “most of the targeted books were by or about Black and L.G.B.T.Q. people.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign into law multiple education bills, including a piece of legislation that would “require school boards to screen and remove books from libraries after complaints from parents.”
Using a law that makes it easier for parents, residents and others to object to books and other materials in school and seek to have them removed, a group of atheists in Florida has sent “letters to 63 school districts requesting the removal of the Bible.”
A group of residents from Llano County, Texas, “are suing officials in the county where they live, claiming officials engaged in censorship in violation of the First Amendment when they banned a slew of books the officials deemed inappropriate.”
Must Reads
Doug Bock Clark, Alexandra Berzon and Kirsten Berg report they obtained “a trove of internal emails and other documentation that, taken together, tell the inside story of a group of people who propagated a number of the most pervasive theories about how the election was stolen, especially that voting machines were to blame, and helped move them from the far-right fringe to the center of the Republican Party.” [ProPublica]
Kiera Butler writes that the “American Pregnancy Association isn’t the dispassionate medical authority it might appear to be. Rather, it’s the brainchild of a Texas-based pro-life activist named Brad Imler, and it’s rife with medically inaccurate information—on both abortion and other reproductive health topics. The site hawks unproven blood tests, infertility treatments, and products purported to support the pregnant person and developing fetus.” [Mother Jones]
Virginia Heffernan asks whether or not “people who live in fantasy worlds at such steep odds with reality be good friends and citizens themselves? At the very least, maintaining such worldviews means vigilance about rejecting facts—and the perceptions of other, clearer minds. This estranges others. People who believe lies certainly could, like Justin, act in a condescending manner to a lot of people. If things escalate, they might even invite or incite violence.” [Wired]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right; Field Notes delivers research on key organizations and analysis of the strategies and tactics of the Radical Right.
