This is why they are BANNING black history in schools..

[IM2]

What makes right wing whites believe this nation has EVER been united about race?

 

[Vastator]

Funny you say this because there happen to be whites here I get along with very well. The fact is that you are a racist and you cannot deal with blacks, women or other people of color who do not say what your insecurity needs you to hear.

You just described yourself to a T.

 

[Oddball]

What makes right wing whites believe this nation has EVER been united about race?

What makes you such a whiny little pussy?

 

[toobfreak]

No, it's not racist.

OF COURSE it is, pinhead! It is BASED and DEFINED by RACE! It is not White history Month or Pink History Month or Brown History Month, it is BLACK history Month. You have to be the right RACE in order to get in and qualify. It EXCLUDES anyone who is not BLACK. You know, kinda like how you complain white people once did up to the mid-20th century. And here you are justifying doing what you protest against, YOURSELF.

American hitory has been white history.

Then you shouldn't be contradicting yourself claiming you were angry that a black history was being concealed from you! As an active effort by educational institutions yet! Do you understand that is slander? Because if any blacks created noteworthy history while living here as an American citizen, then it is part of American History. No matter what race you are, everyone is a melting pot here, there is only ONE history. What states and institutions can you name which have banned black history? And what in particular have they banned?
Be specific. Give details.

 

[toobfreak]

What makes right wing whites believe this nation has EVER been united about race?

What makes left wing blacks believe they have EVER been united about race? I mean other than just for THEMSELVES?

 

[White 6]

Here's one example
This is why they are BANNING black history in schools..

They are banning books, not banning black history in schools and not just about blacks, they are banning books on gay, trans, and authors in some places from Mark Twain to Kurt Vonnegut. I'm not a book banner or a book burner, myself, though some books are not for the elementary grades, and I think decent parents should be aware of what books their kids are checking out from libraries. Schools are schools, but the real kick is where they are pressuring public libraries to take books off their shelves or face being closed or defunded. If they are doing in this small city, I am unaware of it and my daughter and grand daughters have said nothing about it.

 

[toobfreak]

They are banning books, not banning black history in schools and not just about blacks, they are banning books on gay, trans, and authors in some places from Mark Twain to Kurt Vonnegut.

That is interesting, W6! I can fully understand how specific books or authors might not be welcomed reading in a particular school library as is their right to choose, while not intending to have anything against the particular SUBJECT they were writing to! Yet, some people would have us believe they are against the entire genre of topic and not the individual author or book! And Twain or Vonnegut? Life would not be the same for me without the chronosynclastic infindibulum!

I'm not a book banner or a book burner, myself, though some books are not for the elementary grades, and I think decent parents should be aware of what books their kids are checking out from libraries.

Ditto on both accounts. Really, a report ought to automatically be emailed to all parents what their children are checking out or being assigned--- I'm kind of embarrassed that anyone even needs to suggest that to others!

Schools are schools, but the real kick is where they are pressuring public libraries to take books off their shelves or face being closed or defunded. If they are doing in this small city, I am unaware of it and my daughter and grand daughters have said nothing about it.

Well, the only places that do the kind of funding in the first place to have that sort of control over others would seem to be Big Blue Cities. I also know for a fact that some new history books have been caught having creatively rewritten recent history of the past decade to their favor!

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

They are banning books, not banning black history in schools and not just about blacks, they are banning books on gay, trans, and authors in some places from Mark Twain to Kurt Vonnegut. I'm not a book banner or a book burner, myself, though some books are not for the elementary grades, and I think decent parents should be aware of what books their kids are checking out from libraries. Schools are schools, but the real kick is where they are pressuring public libraries to take books off their shelves or face being closed or defunded. If they are doing in this small city, I am unaware of it and my daughter and grand daughters have said nothing about it.

They are banning Black history as well as books/materials by Black authors, but more importantly when did society separate "learning" or "education" from "books"? You censor what's in the books or which books are available and you effectively control the narrative.

And just because the state of Florida is fighting with the LGBTQ+ community about a myriad of issues, that has nothing to do with certain legislatures attempting to erase Black history from American history especially after failing to include much of it for so long.

So what exactly is wrong with the Amanda Gorman poem which she recited at President Biden's inauguration? The one person who complained and successfully got it banned cited as a reason "...have indirectly [sic] references to hate".

I don't consider myself a spelling or grammar snob, however if you are going to criticize the works of a published author who graduated Harvard at age 22, it should be embarrassing to submit your complaint form and have it full of grammatical and spelling errors as well as citing the wrong "Black person" as the author. Not to mention her creative spelling of the word "indoctrination".

"Is not educational and have indirectly hate messages" could be written as
"Is not educational and have has indirectly hate messages" or
"Is not educational and have indirectly [references] hate messages"

Please note that the above suggestions on how she could have written her complaint while still adhering to the rules of grammar have NOTHING to do with the actual validity of her complaint which in opinion has no validity at all.

Okay so maybe I am somewhat of a snob, but it's better than living in ignorance.

 

[ActionJackson]

Here's an example - the parent who got this book banned alleged that it "...haves indirectly hate messages". She also for some strange reason thinks Oprah Winfrey is the author. Talk about ignorance, complaining about something that you can't even correctly articulate.

This Parent Complaint Form About the Poem “The Hill We Climb” Speaks Volumes About the Book-Banning Movement​

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You may remember the name Amanda Gorman from her incredible, moving poem “The Hill We Climb” that she delivered at the 2021 presidential inauguration.​

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Since that time, you may remember her from reciting a poem before the 2021 Super Bowl, cohosting the Met Gala in 2021, or being on the covers of Vogue, Glamour, and Time.​

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If you have a toddler, you may remember her from Sesame Street and the episode where she and Grover talk about being an upstander.​

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Now, the name Amanda Gorman is unfortunately tied to the latest book ban.​

Yesterday, Gorman posted on her Instagram that the book version of her poem The Hill We Climb was banned from an elementary school in Miami-Dade County, Florida.​

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“I’m gutted,” she shared. “I wrote The Hill We Climb so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment. Ever since, I’ve received countless letters and videos from children inspired by The Hill We Climb to write their own poems. Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.” Read her full comments here.​

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She also posted the complaint form, which speaks volumes. Read it carefully.​

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I know what the person filling out this form thought they were saying. But here’s what this form and the subsequent banning really say.​

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What the challenge to The Hill We Climb says about the book-banning movement​

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It reiterates the critical need for literacy instruction​

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I won’t talk about the errors in punctuation and grammar because those are honestly the weakest points in this case. But the incomplete form reveals one of two things. Either the complainant didn’t read the book or doesn’t have age-appropriate rhetorical skills to engage thoughtfully with written material. Both of these are troubling for a district to accept at face value when deciding to ban a book.​

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It shows at best a concerning level of reading comprehension, at worst an acceptance of casual racism​

Though I’m no longer in the classroom, I’m still programmed to look at an incorrect answer and ask myself, “How did they arrive at that?”​

So when I saw that the complainant listed Oprah Winfrey as the author, I stopped. I decided to look up the book cover to see how she arrived at that response.​

As a teacher, I would be asking myself, “Does the complainant need me to go back and reteach what a foreword means, or why it’s casually racist to confuse two different, highly visible black women?”​

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Or maybe I would just decide the complainant needs more exposure to books.​

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It highlights the refusal to engage with different ideas​

To me, one of the most representative statements on this form is this:​

I don’t need it.​

I don’t need to listen to points from the other side.​

I am so deeply threatened by the possibility that I could be wrong that I refuse to engage with it.​

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It raises questions about what constitutes “indoctrination”​

The complainant lists that they believe the purpose of the material is to “cause confusion.” (This is interesting to me because I would have said the same thing about the purpose of Infinite Jest in college, but I digress.)​

The complainant lists that the other purpose of the material is to “indoctrinate students.” After rereading Gorman’s poem, I did find a few things that Gorman encourages the reader to accept:​

• The inherent value of all people
• The importance of resilience
• The idea that we are better together
• The encouragement to persevere past fear, adversity, and other hard times

If that’s indoctrination, I guess we need to be banning any book with a moral message.​

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My parents don’t believe in hunting. So why didn’t they storm my fourth grade teacher’s classroom when she read us Where the Red Fern Grows?​

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I can tell you why: Because reading about something you don’t support or that goes against your family’s values isn’t indoctrination. Dictating what other people’s kids should read is.​

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A glimpse into how few facts (if any) some schools need to ban books​

I’m genuinely horrified that a place that alleges to teach children how to read and think critically got this form, reviewed it, and gave credence to it.​

I’m just as worried about this school as I am this woman.​

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What can we do?​

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Join forces.​

Gorman recommends donating to PEN, a group that advocates for “free expression, defend writers and artists at risk around the globe, and f[ights] censorship in the United States and abroad.”​

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Get informed.​

Ask to review the complaint forms for banned books in your district, and raise hell if they’re as bonkers as this one.​

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Buy her book.​

Though Gorman herself didn’t ask for this, I think one of the best things we can do for banned authors is create a wave of new readership. Buy several and place copies in the Little Libraries around your city for good measure.​

Especially if you live in Miami-Dade County.​

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For more articles like this, be sure to subscribe to our newsletters.​

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Posted by Kelly Treleaven ​

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Kelly Treleaven taught middle school English in Houston and wrote about it as Love, Teach at loveteachblog.com. Her writing on education has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and on Good Morning America. You can order her book, Love, Teach: Real Stories and Honest Advice to Keep Teachers from Crying Under Their Desks, or follow her on Instagram. She holds a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin and an Master's in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.​

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Related Content​

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Celebrate Poetry Month With Amanda Gorma​

Help! Parents Are Trying to Ban the Book I'm Teaching​

I don't know much about this book, but the Foreword is by Oprah Winfrey. Oprah is very far left so if she's endorsing the book I can rest assured that it's probably anti-white in some way, shape, or manner.

The fact of the matter is that we ALL have "a hill to climb" regardless of race. But I'm sure the book features victimhood and blames whites for the failures and shortcomings of blacks. Nothing new!!!

 

[CrusaderFrank]

“If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked or deceived by the white liberal, then Negros would get together and solve our own problems...in America, the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white man.” -- Malcolm X

 

[White 6]

That is interesting, W6! I can fully understand how specific books or authors might not be welcomed reading in a particular school library as is their right to choose, while not intending to have anything against the particular SUBJECT they were writing to! Yet, some people would have us believe they are against the entire genre of topic and not the individual author or book! And Twain or Vonnegut? Life would not be the same for me without the chronosynclastic infindibulum!


Ditto on both accounts. Really, a report ought to automatically be emailed to all parents what their children are checking out or being assigned--- I'm kind of embarrassed that anyone even needs to suggest that to others!


Well, the only places that do the kind of funding in the first place to have that sort of control over others would seem to be Big Blue Cities. I also know for a fact that some new history books have been caught having creatively rewritten recent history of the past decade to their favor!

An automatic report would be a good idea, and benefit to parents that read it, as they do their Facebook account.
Have you seen hard copy, read about it, or what, and I mean hard copy or online? The public educational trend that bothers me (that I have seen) is the move toward less or no textbooks issued, in favor of online material to supplement (hopefully) classroom instruction. If you are correct and a revised Am History was being taught from the classroom, online, this would hardest to overcome, as parents would have to keep up with it daily, just to know what was being taught, as they could not even sit and browse and entire history book at once or over a couple of days.

 

[jotathought]

These excuses are not acceptable.

It's not an excuse -- it's a reality. I'd still ask, what evidence is there that schools have banned black history (outside of the extremely progressive, anti-white and untruthful materials that have been introduced)?

 

[Dogmaphobe]

To listen to the black racists here, you would think slavery is being taught as a good thing, or something.

I was in grade school in the 60s, and we were taught all about slavery and what an abomination it was. Desegregation in the South was discussed since it was ongoing, we learned about MLK and the struggles for equality and as the events of the 60s unfolded, we learned of the Watts race riots, Stokely Carmichael, and other black activists.

Some people are simply consumed with keeping race hatred alive, though, as they project the race hatred that drives them upon the target of their racial hatred.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

What makes you such a whiny little pussy?

Envy, unwillingness to take responsibility for his own actions, indoctrination by others, lack of self-esteem, projection, obsessive tendencies, and disgruntlement with his life, I'd say.

This need to keep racism alive by being totally obnoxious is all too common in the black population. I often wonder how fast racism would disappear altogether if they simply stopped fanning the flames.

 

[initforme]

How about teaching how white slave owners were people of ill repute and used inhumane methods to force people to work for free because they were lazy and couldn't do the work themselves.

 

[Blaster]

If you think that is racist, then you don't want the truth being taught.

What truth?

 

[Calypso Jones]

Where do whites like you get the idea that being normal is accepting your racism? You are the racist, not me. America stays divided because of people like you, not me.

The only way you are not racist is if you have changed the definition. You need to take a good long look at yourself. if you can stand it.

 

[Oddball]

Envy, unwillingness to take responsibility for his own actions, indoctrination by others, lack of self-esteem, projection, obsessive tendencies, and disgruntlement with his life, I'd say.

This need to keep racism alive by being totally obnoxious is all too common in the black population. I often wonder how fast racism would disappear altogether if they simply stopped fanning the flames.

It's actually a circular neurosis....

• In order to be a victim, you need an oppressor.
• In order to remain a victim, you need to keep the oppressor alive.

These people are a twisted version of demon worshipers.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Funny you say this because there happen to be whites here I get along with very well. The fact is that you are a racist and you cannot deal with blacks, women or other people of color who do not say what your insecurity needs you to hear.

And there ya go.
Those are dimwitted leftist with white guilt issues.

 

[fncceo]

They

Not THEM?!