PEN America
Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lots of of books throughout the state of Florida, censoring themes centered on race, historical past, sexual orientation, and gender in an effort to silence the voices and narratives of marginalized communities and additional push his MAGA imaginative and prescient for a “Nice American Comeback.”
Simply final month, a Florida faculty banned “The Hill We Climb,” the transferring poem Amanda Gorman recited at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, saying it might now be off-limits to younger readers after one mother or father claimed the poem was “indoctrinating” college students. The college, which claimed the poem is “not academic,” additionally banned “The ABCs of Black Historical past,” a e-book meant for readers ages 5 and older.
In response, Gorman, the primary nationwide youth poet laureate, described feeling “gutted,” defined that she had written the poem “so that every one younger individuals may see themselves in a historic second,” and mentioned, “We should combat again.”
And we’re preventing again.
With Ron DeSantis formally within the race for president, MoveOn is launching a “Banned Bookmobile,” filling it with books that DeSantis and different MAGA Republicans have banned in recent times, and driving it across the nation handy out these books without cost. We’re in a position to make the Banned Bookmobile a actuality because of the generosity of MoveOn members.
This response issues as a result of previously yr alone, DeSantis has instituted all of those extremist insurance policies in Florida:
- Instituted sweeping e-book bans focusing on books written by or about individuals of coloration and the LGBTQ+ group, books about antisemitism and the rise of the Nazis, and correct descriptions of American historical past, leaving whole lecture rooms and faculty libraries “suspended, closed, or emptied of books, both completely or quickly,” in keeping with PEN America.
That’s DeSantis’—and the MAGA motion’s—imaginative and prescient for America: a spot the place our tales, our identities, and our communities are banned. The stakes are excessive: We should come collectively to combat for our freedom of expression, to construct group, and for younger individuals to have the ability to see themselves mirrored within the classroom by their tales and identities. DeSantis’s bans are an assault on all of our freedoms, however he can not erase us.
That’s the place our Banned Bookmobile is available in.
Our members have come collectively to fund the Banned Bookmobile, which can launch this summer time. We are going to use this as a possibility to have conversations with voters in regards to the MAGA imaginative and prescient for our nation, present sources for individuals to get entangled to assist defeat the GOP in 2024, and maintain the subject of e-book bans surrounding DeSantis on the marketing campaign path.
All whereas giving out as many banned books as attainable to college students and others who’ve misplaced entry to them because of MAGA politicians like Ron DeSantis.
Your {dollars} may broaden the route of the Banned Bookmobile to comply with DeSantis on marketing campaign stops throughout the nation into extra early main states if sufficient funds are raised. As a result of the MAGA Republicans aren’t simply passing bans in Florida–they’re staging assaults on lecture rooms and instituting bans on our bodily autonomy all throughout the nation.
Listed below are the primary 10 books we’re buying and gifting away in our Banned Bookmobile. All of those books are banned in Florida, and 5 had been among the many high 10 most banned books nationwide in 2022:
- “The 1619 Mission: Born on the Water” – Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
- “All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto” – George M. Johnson
- “And Tango Makes Three” – Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
- “The Bluest Eye” – Toni Morrison
- “Gender Queer: A Memoir” – Maia Kobabe
- “The Hill We Climb” – Amanda Gorman
- “I Am Jazz” – Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel
- “Searching for Alaska” – John Inexperienced
- “Maus” – Artwork Spiegelman
- “Out of Darkness” – Ashley Hope Pérez
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic novel about nonbinary writer Maia Kobabe’s journey towards self-discovery, was probably the most banned e-book throughout the US in 2022 and has obtained probably the most challenges of any e-book in 2023 as effectively.
We wish to make it possible for as many individuals as attainable have the prospect to learn these books and that we unfold the phrase far and huge that DeSantis and the Republican Celebration are supporting e-book bans and censorship, on high of their different harmful and excessive insurance policies that limit our freedoms. These insurance policies are attacking our bodily autonomy–from abortion, to trans rights and gender-affirming well being care. They’re enacting voter suppression and mounting assaults on the poor. Our rights, our tales, and our identities are all below risk.
How one can get entangled:
Chip in month-to-month to help the Banned Bookmobile. With only a $5 month-to-month donation, you may assist energy MoveOn’s Banned Bookmobile cross-country tour so we are able to maintain shopping for as many copies of DeSantis’s banned books as we are able to, giving them away without cost, informing voters in regards to the MAGA Republicans’ agenda for our nation, and hammering DeSantis and the GOP with unhealthy press for so long as it takes.
We are able to’t wait on the sidelines whereas politicians like Ron DeSantis attempt to erase historical past and silence People. The extra we are able to get the phrase out not nearly DeSantis however the GOP as a complete, the much less they will cover from the results of their very own actions.
