Friday, May 6, 2022

GET ME REWRITE: Nashville Public Library fights back against racist, homophobic. book-banning Moms for Liberty

 

Headline:  Yahoo News, 5/5/2022
Nashville’s public library has issued thousands of limited edition “I read banned books” library cards in protest at GOP efforts to limit access to literature it opposes.
The library says it will issue 5,000 of the bright yellow limited-edition cards in Davidson County over the next month. 
Tennessee saw an “unprecedented” year for book bans in 2021, according to the American Librarian Association. And Governor Bill Lee signed a law that requires school libraries in the state to screen books for age-appropriate content.

2/4/2022 update starts here


“Critical race theory claims to solve racial discrimination by promoting racial discrimination,” said Robin Steenman, head of Moms for Liberty’s Williamson County chapter. “It is based on inherently racist assumptions and views virtually every situation through the lens of race.”
Steenman believes CRT indoctrination divides rather than unites by promoting race-based stereotypes.


Plessy v. Ferguson (Jim C row laws)


Birmingham, Alabama (May 1963)

1/16/2022 update starts here

Meet Robin Steenman
masked up and ready to whitewash history


“Some individuals, organizations and groups misuse my father and take his words out of context to promote ideas that oppose his teachings,” Bernice King wrote in a tweet. “This instance is particularly concerning because @moms4libertyWC sought to erase him, now they’re using him to make money.” 
Moms for Liberty Williamson County has actively advocated against teaching critical race theory in schools. The group has sought to remove from school curriculum certain books on race relations that some perceive as anti-white, including “Separate is Never Equal” by Duncan Tonatiuh [41 copies of this children's book in LINKcatand “Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington” by Frances E. Ruffin.


1/11/2022 update starts here


Williamson Strong calls on the current and incoming owners of The Factory at Franklin, and the retailers and restaurants who do business there every day, to immediately reconsider being the host to an anti-diversity event by Moms for Liberty Williamson County. We call on our local political leaders and business community to publicly denounce it in the name of Williamson County’s diverse and connected residential and business community.  
 Nationally-organized Moms for Liberty Williamson County has repeatedly made national news in the past year over their efforts to ban children’s books in Williamson County School classrooms, including Frances Ruffin’s Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington, and the autobiographical Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story. [18 copies of this early readiner in LINKcat.]   
They’ve spoken publicly against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in our schools and called for the halt of any such programs promoting racial equality.  [emphasis added]

1/1/2022 update, "How an army of racist white moms has become a national force in miseducation", starts here.



USA Today, 12/28/2021
Founded in Florida this year by three registered Republicans who are current or former school board members, Moms for Liberty claims 70,000 members across 165 chapters in 33 states. 
The organization – a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose donors – denies that it rose to prominence by tapping into big money, though it paid former Fox News host Megyn Kelly to appear at an event. 
Whether or not big dollars helped jumpstart the group, Moms for Liberty has big ambitions and is poised to ratchet up the partisan warfare that has been building for years around nominally nonpartisan school board races, injecting a new level of conservative activism into such contests that could spill over into races up and down the ballot.

Original 11/30/2021 post, "Moms for Liberty of Williamson County Tennessee", starts here

On social media for all the world to see

Moms for Liberty claims in its complaint that reading materials used in the Wit & Wisdom curriculum are not age appropriate, including texts in a nine-week second grade module titled “Civil Rights Heroes” that include “Separate is Never Equal” by Duncan Tonatiuh, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington” by Frances E. Ruffin, “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story” by Ruby Bridges, “The Story of Ruby Bridges” by Robert Coles and the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr.  [emphasis added]

Recommended reading for the Moms.

Texas A&M Today, 1/15/2020



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