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https://theconversation.com/julianne-moores-childrens-book-about-redheads-is-under-review-whats-happening-with-us-book-bans-under-trump-250152>
"Actor Julianne Moore’s picture book,
Freckleface Strawberry, was recently
removed for “compliance review” from schools serving the families of US
military and civilian defence personnel.
The review, conducted by the US Department of Defense, is designed to ensure
the books in its schools don’t contravene President Trump’s two executive
orders regarding “gender ideology” and “racial indoctrination”, reported CNN.
As part of the week-long review, in which access to all library books was
denied, Moore’s book about a redheaded girl who learns to accept her freckles
was flagged alongside others as “potentially related to gender ideology or
discriminatory equity ideology topics”.
While books are challenged much more often than they are successfully banned,
last year 10,000 books were banned from public schools across America: almost
triple the amount in 2023.
The Pentagon has issued a list of books, or chapters from books, to be
immediately pulled from Department of Defense schools. It includes course
material on gender and sexuality for high-school students and a lesson for
fifth graders about how immigration affects the US.
Moore, whose father was a Vietnam veteran, and who grew up attending a
Department of Defense School, has expressed her “great shock”. She drew
attention to her book’s removal in an Instagram post.
Trump’s direct ban on “teaching ‘gender ideology’ and ‘critical race theory’ in
the classroom” marks a new front in the censorship battles. If picture books
about redheaded girls with freckles can be removed (even temporarily) for being
problematically “ideological”, where will these book bans take the US – now and
in the future?
The Trump presidency, with its new language of censorship, has just begun."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
