The story of how he received the attack takes an unexpected turn. It is a story of censorship, hypocrisy and distorted events, details lost in the fog of a cultural war that consumes everything that spreads throughout the United States. A popular children’s book, Everywhere Babies, was found on a list of 58 books targeted for ban from school libraries by a conservative Florida group. The author of the book was surprised last week when the issue made headlines nationally and internationally and learned it from the Washington Post. “It’s so unusual,” child writer Susan Meyers later told CBC News in an interview. “I think it’s extremely upsetting. It’s really upsetting.” This 2001 book was inspired by the birth of Meyers’s first grandchild and how all the boy’s grandparents looked at him with love.
What the book shows
Meyers decided to write Everywhere Babies after seeing Christmas scenes: she based it on adult images gathered around babies.
A prominent artist was hired to illustrate these scenes and painted all kinds of families: young parents, elderly parents, light-skinned and dark-skinned.
In some pictures there are two men or two women with a baby. Artist Marla Frazee says she never clarifies whether they are sisters, brothers, friends or spouses.
There are dozens of families depicted in Everywhere Babies. The artist said she wanted everyone to see their own family reflected, so she included some examples that could be interpreted as same-sex couples. (Marla Frazee)
But he says he wanted same-sex couples to feel included.
“This was a plan,” Frazee said in an interview.
“I wanted to make sure, as best I could, that every child who looked at the book would find some resemblance to their own family. Λα I wanted him to read the book and think, “This is how we are. This is how our family is.”
Now this controversy is upsetting two decades later, with gay marriage was legalized seven years ago in the US
A cultural war is sweeping schools
The pace of book bans has accelerated, says a study by the PEN America Literature and Freedom-Expression Group. The counts 1,145 books were banned across the United States over a nine-month period in 26 states, defining the bans as restricting, reducing or completely removing students’ access to previously available books.
Most banned books were about race, sex, and sexuality, and, unlike most book bans in the past, they were mostly triggered by calls from elected officials and government officials.
In this new political culture war, Florida is a central battleground.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is considered a Republican presidential candidate and some of the opponents point of view his moves as an attempt to gain national attention.
In recent weeks, the state has passed laws restricting the teaching of sexual identity before the 4th grade (critics called the “Do Not Say Homosexual” bill). allowed parents to sue school boards that do not address their complaints about inappropriate material. banned the teaching of concepts that make people feel guilty about their race or gender; and introduced new supervisory rules for school boards.
When Disney complained about one of these bills the state targeted Disney with another law: This canceled a tax-free area around Disneyworldand he did it so fast that he might not have thought of the unintended budgetary implication: a significant one debt assessment body now warns of possible liabilities for regular Florida taxpayers.
The state of Florida removed Disney from the special tax-free status, after it protested against the so-called “Do not say gay” bill. (John Raoux / The Associated Press)
Enter the book brouhaha.
In the northwest corner of the state, on the border with Alabama, school officials in Walton County received a list from a conservative group of 58 books deemed unsuitable for schools.
These school officials say they are still trying to understand the legal implications of the new Florida laws.
There are divergent interpretations of what happened next, but the county says some of the media and national reaction was outrageous.
Florida Gov. Ron de Sandis, who appeared here last year, is becoming increasingly popular on the right and is seen as the Republican candidate for the presidency. (Wilfredo Lee / The Associated Press)
Targeted books in Florida
“I’m a little disappointed with the misinformation,” Walton County School Principal Russell Hughes told CBC News. “We do not ban books.” Based on the discussion in the comments at the county’s Facebook pageNot all residents of the area agree with this description of what the school district did. The basic details, however, are not in dispute. A conservative group called the Florida Citizens Alliance, a small size organization according to the standards of American policy, compiles a annual list alleged pornographic or age-inappropriate books that violate state rules about what belongs to schools. Some of the 58 options are not surprising. The love novel Fifty Shades of Gray is described in the exhibition as: “Excellent educational material for newlyweds. [But not for people] younger than that “. Some are literary diamonds. Beloved by Toni Morrison is included for reference to slaves having sex with farm animals. The Kite Runner and The God of Small Things to describe sexual abuse. Some are illustrated books for younger children, such as Tango Makes Three, The Story of Gay Penguins, and Everywhere Babies. The list went to Hughes, the school inspector, a Republican who was elected to the post. The two-decade-old book has jumped in sales thanks to controversy. (Marla Frazee)
Curator: “It was not removed”
Hughes is popular: he won the Republican nomination and general election in 2016, then ran unopposed and was re-elected four years later, as his county schools far outperformed him. government averages in a number of criteria including improvement.
In an interview, Hughes said he did not want problems. Especially not now, with all the uncertainty about the new state laws.
“I will not risk my staff members having a problem,” Hughes said.
So he asked for a review and learned that of the books on list 24 were in his school libraries, 34 were not.
He ordered the 24 to pull out the library shelves and asked staff to check to see if they were breaking state rules.
What happened to Everywhere Babies?
Nothing happened, Hughes said. It was not on any of the library shelves in his county schools from the beginning, he said.
“So it was not removed,” he said.
He’s frustrated with the way the news has spread nationwide, following a Democratic nominee for office across the state uploaded to Twitter the complete list of 58 target books.
IMPORTANT: My county, Walton County, Florida, has banned 58 books from Walton County Public School Libraries.
The following is the list: pic.twitter.com/IDjnq0XKNP
– @ DWUhlfelderLaw
Nuance often erupts into a political skirmish. In the current debate over censorship, the same is true of consistency.
The American political discourse has been filled lately with complaints of censorship, from right to left, with every side selective in its rage, said the author of a new book warning of threats to our free speech traditions.
Free speech: Right, left, hypocrisy
In the Constitution of Knowledge, writer and journalist Jonathan Rauch warns that we are losing the ability to talk to each other and breaking the model that has allowed democracy to develop.
“I’m very worried,” Rauch said in an interview.
The Conservatives are currently staging a crusade for freedom of speech, even though they are celebrating Florida for targeting Disney and restricting public debate.
A current cause famous on the right is billionaire Elon Musk’s attempt to seize Twitter and reform it after censoring stories during the 2020 election.
The same preservatives as they were last spring in the hands beyond book censorship and released days and days of sections on The estate of Dr. Seuss The cessation of the publication of books with racist images is now welcomed by the news from Florida.
The author of a book on freedom of speech says that people can be hypocrites. It is proving to be an example of inconsistent attitudes towards censorship, as seen in controversies involving the social media giant Twitter. (Kacper Pempe / Reuters)
The Liberals have an abnormal record here as well: they now disapprove of censorship in the American class, but there were fewer votes in the last election.
During the campaign, Twitter censored posts on the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son; he even suspended the New York Post account. Facebook prohibited and then prohibited publications on unsubstantiated theories about the origin of COVID-19.
How censorship works
Rauch describes the phenomenon as an increasingly radicalized policy where people on the left and right use any available weapon to attack unwanted speech. In his view, the right is using tools it controls: state legislatures or media bubbles that limit the truth about vaccines (help) and the recent US election (Donald Trump really lost). She accuses the left of using its own cultural institutions, such as academia, to intimidate dissidents into silence and creating a false sense of agreement on ideas such as police refinancing and gender identity. His book suggests ways to repel these trends. This includes the challenge of setting standards for social media that allow for free speech while discouraging lies. “If we do not push back … we could lose this battle,” Rauts said, expressing fear of democratic erosion. “We could look a lot more like Hungary.” A way to undermine censorship? Show that it may have a boomerang. Just ask the author of Everywhere Babies. The news of the ban fell …
