It is a case of I don’t want my child to read these books so your child can’t read them either. These people want control over everyone, every child, they demand to rule your life. Hugs. Scottie
Hundreds of new books featuring characters of color and LGBTQ+ themes were found by the trash at a Staten Island elementary school, outraging some parents and sparking an education department investigation.
Gothamist obtained photos from a Brooklyn book lover that showed boxes of kids’ books left with the garbage at PS 55, known as the Henry Boehm School. Some had sticky notes on them detailing themes and content in the books, which appeared to be part of a 2019 initiative to diversify school materials. The city education department launched an investigation after Gothamist shared the images.
A note on “My Two Border Towns,” about a boy’s life on the United States-Mexico border, read “Our country has no room and it’s not fair.” A note on “The Derby Daredevils,” about a girls’ roller derby team, read “Not approved. Discusses dad being transgender. Teenage girls having a crush on another girl in class.” And a note on “We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know” read “negative slant on white people.”
A note on a copy of “My Two Border Towns” taken from the school reads “Our country has no room and it’s not fair.”
Holly Spiegel
Even books about the Marvel Comics hero Black Panther and legendary singer and activist Nina Simone were discarded.
It was unclear whether the removal of the books resulted from an objection raised by staff or parents. The education department said no formal challenge to the books was raised through official channels, though a part-time librarian had inquired about the process.
Until this incident, New York City had seemed largely immune from the high-profile efforts to ban books that are roiling school communities in Florida, New Jersey and other parts of the country.
“Our public schools do not shy away from books that teach students about the diverse people and communities that make up the fabric of our society,” education department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said, noting the removal of the books was not sanctioned.
The school principal and PTA president did not respond to inquiries.
Many PS 55 parents were surprised to learn the books had been removed.
The education department said it was investigating why the books were discarded from the PS 55 library.
Jessica Gould
“I don’t believe in banning books at all,” said Angela Hartje, whose daughter is in third grade.
“It’s one step closer to ‘Fahrenheit 451,’” she added, referencing the classic sci-fi novel by Ray Bradbury about a dystopian America where books have been outlawed.
‘Not approved’
Holly Spiegel, of East Flatbush, alerted Gothamist to the controversy. Her neighbor, who was working near the school in November, retrieved hundreds of the books from the trash and gave them to Spiegel, knowing she could use them for the free “Little Libraries” she manages around their neighborhood. Spiegel then got in touch with the school and made two additional trips where she recovered hundreds more books in boxes marked “not approved.”
Sticky notes on the books pointed to apparent reasons why they were censored. A note on “Julian Is A Mermaid,” about a boy who dresses as a mermaid, read “Boy questions gender.” A post-it on “Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker’s Story,” cited a specific page, along with the question “white man’s world?”
A copy of “Derby Daredevils” had a note reading “Not approved. Discusses being transgender. Teenage girls having a crush on another girl in class.”
Holly Spiegel
Notes on pages of “Black Panther: The Young Prince” read “Witchcraft? Human skulls” and “Pact with Devil. Burned in fire.”
A note on “Nina: A Story of Nina Simone” read “This is about how black people were treated poorly but overcame it. (Can go both ways).”
“At its heart, this feels like censorship,” Spiegel said. “It feels like book banning.”
City statistics show the student body at PS 55 is 78% white, 11% Hispanic and 8% Asian. The teachers are 92% white.
Two parents at the school, located in Staten Island’s Eltingville neighborhood, said they had heard rumblings about some controversy over books. But Gothamist was unable to confirm who led the effort that led to the books being tossed.
An unusual book battle
School controversies over books are rare in New York City. Since 2019, there have been only three challenges of books at other schools under an official protocol that involves the formation of a committee of parents, librarians, teachers and administrators, the education department confirmed. None of those books were removed.
“Should a parent feel concerned about the literature in their child’s classroom, they are encouraged to reach out to the teacher, principal, or superintendent,” said Brownstein, the department’s spokesperson.
It’s more common for discussions in the city to focus on ensuring access to the materials. The Brooklyn Public Library runs a program where local students talk about controversial books with students in other parts of the country where they’re actually being banned.
Alissa Barakakos, a PTA member at PS 55, said she was surprised that books about race, culture and sexuality had been removed — and that she would have opposed the effort if she’d known about it. She noted her son’s class just finished a series of discussions on Black History Month, and a unit on Native Americans.
“I don’t know why the books would be thrown out,” Barakakos said. “I want my kid to be a part of the school community where everything is open and honest and kids are being educated.”
Spiegel said she was upset to see the books were kept from children. “The books aren’t getting into the hands of kids who would identify with the characters, but they’re also not getting into the hands of kids whose worldview would be broadened by reading about people who aren’t like them,” she said.
‘Mosaic’ problems
Some of the boxes Spiegel retrieved were labeled “Mosaic,” the name of a $200 million initiative launched late in the de Blasio administration to diversify school lessons and materials. An analysis by the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice found in 2019 that only 16% of elementary and middle school books were by authors of color.
“Black Panther: The Young Prince” was also removed from the Staten Island elementary school.
Holly Spiegel
De Blasio called for a total rethinking of the K-12 curriculum with an eye toward diversity. Mayor Eric Adams then scaled back the Mosaic plan, launching his own literacy initiative and supplementing lessons with materials reflecting LGBTQ+, Asian American and Black communities.
Thousands of Mosaic books were still sent to school and classroom libraries. But Natasha Capers, the director of the Coalition for Educational Justice, said schools received little guidance about what to do with the new books.
“They just were like, ‘here’s a big box of books,’” said Capers, whose group advocates for more equity in public schools.
She added that she was glad to know the books found with the garbage at PS 55 were “rescued.” But she said she was outraged to hear they had nearly been discarded.
“I watched my children throughout their schooling read so many books that used horrific language about Black people,” Capers said. “There’s a book [that] used the N-word. You just had to suck it up because it’s part of the ‘canon.'”
She scoffed at the apparent discomfort with witchcraft and human skulls in the Black Panther book.
“You read Shakespeare, and [“Macbeth”] starts out with three witches around a cauldron,” she said. “Hamlet,” she noted, “is legitimately talking to a skull.”
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Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email jgould@nypublicradio.org
Republican Clay Higgins went from being, in my opinion as racist cop and a bully, to a Congressman who bullies others. Bayou Brief Black parents warn their sons about cops like this guy.
I appreciate all points of view on my channel. However, when they get ugly, I have to remove those comments. If you disagree with me, great!! That’s how we get a good dialogue going. I don’t allow misinformation, and if you find that I have misspoke or was flat out wrong about something, I usually recheck my info and find that Snopes.com usually has both the conspiracy theories or whatever and gives the correct info. When some attack me, it’s not a problem, depending on how bad it is, if it is really bad it will be taken down. so don’t be afraid to correct me. We all make mistakes, and sometimes, stroke brain gets it wrong. I love, be safe, and take care of you 💗
*I found mire info, and there is some discrepancy and weather the Mom knew he was armed. I believe she knew because there were pictures of him before the BLM protests that WERE on his Facebook page. Apparently, his friend bought the weapon for him because he was underage, but she still knew what she was driving him into*
Drag King Kari seems to believe life begins at conception and thinks the 1864 law should prevail. Now that she is catching on that the script Trump gave her to memorize, lost her the election in 202. She is trying on trump’s revamped stance now that the Arizona Supreme Court handed down the Handmaid’s Gilead law.
Pierre Poilievre, the opposition leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, is reading Trump’s script almost verbatim! Both are Pro-Life, both are union busters, and they both think that immigrants are stealing our jobs and driving down wages! NOT TRUE! We have a federal minimum wage. It just went up to $17.30 as of April 1st. Server wage is $16.30/hr.
As I was listening to this video I was reading a reply from Roger deteremineddespitewp and we were talking about regional conflicts and the cycles of conflict and hate. I will post Roger’s grand comment and then the video from Beau. Hugs. Scottie BTW if you want to read the entire discussion which I recommend it is on this post.
Oh Scottie you could loose track on become very depressed trying to compile a list of what are termed genocides, adding civilian deaths through wars, reprisal killings, mass communal violence, deaths through prejudice and on and on. By the time you’d finish you’d be thinking ‘Well at least conventional war on a battlefield is honest and upfront,’ Where and how to start to put a stop to this frustrates me, because I keep coming up with ‘knocking heads together’ solutions which kind of defeats the whole purpose. rawgod gave me a challenge to write out a story where in 2643 Humanity finally quit this violence ‘kick’….. I had to write it from a sci-fi perspective it was my only way.
My problem is, as long as I can think back I’ve always hated prejudice and violence that goes with it, which in turns causes my own violent solutions, try as I might that idea still bubbles up. And actually that is something of a sin in true Christian terms.
You, like rawgod, Jill and Keith are so right we should learn, force ourselves to work together. These constant wars which pit communities against each other only leave a legacy of bitterness for another generation to feed off. Take an extreme example of WWII. When the fighting had ceased some nations who had engaged in Total War just put down the guns and said ‘OK. That’s over. Some will have to pay for starting it, but as for the rest. OK.’ UK & USA did that with Italy, Germany and Japan and the populations of those nations did likewise; though it took some time. Even with the USA and Vietnam, the veterans would meet up. Americans went back to help with projects, just to try and make sense of it all. It’s still a tight state run by a ‘communist’ government but is not what would call a North Korea. Hip-hop for instance is alive and vibrant (though I am sure the artists are careful with the lyrics)
When its communities; not so much, the hate is passed on down. The massacres are shared out. Even if the violence stops the hate simmers ready to break loose. Maybe not on issues across the board, but perhaps on certain sensitive points.
I’m tip-toeing around here a bit, lest I mention one example which triggers someone reading this.
I keep on hoping, when the evidence seems to be the opposite. I keep thinking of folk who wish for peace and have generous hearts, those who work for peace who try to reach out. I try and stifle my own little demons.
You are so right we should not be squandering our life span, in this useless Hate.
Thank you, Ten Bears for sharing this video so I could post it. What I want every one to understand is something the news reporters and the station buried. The people upset and demanding this huge change … are only 20% of the population. Now I listened to it three times and I couldn’t decide if they were saying the people in the county or the rural people in the country. To me it sounded like country wide the rural people were demanding and were 20% of the population. Which sounds right if you look at population maps. Do you understand what that is? A small minority is demanding the entire country abandon its progressive move forward into the modern age so a small segment of the population can be satisfied and happy. It is minority rule over the majority. It is not democracy! It is what the fundamentalist Christians are trying to do right now to every red state on LGBTQ+ issues. Are we as a country going to allow the most violent vocal segments of our society force us back to a regressive past that will eventually destroy what the US really is and could be? Hugs. Scottie
The divide between rural and urban areas in the United States has been growing in recent decades with grievances and political consequences on both sides. Judy Woodruff traveled across Oregon to learn more about that rift for her series, America at a Crossroads.
Let’s look at what is driving this push to end of diversity, equality, and inclusion. Seem that most people would want those things. Why would anyone want a large segment of the population to be treated as lessor, denied jobs, denied housing, denied loans, face unrestrained bigotry. It can only come down to bigotry and the fragility of white males, the need for fundamentalist to return to a time of strict gender roles, and a push by religious people to put their religious bigotry before the rights of LGBTQ+ people to just be themselves in society and at work. It is OK for black kids at the youngest ages to suffer discrimination, be made to feel bad about their skin color or have to feel fear of harm. But it is illegal to make white kids feel uncomfortable that 150 years ago white people kept black / brown people as property doing horrible things to them as slaves. WTF. The only reason any white kids would feel uncomfortable or hate themselves for hearing this is if their come from a white supremacist family. It they themselves have been taught that black people are inferior or lesser. But what it can do is teach empathy for those who are different from you. It simply is some people thinking they are superior to others and should have privilege. And it is needed because systemic racism in the country still exists. Don’t think so, look at large company corporate structures. Most management is white males, most workers are mixed, and white males get promoted faster. Look at congress, mostly white males despite them not being such a large majority in the population. Look at loan rates, higher in black neighborhoods, yet home sales prices lower than a white home comparable in a white neighborhood. The Steven Millers of the US feel that if any white straight cis male loses a job offer, promotion, or school placement for anyone else it is wrong and a crime. No matter if the other person was more qualified, mo matter the situation, in their minds whites straight cis males always come first. Hugs. Scottie
A new Alabama law banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices, programming and training in public colleges and other state agencies will go into effect this fall.
Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB129, known as the “divisive concepts” bill, into law Wednesday. The law will become effective Oct. 1, 2024.
“My Administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity, however, I refuse to allow a few bad actors on college campuses – or wherever else for that matter – to go under the acronym of DEI, using taxpayer funds, to push their liberal political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe,” Ivey said in a statement Wednesday.
“We have already taken action to prevent this in our K-12 classrooms, and I am pleased to sign SB129 to protect our college campuses. Supporting academic freedom, embracing diversity of cultures and backgrounds and treating people fairly are all key components of what we believe in Alabama, and I am more than confident that will continue.”
Alabama joins Florida and Texas in enacting the wide-ranging legislation, which asks for sweeping changes or cancellations to state agencies and public colleges that currently fund DEI offices and programming. It is not clear yet whether the law will force some state colleges, which support a combined $16 million in diversity spending, to lay off staff.
The law bans any program that “advocates for a divisive concept.” It also would prohibit higher education institutions from allowing individuals to use a restroom that is different from their sex as assigned at birth.
Ban supporters said the legislation would prevent “indoctrination” and “far-left ideology” in classrooms, and gave some examples of where they believed white students were made to feel uncomfortable on college campuses.
Opponents of the ban credited DEI programs for providing access and financial support, improving their campus experience, and in some cases, saving their lives. Others also worried that a ban would deter businesses and athletes from coming to the state.
“This unjust and inhumane bill ignores the will of the people and threatens years of progress toward racial and social justice and LGBTQ+ rights for generations to come,” said Jerome Dees, Alabama policy director for the SPLC Action Fund. “Students and workers value diversity, equity and inclusion in their schools and workplaces because it makes us all more safe.”
In a message to students and faculty Tuesday evening, University of Alabama System Chancellor Finis St. John IV and presidents of the System’s three campuses said leadership and legal counsel are working to determine what actions the colleges will need to take to ensure their programs are in compliance with the law.
“It is important to note that SB 129 defines divisive concepts and DEI programs in specific terms, and it offers several exceptions for accreditation requirements, academic freedom, medical and mental health care, research, recruiting and outreach, and a host of other areas. Please look to official university communications for guidance as we continue to assess the legislation,” the statement read.
“We recognize differences strengthen our campuses and help us successfully prepare students to live and work in a global society. We remain committed to recruiting and retaining outstanding students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds, providing open and equal access to resources and opportunities, and equipping all campus community members for success at our universities and beyond.”
What would the law do?
The law lists eight so-called “divisive concepts,” with most covering topics related to race, ethnicity, sex, religion and national origin.
Its sponsor, Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, said nothing in the legislation prevents the accurate teaching of history. Educators who knowingly “compel” students to believe certain banned ideas, however, could be terminated or disciplined at the discretion of college and school board leaders.
After debate on the Senate floor last month, the law will no longer prohibit college staff from discussing whether slavery and racism are aligned with the founding principles of the United States.
Democrats also added specific protections for women’s sports, the state Office of Minority Affairs, and changes to ensure “sex” was added to the list of protected classes in places where it was omitted.
Recent changes, which were approved on Tuesday, more clearly define the role of a contractor and protect those individuals from termination if they violate the law by accident. Another amendment ensures that nothing in the law would infringe on First Amendment rights of students or employees.
The law says it will not impede academic or medical research, federal reporting requirements or support services. It also does not prohibit housing or organizations that are segregated by sex, or affect “certain circumstances relating to accreditation.”
Students or staff may host a DEI program or event, it added, but must not use state money to fund it.
Another great video destroying anti-trans propaganda, myths, and misinformation. He talks slow, is methodical, and uses sources he displays and has in his description box to make his points. Often he will go through the studies that the anti-trans people use to show they either did not say what is claimed, are way out of date, used the wrong methods, or simply were created to be used for anti-trans propaganda. He shows not only the bad studies and debunks them, but the real modern medically reviewed and approved studies showing that very few detransition and those that do mostly do so because of negative treatment from society, peers, and family. People who live all their childhood knowing and claiming they are a different gender are not suddenly going to stop saying it at 18 or 21. If they are going to suffer all that mistreatment and hate growing up, they are what they are telling you. Hugs. Scottie
Frank Turek and Sean McDowell make ridiculous pseudoscientific claims about LGBTQ people. Here I debunk them with actual scientific research.
Subscribe using my link for 30% off unlimited access or try it this month for less than $1. Claims I debunk: Abuse and trauma cause non-heterosexuality and gender non-conformity, not affirming queer people is the best way to help them, being gender nonconforming is a social media contagion, rapid onset gender dysphoria is real, gender dysphoria can and should only be treated with therapy or prayer, gender dysphoria is similar to and should be treated in the same way as anorexia, 80% of gender dysphoric youths grow out of it by age 18, medical intervention for gender dysphoria does not help mental health outcomes, and trans s rates skyrocket 10 years after transition.
The video that Ten Bears posted is incredibly important. Seriously it takes the entire wind out of the tRump campaign sails. If this doesn’t convince people, then their only driving force is racism and bigotry. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 