US conservatives linked to rich donors wage campaign to ban books from schools

[DBoon]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/24/us-conservatives-campaign-books-ban-schools

Conservative groups across the US, often linked to deep-pocketed rightwing donors, are carrying out a campaign to ban books from school libraries, often focused on works that address race, LGBTQ issues or marginalized communities.

Literature has already been removed from schools in Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. Librarians and teachers warn the trend is on the increase, as groups backed by wealthy Republican donors use centrally drawn up tactics and messaging to harangue school districts into removing certain texts.
...

Groups purporting to be “grassroots” efforts have frequently led the charge, petitioning school boards or elected officials to remove certain books. Though some of these organizations present themselves as a local effort that sprang up around groups of parents united behind a cause, many of the groups involved in banning books are in fact linked, and backed by influential conservative donors.

Most of the books relate to race or gender equality, at a time when some Republicans are mounting an effort to prevent teaching on race in schools by launching a loud campaign against critical race theory, an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society.

[Claire Oh Nette]

1. "The books relate to race or gender equality"

The Republican party can't even hide their primary motivation any more.

It was bad enough we had to have a Black president (his mother was caucasian, but the one drop rule still applies), but I'll be damned if we're gonna let a woman tell us what to do.

White men think equality is tyranny. Got it.

[dutch777]

2. Red meat for the RW base. Kind of a wasted effort in the age of the internet.

If kids are curious enough they can find anything. And teachers can point them there for "the other side of the story". I am more worried about RW attempts to curb or influence what is and isn't taught in the classroom.