Latest news with #HowtoBeanAntiracist
22-05-2025
- Politics
Navy reverses course on DEI book ban after Pentagon review
In a major reversal, almost all the 381 books that the U.S. Naval Academy removed from the school's libraries have been returned to the bookshelves after a new review using the Pentagon's standardized search terms for diversity, equity and inclusion titles found about 20 books that need to be removed pending a future review by a Department of Defense panel, according to a defense official. The reversal comes after a May 9 Pentagon memo set Wednesday as the date by which the military services were to submit and remove book titles from the libraries of their military educational institutions that touch on diversity, race, and gender issues using the Pentagon's specific search terms. Prior to the Pentagon memo standardizing search terms, the Navy used its own terms that identified 381 titles, including titles like "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi, "Bodies in Doubt" by Elizabeth Reis, and "White Rage" by Carol Anderson. A defense official said that the new review using the DOD search terms found only two or three book titles included in the Navy's earlier search. The 20 official search terms included in the May 9 memo included: affirmative action; allyship; anti-racism; critical race theory; discrimination; diversity in the workplace; diversity, equity, and inclusion; gender affirming care; gender dysphoria; gender expression; gender identity; gender nonconformity; gender transition; transgender military personnel; transgender people; transsexualism; transsexuals; and white privilege. "The Navy has reviewed library collections at all Department of Navy educational institutions to ensure compliance with directives issued by the President and Department of Defense," Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. "The Navy has identified and sequestered library materials potentially incompatible with the military's core mission, pending the Defense Department's formal review." "Nearly all of the 381 books originally pulled from the shelves at Nimitz Library are back in circulation," he added. The Pentagon memo also applied to other academic institutions run by the military services aside from their military academies. For example, the new review identified less than 20 book titles at each of the Navy's three other academic institutions. Defense officials told The Associated Press that a few dozen books had been pulled out for review by the Air Force for its institutions including the Air Force Academy. It was unclear how many books might have been identified by the Army. The Pentagon memo was issued to bring the DOD into compliance with a Trump executive order to eliminate DEI programs.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ibram X. Kendi is ready to introduce kids to Malcolm X: 'Racism is worse in times of tragedy'
At a time when the federal government is conducting a radical erasure of Black history in the name of fighting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and school libraries are banning books about race, Ibram X. Kendi is ready to introduce kids to Malcolm X. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Kendi, whose new book 'Malcolm Lives!' is subtitled 'The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers,' has made it his mission to promote antiracism. His previous books include 'How to Be an Antiracist' (2019) and 'Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America' (2016), which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. As an academic — most recently at Boston University and soon to be at Howard University — and as a writer, he lives to spotlight the very history that the current administration would like to bury, especially where it potentially influences young minds. He is well aware of the timing of his new book. In fact, he savors it. 'When people are trying to attack history, trying to kill our awareness of history, those are the moments we should be creating it,' he said in a recent interview. 'Those are the moments in which we should be making it even more legible for people, so that they can understand why other people are actually trying to prevent us from having an awareness of history.' And in Malcolm X, the complex street hustler turned Black nationalist firebrand worshipped by everyone from Stokely Carmichael to Clarence Thomas, Kendi believes he has the perfect subject for the moment. 'Malcolm's life and story, and the ideas that he personally wrestled with, are ideas that we're wrestling with now,' he said. 'I think he can help adults and young people to better understand what's going on.' Kendi — the 'X' stands for his middle name, Xolani, a Xhosa and Zulu word for peace — pulls no punches in making such connections. This is how he analyzes the Lansing, Mich., fire department's indifference after a white mob set fire to Malcolm's family home in 1929: 'Racism is worse in times of tragedy. If you are Black, the agencies designed to help you will ignore you or hurt you. Ask Black residents of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ask houseless Black people near you. Ask Black people who called the police when their loved one was having a mental health crisis — and the police came and killed them.' Read more: What would Malcolm X say about Trump? New book argues his legacy is more important than ever As Malcolm X's centenary approaches on May 19, books about his life have been flowing fast, furious and by any means necessary. Two — Manning Marable's 'Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention' (2011) and Les and Tamara Payne's 'The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X' (2020) — won Pulitzer Prizes. Mark Whitaker's 'The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America' arrives Tuesday. 'Malcolm Lives!' is different from the above in one obvious way: It is intended for readers between the ages of 10 and 14. It is disarmingly blunt and direct. Perhaps to the dismay of the censorious, it is also instructional. In other words, it is a school library book banner's worst nightmare. 'Malcolm has the ability to teach every young reader that no matter the challenges that they're facing, the adversity that they're facing in this moment, they have the potential and the capacity to become a great historical figure like Malcolm X,' Kendi said. 'To me, that's one of the most interesting aspects of his story. With everything he endured as a young person, he still was able to navigate everything and become this pivotal and influential figure.' Kendi hopes 'Malcolm Lives!' might find its way into the hands of readers not unlike the young Malcolm. As Malcolm Little, he was a petty crook who didn't fully discover the power of reading until he was incarcerated — at which point he began devouring books like food. He memorized the dictionary. He studied Islamic texts and Black history. He read H.G. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, Nietzsche and Kant. 'He was a young person in prison heading nowhere,' Kendi said. 'And it was books that led him to become the person that we know of to this day.' So when Kendi approached the task of introducing Malcolm to today's young readers, he thought about the impact 'Malcolm Lives!' might have on someone encountering not just Malcolm for the first time, but exploring books for the first time. He knows books can unlock new worlds, which is one reason so many books, including those written by Kendi, have been banned. After all, it's not the physical book that poses a threat, it's the ideas contained therein and their capacity to provoke someone to think differently — and perhaps to hope. Read more: Malcolm X's full story will never be told. These biographies explain why 'When I think about putting this book in the world, I think about how this book can be the book that allows a Black child to realize that they are important, that they have potential, even if that child is incarcerated,' he said. 'Or it could be the book that allows a white child to realize the problem isn't Black people, which then prevents that white child from going down a path in which they end up harming a Black child and therefore harming their own sort of life chances. 'I mean, this is important work.' Get the latest book news, events and more in your inbox every Saturday. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Ibram X. Kendi is ready to introduce kids to Malcolm X: ‘Racism is worse in times of tragedy'
At a time when the federal government is conducting a radical erasure of Black history in the name of fighting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and school libraries are banning books about race, Ibram X. Kendi is ready to introduce kids to Malcolm X. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Kendi, whose new book 'Malcolm Lives!' is subtitled 'The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers,' has made it his mission to promote antiracism. His previous books include 'How to Be an Antiracist' (2019) and 'Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America' (2016), which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. As an academic — most recently at Boston University and soon to be at Howard University — and as a writer, he lives to spotlight the very history that the current administration would like to bury, especially where it potentially influences young minds. He is well aware of the timing of his new book. In fact, he savors it. 'When people are trying to attack history, trying to kill our awareness of history, those are the moments we should be creating it,' he said in a recent interview. 'Those are the moments in which we should be making it even more legible for people, so that they can understand why other people are actually trying to prevent us from having an awareness of history.' And in Malcolm X, the complex street hustler turned Black nationalist firebrand worshipped by everyone from Stokely Carmichael to Clarence Thomas, Kendi believes he has the perfect subject for the moment. 'Malcolm's life and story, and the ideas that he personally wrestled with, are ideas that we're wrestling with now,' he said. 'I think he can help adults and young people to better understand what's going on.' Kendi — the 'X' stands for his middle name, Xolani, a Xhosa and Zulu word for peace — pulls no punches in making such connections. This is how he analyzes the Lansing, Mich., fire department's indifference after a white mob set fire to Malcolm's family home in 1929: 'Racism is worse in times of tragedy. If you are Black, the agencies designed to help you will ignore you or hurt you. Ask Black residents of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ask houseless Black people near you. Ask Black people who called the police when their loved one was having a mental health crisis — and the police came and killed them.' As Malcolm X's centenary approaches on May 19, books about his life have been flowing fast, furious and by any means necessary. Two — Manning Marable's 'Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention' (2011) and Les and Tamara Payne's 'The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X' (2020) — won Pulitzer Prizes. Mark Whitaker's 'The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America' arrives Tuesday. 'Malcolm Lives!' is different from the above in one obvious way: It is intended for readers between the ages of 10 and 14. It is disarmingly blunt and direct. Perhaps to the dismay of the censorious, it is also instructional. In other words, it is a school library book banner's worst nightmare. 'Malcolm has the ability to teach every young reader that no matter the challenges that they're facing, the adversity that they're facing in this moment, they have the potential and the capacity to become a great historical figure like Malcolm X,' Kendi said. 'To me, that's one of the most interesting aspects of his story. With everything he endured as a young person, he still was able to navigate everything and become this pivotal and influential figure.' Kendi hopes 'Malcolm Lives!' might find its way into the hands of readers not unlike the young Malcolm. As Malcolm Little, he was a petty crook who didn't fully discover the power of reading until he was incarcerated — at which point he began devouring books like food. He memorized the dictionary. He studied Islamic texts and Black history. He read H.G. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, Nietzsche and Kant. 'He was a young person in prison heading nowhere,' Kendi said. 'And it was books that led him to become the person that we know of to this day.' So when Kendi approached the task of introducing Malcolm to today's young readers, he thought about the impact 'Malcolm Lives!' might have on someone encountering not just Malcolm for the first time, but exploring books for the first time. He knows books can unlock new worlds, which is one reason so many books, including those written by Kendi, have been banned. After all, it's not the physical book that poses a threat, it's the ideas contained therein and their capacity to provoke someone to think differently — and perhaps to hope. 'When I think about putting this book in the world, I think about how this book can be the book that allows a Black child to realize that they are important, that they have potential, even if that child is incarcerated,' he said. 'Or it could be the book that allows a white child to realize the problem isn't Black people, which then prevents that white child from going down a path in which they end up harming a Black child and therefore harming their own sort of life chances. 'I mean, this is important work.'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Contributor: Hegseth purged two of my books on race. Did he actually read them?
Two of my books are among the 381 volumes that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered removed from the library of the U.S. Naval Academy because they were deemed to relate to the topics of diversity, equity or inclusion. The arbitrary removal of these books reveals a sophomoric approach to history by word search. That amateurish tactic of linking title and theme has already resulted in comical yet depressing results. A recent DEI purge at the Pentagon led to the removal in its digital archive of images of the B-29 plane Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, presumably because of the word 'gay' in the title. The Defense Department is at it again on a bigger scale, with higher stakes: our grand American democratic experiment. Censorship by keyword search is not only anti-intellectual but also foolish, presuming that there is solidarity of thought or unanimity of vision when it comes to race, gender, sexuality or class — as though every author who uses a certain term is making the same argument on the issue. Scholars, writers and other thinkers are a notoriously cantankerous lot. We often find useful or sometimes petty ways to disagree even with those with whom we ought to agree. Many of these removed books argue with prevailing notions of race, class, sex and gender. Some are critical of earlier or competing versions of these subjects and advocate relentless revision and tireless interrogation. Ibram X. Kendi's influential 'How to Be an Antiracist' topped the list of removed books, but with more careful consideration the Defense Department might have kept it around, because it argues for a radically different view of racism than many of Kendi's scholarly predecessors and colleagues. Old-school race thinkers argue that racism concerns power. They would say that although Black folk can be bigoted, prejudiced and willfully biased, they technically can't be racist. Kendi shatters such a paradigm and argues that one is either racist or antiracist, whatever one's color or circumstance. That ought to suggest to white critics that Kendi is being evenhanded in grappling with the manifestation of racist belief or behavior from people of any background. The Trump administration stated in January that students should not be 'compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color.' In a far different political register, Kendi's work comes to a similar conclusion. In one of my banished books, 'Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America,' I argue against white guilt as a strategy for social change. In my other removed book, 'Long Time Coming: Reckoning With Race in America,' I offer a harsh rebuke to cancel culture on the left as a proxy of sorts for the very white supremacy it aims to destroy. Hegseth doesn't seem to understand, or care to know, that most of the books he fears and disagrees with, and thus removes, offer nuanced and complicated visions of race and other forms of diversity. These books are not dogmatic or indoctrinating; they are self-critical and invite readers to question their own understandings. Courageous curiosity and open-minded engagement should lead us to read widely to determine what we like and what we don't like, what we agree with and what we oppose. This contributes to us being informed citizens upholding our democratic experiment. The state has no business shrinking reading lists from a perch of partisan fear. It is bitterly ironic that the political party that rages against ideological orthodoxy, virtue signaling and purity tests is now their most brutal exponent. The war against 'wokeness' is a war against enlightenment. Its advocates despise science and are allergic to curiosity and reason. Instead, they embrace denial, ignorance, avoidance, erasure and amnesia. Hegseth's move offers the nation a peek into the frightening fascist imagination. Its characteristics are noxious. It conceives of dissent as disloyalty. It misrepresents vulnerable populations as freeloaders and frauds. It turns healthy skepticism about government into unhinged paranoia about the "deep state." Yet there is good news. The fascist imagination is not yet the fascist state. The fascist imagination points toward a poisonous authoritarianism that masquerades as legitimate politics. We must oppose the fascist imagination with an emancipated worldview that combats the illusion of security that fascism offers. The emancipated worldview also draws connections between accepted 'white' classics and spurned 'Black' books — and those of other diverse communities — in this perilous moment. There may be 381 perspectives on diversity, equity and inclusion that are now purged from the Naval Academy, but there are literally thousands of classic literary avenues for those ideas to get back in. If James Baldwin is slighted, Ralph Ellison ignored, W.E.B. Du Bois despised, Toni Morrison disdained and Maya Angelou dissed, we can read race and other identities through the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michel de Montaigne, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We can interpret complicated cultural concepts by using the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson or Thomas Gray. Society must also push back as the Republican administration tries to whitewash the curricula of public schools, from kindergarten on up. We can also establish Saturday schools where we practice defiant pedagogy to teach our children the books that are banned. We can creatively wrestle in Black communities with ideas that are deemed dangerous and troubling, but which matter greatly to Black folk under attack. Such schools might usefully counter the flurry of executive orders that seek to erase history, deny truth, perpetuate lies and eviscerate community. We must also support local museums of Black history that preserve memory and transmit knowledge. It is tragic that Black folks for whom reading was once outlawed are brought full circle to a culture that is hostile to Black cultural literacy. It would be tragic to allow a renewed taboo against exploring the intellectual heritage of Black life and underscoring the crucial Black contribution to American democracy. One of the best ways to combat autocracy is to remember that racism is a dry run for fascism. All the features of the fascist imagination have been rehearsed in the spitefully creative effort to suppress Black speech, oppress Black culture, control Black mobility and to curtail Black progress. Fascism applies to the broader culture the racist principles first applied to Black life. Many other Americans become like honorary Black folk in the mistreatment they endure in the fascist imagination — which, beyond targeting many white folks who voted for Trump, tries to erase other racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and women. Therefore, the fight to uphold Black liberty is the fight to uphold American liberty. The Black fight for democracy is the American fight for democracy. Hegseth may have targeted 'woke' America with his book ban, but his beliefs, and those of his boss, ridicule and threaten the entire nation. Today the peril is for 381 books with which the secretary of Defense assumes he would disagree; tomorrow it may be that our very freedom to openly disagree about the administration is at risk. Instead of our democracy dying in the dark of an aspiring dictatorship, we must insist that our democracy be an open book to be read by all citizens. Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of African American studies at Vanderbilt University and an author, most recently co-author of "Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote." If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Hegseth purged two of my books on race. Did he actually read them?
Two of my books are among the 381 volumes that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered removed from the library of the U.S. Naval Academy because they were deemed to relate to the topics of diversity, equity or inclusion. The arbitrary removal of these books reveals a sophomoric approach to history by word search. That amateurish tactic of linking title and theme has already resulted in comical yet depressing results. A recent DEI purge at the Pentagon led to the removal in its digital archive of images of the B-29 plane Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, presumably because of the word 'gay' in the title. The Defense Department is at it again on a bigger scale, with higher stakes: our grand American democratic experiment. Censorship by keyword search is not only anti-intellectual but also foolish, presuming that there is solidarity of thought or unanimity of vision when it comes to race, gender, sexuality or class — as though every author who uses a certain term is making the same argument on the issue. Scholars, writers and other thinkers are a notoriously cantankerous lot. We often find useful or sometimes petty ways to disagree even with those with whom we ought to agree. Many of these removed books argue with prevailing notions of race, class, sex and gender. Some are critical of earlier or competing versions of these subjects and advocate relentless revision and tireless interrogation. Ibram X. Kendi's influential 'How to Be an Antiracist' topped the list of removed books, but with more careful consideration the Defense Department might have kept it around, because it argues for a radically different view of racism than many of Kendi's scholarly predecessors and colleagues. Old-school race thinkers argue that racism concerns power. They would say that although Black folk can be bigoted, prejudiced and willfully biased, they technically can't be racist. Kendi shatters such a paradigm and argues that one is either racist or antiracist, whatever one's color or circumstance. That ought to suggest to white critics that Kendi is being evenhanded in grappling with the manifestation of racist belief or behavior from people of any background. The Trump administration stated in January that students should not be 'compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color.' In a far different political register, Kendi's work comes to a similar conclusion. In one of my banished books, 'Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America,' I argue against white guilt as a strategy for social change. In my other removed book, 'Long Time Coming: Reckoning With Race in America,' I offer a harsh rebuke to cancel culture on the left as a proxy of sorts for the very white supremacy it aims to destroy. Hegseth doesn't seem to understand, or care to know, that most of the books he fears and disagrees with, and thus removes, offer nuanced and complicated visions of race and other forms of diversity. These books are not dogmatic or indoctrinating; they are self-critical and invite readers to question their own understandings. Courageous curiosity and open-minded engagement should lead us to read widely to determine what we like and what we don't like, what we agree with and what we oppose. This contributes to us being informed citizens upholding our democratic experiment. The state has no business shrinking reading lists from a perch of partisan fear. It is bitterly ironic that the political party that rages against ideological orthodoxy, virtue signaling and purity tests is now their most brutal exponent. The war against 'wokeness' is a war against enlightenment. Its advocates despise science and are allergic to curiosity and reason. Instead, they embrace denial, ignorance, avoidance, erasure and amnesia. Hegseth's move offers the nation a peek into the frightening fascist imagination. Its characteristics are noxious. It conceives of dissent as disloyalty. It misrepresents vulnerable populations as freeloaders and frauds. It turns healthy skepticism about government into unhinged paranoia about the 'deep state.' Yet there is good news. The fascist imagination is not yet the fascist state. The fascist imagination points toward a poisonous authoritarianism that masquerades as legitimate politics. We must oppose the fascist imagination with an emancipated worldview that combats the illusion of security that fascism offers. The emancipated worldview also draws connections between accepted 'white' classics and spurned 'Black' books — and those of other diverse communities — in this perilous moment. There may be 381 perspectives on diversity, equity and inclusion that are now purged from the Naval Academy, but there are literally thousands of classic literary avenues for those ideas to get back in. If James Baldwin is slighted, Ralph Ellison ignored, W.E.B. Du Bois despised, Toni Morrison disdained and Maya Angelou dissed, we can read race and other identities through the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michel de Montaigne, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We can interpret complicated cultural concepts by using the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson or Thomas Gray. Society must also push back as the Republican administration tries to whitewash the curricula of public schools, from kindergarten on up. We can also establish Saturday schools where we practice defiant pedagogy to teach our children the books that are banned. We can creatively wrestle in Black communities with ideas that are deemed dangerous and troubling, but which matter greatly to Black folk under attack. Such schools might usefully counter the flurry of executive orders that seek to erase history, deny truth, perpetuate lies and eviscerate community. We must also support local museums of Black history that preserve memory and transmit knowledge. It is tragic that Black folks for whom reading was once outlawed are brought full circle to a culture that is hostile to Black cultural literacy. It would be tragic to allow a renewed taboo against exploring the intellectual heritage of Black life and underscoring the crucial Black contribution to American democracy. One of the best ways to combat autocracy is to remember that racism is a dry run for fascism. All the features of the fascist imagination have been rehearsed in the spitefully creative effort to suppress Black speech, oppress Black culture, control Black mobility and to curtail Black progress. Fascism applies to the broader culture the racist principles first applied to Black life. Many other Americans become like honorary Black folk in the mistreatment they endure in the fascist imagination — which, beyond targeting many white folks who voted for Trump, tries to erase other racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and women. Therefore, the fight to uphold Black liberty is the fight to uphold American liberty. The Black fight for democracy is the American fight for democracy. Hegseth may have targeted 'woke' America with his book ban, but his beliefs, and those of his boss, ridicule and threaten the entire nation. Today the peril is for 381 books with which the secretary of Defense assumes he would disagree; tomorrow it may be that our very freedom to openly disagree about the administration is at risk. Instead of our democracy dying in the dark of an aspiring dictatorship, we must insist that our democracy be an open book to be read by all citizens. Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of African American studies at Vanderbilt University and an author, most recently co-author of 'Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote.'
