Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of May 22

The latest book ban target: Amanda Gorman’s poem from the Biden inauguration
https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/24/23736215/florida-book-ban-amanda-gorman-the-hill-we-climb

Last month, a Miami-Dade County school removed Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” from its elementary school collection following a complaint filed by a parent, according to a report by the Miami Herald. Gorman, who was 22 during the inauguration, was the country’s national youth poet laureate at the time. Her poem, which she wrote shortly after the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, laid out an optimistic vision of how the country could move forward and attempt to bridge its divides.

Republican lawmakers have increasingly turned to book bans as a way to push an “ideologically slanted vision of what children should learn about American culture, society, and history.” In many cases, like the Florida laws, these bans have specifically focused on curbing information about systemic racism, LGBTQ identity, and the contributions of marginalized groups to American society. Educational experts emphasize that these bans mean students are exposed to a narrower range of ideas and that many may not see themselves represented in the literature they read.

The complaint about Gorman’s poem [...] came from a parent who also raised concerns about other books focused on Black history and Cuba including titles The ABCs of Black History, Love to Langston, and Cuban Kids. The parent argued that Gorman’s poem would “cause confusion” and “indoctrinate students.”

transcript of The Hill We Climb, as read at Biden's inauguration