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Of course busybody parent didn't read the whole book before asking for the ban [1]

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Date: 2023-05-31  

Surprise, surprise. The Florida woman who got Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb banned didn’t even read the whole thing. Daily Salinas has had to explain she’s not anti-Semitic, so the detail about her cursory reading of the banned material being somewhat less than thorough didn’t get as much attention at first. It’s a detail of the story that I think needs more attention. John Bacon for USA Today:

The Florida mom whose complaints about reading material prompted Amanda Gorman's acclaimed poem "The Hill We Climb" and other books to be restricted at a local elementary school admits she only read parts of the material she objected to. [emphasis mine] [...] Salinas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency she complained about Gorman's poem and the books because they did not support the curriculum. ... “I’m not an expert,” Salinas said. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”

I doubt that’s what the teachers meant when they asked parents to be more involved in the children’s education.

Amanda Gorman’s book must be a real door stopper of more than a thousand pages, on par with War and Peace. So I looked it up on Amazon. It’s a 32-page book, and a lot of the pages have only four to eight lines in them.

It’s the poem that Gorman read at the inauguration of President Biden’s presidency on January 20, 2021. The foreword by Oprah Winfrey might have a higher word count, though occupying fewer pages.

Technically, the little book wasn’t banned. Technically.

x For those claiming my book wasn’t banned, just “aged-up”—The Hill We Climb is an inaugural poem for the world. Relocating it to older age group library shelves by its nature bars younger and equally deserving generations from accessing said moment in history. https://t.co/ya2X3UPddR — Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) May 25, 2023

Here's a very brief quotation that I believe falls under fair use:

For there is always light, If only we’re brave enough to see it, If only we’re brave enough to be it.

Okay, sounds almost anodyne to me. The language is quite simple, I would not expect third graders to need to look up any word of that in the dictionary. I’d have a tougher time reading a Shakespeare sonnet, and I actually took a Shakespeare class at university. So maybe better hold those Shakespeare sonnets off to high school anyway.

Can you imagine the uproar if Shakespeare was banned or even just “restricted”? How dare they disrespect white heritage like that! Banning Gorman’s poem has nothing to do with her being black. Surely Daily Salinas, who has had to explain she’s not a neo-Nazi, would not also be racist against blacks. Perish the thought!

Still, if Daily Salinas can’t be bothered to read the whole poem, she should at least cite specific passages along with plausible reasons why those passages are inappropriate for schoolchildren.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/31/2171066/-Of-course-busybody-parent-didn-t-read-the-whole-book-before-asking-for-the-ban

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