Monthly Archives: May 2023

May 23, 2023 · 2:25 pm

Who is Welcome or Safe in Florida?

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis bragged, when he was elected to a second term, that Florida is where “woke goes to die.” Florida is viewed by many – from the right and the left – as the political epicenter of the right-wing world view. As a result, Florida is perceived as an increasingly unsafe place to live in or visit by many groups of people who are not part of the majority white, male, heterosexual, Christian power structure. Some examples of the feeling of being unwelcome or unsafe are:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently issued a travel advisory for Florida telling people that Florida has become “hostile toward African Americans” under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The board voted unanimously to issue the travel advisory, saying the decision “comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.” They further stated: “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) has denounced the anti-immigrant measures signed into law by Governor DeSantis in Florida and has warned Latinos traveling in Florida with family members to be cautious if they encounter law enforcement. “We do not doubt that if Abuelita or Tia is with us and we are profiled, DeSantis’ enforcement regulations will treat us like criminals, transporting a dangerous person who only wanted to visit family or enjoy Disneyworld,” Latin American truck drivers are reportedly planning a service boycott of Florida in response to new anti-immigrant legislation that yakes effect July 1, 2023.
Equality Florida, the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, “took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory, warning of the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering short or long term travel, or relocation to the state. The move comes in response to a wave of safety inquiries Equality Florida has received following the passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum. “
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) has denounced the anti-immigrant measures signed into law by Governor DeSantis in Florida and has warned Latinos traveling in Florida with family members to be cautious if they encounter law enforcement. “We do not doubt that if Abuelita or Tia is with us and we are profiled, DeSantis’ enforcement regulations will treat us like criminals, transporting a dangerous person who only wanted to visit family or enjoy Disneyworld,” Latin American truck drivers are reportedly planning a service boycott of Florida in response to new anti-immigrant legislation that yakes effect July 1, 2023.
Equality Florida, the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, “took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory, warning of the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering short or long term travel, or relocation to the state. The move comes in response to a wave of safety inquiries Equality Florida has received following the passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum. “
The Anti Defamation League noted in March of 2023 that Antisemitic incidents In Florida more than doubled since 2020 and they released a report in September 2022 entitled Hate in the Sunshine State: Extremism & Antisemitism in Florida, 2020-2022.
The Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, Inc. has deplored the recently legislated six-week abortion ban. stating that: “From Ron DeSantis down, many lawmakers in Florida will stop at nothing to take away our freedom to make decisions about our own bodies. Despite clear evidence of harm, they have doubled down on abortion bans to deprive millions of people of essential health care. These policy decisions disproportionately hurt Black and Latino people, LGBTQ+ people, and people with low incomes due to systemic racism and discrimination.”
A Former Navy Commander, speaking at the Martin County School Board where his son attends school, warned of religious fascism in Florida as library book bans have increased, stating that: “Religious fanatics, who wouldn’t even let women be educated, flew planes into the World Trade Center and my Pentagon. I spent the last decade of my naval career fighting religious fascism abroad. I never thought I’d have to fight it right here in the United States of America.” He was joined by centenarian Grace Linn, who also spoke out eloquently against the book bans, noting that “Ban books and burning books are the same. Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control.”
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Florida), the state’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, on May 16, 2023 condemned the distribution of white supremacist flyers found in a Naples Park, FL neighborhood.
Chinese Immigrants are now suing Florida over a new law banning them from buying land in Florida. Florida’s new property law, SB 264, restricts most Chinese citizens — and most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea — from purchasing homes in the state. Unless the courts act, the law will take effect on July 1, 2023.

These are just some of the many groups of people who are being made to feel unwelcome and unsafe in Florida. For a more complete listing of what is happening, check out The Politics of Exclusion, Hate, and Fear in Florida.

Standing Up for Freedom

For the last year or so I have been trying to document the rising “fear of the other” and its manifestations in the United States. I have also been focusing a lot of attention on Florida and its Politics of Exclusion, Hate, and Fear because I spent the last 11 years of my professional life working in Florida Higher Education. I have also been paying a lot of attention to attacks on libraries, librarians, and freedom of expression in North America because I was a librarian in the United States and Canada for 37 years before retiring in 2021. Unfortunately, there are numerous occurrences every day that do not bode well for freedom of thought and expression. Several things happened today that made my blood boil– and also saddened me.

First, a woman on one of my online book groups suggested that posters to the group “censor” (her word) their book recommendations to warn others about content that might make her and others uncomfortable. I am glad to note that her suggestion was roundly denounced by the majority of group members.

Secondly, I became aware of a public library in Michigan that is being harassed by a small but belligerent group demanding that they remove certain books from one section of the library to another. As soon as they accede to one “request,” a new demand comes in. They comment in a belligerent fashion on every single post the library makes about their wonderful, family-oriented and creative programs. The library staff are being demoralized by these self-appointed guardians of morality who attack them at every Board meeting, as well as online and in person.

The third thing that came to my attention today was a New York Times article about author Maggie Tokuda-Hall who refused to sell herself out and delete references to racism in the author’s note to her book so that the publishing giant Scholastic would pick it up and distribute it. The NY Times article noted that: “It was the most personal story that Maggie Tokuda-Hall had ever written: the tale of how her grandparents met and fell in love at an incarceration camp in Idaho that held Japanese Americans during World War II. The book, called “Love in the Library,” is aimed at 6- to 9-year-olds. Published last year by a small children’s publisher, Candlewick Press, it drew glowing reviews, but sales were modest. So Tokuda-Hall was thrilled when Scholastic, a publishing giant that distributes books and resources in 90 percent of schools, said last month it wanted to license her book for use in classrooms. When Tokuda-Hall read the details of the offer, she felt deflated — then outraged. Scholastic wanted her to delete references to racism in America from her author’s note, in which she addresses readers directly. The decision was wrenching, Tokuda-Hall said, but she turned Scholastic down and went public, describing her predicament in a blog post and a Twitter post that drew more than five million views.“

All of these occurrences are put of the well funded and highly coordinated right-wing attack on freedom of thought and expression that is part of the long game of the GOP, a strategy explained so well by Thom Hartmann in his article Why Would Anybody Embrace Fascism?: “There was an actual rationale for this, laid out by Russell Kirk in his 1951 book The Conservative Mind …Kirk argued that without clearly defined classes and power structures — essentially without the morbidly rich in complete control — society would devolve into chaos. He and his followers essentially predicted in 1953 that if college students, women, working people, and people of color ever got even close to social and political power at the same level as wealthy white men, all hell would break loose.”

It well past time for all thinking people to stand up for real freedom, to identify and fight against authoritarianism and fascism wherever it is manifested.

— It is time for us all to do as retired Naval commander Wess Rexrode did when he appeared at a school board hearing in Florida’s Martin County where his son attends school and spoke out against book bans, telling them bluntly, “Religious fanatics, who wouldn’t even let women be educated, flew planes into the World Trade Center and my Pentagon. I spent the last decade of my naval career fighting religious fascism abroad. I never thought I’d have to fight it right here in the United States of America.”

— It is time for us to speak out as 100-year-old Martin County resident Grace Linn did in March 2023 when she told the Martin County School Board: “Ban books and burning books are the same. Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control.”

— It is time for us to do as author Jodi Picoult did when she spoke out about the book bans against her books and those of other authors happening in Florida, noting: “My books were removed because they were, according to the sole parent who made the challenge, ‘adult romance that should not be on school shelves.’ It is worth noting I do not write adult romance. The majority of the books that were targeted do not even have a kiss in them. What they do have, however, are issues like racism, abortion rights, gun control, gay rights, and other topics that encourage kids to think for themselves.”

— It is even time for the very brave to do as Matthew Lepinski, faculty chairman, and an associate professor of computer science at New College of Florida did in April at a New College board meeting where five faculty members were denied tenure to comply with the Governor’s mandate for a new direction for the College, when he announced that he was “very concerned about the direction that this board is going,” wished everyone luck, and resigned.

Each of us can speak out and stand up for what we believe in our own communities, in our own way. We stay silent at our own peril.

Libraries in the Crosshairs: Canada

Last updated February 21, 2024

Libraries and librarianship in the United States and Canada have long shared similar professional principles. As a retired American librarian living in Canada, I am gratified to see the principles of access and equity translated into active initiatives and programs that often surpass comparable efforts in the United States. The Canadian Association of Research Libraries “has prioritized advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in research libraries and enabling research libraries’ work toward reconciliation, Indigenization, and decolonization (framed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action), as important areas for capacity building within its member institutions over the coming years.” The Canadian Federation of Library Associations “affirms that all persons in Canada have a fundamental right, subject only to the Constitution and the law, to have access to the full range of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, and to express their thoughts publicly. Only the courts may abridge free expression rights in Canada. The Canadian Federation of Library Associations affirms further that libraries have a core responsibility to support, defend and promote the universal principles of intellectual freedom and privacy.”

“For 40 years, the Book and Periodical Council (BPC) was the driving force behind Freedom to Read Week. The BPC brings together a diverse range of organizations that support the written-word sector in Canada. It provides members with opportunities for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building that will strengthen their individual and collective impact on the industry. In 2024, four influential organizations—Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, the Ontario Library Association, and the Book and Periodical Council—joined forces to propel Freedom to Read Week into its next chapter. Together, these organizations reinforce the campaign’s mission and drive continued growth in such areas as content creation and programming.” Freedom to Read maintains a list of books challenged in Canada.

Much as I would like to believe that Canada is immune to the culture wars being played out in libraries and in the calls for book bans in the United States, there is evidence that similar battle lines are being drawn in Canada. So far, it is a trickle compared to the movement in the United States. But it bears watching. For instance, In February 2023, “Action4Canada—a B.C. organization with chapters across the country and a strong online presence that promotes conservative ideals—demanded that libraries in B.C. and Ontario remove books discussing sexual orientation and gender identity, like Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe or The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. They accused Chilliwack’s public school libraries of housing some books that depicted child pornography—a claim the RCMP investigated and found no basis for.” As in the United States, a disproportionate number of challenges are for books by or about people of color or about members of the LGBTQ community.

“Hey, kids! It’s your old buddy Steve King telling you that if they
ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore
or library ASAP and find out what they don’t want you to read.”
From King’s Twitter feed, January 18, 2023.

Below are selected examples from Canada that show the challenge to the principles of equity and unfettered access to information coming from some segments of Canadian society.