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Jan 31 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
1. An acclaimed MLK-themed novel, Dear Martin by @getnicced, was removed from a 10th-grade English class in North Carolina

The decision was made in a matter of hours after one parent complaint

Things get more disturbing from there

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
@getnicced 2. The superintendent who made the decision, Dr. Bill Nolte, told popular.info that he did not read the book — or even obtain a copy — prior to making the decision

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
3. The parent who complained objected to the book's "explicit language," including "GD" and "the s-word."

He suggested that providing Dear Martin to 10th graders violated the "age of consent" because "they are still adolescents."

WATCH:
4. According to Nolte, the parent had previously spoken to the high school principal who offered to provide an alternative text for his child.

But he wasn't satisfied with that.

He wanted it removed from the class entirely.

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
5. Before deciding to remove the book, Nolte told popular.info that he did not have time to read it. Instead he "talked to some people who had read different sections of it" and "looked at some of the parts of it that were published online."

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
6. Nolte also said he "didn't talk to the teacher at all about why she picked that text."

He decided to remove the book because of profanity. Other books in the English class contain profanity but Nolte said he was concerned with the frequency.

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
7. Nolte has a history of racial controversy. In 2020, Nolte posted a meme on Facebook: "POOR CHILDREN OF EVER COLOR PICKED COTTON. OPEN A BOOK AND GAIN SOME KNOWLEDGE."

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
8. Nolte said he was responding to an incident where an ABC executive was suspended after saying to Robin Roberts during contract negotiations that the company wasn't asking her to "pick cotton"

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
9. Nolte, oddly, claimed that the meme was posted "in support of Robin Roberts"

He deleted the post and apologized, adding that "my first college roommate was a dear high school friend who was black."

The local NAACP chapter was not impressed.

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
10. Parents and administrators cite profanity, violence, and sexual content to justify the exclusion of texts

But mostly to exclude books that focus on the plight of marginalized communities

You don't hear these complaints about Hamlet or The Odyssey

popular.info/p/north-caroli…
11. What happened to Dear Martin is part of a MUCH LARGER PATTERN of excluding texts that center marginalized groups from schools

If you care about this issue, please sign up for my newsletter, where I'll be tracking this closely

It's free to sign up ➡️ popular.info/subscribe

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum Profile picture
Feb 1
1. This will be a thread of companies that sent out earnest Tweets celebrating Black History Month but donated a bunch of money last year to Republican senators who filibustered federal voting rights protections

Follow along if interested
2. @Microsoft donated 135K to senators that filibustered federal voting rights protections Image
3. @Verizon donated 126K to senators that filibustered federal voting rights protections

Read 8 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Feb 1
1. A new proposal to stop Trump from stealing the 2024 election could backfire

It's a classic case of fighting the last war.

Follow along if interested.

popular.info/p/how-a-propos…
2. 147 Republicans voted to overturn the last election by objecting to the certification a few states

So the proposal floated by Dems is to make that more difficult and require a 2/3 vote in each chamber to reject certification rather than a majority

popular.info/p/how-a-propos…
3. The problem with this idea is that it misunderstands the more acute threat for 2024: A Trump-sympathetic Governor sending a phony slate of pro-Trump electors to Congress.

This is a risk, for example, if Perdue becomes the next Governor of Georgia.

popular.info/p/how-a-propos…
Read 5 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Feb 1
1. Today is a major FEC filing day. Pretty much every PAC and campaign committee has to show their cards.

This thread will document the companies that have abandoned the commitments they made after January 6, 2021.

Follow along if interested.
2. After January 6, @GoldmanSachs CEO @DavidSolomon condemned the attack and Goldman Sachs announced they were suspending all political donations.

On 12/20/21, Goldman donated 2.5K to @RepBlaine Luetkemeyer, who voted to overturn the election Image
@GoldmanSachs @DavidSolomon @RepBlaine 3. Notably, Luetkemeyer reportedly threatened to put corporations that cut off his funding on an "enemies list."

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Image
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jan 30
Surprise! Self-proclaimed free speech champion @ggreenwald is fine with the right-wing push to legislatively ban “Critical Race Theory” because, he says, censorship is not something that can exist in schools

This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what’s happening
Many of these bills ban Critical Race Theory and a host of concepts from colleges as well as K-12 schools. Last I checked, colleges educate adults

In Florida, @RonDeSantis is proposing banning private business from talking about a range of topics he says are related to CRT
Moreover bills are designed to censor and terrorize teachers, who are also adults. They can be subject to discipline if they are perceived referencing several poorly defined concepts. Other bills put teachers under video surveillance

None of this is consistent w/free expression
Read 8 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jan 27
1. The decision of a Tennessee county school board to ban Maus from the classroom is not an isolated incident

It is part of a much broader effort to censor history and literature being packaged under euphemisms like "parents rights"

Follow along if interested
2. The archetypal "parents rights" candidate was Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Youngkin's closing TV ad featured a woman who tried to get Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved banned from her son's AP English class

She called it "explicit material"
3. In Florida, @GovRonDeSantis is pushing legislation to require teachers to describe America's founding as "based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence"

That, of course, is a lie. Black people, women, and others were denied these rights
Read 6 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jan 27
A bill just filed in the Oklahoma Senate would ban from schools any book that includes "lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender issues or recreational sexualization."

It is sponsored by Senator @shanejett

webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22…
@shanejett Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. There is a wave of book banning across the nation.

More here: popular.info/p/the-war-on-l…
If you are interested in these issues an invaluable resource is @PENamerica.

@JeffreyASachs is doing tremendous work tracking the assault of free speech across the country

pen.org/steep-rise-gag…
Read 5 tweets

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