Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Can we send you a free sticker?

Will you order your FREE "I read banned books" sticker to show your community that you resist the far right's racist and homophobic attacks on freedom of thought? 

Dear MoveOn member, 

These were the five most banned books in America in 2022.1

  1. Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, traces the author's life from adolescence to adulthood, including Kobabe's exploration of their gender identity and sexuality.
  2. All Boys Aren't Blue, by George M. Johnson, chronicles Johnson's life growing up as a queer Black man in New Jersey and Virginia.
  3. Out of Darkness, by Ashley Hope Pérez, explores themes of segregation and chronicles a teenage love story involving a Mexican American girl and a Black boy.
  4. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, tells the story of a young Black girl growing up following the Great Depression who is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her dark skin.
  5. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, traces the life of a 16-year-old Black girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite, white private school and witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend. 

Notice some common themes? Racism, segregation, gender identity, police violence, and sexuality are among the most pressing issues facing our society. These critically acclaimed books deftly and thoughtfully engage issues that we want our students to wrestle with. Instead, the GOP wants to erase these discussions—and even punish teachers.

Will you order your FREE "I read banned books" sticker to show your community that you resist the far right's racist and homophobic attacks on freedom of thought?

Andra, these book bans are part of a coordinated right-wing effort to stop students from learning about race, sexual orientation, gender identity, different cultures, and even just an unbiased history of our country.

Florida's MAGA governor, Ron DeSantis, just banned AP African American Studies in his state.2

We simply cannot allow the right wing to stop students from learning about race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and different cultures—or to whitewash American history.

Nor can we allow MAGA extremists to turn our classrooms and libraries into battlefields in a MAGA culture war that is punishing teachers and students and undermining a full understanding of our history and identities.

Instead, young people across the country—the most diverse generation in American history—should learn about the struggles our world faces today, so we can formulate solutions to these urgent issues. 

Will you join us in the fight for an open, inclusive, and free-thinking world where all of us can thrive? Order your free "I Read Banned Books" sticker today.

Thanks for all you do.

–Kelly, Elizabeth, Oscar, Emily, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "The 10 most banned books of the 2021-2022 school year," PEN America, December 21, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/170330?t=5&akid=343576%2E53570607%2E2aoB4O

2. "Florida says AP class teaches critical race theory. Here's what's really in the course," NPR, January 22, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/170331?t=7&akid=343576%2E53570607%2E2aoB4O

Want to support MoveOn's work? Voters just defied history and stopped a MAGA wave of extremism at the polls. But there is more work to do to end the filibuster, codify abortion rights into law, and defend our freedoms, our families, and our futures. We can accomplish all this and more, but only if we work together. 
 
Will you chip in right now to power our critical work? 

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.


PAID FOR BY MOVEON POLITICAL ACTION, https://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

This email was sent to Andra Patterson on January 25, 2023. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. MoveOn's privacy policy was recently updated. To read our new privacy policy, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.