“The hill we climb”
School restricts well-known poem at Biden’s inauguration by poet Amanda Gorman
A poem by Amanda Gorman can no longer be made available to elementary school students in a Miami school
© Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/DPA
The poem read by Amanda Gorman at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden is being removed from the school library at a Miami school for elementary school students. Not only the author is appalled.
Amanda Gorman rose to international prominence when the African-American poet recited her poem “The hill we climb” at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden. Exactly this poem has now been banned from a school in the US state of Florida.
Like the daily newspaper The Miami Herald reports, a parent at their children’s elementary school had complained about a total of five works because they contained themes “unsuitable for students and should be removed ‘from the whole environment'” – including Gorman’s poem. According to the newspaper, the mother laments “references to critical race theory, ‘indirect hate messages’, gender ideology and indoctrination.”
Amanda Gorman disappointed with poem ban
Gorman spoke up on Twitter. She is devastated, she writes, noting that censored books are often written by people “who have struggled to get onto bookshelves for generations,” most of whom are “queer and non-white.” “I wrote ‘The Hill We Climb’ so that all young people could find themselves in a historic moment,” Gorman wrote. “Since then I have received countless letters and videos from children who were inspired by ‘The Hill We Climb’ to write their own poetry. Depriving children of a chance to find their voice in literature is a violation of their right to freedom of thought and expression.”
“A parent could have my poetry banned from classrooms,” Gorman wrote. “But a country cannot ban semi-automatic rifles that massacre them (students).”
The Miami Dade School Board then stated that the poem “was never banned or removed from any of our schools”. “The book is available in the media center (the school library) as part of the middle grade collection.”
Reading project sharply criticizes the decision
The Florida Freedom to Read Project, which made the incident public, wryly criticized the remarks as “what a carefully crafted statement.” A compromise that limits access for some students is “censorship.”
But even this compromise is not enough for the mother. For her part, according to the Miami Herald, she questioned the reasons why some books are still available for middle school students. She argued the books should have been removed for all students. School libraries should “support the school’s curriculum and I don’t see how these books support the curriculum,” she said.
Complainant with connections to the right-wing milieu
in one Twitter thread posts “Miami against Fascism” Connections of the complainant in the right-wing conservative milieu. Accordingly, she demonstrated with the right-wing extremist “Proud Boys” and also spread QAnon propaganda via social media.
Other sources: “Politico.com”, “MiamiHerald.com”, “Miami Against Fascism” on TwitterAFP.