Amanda Gormann: School restricts well-known poem on Biden’s inauguration

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.

According to the daily , a parent at their children’s elementary school had complained about a total of five works because they contained subjects “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

. 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 these remarks as “what a carefully worded 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 for middle school students are still available. 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, the complainant’s connections to the right-wing conservative milieu. According to this, she demonstrated with the right-wing extremist “Proud Boys” and also spread QAnon propaganda via social media.

Other sources: , , AFP.