My absolute opposition to book banning and censorship is not new, but the latest news from the Naval Academy’s library has me back on my bandwagon. Nearly 400 books were removed last week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office ordered the school to get rid of works that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
I’ve written before about my experiences and core beliefs:
- Growing up in a home where I could read anything I wanted as long as we talked about it showed me the breadth and depth of books and made me a better thinker.
- Reading controversial work is nowhere near as dangerous as ignorance.
- Parents who want some say in what their children read need to accord other parents the same grace instead of forcing their decisions on all parents.
- Adults should have the freedom to make their own choices.
- Reading books that offer different worldviews and beliefs does not threaten us. Instead, that should cause us to clarify our own worldview and beliefs.
- Public libraries should remain free and accessible.
- Standards of appropriateness should be even-handed and not driven by ideology.
That’s why Hegseth’s recent move is so appalling to me. His order “resulted in a purge of books critical of racism but preserved volumes defending white power.” (nytimes.com)
Culled books include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, “How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, Bodies in Doubt by Elizabeth Reis, and White Rage by Carol Anderson, Half American, about African Americans in World War II; A Respectable Woman, about the public roles of African American women in 19th century New York; and Pursuing Trayvon Martin, about the 2012 shooting of the Black 17-year-old in Florida that raised questions about racial profiling. Other books that deal with gender identity, sexuality and transgender issues were removed, including books about topics such as African American women poets, entertainers who wore blackface and the treatment of women in Islamic countries. (www.cbsnews.com)
“None was banned outright — just rendered ‘not immediately available,’ a Naval Academy spokesman, Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, said. The books, he said, had been placed in a room where patrons could no longer access them.” Katherine Kuzminski, director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, complained to ABC News about the lack of criteria. Other officials added their voices. Richard Kohn, a military historian and former chief historian for the Air Force, said, “You can’t make ideas safe for people, but you can make people safe for ideas. If you don’t mentor students in the academies to understand what’s going on in American society, you don’t really educate them.” Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Thomas Keaney, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced international Studies, added, “I don’t think anyone is going to be hurt by reading anything—however nutty or outside their own culture it is. You’re not harming people by exposing them to ideas. On the contrary, you’re training them to be discerning leaders. Give them a chance. Don’t leave them to deal from ignorance.” (abcnews.com)
Although Trump’s January executive orders banned DEI content in K–12 schools receiving federal funds, military service academies were exempt since they are not classified as K–12 institutions. (foxnews.com) Yet the Pentagon has said the academies are “fully committed to executing and implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders.” In January, federal government websites were scrubbed to remove diversity-related content. (www.cbsnews.com)
I find the double standard especially. Why are these books removed while Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and The Camp of the Saints, a book that envisions immigrants taking over the Western world, a book embraced by white supremacists and promoted by Stephen Miller, remain? Why are frightening ideas from the right not indoctrinating the students whom they insist they want to protect? If reading materials are so dangerous that we must purge books, how do these hostile volumes get a pass?
Adm. James G. Stavridis, an author, academy alumnus and former commander of all U.S. forces in Europe, pointed out that no students are forced to read these books and questioned what we fear. He had specifically cited Maya Angelou’s book as a “valuable resource for helping military leaders understand the diversity of viewpoints that make up the armed forces. Book banning can be a canary in a coal mine and could predict a stifling of free speech and thought,” he added. “Books that challenge us make us stronger. We need officers who are educated, not indoctrinated.” (nytimes.com)
Representatives Adam Smith of Washington and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, both Democrats, wrote a letter on April 4 to John Phelan, the Navy secretary, denouncing the move as “a blatant attack on the First Amendment and a clear effort to suppress academic freedom and rigor” at the school and “an alarming return to McCarthy-era censorship.” (nytimes.com)
Other assaults on free speech, due process, and constitutional protections have already flooded our capacity to respond. I don’t know how to stop these assaults, but they do matter. Aren’t they important enough to prompt us to call our congress people and write letters to the editor? The time is now. Let’s hope it’s not too late.
