Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) issued her support on Twitter for the right wing group “Moms For Liberty” which has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has tried to ban books from school libraries, including a book about Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., which they called “anti-American” and “anti-White,” noted The Tennessean:
The complaint, the first directed to the state under the new law passed this spring, was filed by Robin Steenman, chair of the Moms for Liberty Williamson County chapter, a conservative parent group sweeping the nation.
The 11-page complaint alleged that the literacy curriculum, Wit and Wisdom, used by Williamson County Schools and at least 30 other districts, has a “heavily biased agenda” that makes children “hate their country, each other and/or themselves.”
The group detailed concerns with four specific books on subjects like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, the integration of California schools by advocate Sylvia Mendez and her family, and the autobiography of Ruby Bridges, adapted for younger learners.
“The classroom books and teacher manuals reveal both explicit and implicit Anti-American, Anti-White, and Anti-Mexican teaching,” the complaint alleged. “The relentless nature of how these divisive stories are taught, the lack of historical context and difference in perspective, and the manipulative pedagogy all work together to amplify and sow feelings of resentment, shame of one’s skin color, and/or fear.”
The Los Angeles Blade noted that Steenman appeared to be promoting racial discrimination in her complaint:
Steenman also appears to suggest slavery and Jim Crow were “positive achievements, like unity and the overall improvement of our country.”
A Williams County Schools board member pushed back against Steenman, reported Reuters:
School board member Eliot Mitchell told Reuters that Moms for Liberty’s complaint was “misguided,” and that teaching about racism in America’s past does not equate to teaching “that one particular race is intrinsically racist.”
The New York Times reported on even a darker side of Moms For Liberty:
In Cabot, Ark., the local police department investigated a woman who said that if she had “any mental issues,” staff at a local school library would be “plowed down” with a gun, according to a police report. The police determined that the incident, which took place at a meeting of Moms For Liberty — a group that has pushed for book bans around the country — was not made in context of a threat and there was no need to file charges.
(Sources: The Tennessean, Los Angeles Blade, Reuters, The New York Times, Southern Poverty Law Center, Kim Reynolds/Twitter, Image Credit: Iowa Press/YouTube)