On June 25, South Carolina quietly passed through arguably the country’s most restrictive and dangerous book ban, yet no one is really talking about it.
The regulation was orchestrated by Ellen Weaver, the state’s Department of Education head and, according to a story by Olivia Empson in The Guardian, a “close ally of the far-right group Moms for Liberty.”
Since launching in 2021 in Florida, home of fascist governor Ron DeSantis, the conservative organization has been attacking initiatives aimed at diversity, equal rights, and independent trains of thought under the guise of fighting for parental rights.
Their primary strategy has been to infiltrate school boards and place strangleholds on them to suffocate “woke ideology” efforts, a faux ideology conservatives have created that all intelligent people know doesn’t exist.
Moms for Liberty has been classified as a far-right, hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They spread conspiracy theories and have harassed and threatened teachers and offered $500 rewards for anyone who reports a public school teacher for teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the classroom; mind you, CRT is a graduate/law school course but that’s the ignorance they spread.
The anti-inclusionary organization is also responsible for the book bans that continue to terrorize school and library employees.
In 2023, according to USA Today, book bans in Florida reached the “highest levels ever documented.” The American Library Association reported that close to 2,700 titles were “targeted for restriction or removal in Florida schools and public libraries” that year. That more than doubled second-place finisher Texas (1,200).
Banned titles included dictionaries, encyclopedias, the Guinness Book of World Records, biographies on Oprah, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Beyonce, and classics such as Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl.
Even crazier was that children’s books on sports legends such as Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente were yanked off shelves because they mentioned the racism both athletes experienced, a racism echoed by Reggie Jackson during MLB’s recent tribute to the Negro Leagues.
This exemplifies why book bans are so dangerous and why everyone, including the sports world, should be enraged by South Carolina’s recent book ban regulation.
“It outlines that “age-appropriate” materials must not include descriptions or visual depictions of “sexual conduct”. Any parent with a child enrolled in a public K-12 school in the state can challenge up to five titles a month if they feel they violate these terms,” wrote Empson.
So if Reggie Jackson wrote a book on his experience playing in Alabama in the late 1960s, it could be banned. Even “Young Reggie Jackson,” a book created for 4 to 8 year-olds could be challenged because Jackson relayed his harsh experience with racism on national TV.
If that’s to sports, imagine what could/will happen to books on Black leaders such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman and Thurgood Marshall.
Sports have always been a reflection of society, and that’s why the industry must be aware of, and take action against, South Carolina’s new regulation for it can deter lessons from being learned and intelligence and success from being celebrated.
Titles such as Bill Rhoden’s “Forty Million Dollar Slaves”, “I Came As A Shadow” by John Thompson and Jesse Washington, “We Will Win The Day” by Louis Moore and “Game Misconduct” by Evan F. Moore and Jashvina Shaw could all be removed from public schools in the state, preventing students from learning about history, leaders, moments, realities and ways to make things better.
Opportunities to learn about stars such as Lewis Hamilton could be snatched away because of his vocal support for the LGBTQ+ community.
And forget about anything regarding Colin Kaepernick, particularly his children’s book “I Color Myself Different.”
Removing access to information and education is, of course, one way of enforcing oppression. That is what South Carolina is doing by following in the footsteps of states like Florida and Iowa.
“All we’re going to have left is Lassie from here on out,” said Shanna Miles, an author and school librarian born and raised in South Carolina, in Empson’s story. “They’re not going to stop at one aspect of society they don’t like; they will keep on going. Now [that] they have a taste of power, this is never going to end.”
This is yet another example of a situation where sports needs to wield its power and influence to join the fight against those pushing true, divisive and non-inclusive ideologies. This is especially true of Black athletes, who possess the power and leverage to demand change and beat back attempts to turn the country backward.
So while the nation is rightfully focused on Biden vs. Trump, attention also needs to be paid to what states like South Carolina are doing in order to fight back.
