In Its War on DEI, Trump’s DOE Okays Book Bans
This article was originally published on Daily Kos.
By Alan Singer
In the Trump administration’s war on social justices and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI), Trump’s federal Department of Education announced it will no longer investigate charges that banning books by schools and libraries violates civil rights laws. In a press release, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) revealed it dismissed seventeen complaints charging local school districts with creating a hostile environment for students when they banned books administrators or school board members considered age-inappropriate for addressing racism, homophobia, and gender bias. It labeled the complaints a meritless “hoax” based on a “dubious legal theory.” The Trump DOE declared its goal was to restore “the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education.” In reality, the ruling allowed an individual parent with a loud voice to prevent any child in a school district from reading books that this parent did not like.
In 2023-2024, Pen America, an organization committed to freedom of expression, found 10,046 instances of individual books being banned in school libraries and classrooms in the United States, meaning use by students was restricted. One of the most active booking banning school districts was Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska. Its list of 56 banned books included The Bluest Eye by Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison, Wicked, the book that is the basis for the award winning musical and movie, Slaughterhouse Five, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Forever by Judy Blume, The Freedom Writers Diary, The Kite Runner, It Ends with Us, and young adult science fiction by Sarah Maas.
During his first week in office, the Trump administration shut down all federal diversity initiatives and programs, placed federal diversity officials on administrative leave pending dismissal, removed discussion of equity from government websites, and without evidence blamed the devastation of the Los Angeles Forest fires on misguided diversity policies. Trump accuses diversity and equity efforts of representing a “definite anti-white feeling in this country.”
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Alan Singer is a historian and teacher educator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. His most recent books are Social Studies for Secondary Schools, 5th edition (Routledge, 2024) and Class-Conscious Coal Miners (SUNY Press, 2024). Blogs, tweets, essays, interviews, and e-blasts present his views and not those of Hofstra University.