House Bill 1467, signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in March of last year, states that schools must be transparent in their selection of instructional, library, and reading materials. In theory this simply means that parents have the right to know what their students are reading and a means to view those materials. The bill language states that all materials must be free of pornography, gender identity issues (for students in Kindergarten through third grade), as well as any books relating to discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin. The books must also be approved by a certificated media specialist – something most public schools are too broke to afford. The bill does not name specific books to ban, nor a system in which to vet the books. It does, however, come with a threat of a class three felony, which means teachers could lose both their teaching certificate and their right to vote.

The bill is basically a book ban of anything and everything conservatives don’t like – including Black peoples words, thoughts and histories – and it has the potential to undo decades of work and struggle to ensure young Black children have access to reading materials that reflect back to them the beauty that they are. Our guest today is Daphne Muse, is a writer, social commentator and cultural broker, who is currently the Elder-in-Residence at the Black Studies Collaboratory in Abolitionist Democracy in the Department of African American and Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. She is the Author/Editor of Children of Africa, The New Press Guide to Multicultural Children’s Literature, and  Prejudice: Stories About Hate, Ignorance, Revelation, and Transformation.

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