Alan Dershowitz says he was ‘canceled’ from Martha’s Vineyard book fair after defending Donald Trump
Alan Dershowitz says he was ‘canceled’ from Martha’s Vineyard book fair after defending Donald Trump
By Jon Levine
August 5, 2023
Martha’s Vineyard can’t turn the page on Alan Dershowitz.
The Harvard Law professor and longtime island denizen says his works have been banished from the local book fair.
“I’ve been canceled,” Dershowitz, 84, told Newsmax host Greta Greta Van Susteren Friday. “My books are not allowed to be sold at the Martha’s Vineyard Chilmark book fair because I defended Donald Trump. Until I defended Donald Trump, my books were featured every year at the book fair.”
“I couldn’t care less about that,” Dershowitz quickly added. “I still sell thousands of books.”
Dershowitz proudly noted he was almost certainly the most prolific author in the history of Martha’s Vineyard and “probably sold more books than anybody who’s speaking at the book fair.”
While Dershowitz was once a fixture and popular draw in the liberal Massachusetts enclave, he became persona non grata among his neighbors after he served as counsel to former President Trump during his first impeachment hearing.
His subsequent appearances on Fox News and defenses of the thrice indicted president ex-prez have not helped repair the situation.
In June the local library canceled an appearance from Dershowitz, prompting him to threaten a lawsuit and he was once berated in a local Vineyard grocery store over Trump by comedian Larry David.
“Readers in Chilmark are being denied access to books by authors of whom the ‘book fair’ heads disapprove. It’s just another form of Chilmark censorship of politically incorrect books. I will fight that by giving free copies of my most recent book to anyone who wants to read it,” Dershowitz told The Post.
In Florida, Republican snowflakes and crybabies are using cancel culture to try to ban Shakespeare
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/15/law-limits-florida-school-books/70414412007/
To be or not to be on the shelf? New Florida school book law could restrict even Shakespeare
By Douglas Soule, Ana Goñi-Lessan, and Jeanine Santucci
July 15, 2023
To be or not to be on the shelf? That’s the question school districts across Florida are asking themselves as they figure out how to apply a new book-challenge law.
In Leon County, home to the state’s capital, school-media specialist Kathleen Malloy says “The Bard,” William Shakespeare, could be at risk. Shakespeare’s works have already been restricted for certain grades in Orange County, which includes Orlando.
Schools are having to ditch long-established methods for choosing what books to purchase and teach. Since the new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis took effect July 1, if a school district finds material that contains “sexual conduct,” under the state’s definition, it must “discontinue use of the material for any grade level or age group for which such use is inappropriate or unsuitable.”
Malloy said she used to go by a system called the Miller Test, a three-prong method established with Supreme Court rulings to determine whether material was obscene. No longer.
“Even Shakespeare is suspect,” Malloy said.
State law goes into effect over ‘sexual conduct’ in books at schools
Malloy and other media specialists around the state are interpreting the new legislation, HB 1069, to mean that districts could be breaking the law if they do not pull media containing “sexual conduct.” That includes many books needed to take the College Board’s Advanced Placement literature exam and dual-enrollment classes.
Malloy said that could even apply to books that overall are “very valuable as a piece of literature,” with just one or two small scenes that fall under the “sexual conduct” definition.
Districts are awaiting training from the Florida Department of Education on how to proceed, and some have put their review processes on hold to wait for state guidance, including Brevard and Hillsborough.
In the meantime, book-access advocates are disputing how districts are interpreting the “sexual conduct” provision, and committees are leaning toward “erring on the side of caution” – something the state Department of Education advises media specialists to do when considering what books to keep in their libraries.
“It is overly cautious,” said Stephana Ferrell, co-founder and director of research and insight for the Florida Freedom to Read Project.
Parents who disagree with a school board’s final decision on a book challenge can now also request a special magistrate from the state to review the decision, on the school district’s dime, which Ferrell said could encourage groups to pressure school districts without actually filing book challenges – and potentially forcing districts to cave to avoid the challenge costs.
And, school districts must remove any book challenged because it includes pornography or sexual conduct within five days until the complaint is resolved.
The Department of Education did not respond to a media request.
What does ‘sexual conduct’ mean?
The state’s definition of “sexual conduct,” includes actual or simulated intercourse, exhibition of or physical contact with genitalia, or any depiction of “sexual battery.”
In Brevard County, the district’s book review committee voted to remove three texts by poet Rupi Kaur because of sexual content.
Committee member Michelle Beavers said her favorite poem is from “The Sun and All Her Flowers,” one of the texts under review, but she was still in favor of removing the book. The book includes drawings depicting outlines of naked bodies.
“It’s against statutes. We’re done. That’s it,” she said, holding up copies of the drawings.
While a review process is ongoing in Orange County Public Schools, four Shakespeare plays are listed as approved for only grades 10 through 12, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Also on the temporarily rejected list are books that had been frequently taught in county high school classes, including “The Color Purple,” “Catch-22,” “Brave New World” and “The Kite Runner.”
The common rationale: “sexual conduct.”
And in the Tampa area, Pinellas County school officials, while choosing books for their annual Battle of the Books competition, voiced concern about relationships and sexual situations mentioned in the texts, which could make them off limits under the new law.
The pushback on book bans
DeSantis, who is vying for the Republican nomination for U.S. president, signed the law on the same day he signed three other bills that critics say target transgender people and the LGBTQ community.
DeSantis has maintained that the idea of book bans across Florida, which have made headlines across the nation, is a “hoax.” He has bashed books that have been recently removed or restricted from public schools as pornographic, violent or otherwise inappropriate.
Those restrictions and removals have swelled in Florida over the last two years with legislation signed by DeSantis and a push by conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty, armed with lists of offending excerpts from targeted books.
In Leon County, the school district is contemplating delaying the checking out of books at all schools at the beginning of the school year until they can make sure they’re abiding by state statute, said Superintendent Rocky Hanna.
“I’m not banning books, I am not that guy,” Hanna said. “I also, because of this new law, do not want to be found in violation of the law and targeted by the DOE and the governor.”
Earlier this week, Hanna pulled five books that he deemed were in violation of state statute following proddingfrom a local chapter of Moms for Liberty.
We will not do more than the law requires,” he said.
Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read project at PEN America, said the removal was an example of an activist group “intimidating” school administrators by using “overly vague” Florida law to label content as pornography.
“This framing has become an increasing focus of activists and politicians to justify removing books that discuss sex, include LGBTQ+ characters, or feature characters of color: books that do not remotely fit notions of ‘harmful ideology and overt sexualization,’” Meehan said in a statement.
Agatha Christie classics latest to be rewritten for modern sensitivities
Agatha Christie classics latest to be rewritten for modern sensitivities
Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have original passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins.
By Craig Simpson
25 March 2023
Agatha Christie novels have been rewritten for modern sensitivities, The Telegraph can reveal.
Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have had original passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins.
The character of a British tourist venting her frustration at a group of children has been purged from a recent reissue, while a number of references to people smiling and comments on their teeth and physiques, have also been erased.
It comes after books by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming were edited by modern publishers.
The new editions of Christie’s works are set to be released or have been released since 2020 by HarperCollins, which is said by insiders to use the services of sensitivity readers. It has created new editions of the entire run of Miss Marple mysteries and selected Poirot novels.
Digital versions of new editions seen by The Telegraph include scores of changes to texts written from 1920 to 1976, stripping them of numerous passages containing descriptions, insults or references to ethnicity, particularly for characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.
The author’s own narration, often through the inner monologue of Miss Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot, has been altered in many instances. Sections of dialogue uttered by often unsympathetic characters within the mysteries have also been cut.
In the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile, the character of Mrs Allerton complains that a group of children are pestering her, saying that “they come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children”.
This has been stripped down in a new edition to state: “They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children”.
Vocabulary has also been altered, with the term “Oriental” removed. Other descriptions have been altered in some instances, with a black servant, originally described as grinning as he understands the need to stay silent about an incident, described as neither black nor smiling but simply as “nodding”.
In a new edition of the 1964 Miss Marple novel A Caribbean Mystery, the amateur detective’s musing that a West Indian hotel worker smiling at her has “such lovely white teeth” has been removed, with similar references to “beautiful teeth” also taken out.
The same book described a prominent female character as having “a torso of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed”, a description absent from the edited version.
References to the Nubian people – an ethnic group that has lived in Egypt for millennia – have been removed from Death on the Nile in many instances, resulting in “the Nubian boatman” becoming simply “the boatman”.
Dialogue in Christie’s 1920 debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles has been altered, so where Poirot once noted that another character is “a Jew, of course”, he now makes no such comment.
In the same book, a young woman described as being “of gypsy type” is now simply “a young woman”, and other references to gypsies have been removed from the text.
The 1979 collection Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories includes the character of an Indian judge who grows angry demanding his breakfast in the original text with “his Indian temper”, a phrase now changed to say “his temper”.
References to “natives” have also been removed or replaced with the word “local”.
Across the revised books, racial descriptions have been altered or removed, including, in A Caribbean Mystery, an entire passage where a character fails to see a black woman in some bushes at night as he walks to his hotel room.
The word “n—–” has been taken out of revised edition, both in Christie’s prose and the dialogue spoken by her characters.
It is not the first time Christie’s works have been altered. Her 1939 novel And Then There Were None was previously published under a different title that included a racist term.
Agatha Christie Limited, a company run by the author’s great grandson James Prichard, is understood to handle licensing for her literary and film rights. The company and HarperCollins have been contacted for comment.
Clay County father’s mic cut off at school board meeting while reading high school library book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcpRW4ySaG8
https://www.yahoo.com/news/clay-county-father-mic-cut-211133168.html
Clay County father’s mic cut off at school board meeting while reading high school library book
By Jake Stofan
July 19, 2022
A Clay County parent’s dispute with his school board has gotten national attention after he had his microphone turned off while attempting to read a passage out of a book from the Fleming Island High School library, which he considered “pornographic.”
Bruce Friedman is part of a national group called No Left Turn, which keeps a list of books parents have objected to across the country.
He found at least three examples in Clay County Schools he wanted pulled from library shelves, including one book at the Fleming Island High School library, “Lucky” by Alice Sebold.
The book’s description on Amazon characterizes it as a memoir of the author, who was brutally raped at 18 and chronicles her recovery.
Bruce Friedman sees it very differently.
“I don’t know a good parent that wants their child to read porn,” said Friedman.
Friedman took his concerns to the June 30 meeting of the Clay County School Board.
When he attempted to read an excerpt from the book, he was cut off.
“Turn off his microphone please,” said one of the members at the meeting not shown on camera.
The explanation he was given was, “There’s state laws that prohibit, and federal communications laws that prohibit you from publishing these things to a child,” said the person on the microphone.
In a statement provided by a district spokesperson, a similar explanation was given for cutting off Friedman’s microphone.
“When addressing the board, since our meetings are televised, we must abide by FCC laws and regulations,” said the spokesperson.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” said Friedman.
The district informed us an official complaint against “Lucky” was filed after the meeting, and the book has been temporarily pulled from the shelf pending an official review.
Friedman is glad the book is gone, but says he should have never had to complain.
“Why did I have to be the guy who found it? Why am I doing your job? Your job is to protect our children and educate them and send them home safely on the bus. The end,” said Friedman.
According to the district, the book was first purchased in May 2005.
The library had only one copy, which was checked out a total of 14 times since it was purchased.
The last time it had been checked out before being pulled was May 17, 2017.
University drops sonnets because they are ‘products of white western culture’
University drops sonnets because they are ‘products of white western culture’
By Margaret Kelly
May 18, 2022
The form has appealed to major poets for five centuries
The University of Salford, a public university in Greater Manchester, England, removed sonnets and other “pre-established literary forms” from a creative writing course assessment, The Telegraph reported.
Course leaders of a creative writing module titled “Writing Poetry in the Twenty-First Century,” removed an exam section that required students to write the traditional forms, including sestinas and sonnets, according to the newspaper.
The sonnet, a poetic form that likely originated in Italy in the 13th century, has been taken up by writers such as Petrarch, Shakespeare and John Donne, according to Britannica.
“The sonnet is unique among poetic forms in Western literature in that it has retained its appeal for major poets for five centuries,” the encyclopedia stated.
A University of Salford slideshow shared with staff stated that teachers have “simplified the assessment offering choice to write thematically rather than to fit into pre-established literary forms…which tend to the products of white western culture,” according to documents cited by The Telegraph.
The slideshow affirmed the change as an example of best practice in “decolonising the curriculum.” The Telegraph defined “decolonising” as “a term used to describe refocusing curricula away from historically dominant Western material and viewpoints.”
Instead, the course will incorporate “inclusive criteria” that better “reflect and cater for a diverse society,” according to internal training materials review by The Telegraph. The materials also showed that the courses could be upgraded by utilizing “a choice of assessment methods” allowing students to be tested “in a way that suits them.”
British historian: assuming sonnets alienate non-white students is ‘hugely patronising’
The Telegraph quoted Oxford-trained historian Zareer Masani’s statement that the course overhaul was “outrageous.”
“It is hugely patronising to assume non-White students would be put off by Western poetic forms,” he said. “Poetic forms vary widely across the world, but good poetry is universal.”
Scott Thurston, leader of the creative writing program at Salford, said the course was “often updated to take account of new trends and development in contemporary writing,” according to The Telegraph.
Thurston said that teachers would still instruct creative writing students in traditional forms in their first year and give them exercises in writing them. However, the curriculum would also include creative experimentation with students’ “own forms.”
Instead of banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools, we should give equal time to the opposing point of view from black conservatives
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
February 7, 2022
Many people on the left want to teach critical race theory in schools.
Many people on the right want to ban the teaching of the subject in schools.
I propose that we teach critical race theory in schools, with the three following guidelines:
First, it should be age appropriate. High school, yes. Kindergarten, no.
Second, it should be taught under the proper context. Social studies class, yes. Math class, no.
And third, we should give equal time to teach the opposing point of view from black conservatives such as Winsome Sears, Candace Owens, Thomas Sowell, Brandom Tatum, Star Parker, Walter E. Williams, Mia Love, Larry Elder, Josephine Mathias, Deroy Murdock, Herman Cain, and Ben Carson.
‘Captain Underpants’ spin-off pulled for ‘passive racism’
https://apnews.com/article/captain-underpants-book-racism-3967162e98a322ae1e121596abf454bc
‘Captain Underpants’ spin-off pulled for ‘passive racism’
By MARK KENNEDY
March 29, 2021
NEW YORK (AP) — A graphic novel for children that was a spin-off of the wildly popular “Captain Underpants” series is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its publisher said it “perpetuates passive racism.”
The book under scrutiny is 2010′s “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk” by Dav Pilkey, who has apologized, saying it “contains harmful racial stereotypes” and is “wrong and harmful to my Asian readers.”
The book follows about a pair of friends who travel from 500,001 B.C. to 2222, where they meet a martial arts instructor who teaches them kung fu and they learn principles found in Chinese philosophy.
Scholastic said it had removed the book from its websites, stopped processing orders for it and sought a return of all inventory. “We will take steps to inform schools and libraries who may still have this title in circulation of our decision to withdraw it from publication,” the publisher said in a statement.
Pilkey in a YouTube statement said he planned to donate his advance and all royalties from the book’s sales to groups dedicated to stopping violence against Asians and to promoting diversity in children’s books and publishing.
“I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism are harmful to everyone,” he wrote. “I apologize, and I pledge to do better.”
The decision came after a Korean American father of two young children started a Change.org petition asking for an apology from the publisher and writer.
It also follows a wave of high-profile and sometimes deadly violence against Asian Americans nationwide since the pandemic began.
Earlier this month, the estate of Dr. Seuss said six of his books would no longer be published because they contained depictions of groups that were “hurtful and wrong,” including Asian Americans. The move drew immediate reaction on social media from those who called it another example of “cancel culture.”
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