Moms For Liberty loves Ruby Bridges, they just have a funny way of showing it.
And when I say “funny” I don’t mean “funny ha-ha” I mean “laughably messed up.” But that’s all par for the course of one of the most cartoonishly evil organizations in America right now. The hate group has been getting national attention recently for its attempts to ban books written by Black and LGBTQ+ authors from appearing in school libraries across the country. These people are the same group that quoted Hitler on the front page of their newsletters and then doubled down on it, and who made the statement “not every human is deserving of my child’s empathy.” They engage in a variety of other ghoulish pastimes such as harassing teachers, librarians, and others in education, from doxxing people to setting bounties on non-compliant educators.
One of the many books they are trying (often successfully) to get banned is the memoir of Ruby Bridges, the Black author and Civil Rights leader who was one of the first Black children in America to attend a previously “whites only” school. Bafflingly, the group claims to support Bridges despite the years-long attempt to ban her book. And more bafflingly, they are shocked that Bridges wants nothing to do with them.
After Bridges made a statement in a congressional hearing condemning Moms For Liberty’s efforts to ban one of her books about desegregation, the organization took to Twitter to show their “support” for the author, claiming to have “reached out to her many times.”
Gosh, I wonder why she hasn’t gotten back to them? Could it be because they wanted to bar teachers from discussing Ruby Bridges Goes To School? The book that tells the story of the then six-year-old Bridges walking to school under the protection of U.S. Marshalls while a belligerent crowd of white bigots hurled slurs at her? The Tennesee Holler was quick to lampoon Moms For Liberty’s statement, retorting with a tweet of their own that condemned the group for “whitewashing history for schools [they] don’t even have kids in.”
But it’s not just books that Moms for Liberty and organizations like it are after. A Florida school recently banned a Disney movie about Ruby Bridges after one parent complained that students should not be exposed to scenes showing hatred towards a Black six-year-old girl. The parent argued that she did not want her child to “learn hatred” at school. Despite the fact that history books have shown photo evidence of bigoted hatred in America for decades—and that ignoring that history does nothing to help kids understand the world they live in—a Disney film appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Despite conservative efforts to bury America’s history of hate, that hate is alive and well. Justin Kanew—the founder of The Tennessee Holler—says he recently experienced that hatred firsthand when bullets flew into his family’s house in the middle of the night. He recounted the chilling event in a statement posted to Twitter. Thankfully, no one was hurt. While the police have yet to release a suspect, it’s important to note that The Tennessee Holler has been the subject of right-wing antipathy for a long time.
In response to recent attacks from right-wing groups against education systems, Black activists and organizations have pushed back. The president of the Concerned Organization for Quality Education for Black Students published an open letter to the community in the school district where the Ruby Bridges Disney film was banned, asking if the decision serves students from different ethnic backgrounds “fairly and equitably.” He also urged school districts “not overreact because one white person objected to something.” Earlier this year, the same school district voted to remove Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye from library shelves and has not been forthcoming about setting a timetable to review the novel or the Disney film. This is a common tactic employed by Florida school district officials against work they deem “unsuitable” for children. The book is not banned outright in order to avoid an uproar, but rather shelved and “subjected to review” at a later date. With a “later date” often meaning “never.”
It’s sad to see that after all Ruby Bridge went through, hate groups in America are attempting to erase her story from the very classrooms that she fought to integrate. On top of all of it, groups like Moms For Liberty choose to remain woefully ignorant of the irony.
(featured image: Connel_Design/Getty Images)
