The protesters who gathered in the nation’s capital on Friday were not there to add sonic layers to the chorus in defiance of Israel’s actions in Gaza, as one might expect lately. Instead, they were there to stand against the ongoing banning of books and the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Among the speakers at the event was Kimberle Crenshaw, recognized as a scholar of critical race theory and executive director of the African American Policy Forum. “It’s gotten into the business of erasure,” she said. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion is the new moral panic of the nation. It’s the source, they say, of all that ails us. DEI is becoming the new N-word in American politics.”
Crenshaw drew her remarks about book banning from being caught in the crossfire. Her books, several of which express the importance of critical race theory (CRT) as a process for examining the extent to which racism is systemic in the foundation of American history, have been targets of critics, prompting bans in schools across the nation.
“Attacks on our knowledge and our literature have reached unprecedented levels,” Crenshaw said. “It prevents us from learning about our past to create a better, more inclusive future. We know education is the key to democratic inclusion.”
A long line of demonstrators joined her near the Supreme Court, where they railed against the court’s decisions to end affirmative action and overturn Roe v. Wade.
Echoing Crenshaw’s comments was Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project. “First, they passed laws to prohibit Black people from reading,” she said. “Now they are passing laws to prohibit people from reading about what they did. We know about being uncomfortable as Black people. These anti-woke laws and policies are anti-us. They are anti-Black. They are anti-Latino. They are anti-Asian Pacific Islanders. They are anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-LGBTQ, and especially anti-trans. They are anti-majority. They are anti-democracy. We must connect the dots to the bans of books to anti-CRT, to anti-LGBTQ, to the attacks on reproductive freedom. We must attach it to voter suppression. They want to silence us. They want to make sure that we are erased. But the majority is rising and they will lose.”