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Yesterday, Twitter suspended the account of satirical site The Babylon Bee for a post that jokingly named Rachel Levine, the transgender Assistant Secretary for Health, Man of the Year. Here, editor-in-chief Kyle Mann, co-author of The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness, explains why he isnt going to back down to the social media giants demands.

Well, it finally happened (were kind of surprised it didnt happen sooner): The Babylon Bee has been locked out of our Twitter account.

The satirical article that offended the Twitter overlords? The Babylon Bees Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine. For the simple offense of labeling a biological man a man, through a satirical headline, we have lost access to all 1.3 million of our followers on Twitter.

A world where you can state a simple biological fact and face censorship, the loss of revenue and your livelihood, and excommunication from the public square for stating truth, no matter how satirical tongue-in-cheek your tone is, is a scary one indeed. As the famous Ron Paul saying goes, Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

Boy, are we feeling that today. (Can I still say boy or will that get me banned too?)

Of course, theres some nuance here: were satire. Were comedy. The primary goal of our satire is to bring levity and laughter to our audience. The fact that a purely comedic account can get banned for a joke admittedly one thats particularly spicy in our current cultural climate should worry everyone about the health of our society. When cultural revolutions happen, the comics and entertainers are the first to be targeted by the revolutionaries. Those looking to upend our society know the power of entertainment and satire, for they use it to great effect as they spread their ideas to the next generation.

Control the comedians, control the messaging, and you control the minds of the people.

And indeed, its control over our minds that Twitter wants. They cant just delete the offending tweet and let us back in. They want us to go into our account and click the delete button ourselves. We have to bend the knee, kiss the ring, bow to the towering statue of LGBTQ politics when the trumpets play, or we stay on timeout indefinitely. We have to promise to do better, implicitly agree that calling a man a man is hate speech, and then well be allowed the right to speak on Twitters platform.

Well, were not going to do that. Were fighting back. Well do whatever we have to do to retain our integrity here. As Orwell wrote, Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

If we give that up, if we agree to succumb to their ideological madness simply to access a wider audience, were giving up our minds, the last holdout against tyranny. Well wait Twitter out, well appeal Twitters decision, well spread the message far and wide that weve been kicked out for hate speech simply for telling a joke Big Tech did not like.

Its time to take a stand, and that time is now. If we wait any longer, we may no longer have that chance. Weve been incredibly blessed at The Babylon Bee in that we have a healthy number of paying subscribers who help us keep the lights on, and were going to use that to stand firm here and do whats right. Well continue to spread our comedy and tell our jokes that communicate truth to a culture that hates truth on whatever platforms will allow us to, and were grateful for those who stand alongside us in this fight.

Read more:
Babylon Bee editor: We refuse to bow to Twitter's censorship of a joke - New York Post

The First Amendment applies to school classrooms.

That principle is foundational for Prof. Catherine J. Ross of George Washington University Law School in her explanation of the attempts by government bodies to limit what students can learn or even mention in public schools.

For decades, federal courts have dealt with disputes between school authorities and the people they serve and employ that is, students, families and teachers.

As Ross notes, Supreme Court decisions have provided guidance on when schools can restrict expression in the classroom. Based on a ruling made in 1969, schools are allowed to prohibit speech that materially and substantially interferes with appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.

In later decisions, the Supreme Court modified this basic principle, effectively allowing schools more authority to censor classroom speech. Schools cannot require students or teachers to forfeit freedom of speech altogether, but the limits to school authority are not perfectly defined.

As several states move to limit their schools curriculum on subjects like race and LGBTQ+ issues, Ross anticipates different federal appellate courts may reach contradictory decisions. And at that point, Ross explains, the Supreme Court could choose to take up the issue.

Find out more in the video above.

Read the original here:
Schools, censorship, and the law | TheHill - The Hill

Education and civil rights groups are forming a coalition to beat back censorship in Texas public schools and oppose book bans.

The Teach the Truth campaign aims to educate community members on how to testify at school board meetings, pressure state representatives and organize against attempts to limit whats taught in classrooms.

We come to you with a renewed sense of urgency, Texas Freedom Network director Val Benavidez said during a launch event Tuesday morning. At this very moment in Texas, the stories of diverse communities are being taken from the shelves of school libraries, and the truthful history of our state and nation is being erased from public school lesson plans.

Lessons about LGBT people and the United States history of racism have been in the crosshairs of Republican state leaders. The Legislature passed two bills targeting critical race theory, an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism.

Conservative pundits have conflated it with a wide swath of schools diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. They argue that it makes children feel bad about their race and is divisive. But educators have long pushed back, insisting it is not taught in K-12 schools.

Equality Texas director Ricardo Martinez said opponents of critical race theory have fabricated a moral panic.

Republican state leaders have also labeled some books with LGBT characters as pornographic and pressured districts to scrutinize their libraries for such titles as well as many that deal with race. Conservative parents have flooded districts with requests to remove such books with some success.

Gov. Greg Abbott wrote letters late last year to state education officials directing them to develop new standards for library books.

A growing number of parents of Texas students are rightfully outraged about highly inappropriate books and other content in public school libraries, he wrote. The most disturbing cases include material that is clearly pornographic, which has absolutely no place in the Texas public education system.

The groups involved in the new coalition which includes the Childrens Defense Fund, Human Rights Campaign and Texas AFT say books with diverse characters are necessary to reflect students experiences back to them while also exposing children to different realities.

A book in this moment is not only a friend to children, its a lifeline, said Michelle Castillo, deputy director of advocacy at the Intercultural Development Research Association. Its a liberation manual. Its a reminder that we are not alone in these bleak times.

A middle school student was also featured on the panel, saying that children deserve to have a voice in their education.

This generation is the future of our nation, said Avital, an 11-year-old. We deserve to hear the truth about our history so we arent doomed to repeat it.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Labs journalism.

Continue reading here:
Texas education groups mobilize for Teach the Truth campaign - The Dallas Morning News

Llano Countys Library Advisory Board will meet behind closed doors in the future after members complained of being intimidated by interruptions during regular public meetings, officials explained.

The board is exempt from the Texas Open Meeitngs law because it isnt a rule-making body.

That law defines a governmental body as, among other things, a deliberative body that has rule-making or quasi-judicial power and that is classified as a department, agency, or political subdivision of a county or municipality.

The library board is none of those things.

Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham said interruptions to board meetings in the past had the potential to lead to violence.

He said any recommendation made by the board to Llano County Commissioners Court would have to be acted on in open court sessions; otherwise, theres no way for the public to know what happens in Library Board meetings.

Cunningham also declined to discuss the firing of former Kingsland Library Director Suzette Baker other than to confirm that she was terminated. He couldnt comment further because of possible pending litigation, implying the Baker had threatened to sue the county.

Baker was reportedly fired earlier this month when she refused to remove books from library shelves as she was told to.

Jeanne Puryear, a Llano library patron who objects to not only the meeting closure but to the way the book removals have been handled, said shes never seen anything in a library board meeting that amounted to a threat.

There are those (people) that went direct to the (county) commissioners and the judge calling some books pornographic, she said.

She added thats not the process that should have been followed because the county had set up a system for patrons to ask that books be reviewed.

To be considered pornography, Puryear said, material has to incite people to indecency.

She said she, and others who also believe the library board is not acting properly, are thinking of filing a lawsuit against the county.

However, Puryear said no decision has been made about that yet.

Baker, the Kingsland librarian who was fired for refusing to comply with what she called censorship by taking books from the library shelves, said shes also consulting legal counsel about the possibility of filing suit against the county.

Originally posted here:
Censorship controversy leads to ousting of Kingsland librarian - The Highlander

A public artwork by Asian American photographer Tommy Kha has been unceremoniously removed from the Memphis International Airport in response to complaints from visitors.

The artwork, a performative self-portrait, depicts the artist dressed as Memphis icon Elvis Presley. Commissioned by the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority (MSCAA), it was installed in the facilitys new B concourse in February.

But this week, Khawho was born in Memphis and has long had an interest in the iconography of Elvistook to social media to note that the artwork was no longer on display. After some disturbing complaints about my work, the artist wrote, it was decided, and without my knowledge, the pictures were removed.

Online, social media users speculated that the disturbing complaints related to Khas work had to do with the artists Asian American identity. Ive taken pride that [Kha] makes art on a national stage representing the unique view of Asians in the American South, said one Twitter user. Removing his work like this is hurtful.

Representatives from the MSCAA did not immediately respond to Artnet Newss request for comment, but in a statement shared with local news outlet ABC24, the organizations president and CEO Scott Brockman said that the Airport Authority has received a lot of negative feedback from Elvis fans in response to Khas artwork.

While we understand that the artist created the piece as a tribute to Elvis, the public reaction has been strong, leading us to revisit that original goal of avoiding the depiction of public figures in our art collection, Brockman continued. As a result, the airport determined it was best to temporarily remove the piece while we determine our best path forward.

The executive acknowledged that there were a small number of comments that included language that referred to Mr Khas race, which he called completely unacceptable. He said those comments did not form the basis of the authoritys decision.

Urban Art Commission, an independent public art non-profit based in Memphis that recommended Khas artwork and others for the airports newly established art collection, issued a statement yesterday condemning the works removal.

We worked very intentionally with the airport authority and selection committee to curate an art program that speaks to a diverse and authentic creative community representative of Memphis, the statement read. We are opposed to Tommy Khas installation being removed from display, especially considering the openly racist comments made online in the development of this situation.

The statement noted that the non-profits leaders have been in contact with MSCAA about re-installing the work.

Im quite disappointed as it was one of many artworks selected to hang in the new concoursean honor that connected me to the place where I grew up (having grown up in Whitehaven, minutes away from Graceland), and the opportunity gave me hope that artists like myself could be represented, Kha went on in his post. While I believe people are free to speak their minds, I do not agree that the removal was the right solution.

The artist did not immediately return an email from Artnet News.

Earlier today, an online petition was started demanding that Khas artwork be returned to the airport wall.

Continue reading here:
The Memphis Airport Is Facing Allegations of Censorship After It Removed an Asian American Artists Portrait of Himself as Elvis - artnet News