FL Parent's Complaint Censors Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem at Local School
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” was one of the highlights of President Joe Biden’s 2020 inauguration. A young Black woman reading a poem with a message of hope was exactly what the country needed to begin healing after the horror of the January 6 attacks.
But now, students at a Miami-Dade elementary school will not hear Gorman’s message after a parent’s complaint caused the school to remove the poem from circulation.
Read more
Aside from Halle Bailey, Here Are Other Black Disney Actors and Characters We Love [Update]
Megan Thee Stallion Becomes 1st Black Woman to Land Forbes 30 Under 30 Cover
15 Priceless Black Twitter Moments Worth Remembering [Updated]
A parent at Bob Graham Education Center, a K - 8 school in Miami Lakes, complained that Gorman’s poem “is not educational and have indirectly [sic] hate messages.”
From the poem:
“And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.We seek harm to none and harmony for all.”
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like hate messaging to me.
According to a tweet from Florida Freedom to Read Project, the parent who filed the complaint also complained about children’s books “The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids,” “Countries in the News: Cuba,” and “Love to Langston,” using the customary conservative buzzwords “indoctrination” and “CRT.” It should also be noted that the parent credited Oprah Winfrey with writing “The Hill We Climb,” which means they probably didn’t even bother to read it.
In a statement on Twitter, 25-year-old Gorman expressed her disappointment with the decision to keep children from reading her poem. “I’m gutted,” she wrote. “I wrote The Hill We Climb so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment. Ever since, I’ve received countless letters and videos from children inspired by The Hill We Climb to write their own poems. Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.”
— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) May 23, 2023
But school officials say the poem was not “banned” but “moved,” citing that Gorman’s words are more appropriate for middle school students.
In order to ensure accurate information, @MDCPS is compelled to clarify that the book titled, “The Hill We Climb” by @TheAmandaGorman was never banned or removed from one of our schools. The book is available in the media center as part of the middle grades collection.
— Miami-Dade Schools (@MDCPS) May 24, 2023
“’The Hill We Climb’ by @TheAmandaGorman was never banned or removed from one of our schools. The book is available in the media center as part of the middle grades collection,” the school tweeted.
More from The Root
A Supersized List of March 2023 Books by Black Authors We Can't Wait to Read
19 Political Karens Caught in Their Own Lies, Nonsense and Racism
Sign up for The Root's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.