(NEW YORK) — On Friday May 9, the Pentagon sent a memo to the country’s military educational institutions, including the War Colleges and Military Service Academies, instructing them to review all library collections for compliance with a previous directive that they not promote “divisive concepts” and “gender ideology.” The memo comes amid ongoing reports of book bans, cancelled speakers, and curricular censorship at Department of Defense schools, the Naval Academy, and West Point, among others.
The new memo from the Pentagon directs institutions to review their library collections to identify and “sequester” all materials “potentially incompatible” with the directive by May 21, using a list of 20 keyword search terms. The keyword list includes many terms already targeted by the Trump administration in federal agencies, such as, “affirmative action,” “discrimination,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” “critical race theory,” “gender expression,” “trangender people,” and “white privilege.”
The memo also announced the existence of a “temporary Academic Libraries Committee” made up of “knowledgeable leaders, educators, and library professionals drawn from across the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Military Departments” which informed the list of search terms, will advise on a further review process for the identified materials, and will determine the “ultimate disposition” of them.
“This is an ideological dragnet. Despite the appointment of a committee and the appearance of a review process, nothing about a government edict to yank books off library shelves in places we are supposed to be opening minds is either routine or appropriate,” said Jonathan Friedman, managing director of U.S. free expression programs at PEN America. “The United States military needs future officers who can think critically, informed by a full understanding of the world’s challenges and its complex battlefields. Restricting access to ideas by purging books is designed to do the opposite — to narrow the lens through which people see the world, and curb the freedom to read and think.”
According to the Pentagon’s memo, the review of military educational institutions’ library collections is to be carried out by keyword searches using the following list of 20 Library of Congress Subject Headings:
- Affirmative Action Programs — Law and Legislation — United States
- Affirmative Action Programs — United States
- Affirmative Action
- Allyship
- Anti-Racism — United States
- Critical Race Theory
- Discrimination — Law and Legislation — United States
- Diversity in the Workplace — United States
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Gender Affirming Care – United States
- Gender Dysphoria
- Gender Expression
- Gender Identity — United States
- Gender Nonconformity
- Gender Transition
- Transgender Military Personnel — United States
- Transgender People — United States
- Transsexualism — United States
- Transsexuals — United States
- White privilege (Social structure)
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Malka Margolies, [email protected], 718-530-3582