Duval County Florida has banned the biographies of Rosa Parks, Hank Aaron, Malala, Hiawatha, Jackie Robinson, and Sonia Sotomayor

 

... among 175 others.

The mind reels at the sheer audacity of declaring the story of Rosa Parks to be "racially divisive."

The mind melts at the idea that the biography of a sitting Supreme Court Justice is removed from the shelves.

The heart breaks to find out that we have returned to a time when Jackie Robinson is again controversial.

The rest of the list is equally bizarre, including ...

• Lost and Found Cat : The True Story of Kunkush’s Incredible Journey by Doug Kuntz, Amy Shrodes and Sue  Cornelison
• Love to Mama: A Tribute To Mothers, by Pat Mora, Paula S. Barragán M.
• Barbed Wire Baseball: How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII, by Marissa Moss and Yuko Marissa Shimizu
• The Berenstain Bears and the Big Question (The Berenstain Bears Series) by Jan and Stan Berenstain  
• Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heroes in the Old West, by Lillian Schlissel   
• Climbing Lincoln’s Steps: The African American Journey, by Suzanne Slade and Colin Bootman 
• Dash (Dogs of World War II Series), by Kirby Larson     
• A Dog Named Haku: A Holiday Story from Nepal, by Margarita Engle, Amish Karanjit, Nicole Karanjit, and Ruth Jeyaveeran      
• Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, by Pamela S. Turner and Yan Nascimbene  
• Henry Aaron’s Dream, by Matt Tavares                  
• The Hero Two Doors Down: Based on the True Story of Friendship between a Boy and a Baseball Legend, by Sharon Robinson       
• Malala: A Hero for All (Step into Reading Series), by Shana Corey and Elizabeth Sayles       
• Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates, by Jonah Winter and Raúl Colón
• Sonia Sotomayor (Women Who Broke the Rules Series), by Kathleen Krull and Angela Dominguez   
• Thank You, Jackie Robinson, by Barbara Cohen and Richard Cuffari
• Hiawatha and the Peacemaker, by Robbie Robertson, and David Shannon   

For the entire list, visit PEN America.    

Here is where you can find the Duval County Public Schools page claiming that the lives of Rosa Parks, Hank Aaron, Malala, Hiawatha, Jackie Robinson, and Sonia Sotomayor fit into one of these three categories:

• Pornography – defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement.”
• Instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades kindergarten through three.
• Discrimination in such a way that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

Who knew that Hiawatha made white kids like they are inherently racist or oppressive?