The state of Mississippi — where white cops are still torturing Black men for living with white women, and Black bodies are being buried in unmarked graves without families being notified — has ordered its libraries to delete academic research on racism from their databases. Also ordered to be scrubbed from library databases in Mississippi — the state that provided the case the U.S. Supreme Court used to abolish women’s reproductive rights — was research on gender studies.
Why was all of this academic research being done away with? Well, apparently, the only justification a state commissioner could muster up was a vague state law prohibiting “obscene materials.”
A March 31 internal memo obtained by Mississippi Today reveals that the Mississippi Library Commission ordered the deletion of two research collections on “race relations” and “gender studies” from publicly funded schools, libraries, community colleges, universities and state agencies because, somehow, the research might violate state law. (You know your state is backward and bigoted when it’s illegal to provide research on backwardness and bigotry.)
“In this challenging time with many different viewpoints concerning library materials and material content your willingness to work with these issues is appreciated,” Mississippi Library Commission Executive Director Hulen Bivins wrote in the memo. “The deletion of these two databases shall be permanent until such time as when the Legislature changes their position regarding the content of materials made available in Mississippi libraries.”
Bivens did not once mention a specific law that the Mississippi legislature-funded database known as MAGNOLIA might violate by including the findings of race and gender research, but he did cite a 2023 law that regulates digital resources available to minors in public libraries, focusing on “obscene materials.” Bivens’ memo did not specify why data on race relations and gender studies would be panned as “obscene,” but considering this is the same state where a Republican auditor classified “Women’s Studies” and “African American/Black Studies” as “garbage fields,” it’s not difficult to imagine the non-reasoning here. Bivens reportedly told reporters there were other state laws that warranted the deletion, but he conveniently was unable to recall what any of those laws were.
From Mississippi Today:
Bivins said the Library Commission received a tip in late February or early March that the two databases might violate state law. By the end of March, the material had been deleted.
“In all cases we comply with state law,” Bivins said. “We’re not acting fast. We are acting as we discern.”
The two research collections state officials ordered for deletion included material from professional journals, conference papers, books, student dissertations, periodicals and newspaper articles.
The Gender Studies Database included academic content from 377 peer reviewed journals. Subjects include, “Gender inequality, Masculinity, Post-feminism (and) Gender identity.” The other deleted database, titled “Race Relations Abstracts” focused on a wide range of subjects, including “Ethnic studies, Discrimination, Immigration studies (and) Ideology.”
OK, it’s time to address the GOP elephant in the room: Mississippi is just doing MAGA sh*t.
This is the same energy President Donald Trump displayed in his latest bid to rewrite American history by targeting the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the Women’s History Museum in his MAGA-fied overhaul of the Smithsonian Institution. It’s the same energy that had the National Park Service removing references to Harriett Tubman from its website entry on the Underground Railroad, which the new edit erroneously described as an organization of “Black/White cooperation” that “bridged the divides of race,” in an apparent effort to fall in line with Trump’s directives. (After severe public backlash, the NPS restored the information on Tubman, but still.)
So, when it comes right down to it, Mississippi is simply riding the momentum of the president, who has made it his chief agenda to lead the nation in lying about what diversity, equity and inclusion entail in order to justify banning it into oblivion.
In fact, speaking of DEI, Bivens’ memo was sent out on the same day Mississippi lawmakers filed their final version of House Bill 1193, which bans DEI programs as well as a list of “divisive concepts” from public schools across the state.
If America was ever so great, why is the MAGA world working so relentlessly at hiding key parts of its history and outlawing any effort to study that history?
Perhaps these so-called patriots are ironically ashamed of their country. And maybe they should be.
SEE ALSO:
Mississippi Sen. Bradford Blackmon Introduces ‘Contraception Begins At Erection Act’
Minnesota Department Of Education Says No To Trump Administration’s Anti-DEI Mandate
