National Free Speech News & Commentary

What makes a social studies textbook "woke" in Ron DeSantis' Florida

June 26, 2023 1 min read

Judd Legum
Popular Information

Excerpt: According to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), textbook publishers are attempting to indoctrinate Florida students by incorporating "woke" concepts into social studies textbooks — in violation of state laws prohibiting certain kinds of instruction on race and gender.

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Firing of Georgia Teacher for Reading a Book that Promotes Inclusivity is “Shocking” and “Harmful,” Says PEN America

June 23, 2023 1 min read

PEN America Press Release

Excerpt: A Georgia elementary school teacher has been fired after allegedly violating the state’s educational gag order. Passed in 2022, Georgia’s HB 1084 prohibits teachers from “espousing”  certain “divisive concepts” related to race and sex. Katie Rinderle says she read her fifth grade students “My Shadow Is Purple,” by bestselling author-illustrator Scott Stuart, a 2022 book that promotes inclusivity, after purchasing it at the school book fair and having her students vote on what they wanted to read.

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Texas Tech Cancels Witchcraft Class Following Backlash

June 22, 2023 1 min read

By Brandon Waltens
Texas Scorecard

Excerpt: After public backlash, Texas Tech University has walked back plans to offer a class on ”Witches, Bruxas, & Black Magic” this fall. As reported by Texas Scorecard earlier this week, the course was described as introducing the “study of beliefs and practices, past and present, associated with magic, witchcraft, spirituality, magic realism, and religion.”
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University at Buffalo Clubs Caught in Free Speech Crossfire

June 22, 2023 1 min read

Johanna Alonso
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: When Suha Chowdhury started a chapter of the humanitarian aid organization Islamic Relief at the University at Buffalo, she envisioned joining with her peers to fundraise for global causes and help Buffalo-area nonprofits—all with the support of her university.

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Commentary: The Indoctrination of the American Mind

June 22, 2023 1 min read

By Eric Kaufmann
The Free Press

Excerpt: If you read The Free Press, you know that over the last decade, an illiberal ideology that goes by various names—Critical Race Theory; Critical Social Justice—has transformed key institutions of American life. It is remaking the law, Hollywood, medicine, higher education, psychology, and more.
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The professor is canceled. Now What?

June 21, 2023 1 min read

By Jack Stripling
The Washington Post

Excerpt: On a Thursday morning in February, Charles Negy stood before a group of about 40 students, presiding over his theories-of-personality class at the University of Central Florida. Scattered across a large auditorium, students jotted notes as Negy, a 62-year-old associate professor of psychology, spoke about Sigmund Freud. Projection, Negy explained, is when “we see in others what we don’t want to see in ourselves.” It’s like calling someone else a racist, Negy continued, when, in truth, “everybody is a little bit racist.”
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