What MAGA Found Offensive In Amanda Gorman's Inauguration Poem

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/24/2171223/-What-MAGA-Found-Offensive-In-Amanda-Gorman-s-Inauguration-Poem

What MAGA Found Offensive In Amanda Gorman's Inauguration Poem
KeithDB
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Wednesday May 24, 2023 · 7:32 PM EDT
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In a continuation of the Nazi-esque book banning that has characterized the DeSantis regime in Florida, schools have banned Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb, that she read at Biden’s inauguration. The ban was imposed because a single, illiterate and ignorant parent complained. The complaint wrongly claimed the author of the poem was Oprah, seriously not making that up. Notwithstanding that the complainer is an obvious troll, the book was removed from the general shelves because of one complaint from an anti-woke, racist activist moron.

Naturally, MAGAs like to claim these bans are all about keeping “sexually explicit” materials away from children. I challenge you to review the poem and find anything sexually explicit, or sexual at all. In my own review I think I found what the MAGAs objected to. These words:

we are far from polished

far from pristine

but that doesn’t mean we are

striving to form a union that is perfect

We are striving to forge a union with purpose

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and

conditions of man

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

Surely we cannot allow our children to hear awful messages such as that. I mean, putting our differences aside, reaching out to others with “harm to none and harmony for all.” We cannot allow our children to hear sick stuff like that. Am I right?

[spanone]

1. K&R

[Hotler]

2. What MAGA Found Offensive was her educated blackness.

Plus it was written above a 4th grade level.

[Hugin]

4. Bingo! n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

7. And "far from perfect/pristine"

Shatters the White Myth

[fierywoman]

8. This. Exactly.

[PortTack]

12. Indeed...how dare a POC be educated, well spoken and influential

[uponit7771]

26. +1,

[Emrys]

37. She also had poise, grace and self-confidence in abundance.

It's very potent mix - and evidently threatening to some. Young, black, female, eloquent to the extreme, and utterly terrifying

[Hugin]

3. I was wondering what could possibly be seen as controversial.

I had heard the poem read at the Inauguration and I could not recall anything at all questionable.

So, it turns out that inclusion and hope are offensive to the deplorable.

I should have guessed.

[Farmer-Rick]

49. That's exactly it

The religious fundamentalists, like Evangelicals, back in the 80s always called tolerance of other religions and peoples wrong. We should not tolerate others because they are sinners and should not be tolerated. They must be converted to our way of thinking and not allowed to peacefully exist.

It's the same thing now. Open mindedness, inclusion, hope for a better world are all wrong because sin and a super sky daddy.

It's fearful little men trying to keep their power and wealth from the masses of people they see coming for them.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Written by a POC, read at Biden's Inaugural, and sounds 'woke'

As a bonus it implies that we don't need GUNZ!!1!

That's all the reason they need to ban kids from reading it in FL

[Freethinker65]

6. They will claim some kids will be traumatized reading that no one is perfect. (no exceptionalism)

That acknowledging differences exist between our citizens, but we can and must work together. (encouraging no discrimination nor bigotry).

But with this passage, I bet it's mostly about the guns.

[BlueKota]

9. Then they should also ban the Sermon on The Mount

I mean they can't have anyone teaching their kids to condem greed, selfishness, and self righteousness.

I mean really who did that Jesus think he was, the son of God? Telling us to be compassionate, loving, selfless & generous. Damn Socialist, Commie, Woke, Snowflake. How dare he call himself a Christian! 😉🙄🤦?♀️

[TheRickles]

13. Submit a request to that school board to ban this. It'd be interesting to see how/if they respond.

[BlueKota]

31. Do they accept requests from out of state?

I from New York.

[TheRickles]

35. Good point, probably not. Do you have any friends in the Miami/Dade area?

[BlueKota]

52. No

[soldierant]

46. There was an article, I think inCrooks & Liars,

that a mere 11 people are responsible for the majority of requests to ban books nationwide.

I'd give it a try.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. Republican Jesus wouldn't have said it

[BlueKota]

30. True

They would probably claim one of the Apostles was an early liberal who purposely misinterpreted Republican Jesus' words!

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

43. It needs to be banned because

It has too little good advice, and much that is bad or downright stupid. It's also the perfect vehicle for psychopaths to create masochistic minions.

A cogent take-down of the most overrated sermon, ever, is here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160305060810/http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Sermon_on_the_Mount

[thomski64]

48. ...he never said he was a Xtian..

....remember. he was Jewish...

[Diamond_Dog]

10. "We lay down our arms

….so we can reach out our arms…”

IT’S ANTI GUN!!

[SouthernDem4ever]

11. To me, all MAGAT's are offensive

they way they vote, the way they talk, just about everything about them. Sorry Amanda, it's hard for me to think otherwise right now. Just reminding them no longer works, they will have to be forced, as has happened in all of history.

[barbtries]

15. i feel the same way.

no such thing as a reasonable republican left.

[Aristus]

14. Sounds like "...With liberty and justice for all."

I guess banning the Pledge of Allegiance is next.

And, actually; you know what? I'm cool with that.

[Walleye]

16. When they inserted the words under god between one nation and indivisible, they ruined it anyway

[Aristus]

18. That's for sure.

If any of the MAGAts ever found out that the PoA was written by a Socialist, they'd shit their pants. I mean, you know, more than they usually do...

[stage left]

25. Agreed.

I may be one of last of the school children who recited the pledge the way it was written. I want the motto of the United States back, too--E Pluribus Unum. And my state motto, "dum spiro, spero". While I breathe, I hope. I think no state has a more inspirational one than my state of South Carolina.

[geardaddy]

27. Yep, the original was much better

AND it was written by a Socialist.

[panader0]

17. I always knew that Oprah was woke.

[CTyankee]

19. Combined with Lady GaGa's singing of the national anthem with her emphasis on "our flag was

still there" as she turned to the Capitol, recalling the memory of Jan. 6, which was so fresh in our minds at the time of the Inauguration.

I have never seen such a moving Inaugural ceremony, and I've lived long enough to see plenty...

[jaxexpat]

20. The banning is purely racism and nose thumbing.....

at he sensitivities of common decency.

[BlueKentuckyGirl]

21. Show us this person.

If one person can have so much power, that they can get a poem (or book, or anything) banned, they should not be ashamed to step forward and take credit for it.

[Playingmantis]

22. Here is the problem

"To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and

conditions of man."

They want to go back to the principles of the Founding Fathers..only white male property owners should be able to vote!


Flag waving fascists!!

[elias7]

23. The complaint is not the main problem; what is curious is how did one complaint become policy...

I am not seeing any main media sources asking this question. Sure there are a lot of morons out there with a lot of absurd opinions, but what is the process here that resulted in some one or some group deciding and enacting policy with such rapidity and non-transparency?

[SouthernDem4ever]

33. Exactly right.

There should be a process in place to examine a complaint for validity and judgements on action after if necessary. Every complaint is not something to be acted uponi.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

28. K&R

[calimary]

29. Reading it over, again, I just marvel at her way with words.

What a treasure Amanda Gorman is! If THAT’S what exemplifies the younger generation that we’ve managed to turn out, we’re gonna be okay.

[Arazi]

32. The complaint specified pgs 12-13. Specifically these words:

We've braved the belly of the beast

We've learned that quiet isn't always peace

And the norms and notions

of what just is

Isn't always just-ice

And yet the dawn is ours

before we knew it

Somehow we do it

Somehow we've weathered and witnessed

a nation that isn't broken

but simply unfinished

[Initech]

34. What bothers me the most about this whole thing...

Is that the fucking moron who filed the complaint didn't bother to even read the poem or learn who the author was. And also apparently the asshole also had ties to white supremacist groups. I'd also be willing to bet she's not a parent either. So yeah this is 100% grade A bullshit all the way around.

[hatrack]

36. Reading?

I know they don't like it in more than four- or five-word prechewed lumps.

[BeckyDem]

38. Tragic. One complaint.

One complaint absorbs all the good will from a young beautiful heart.

Shameful.

[Initech]

41. What really pisses me off about this whole thing:

Is that the fucking moron who filed the complaint didn't even read the poem and said that Oprah was the author. This was more an "F-U" to Biden and that's about it. Ugh this pisses me off.

[llmart]

39. Ridiculous

I, for one, got goosebumps when she read her poem. She is an amazing young woman!

[Martin68]

40. I didn't need this explanation. I knew this would set them off the second I read it. They cannot

bear to hear any suggestion of imperfection, error, or moral failure at any point in US history. They have never grown up, intellectually, emotionally, or even sexually.

[ShazzieB]

44. That's pretty close to what I said earlier this week.

In another thread about this, I said the following:

Gorman's poem dares to acknowledge America's painful history while providing inspiration that we can learn from it and go forth to do better and create a country that does a better job of living up to its aspirations. For these Florida censors, no amount of inspiration can ever make up for the admission that America has ever been one iota less than absolutely 🎆PERFECT✨!

So basically, we are in the same wavelength here!

[NowISeetheLight]

42. Hope

I read the full poem today online. All I saw was a message of hope and optimism for the future. A future for ALL AMERICANS not just White Christian Nationalists. No wonder they're offended.

[Blue Owl]

45. It is utterly infuriating...

That the brilliant light of a true visionary like Amanda Gorman can be extinguished by one racist numbskull troll who is dumber than a sack of hammers

[Richard58]

47. So infuriating!

What gets me the most is that a complaint by ONE parent got the poem tossed. Did they not read the poem and see if there was nothing wrong with it? It seems that they immediately caved in for fear of being called woke. Stuff like this drives me crazy!

[Swede]

50. It goes against everything that the Maga world worships.

I got mine, fuck you. An armed society is a polite society. etc etc

[The Wizard]

51. There's a bed in a FEMA

camp that the plaintiff could occupy.