I founded Girls Who Code and have visited many schools. We launched our afterschool clubs program in 2015, and I went on a tour to see our programs in different parts of the country. A disproportionate number of the students I met were black and brown, and they had tattered textbooks, spotty internet and old computers.
It was my fear that these students would be left behind that led me to create a Girls Who Code book series, a collection of short novels that would teach girls the principles of coding, even in the absence of computers. A cast of young, female coders who looked like them would be included in the books.
I am aware that there are girls in the Central York School District who would see themselves in this page. They would ban the Girls Who Code book series if they could.
For more information on what happened in the Central York District, read Gizmodo's story "Did a Pennsylvania School District Ban the Girls Who Code Books?" There is an answer that is complicated.
A group of students are campaigning to get the books temporarily unbanned and are working to prevent them from being banned again. Over 1600 titles have been removed from shelves in the past year, according to PEN America. Around 20% of them talk about America's history of racism. 40 percent of them feature characters of color and another 40 percent address themes related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer community.
The ironically named "Moms for Liberty" are attempting to rewrite history. The book bans aren't about books at all, they're about masks It's part of a decades-long strategy to reinforce a white supremacist patriarchy under the guise of "traditional family values."
Republicans turned down the chance to cut the child poverty rates in half. They called universal daycare a class war. It's a coincidence that many of the states with the largest Black populations also have the most restrictive abortion laws.
State laws that prevent discussion of sexual identity have taken away our children's right to self- expression. Even in cases of rape or incest, states ban abortion. Republican Senators are blocking meaningful action on gun legislation because they insist that guns don't kill people.
In banning books that open children's minds to new people, new interests, and new career paths, right-wingers have taken away children's right to opportunity itself. To learn about, and chase, down a better future, books are important.
Whether it's preventing girls of color from learning about a lucrative career path, or queer kids from understanding who they truly are, those in power are desperate to keep anyone who threatens the status quo from getting the means to overturn it. If Moms for Liberty are correct, we parents have the power to protect our kids.
The good news is, sensible parents aren’t alone in the fight. The vast majority of Americans support comprehensive gun control. Most support abortion, affordable childcare, and paid family leave policies, too. When you survey moms in particular, as my organization Marshall Plan for Moms did last year, that bipartisan share grows even greater: 83 percent of responding mothers supported our policies, including 73 percent of those who identified themselves as conservative. And as for those book bans? Fully half of all voters believe that books should never be banned, with 75 percent saying that the prevention of book banning was important to them while voting, according to an EveryLibrary poll.
Let's make as much noise about these policies as the vocal minority is driving them. To help anyone who needs an abortion get one, to show up for one another when our government fails to, and so on. We need to teach our kids about the diversity of the human experience, about our collective challenges and shared path to liberation, even as those in power try to erase it.
We can show the right-wingers that a self-assured pre-teen girl is not as scary as her mom is.
Girls Who Code is a company founded by Reshma Saujani.
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