(NEW YORK) — On Friday May 9, the Pentagon sent a memo to the countryโ€™s military educational institutions, including the War Colleges and Military Service Academies, instructing them to review all library collections for compliance with a previous directive that they not promote โ€œdivisive conceptsโ€ and โ€œgender ideology.โ€ The memo comes amid ongoing reports of book bans, cancelled speakers, and curricular censorship at Department of Defense schools, the Naval Academy, and West Point, among others.

The new memo from the Pentagon directs institutions to review their library collections to identify and โ€œsequesterโ€ all materials โ€œpotentially incompatibleโ€ with the directive by May 21, using a list of 20 keyword search terms. The keyword list includes many terms already targeted by the Trump administration in federal agencies, such as, โ€œaffirmative action,โ€ โ€œdiscrimination,โ€ โ€œdiversity, equity, and inclusion,โ€ โ€œcritical race theory,โ€ โ€œgender expression,โ€ โ€œtrangender people,โ€ and โ€œwhite privilege.โ€

The memo also announced the existence of a โ€œtemporary Academic Libraries Committeeโ€ made up of โ€œknowledgeable leaders, educators, and library professionals drawn from across the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Military Departmentsโ€ which informed the list of search terms, will advise on a further review process for the identified materials, and will determine the โ€œultimate dispositionโ€ of them. 

โ€œThis is an ideological dragnet. Despite the appointment of a committee and the appearance of a review process, nothing about a government edict to yank books off library shelves in places we are supposed to be opening minds is either routine or appropriate,โ€ said Jonathan Friedman, managing director of U.S. free expression programs at PEN America. โ€œThe United States military needs future officers who can think critically, informed by a full understanding of the worldโ€™s challenges and its complex battlefields. Restricting access to ideas by purging books is designed to do the opposite — to narrow the lens through which people see the world, and curb the freedom to read and think.โ€

According to the Pentagonโ€™s memo, the review of military educational institutionsโ€™ library collections is to be carried out by keyword searches using the following list of 20 Library of Congress Subject Headings:

  • Affirmative Action Programs — Law and Legislation — United States
  • Affirmative Action Programs — United Statesย 
  • Affirmative Actionย 
  • Allyship
  • Anti-Racism — United Statesย 
  • Critical Race Theoryย 
  • Discrimination — Law and Legislation — United Statesย 
  • Diversity in the Workplace — United Statesย 
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusionย 
  • Gender Affirming Care โ€“ United Statesย 
  • Gender Dysphoriaย 
  • Gender Expressionย 
  • Gender Identity — United Statesย 
  • Gender Nonconformityย 
  • Gender Transitionย 
  • Transgender Military Personnel — United Statesย 
  • Transgender People — United Statesย 
  • Transsexualism — United Statesย 
  • Transsexuals — United Statesย 
  • White privilege (Social structure)ย 

About PEN America

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.

Contact: Malka Margolies, [email protected], 718-530-3582