Pentagon directs military to pull library books that address diversity, anti-racism, gender issues

By LOLITA C BALDOR WASHINGTON AP The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity anti-racism or gender issues by May according to a memo issued to the force on Friday Related Articles Two dolls instead of Toys become the latest symbol of Trump s exchange war FedEx board member Steiner is picked to be next USPS postmaster general amid talk of privatization Trump revives then discards then revives again the idea of taxing the rich in big GOP bill Stockholm City Council rejects US Embassy demands to end DEI activities Fishermen battling with changing oceans chart new unit after Trump s push to deregulate It is the broadest and greater part detailed directive so far on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth s campaign to rid the military of diversity and equity programs policies and instructional materials And it follows similar efforts to remove hundreds of books from the libraries at the military academies The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo which was signed Friday by Timothy Dill who is performing the duties of the defense undersecretary for personnel Educational materials at the libraries promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department s core mission the memo states adding that department leaders must promptly identify books that are not compatible with that mission and sequester them by May By then the memo says additional guidance will be provided on how to cull that initial list and determine what should be removed and determine an appropriate ultimate disposition for those materials It does not say what will happen to the books or whether they will be stored away or destroyed According to the memo a temporary Academic Libraries Committee set up by the department will provide information on the review and decisions about the books That panel provided a list of search terms to use in the initial identification of the books to be pulled and reviewed The search terms include affirmative action anti-racism critical race theory discrimination diversity gender dysphoria gender identity and transition transgender transsexual and white privilege