Students from the Miami-Dade County Public Schools School for Advanced Studies – Wolfson campus protest during a statewide walkout on April 21, 2023, in Miami, Florida. The students joined with others across the state for school walkouts in protest of what they say is an assault on educational freedom by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature. | Source: Joe Raedle / Getty
The one parent responsible for getting a series of books banned in one Florida school district, including a poem read at Joe Biden’s inauguration, has been accused of being white supremacist-adjacent with far-right political activism.
A Twitter thread chock-full of receipts by way of damning photos and video footage claims Daily Salinas — the parent of students at the Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes who is credited with pushing for the school to ban three books and the poem — has been associated with far-right groups accused of upholding tenets of white supremacy.
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The lengthy Twitter thread was posted by Miami Against Fascism, a group that says it exposes “the far-right of Miami & South FL.” In it are photos and video footage of Salinas’ activism with Moms for Liberty, a group fueled by fears of critical race theory being taught at schools that was previously at the center of anti-masking crusades.
Not to be outdone, photos show Salinas rallying with the Proud Boys — a far-right hate group associated with white supremacists — as well as a political canvasser who New York magazine called “a white supremacist goon.”
“Not only did Daily Salinas attend the Proud Boy organized rally in support of Rubio canvasser Christopher Monzon, previously arrested for attacking protesters with a confederate flag, she was also captured alongside his close supporters when he was released from the hospital,” the Twitter thread by Miami Against Fascism said while pointing to a tweet from October as proof.
There are also screenshots of Salinas sharing QAnon propaganda on social media.
In case you missed it, Salinas successfully lobbied to have three books — The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids, Countries in the News Cuba — and The Hills We Climb — the poem read by Amanda Gorman at Biden’s inauguration — banned from her children’s K-8 school because of what she called “indirect hate messages” she attributed to critical race theory.
Gorman tweeted in response to the move that she was “gutted” and encouraged people to challenge such book bans.
Salinas is part of a larger conservative-led movement to ban certain books and other works from schools around the country that originally emerged in an effort to affect the midterm elections last year.
While critics likely will say the ban in Florida is egregious, a report from last September found that Texas banned more books from school libraries in the previous 12 months than any other state in the nation.
Florida, however, trailed closely and ranked second nationally.
While Texas had banned more than 800 books in that time period, Florida banned nearly 600.
The book bans in Florida have been largely made possible by Gov. Ron DeSantis and a Republican-controlled legislature, who worked together to pass a series of laws to remove certain books about race and gender from school libraries. Those restrictive policies have breathed life into the groups for which Salinas has been an activist.
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Missouri School Board Reverses Book Ban On Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’
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