{"id":108746,"date":"2025-02-20T11:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/20\/jd-vances-hilbilly-elegy-deemed-too-woke-by-the-department-of-defense\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T11:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:03:09","slug":"jd-vances-hilbilly-elegy-deemed-too-woke-by-the-department-of-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/20\/jd-vances-hilbilly-elegy-deemed-too-woke-by-the-department-of-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance\u2019s \u2018Hilbilly Elegy\u2019 Deemed Too Woke By The Department of Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s been some friendly fire in the new Administration\u2019s rush to scrub anything that doesn\u2019t glorify wealthy white males from publicly funded classroom curricula. An article on Pen.org<\/a> reported on the Department of Defense recently compiling a list of books that are too \u201cwoke\u201d for military families. There are some expected names \u2014 can\u2019t have the children realize that our American life has a lot of parallels with Brave New World if they aren\u2019t allowed to read it. But there are a couple of titles that are head-tilters. One book titled \u201cFreckleface Strawberry\u201d<\/a> (affiliate link), a self-worth story tailored to ginger children, was deemed offending. As was another book, JD Vance\u2019s \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d<\/a> (affiliate link). <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

JD Vance\u2019s book has been banned from DOD schools. I\u2019m interested to see how this story plays out. #BannedBooks<\/a> #FreedomToRead<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/9BkwjwWDPD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dr. Brian H. Williams (@BHWilliamsMD) February 19, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve no clue why this book was banned. Unless being poor, white, and Appalachian is the new Black (it isn\u2019t), my assumption would be that it got nicked from the permitted-to-read list because it used the words \u201cfamily,\u201d \u201ccrisis,\u201d and \u201celegy\u201d in the title. Seems a little heavy handed and obvious to posit that a book banning would have anti-intellectual undertones, but I\u2019m guessing that the word \u201celegy\u201d alone is enough of a two-dollar word to get our censoring overlords to squint at a title. Vance\u2019s book isn\u2019t the only book lawyers with children may recognize on the nix list: \u201cNo Truth Without Ruth\u201d<\/a> by Kathleen Krull (affiliate link) also got tripped up in the censorship. I\u2019m usually not quiet about how cringey and out of cultural touch it was to moniker the late jurist after a rapper who \u2014 despite his way with words \u2014 had no chance in hell of ever clerking for her<\/a>, but having a children\u2019s picture book about your life classified as too much for even military brats is<\/em> pretty Notorious.<\/p>\n

For now, it seems like the only things penned by JD Vance military families will be able to read is him regurgitating Fox talking points about how the Judiciary should eat crow whenever the Executive does something unconstitutional. God help us all.<\/p>\n

Julianne Moore\u2019s \u2018Freckleface Strawberry\u2019 And JD Vance\u2019s \u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019 Among Cooks Caught In Defense Department Review<\/a> [Pen.org]<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post JD Vance\u2019s \u2018Hilbilly Elegy\u2019 Deemed Too Woke By The Department of Defense<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s been some friendly fire in the new Administration\u2019s rush to scrub anything that doesn\u2019t glorify wealthy white males from publicly funded classroom curricula. An article on Pen.org<\/a> reported on the Department of Defense recently compiling a list of books that are too \u201cwoke\u201d for military families. There are some expected names \u2014 can\u2019t have the children realize that our American life has a lot of parallels with Brave New World if they aren\u2019t allowed to read it. But there are a couple of titles that are head-tilters. One book titled \u201cFreckleface Strawberry\u201d<\/a> (affiliate link), a self-worth story tailored to ginger children, was deemed offending. As was another book, JD Vance\u2019s \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d<\/a> (affiliate link). <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve no clue why this book was banned. Unless being poor, white, and Appalachian is the new Black (it isn\u2019t), my assumption would be that it got nicked from the permitted-to-read list because it used the words \u201cfamily,\u201d \u201ccrisis,\u201d and \u201celegy\u201d in the title. Seems a little heavy handed and obvious to posit that a book banning would have anti-intellectual undertones, but I\u2019m guessing that the word \u201celegy\u201d alone is enough of a two-dollar word to get our censoring overlords to squint at a title. Vance\u2019s book isn\u2019t the only book lawyers with children may recognize on the nix list: \u201cNo Truth Without Ruth\u201d<\/a> by Kathleen Krull (affiliate link) also got tripped up in the censorship. I\u2019m usually not quiet about how cringey and out of cultural touch it was to moniker the late jurist after a rapper who \u2014 despite his way with words \u2014 had no chance in hell of ever clerking for her<\/a>, but having a children\u2019s picture book about your life classified as too much for even military brats is<\/em> pretty Notorious.<\/p>\n

For now, it seems like the only things penned by JD Vance military families will be able to read is him regurgitating Fox talking points about how the Judiciary should eat crow whenever the Executive does something unconstitutional. God help us all.<\/p>\n

Julianne Moore\u2019s \u2018Freckleface Strawberry\u2019 And JD Vance\u2019s \u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019 Among Cooks Caught In Defense Department Review<\/a> [Pen.org]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images) There\u2019s been some friendly fire in the new Administration\u2019s rush to scrub anything that doesn\u2019t glorify wealthy white males from publicly funded classroom curricula. An article on Pen.org reported on the Department of Defense recently compiling a list of books that are too \u201cwoke\u201d for military families. There are some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Williams-150x150-wVYuvj.jpeg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}