Emily Drabinksi, president of the American Library Association (ALA), a group that Barack Obama endorsed in July, expressed surprise in a recent interview that her public identification as a “Marxist” caused a political backlash against her organization.
“I was excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me, and are often under a lot of scrutiny,” Drabinksi told NBC News on Monday, her first interview since taking over the post in July.
Shortly after becoming president of the ALA, Drabinksi marveled at her unlikely candidacy in comments that divided librarians and legislators across the country. “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet following her election in April 2022. “I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity!”
Drabinski’s remarks led Republican lawmakers in several states, including Illinois, South Carolina, and Arizona, to demand their respective libraries withdraw support for the ALA. “The minds, hearts, souls and bodies of our children must be protected. The use of taxpayer funds to subvert the traditional family unit, which is the core of our national identity, will not be tolerated. Marxism is not welcome in Georgia,” the state’s Freedom Caucus wrote in one typical message following Drabinski’s disclosure.
“I didn’t anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasn’t happening right now,” Drabinski told NBC.
In early July, Montana became the first state to move from rhetoric to reality when a seven-member commission representing its State Library Commission voted to withdraw from ALA. “I think this is a really good move to send a really clear signal to our national organizations that we are not in agreement with the direction they are taking these organizations,” one parental rights advocate told the Montana Free Press following the news.
The move prompted the ALA to reaffirm its mission to help librarians across the country. “Despite the decision in Montana this week, ALA remains committed to providing essential support, resources, and opportunities for every library and library worker in every state and territory across the nation to help them better serve their communities,” an official statement from the group noted.
Obama nodded to the ALA in a rare public letter he released in July, calling the attempt to ban books across the country “profoundly misguided.”
“Today, some of the books that shaped my life – and the lives of so many others – are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives. It’s no coincidence that these ‘banned books’ are often written by or feature people of color, indigenous people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community,” the former president wrote.
Beneath Obama’s letter to the nation’s “dedicated and hardworking librarians,” was a link to an organization, Unite Against Book Bans, spearheaded by the ALA, which was then hosting a rally in Chicago. The event was headlined by antiracist author, Ibram X. Kendi, who has infamously argued that the “only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”