On Friday, the U.S. Navy revised its official reading list for all sailors, noticeably removing several controversial books that sparked outrage last year for their depictions of race relations and sexuality in the United States.
As reported by Fox News, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Mike Gilday published the list of 12 recommended books, spanning the genres of fiction, non-fiction, military, strategy, technology, and management. But noticeably absent from the list were three books that had been included on the 2021 list of recommended reading: “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, and “Sexual Minorities and Politics” by Jason Pierceson.
The prior inclusion of these three books led to backlash from across the country. The most vocal criticisms came from Republican members of Congress, who pointed out that the lessons contained within such works as Kendi’s were “explicitly anti-American,” as they promoted the far-left notion of “Critical Race Theory,” which claims that all White people are automatically racist and that America is an inherently racist nation. Gilday had defended Kendi’s book at the time by claiming that “it evokes the author’s own personal journal in understanding barriers to true inclusion, the deep nuances of racism and racial inequalities.”
In a statement published Friday alongside the updated list, Gilday said that the goal of the reading program was to ensure the professional and personal growth and education of all sailors.
“We are driving a fleet-wide campaign of self-improvement,” said Gilday’s statement. “We must foster an organization that supports and empowers Sailors to have an independent quest for knowledge through reading and information sharing. What you know and how fast you learn is relevant in this era of strategic competition.”