“What the parents of the school district really want and are focused on are very different things than what we're seeing is coming in from the outside,” activist Katie Paris said. Paris is the founder of Red Wine and Blue, an advocacy group that encourages suburban...
Book Bans
Red Wine & Blue on Good Morning America
Look who was featured on Good Morning America. Are you ready to be a #Troublemaker with us?
Parents push for parental rights when it comes to school books
“When our children don't get to see people who look like them in the stories they are reading at school then they have to think well, maybe I'm not a part of this society. Maybe I'm not a part of this world.” Proud of our very own Julie Collins and Katie Paris,...
Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs
On a school night in late January, Stephana Ferrell, a 39-year-old mother of two elementary school children in Orange County, Fla., logged onto a virtual meeting with more than 200 other parents around the country who, like her, have been alarmed to see books pulled...
Suburban moms push back against book bans in schools
Typically quiet school board meetings have turned hostile across in many communities, with heated debates over hot-button political issues like critical race theory, book bans and mask mandates. A nationwide group of women called "Red Wine and Blue" is working to...
Suburban moms call on groups espousing parental rights to condemn death threats
Source: Reuters Investigates. “School officials and their families should never be subject to death threats and harassment. Full stop. No matter where you stand on specific books or school policies, violence and intimidation are never the answer.” Suburbs Across...
Janice Robinson, NC program director for Red, Wine and Blue, on efforts by parents to push back against recent book banning
Radio Interview with Rob Schofield at NC Policy Watch. Listen here.
‘Blue’ suburban moms are mobilizing to counter conservatives in fights over masks, book bans and diversity education
Source: The Washington Post. Dozens of suburban moms from around the country dialed into an Ohio-based Zoom training session last month with the same goal — to learn how to combat the increasingly vitriolic rhetoric from parents whose protests over mask mandates and...
The Network of Suburban Moms Working to Stop Book Bans
Suburban women are a force. Following the 2016 election, it became clear that the contingent of white suburban women could sway the power in the country. But in the months following, other suburban women knew it was time to step up, and in 2018, a group banded...
Mother in Bucks County pushes back against book bans
A mother from Bucks County is pushing back against book bans in school districts across the country. Suburbs Across America said Thursday Stacey Smith of Perkasie has joined suburban moms from around the country to stop book bans with the organization Red Wine and...
Recent Posts
Okay, But Why Are Romance Novels Political?
When people think of romance novels, the first thing that comes to mind is shirtless men with windswept hair on the covers of mass-market paperbacks, or maybe the “damsel in distress” main character who is waiting for a love interest to come and save her from the clutches of evil. They’re often not thought of as ‘real’ reading, because they are stories typically written by women, for women, and starring women. But what if the truth is that even the most “raunchy” novels of the genre are deeply political?
Okay, But Why Is Autism in the Headlines?
Millions of Americans are pushing back against claims made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and President Donald Trump about finding the cause of autism and their promises to find treatments for the disorder. Trump has called the rise in diagnoses of autism “a tremendous horror show.” Many autism advocates – and people with autism themselves – say Kennedy’s and Trump’s statements are misinformed and even dangerous. So what’s the truth? Are autism rates rising? Do we know why? Is it even something that needs to be “cured”?
Do This: Unite Against Soft Censorship
The only way to end censorship, whether it’s the quiet removal of books from library collections or in-your-face book bans, is to fight it head on. We saw a huge example of this – and a big win for free speech – this week when ABC and Disney returned Jimmy Kimmel and...
Watch This: Learn How to Spot Soft Censorship
A lot of people are talking about freedom of speech right now. As Americans, it's a right that has always defined us and that we all hold dear. That’s why the majority of us oppose book bans and censorship. The rise in book bans over the past few years has been well...
Read This: The Quiet Danger of Soft Censorship
We’ve been fighting the explosion of book bans since Red Wine & Blue started. PEN America reports 16,000 book bans in public schools since 2021 — a level not seen since the 1950s during McCarthyism. This increase has been driven by organized groups with a...