The entire sane world reacted with shock and disgust when it was announced that Roald Dahl's beloved books would be wokified by a "sensitivity" team.
But ready for something that probably won't shock you at all? The project manager in charge of the movement to bowdlerize some of the British author's most cherished works was a woman named Jo Ross-Barrett, who describes herself as a "non-binary, asexual, polyamorous relationship anarchist who is on the autism spectrum," and, of course, she uses "they/them" pronouns.
Since leading the charge to pansify Dahl's books, Ross-Barrett has taken a break from her position in charge of the Inclusive Minds "sensitivity team" to become a professional in the oh-so-trendy field of, you guessed it, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consulting.
On her website, she lists her areas of expertise as "autism, aromantic- and asexual-spectrum topics, the bi umbrella, children's books, illustration, interactive narratives, intersectional feminism, mental health, non-binary gender, relationship education, sex and puberty education."
Ross-Barrett's passion for "inclusivity" has previously been published in Bi-ible (yes, really), an anthology about bisexuality, and in AZE Journal, an online mag for anyone calling themselves "aromantic-spectrum, asexual-spectrum and agender people."
In Inclusive Minds' profile of Ross-Barrett, they even included that she's not only an "autistic, non-binary" person, but also a "polyamorous relationship anarchist." You can't make this stuff up!
This is the type of person censoring Roald Dahl.
To add insult to injury, Ross-Barrett and her team of "sensitivity readers" (eight to 30 year olds, no less – that's right, nobody over 30 years old was on the team) had to cut phrases like "fearful ugliness" and "attractive middle-aged lady" lest any Charmin-soft human be offended in one way or another. In "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," this sentence was removed completely: "Mike Teavee himself had no less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body, and every now and again he would leap up into the air and fire off half a dozen rounds from one or another of these weapons."
Entirely new passages not written by Dahl and designed to create an even greater level of "inclusivity" were also added. For one example, in "The Witches," a paragraph describing female characters being bald and wearing wigs was followed by an additional line saying "there is certainly nothing wrong with that." They also scrubbed phrases like "mother and father" and "boys and girls" in favor of gender-neutral alternatives.
Sigh.
While Miss Ross-Barrett and her ilk are professionals at being offended, please take a moment to read about Roald Dahl's service as a WWII fighter pilot because it's fascinating and gives you a glimpse of the caliber of person being censored here.
We've already learned about the caliber of person doing the censoring.
