Mother Jones illustration; Eugene Hoshiko/AP; Wikipedia
I want to make space for the idea that some people had well-intentioned gripes against DEI.
Many were told that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts had gone too far, and some people believed that President Donald Trump was simply making a good-faith effort to rein it in, to curtail the abuses of “woke” gone unchecked.
I think those people are very wrong, but it’s okay—we’ll agree to disagree.
But what has become abundantly clear in the first 60 days of Trump’s presidency is that reining in alleged preferential treatment or leftist overreaches were never Trump’s goal. Something much more sinister is at play.
How do I know? Well, allow me to introduce you to some American heroes: Dr. Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first Black man accepted into the United States space program; First Lieutenant Anita Morris, the National Guard’s first Black female chaplain; and Maj. General Marcelite J. Harris, the first Black woman to achieve the rank of major general in US history. All of these American heroes have two things in common. First, they made outstanding contributions to their communities and their country.
Second? You can no longer find their photos on certain US military websites.
In the latest installment of a series in which I read and respond to racist comments, I highlight the erasure of these American heroes as part of Trump’s anti-DEI crusade.
As reported by the Associated Press, some 26,000 images featuring people and events considered “DEI content” were flagged for removal from Department of Defense websites as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s promise that DEI would be “dead” under his leadership.
What’s clear is that Trump’s anti-DEI movement is plainly bigoted. The administration’s actions demonstrate an intent to erase Black people and other groups from the American story, and I believe it is up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen.
