By: Phone Min Thant, Staff Writer
In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s personal vendettas, obsessions, and destructive thinking lies the sputtering corpse of one of his longest-standing victims: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) policy. Every aspect of DEI in the American workforce was collectively termed “illegal” and terminated just days after the inauguration.
DEI helps combat discriminatory regulations in daily workplace processes. It has been around since the mid 1960s with the passage of anti-discrimination laws and supports striving for a more equitable labour environment. Apart from hiring, it also incorporated important issues such as paid maternity leave and respecting pronouns, and allowed for the celebration of non-Christian traditions.
As alarming as it may sound, one particular item on the Trump administration’s DEI purge list has been the history of the Tuskegee airmen, the first African American aerial unit in the US Armed Forces. Following a comment from defence secretary Pete Hegseth that there will be “no more DEI” inside the US defence sector, the US Air Force scrapped basic training material for new personnel containing a documentary on the Tuskegee airmen.
Trump and his supporters no doubt brand themselves as patriots. Still, they are so willing to dismantle and erase a critical part of the country’s military history. If the administration is patriotic, then shouldn’t the armed forces celebrate and learn from the victories of its forefathers? The issue is, and has always been, one of ignoring the contributions of Black people and re-narrating the concept of American history as an all-white affair.
The issue is, and has always been, one of ignoring the contributions of Black people and re-narrating the concept of American history as an all-white affair.
In the same vein, Trump also signed an executive order scaling back racial education in K–12 schools, citing the dismantling of “radical, anti-American ideologies.” Books containing themes of race and racism have been pulled from the shelves of school libraries. Since the 2020 election, Trump has also scrutinized the 1619 Project, a landmark book aimed at remerging the contributions of Black Americans to US history, labelling it as “toxic propaganda” and “ideological poison.” All this effort goes towards targeting Critical Race Theory, which studies the legal production and prevalence of racism in institutions and national history. The executive order was followed by Hegseth cancelling celebrations of Black History Month (as well as other events celebrating diversity) inside the defence department.
This effort at combating the discussion of race is one of self-defense, an attempt to maintain the unwavering patriotic image of whiteness in America. Hegseth recently changed the name of US military base Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg, in commemoration of a Confederate leader), back to Fort Bragg. Hegseth was able to overturn the 2023 decision by claiming the new name honours Private Roland Bragg, a distinguished soldier during World War II. This stands in stark contrast to the banning of the documentary on the Tuskegee airmen — both important to the country’s history, the white figure honoured and the Black figures neglected. In the name of “American Greatness,” Mount Denali (an Indigenous Athabascan word meaning “the tall one”) has also been renamed to Mount McKinley, another prominent white figure from history.
Although the decision to take off the curriculum materials containing the Tuskegee airmen has been reversed following much criticism, the initial decision, as well as the banning of diverse educational materials show this whole issue has never been about sustaining the military or national “unity.” In his latest book, Hegseth explicitly stated that “all the ‘diversity’ recruiting messages made certain kids — white kids — feel like they’re not wanted” and implied that racism inside the military is a “lie.” Trump’s views on racism and xenophobia have been recorded since his first term, and his latest racist and ableist remarks of those “responsible” for the Washington aviation accident show that his views have not changed. He will take no accountability as a leader and has no qualms scapegoating the people he cares the least for.
This attempt at erasing and minimizing Black history shows that the new administration cares deeply about institutionalizing racism in national policy and reinforcing the white-washed portrait of America. Not only this, the further marginalization of women, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, immigrants, and disabled people through taking down DEI only spell an anxious outlook for four more years.
