Donald Trump is back in the White House, and he brought his anti-diversity propaganda back with him. Now, as a result, multiple departments in our federal government are barring observances of Black History Month and other holidays and celebrations for marginalized groups just to comply with the president’s white nationalism-inspired marching orders.
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According to NBC News, the Defense Intelligence Agency has ordered a pause of all activities and events related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and other events it considers “special observances” — which clearly doesn’t include President’s Day, the Fourth of July or any of the other holidays white Republicans drape their entire neighborhoods in obnoxious stars and stripes to commemorate — in order to avoid the risk of running afoul of Trump’s anti-DEI orders, which he signed just hours after he was sworn in on Jan. 20.
This news from the DIA comes just days after officials with the U.S. Department of State reported that they have been directed by the White House to observe Black History Month by not really observing Black History Month and, instead, highlighting “valuable contributions of individual Americans throughout U.S. history, while ensuring our public communications maintain the spirit of the directive eliminating DEAI programs.”
In other words, All history matters.
None of this should come as a surprise, of course. Trump’s propaganda-reliant war on DEI even has him out here blaming diversity while going out of his way to politicize the tragic mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, despite how overwhelmingly white and male the aviation world is.
For the most part, these federal agencies appear to be pausing any official “special observances” simply to err on the side of caution while they grapple with the chaos and uncertainty the new administration has already caused, but the fact that we’re here in the first place — and the fact that these directives only affect celebrations for Black people, Jewish people, LGBTQ folks and other marginalized people — is just a further indication that making America great again really just meant bringing unbridled white nationalism back to the forefront.
Not that it ever really left the forefront — otherwise, we wouldn’t have reelected him.
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