The 47th President
has attacked our government like a bull in a
China closet. He is doing his best to upend
precedent and policy, as he promised that he
would. He issued hundreds of executive orders,
pardoned convicted criminals (like himself),
manipulated the truth through websites,
abolished DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion
measures), putting hundreds on administrative
leave, and caused more damage in just a few
days than most do in a lifetime. Additionally,
wholesale deportations of undocumented people
have shattered families, disrupted
communities, and upended some international
relationships. Wow!
The folks who chose
to stay home during this election are
regretting it. There were those who said that
he wouldn’t be “so bad”, but he has been worse
than we could ever have imagined. But it is
what most voters, that is those who were not
suppressed out, chose.
The Department of
Defense, zealous acolytes genuflecting at the
President’s anti-DEI stance, decided to scrub
references to the Tuskegee Airmen in their Air
Force training videos. Within days, his
morally compromised choice and marginally
selected Secretary of Defense reversed that
decision. The Tuskegee Airmen videos are back
in. This is not cause for celebration. The
fact is that the anti-DEI forces that now
reign could attempt to erase history, and they
will continue to attempt to rewrite reality.
Erasing the Tuskegee Airmen is at the tip of
the iceberg. These people are so creative that
they can turn a violent insurrection into a
benign Capitol tour, although who comes to a
Capitol tour with weapons and bear spray? The
violent, rabid, insurrection crowd has been
described by the current President as
“peaceful” “hostages”, even as many have been
convicted of assault against law enforcement
officers. If they can erase the unlawful
actions of January 6, they can attempt to
erase the massive contributions of African
American people to this country. We will not
be erased.
Dr. Carter G.
Woodson, founder of Negro History Week, now
African American History Month, established
our historical presence because of our
nation’s tendency to forget injustice. Many,
like Presidential sidekick Elon Musk, who has
encouraged Germans to move “past guilt” of the
Holocaust, indeed exhorting them not to “lose”
their culture “in some sort of
multiculturalism”. He is the Trump whisperer,
and it is likely that he and 47 are having
similar conversations about the role that
multiculturalism and an acknowledgement of it
has in contemporary society. They don’t want
to go back and embrace our flawed past.
Instead, they’d prefer to swallow our
difference with a sense of misplaced pride in
our past. Make America Great Again? Really,
when was it ever great for the exploited?
The unsuccessful
attempt to erase Tuskegee from Air Force
training tapes is not the worst thing this
administration has done. Abruptly halting
federal grand programs, including food
assistance, impacts millions and is an
unnecessary flexing of power muscles.
Peremptorily and illegally firing inspectors
general in several government departments is a
bullying tactic. Somebody does not want
inspectors general because they do not want
illegal actions to be inspected. With skillful
manipulation of the facts, there are those who
can characterize them as justified, not
illegal and non-Constitutional acts. We are in
an era where truth doesn’t matter.
CNN anchor, Jim
Acosta, abruptly announced his departure from
the network on January 28. He left an ominous
parting message – “It is never a good time to
bow down to a tyrant…Don’t give in to the
lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold onto the
truth and hope”. I’m grateful to Acosta for
putting it out there, and disappointed that so
many others are holding their tongues and
currying favor with the Felon-in-Chief.
Where does that
leave African American people? We are living
in a sad and empowering time. What did we do
before government assistance? What did we do
before federal dollars subsidized our Black
History Month celebrations? What did we do
without DEI programs? We survived. We thrived.
We heard the song, “God Bless the Child” and
we went to get our own. We didn’t get what we
deserved; we didn’t get all of it. But we got.
We taught our history in churches and in
Saturday schools. We gathered in salons in
private homes. We taught our children about
our struggles. We didn’t need government to do
it.
We will not be
erased, no matter how hard they try. It’s a
Sankofa moment for Black folks. Go back and
get what has been instrumental to our survival
heretofore. Go back and get the resilience. Go
back and get the creativity. Go back to go
forward. We will not be erased.
