Education Secretary Linda McMahon Didn't Know About The Tulsa Race Massacre When Asked About ‘Illegal DEI' In Education

Black America Web

15 hours ago

Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Here's a question: Is there literally anyone in President Donald Trump's cabinet who is actually qualified for the position they have been appointed to?
I ask because it appears that all of the highest offices in America (including the presidency) are being run by people who don't know things. We have a Homeland Security secretary who failed to correctly define habeas corpus; a Health and Human Services secretary who takes his grandchildren with him to swim in toxic sewage and has declared that people shouldn't take medical advice from him; a Secretary of Defense who has a remedial grasp on who our foreign allies are and can't seem to get it through his head that Signal group chats are not appropriate platforms to discuss confedential war plans on; a tech CEO who recently left the Department of Government Efficiency because it became more and more clear he didn't know what he was doing (Elon won't admit it, but that's why), and a host of other administrators who appear to be clueless when it comes to the thing they're supposed ot be experts in.
This brings us to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, the former pro wrestling mogul who somehow got appointed as the highest educational authority in the nation, despite her apparent ignorance of American history, specifically Black history, and, even more specifically, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, McMahon was pressed by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to clarify which history lessons would be considered 'illegal DEI' under the Trump administration, which has made it a top priority to do all it can to ban diversity initiatives into 'woke' oblivion under the guise of promoting meritocracy — despite being, observably, the most woefully underqualified federal administration in recent history.
Lee's inquiry turned into an impromptu quiz on Black history, which McMahon embarrassingly failed.
'Would it be 'illegal DEI' for a lesson plan on the Tulsa Race Massacre?' Lee asked McMahon.
'I'd have to get back to you on that,' McMahon said.
'Do you know what the Tulsa Race Massacre is?' Lee asked.
'I'd like to look into it more and get back to you on it,' McMahon replied.
The Tulsa Race Massacre — in which hundreds of residents in the affluent Black town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were lynched and had their homes and businesses destroyed by a massive white mob — happened more than a century ago, but don't worry, guys, sooner or later the highest educational authority in the land will learn about it, and then she'll get back to us on wheter it should be illegal to teach it.
Also, Ruby Bridges, we're going to have to give McMahon some time on her story, too.
'How about the book 'Through My Eyes,' by Ruby Bridges, for instance?' Lee asked.
'I haven't read that,' McMahon responded.
'Have you learned about Ruby Bridges?' Lee said.
'If you have specific examples, you'd like to…' McMahon responded before Lee cut her off to note, 'That was a specific example… I named a specific book.'
Besides the fact that a federal education secretary should be more well-versed on these subjects, this is simply what happens when Trump has white people out here deciding how much Black history is too much Black history. McMahon didn't know anything about the most well-known race riot in American history, and she didn't appear to know much (if anything) about the first Black student to attend a desegregated school in Louisiana — but she's the authority on which Black history subjects constitute 'illegal DEI'? (Also, how TF would Black history, or any history for that matter, fall under the DEI label at all. It's almost as if this administration is so racist that any curriculum that doesn't center white historical figures and events needs to be spot-checked to see if it passes the white fragility smell test, or else it gets slapped with the label that has become white America's favorite new racial slur.)
Anyway, Lee has been appropriately unkind while ripping McMahon and the Trump administration for their anti-DEI propaganda, which is only made worse through their glaring lack of historical knowledge (or knowledge about anything, honestly).
'Even if Secretary McMahon was better versed in American history, there is no doubt her department would further attempt to whitewash history and ensure students don't have access to the facts,' Lee told The Grio, adding that the Trump administration's 'lack of knowledge, denial of history, and open racism' doesn't mean students across the country 'should be deprived of learning opportunities or access to a quality education.'
Lee had smoke for the Trump administration during Wednesday's congressional session, too.
'When [you] call for removing of equity and inclusion and diversity and accessibility from schools in favor of 'traditional American values,' it's indistinguishable from … post-Civil War South advocating to rewrite history with the Lost Cause narrative [and] to censor truths about slavery,' she said. 'This department's financial aid policies harken back to a time when higher education was reserved for affluent, well-connected and predominantly white students.'
Exactly!
SEE ALSO:
Trump's Job Corps 'Pause' Is MAGA's Plan To Eliminate Poor Youth
MIT Becomes Latest University To Back Away From DEI Initiatives
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Education Secretary Linda McMahon Didn't Know About The Tulsa Race Massacre When Asked About 'Illegal DEI' In Education was originally published on newsone.com
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