Latest news with #DiscriminatoryEquityIdeology
Axios
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Top Pentagon official announces resignation
Former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot said on Wednesday night he'll resign at the end of the week, per a statement to Politico. Why it matters: Ullyot's announcement comes in a week when the Pentagon reportedly placed three politically appointed senior aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on administrative leave in an investigation into leaks. The Pentagon has also faced scrutiny in recent weeks over The Atlantic's editor-in-chief being inadvertently added to a Signal group chat planning U.S. strikes in Yemen and the removal of Defense Department webpages deemed linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which Ullyot defended. He held senior roles in the first Trump administration and was acting assistant to the Secretary of Defense for public affairs until Sean Parnell was named the Pentagon's chief spokesperson in February and assumed the role. What they're saying: "I made clear to Secretary Hegseth before the inauguration that I was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs," Ullyot told Politico. He said he'd assist in an acting role for two months. "Last month, as that time approached, the Secretary and I talked and could not come to an agreement on another good fit for me at DOD," he added. "So I informed him today that I will be leaving at the end of this week." Representatives for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening. Background: Ullyot is a Marine veteran who served in a senior communications role during President Trump's 2016 campaign. During the first Trump administration, he worked as assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and later as White House National Security Council spokesperson. Most recently served as Pentagon press secretary, responding to outrage at the Defense Department's removal of webpages related to baseball and civil rights legend Jackie Robinson and the Navajo Code Talkers. The content of both was restored. Ullyot defended the administration's removal of webpages on DEI grounds, saying: "As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military."
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MLB Is the Latest Org To Scrub ‘Diversity' From Its Website
Major League Baseball (MLB) is the latest organization to bend after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. On Friday, the MLB announced the removal of all 'diversity' references from its careers page. 'Our values on diversity remain unchanged,' MLB said in a statement to The New York Times, saying it was in the process of 'evaluating our programs' to ensure they are 'compliant with federal law.' As of Saturday, the tab on the far right of the MLB home page reads 'inclusion' rather than 'diversity and inclusion.' Trump signed the DEI order only two days into his term, promising to reinstate 'colorblind equality.' He has enforced his demands to end 'illegal DEI' across the federal government and has also threatened to cut off government funding to states and organizations with DEI programs. Although the MLB doesn't receive direct funding from the federal government, many teams benefit from indirect government support, such as tax-free stadium construction. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred last month that although the organization values diversity, it would 'try to comply with what the law is.' 'There seems to be an evolution going on here,' Manfred said. 'We're following that very carefully.' The MLB completely eliminated its webpage for the Diversity Pipeline Program, which sought to cultivate qualified female or minority MLB candidates. Trump advisor Stephen Miller, who's been criticized for his anti-immigrant stances, founded a legal group called America First that in 2023 filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the MLB, which alleged its programs were racially discriminatory. The MLB is not the first company that America First Legal has filed complaints against over DEI policies. The right-wing group has also filed complaints against NASCAR for discriminating against white men. Miller's group also urged the EEOC to investigate discrimination against white, male, and heterosexual people at 'woke' corporations like Nordstrom, Tyson Foods, Anheuser-Busch, Morgan Stanley, and several airlines. Earlier this week, the Department of Defense removed an article dedicated to Black baseball legend Jackie Robinson from its website. It came as federal agencies commanded federal agencies to slash any mentions of DEI, including some mentions of the transgender community and other Black or Native American historical figures. Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot at the time echoed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's sentiment that 'DEI is dead at the Defense Department,' and 'Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military,' he told USA TODAY. The web page was later restored, and the Pentagon pointed fingers at artificial intelligence for 'mistakenly' removing the content.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Historic figures cut from military websites while others are restored following ‘DEI' ban
For the last four years, high school world history teacher Hadley DiForti has taught the story of Navy hero Doris Miller to her students. Miller, a cook on a ship, gunned down attacking Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor in 1941, before he led other sailors to safety. The effort made him the first Black sailor to receive the Navy Cross, and his image was used on recruitment posters. But earlier this year, when DiForti went to a Navy website that she had used for years to teach the students about Miller's story, it had been taken down, leaving her students feeling 'significantly upset.' 'I was extremely angry,' the Tennessee teacher said. 'I've taught about him now for four years in a row, and kids really do like learning about him.' She has come to rely on .gov websites because she could trust them, she said, but 'now, that's not the case.' The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot told NBC News earlier this week that 'DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services' core warfighting mission.' While one of the Navy's webpages about Miller had been restored, others have not. He is one of many people from marginalized backgrounds documented in thousands of webpages and images whose military history has been scrubbed from Pentagon websites, following President Donald Trump's executive order calling for government agencies to do away with anything that touches what may be perceived as diversity, equity and inclusion. 'We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,' Ullyot continued. 'In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly.' Some pages about figures like Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers and Desert Storm-era Gen. Colin Powell have been restored following public outrage. But many remain down and have not been restored. 'It is both perplexing and disheartening to witness initiatives that, under the guise of DEI, obscure the very narratives that shape our collective history,' said Nika White, a long-time DEI expert and author of the book 'Diversity Uncomplicated.' 'Eliminating references to these figures not only undermines foundational principles of DEI but stands as a glaring contradiction to the pursuit of truth.' The amount of truth that stands to be lost is substantial, given the countless contributions by Black people, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community who were military heroes and historical figures. 'At its core, DEI is about recognizing and valuing the diverse experiences and contributions of all individuals, particularly those historically marginalized,' White said. 'To erase these contributions is to engage in a form of historical revisionism that diminishes the legacies of countless service members who have fought valiantly for our country.' Multiple pages about Robinson, a second lieutenant in the Army who went on to break the color barrier in professional baseball, were taken down, including a page about Negro League players talking about serving in the military. But as of Wednesday afternoon, at least one page about Robinson, in a series about athletes who served in the military, had been reinstated. Similarly, most of the webpages about Miller remain down. One Navy History and Heritage Command page about Miller has been restored, but a large red banner at the top of the site warns that content had been 'revised or removed to align with the President's executive orders and DoD priorities.' Other webpages about him on the Navy's website remain down. 'It's not fair and it's really shocking that our government would do this,' DiForti said. 'I want our students to be able to look at those heroes that serve this country, that looked like them, and realize that they could be like them one day, and not just the heroes that look like me.' Henry-Louis Taylor, the director of urban studies at the University at Buffalo, said the omission of Black war heroes like Miller 'reflects a broader effort to erase Black history and return to a time when U.S. history was a fantasy centered on white glory. If Trump's goal had been a colorblind portrayal of military history, he could have simply omitted racial identifiers.' He said it seems the objective has been to prioritize the history of white participation and heroism. 'This erasure is not just an attack on Black and other people of color — it's an attack on truth itself, turning history as a social science into history as a fairy tale.' Donald Williamson, who served 25 years in the Army, said the changes foretell 'a sad day in America.' 'This goes against everything we were taught about diversity and inclusion in our ranks,' he said. The Army website had deleted and then reinstated this week the page for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. More than a third of the soldiers were born to Japanese immigrants, and despite dealing with racism in the U.S., the 442nd became the most decorated unit in American military history for its size. The group, which had to be replenished several times, totaled about 14,000 soldiers, of which 9,486 received Purple Hearts, 21 Medals of Honor and eight Presidential Unit Citations. Missing last week on the Arlington National Cemetery website were pages about Hector Santa Anna, a World War II bomber pilot, as well as pages about dozens of notable Black, Latino and female veterans. Among the information missing was that for Powell, the former general who became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is the highest rank in the military after the president. His page was restored on March 16. Medgar Evers, the civil rights icon who served in the Army during World War II, was removed from the Arlington Cemetery website as well. In 2017, Trump called Evers a 'great American hero' at the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Taylor, the historian, referred to the book 'Black Reconstruction in America' by scholar W.E.B. DuBois. In it, DuBois argued that white scholars had deliberately falsified American history to create a narrative that offered a 'false but comforting sense of accomplishment,' Taylor said. DuBois said in the book that such manipulation had led people to describe history as 'lies agreed upon' and warned that this misinformation would have destructive consequences. Taylor said DuBois foresaw what's happening now. 'Nothing good can come of this,' Taylor said. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pentagon Spokesman Benched After Jackie Robinson Page Outcry
A Defense Department spokesman who championed the Trump administration's purge of DEI-related content from government websites is being sidelined at the Pentagon, according to a report. John Ullyot is expected to take up a new role in the department focusing on 'special projects,' a source told the Washington Post, after an angry backlash to the removal of articles from the Pentagon's website about the contribution made to American military history by notable minority figures. Among them was a page about Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in 1947 following service in the U.S. Army. In a statement after the article's removal, which was shared with The Daily Beast, Ullyot referred to DEI—which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion—as 'Discriminatory Equity Ideology.' 'It is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services' core warfighting mission,' he claimed. The article was later restored following an uproar about its removal. In a video posted to X on Thursday, Sean Parnell, another Pentagon spokesman, said screening for DEI content within the DOD was 'an incredibly important undertaking,' but acknowledged that mistakes had been made. 'Some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed,' he added. 'We want to be very, very clear. History is not DEI. When content is either mistakenly removed, or if it's maliciously removed, we continue to work quickly to restore it.' Before the Robinson furore, Ullyot had already made headlines for his clashes with defense reporters and even his own Pentagon colleagues. Shortly after Trump took office, Ullyot made the provocative decision to revoke office access at the Pentagon for a number of legacy media outlets, including NPR, the Washington Post and the New York Times, replacing them with outlets deemed to be more sympathetic to the president's agenda such as Breitbart, One America News, and the New York Post. The move was said to be part of the White House's 'Annual Media Rotation Program,' which will see news organizations from print, TV, radio and online news periodically rotated out to give outlets priority access to the office space. But many outlets viewed the move, overseen by Ullyot, as an overstepping of personal authority and a snub to independent journalism. The Pentagon Press Association, which represents journalists who cover the Department of Defense, said it was troubled by the news. 'Our resident press corps has greatly expanded over the years and we have always welcomed new members and will continue to do so,' they said in a statement following the announcement. 'We are, however, greatly troubled by this unprecedented move by DOD to single out highly professional media who have covered the Pentagon for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations,' they added. 'We have asked for a meeting and we will keep everyone informed.' The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Defense for comment.
New York Times
19-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Jackie Robinson article restored on Defense Dept. site after ‘alarming' removal amid DEI purge
An article on the Department of Defense's website about baseball icon Jackie Robinson's time serving in the U.S. Army appears to have been restored Wednesday after its initial removal. The article's scrubbing, first reported by KSBW Action News on Tuesday, came amid a purge of government web content spotlighting historical contributions by women and minority groups following President Donald Trump's executive order to end federal support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Advertisement A statement from Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot on Wednesday highlighted the department's opposition to DEI efforts, though it did not specifically mention the article on Robinson. 'As Secretary (Pete) Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department,' the statement said. 'Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services' core warfighting mission. 'We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly.' The Defense Department did not respond to a follow-up inquiry. On Wednesday morning, a link that guided users to a 2021 article titled, 'Sports Heroes Who Served: Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Was WWII Soldier,' showed a 404 error page with 'dei' included in the URL, though the content could still be accessed via the Internet Archive. As of Wednesday afternoon, however, the 'dei' term was removed and the original link was again functioning on the site. The article details Robinson's military service during World War II, his contributions to baseball and the racism he experienced in both facets. Before Robinson became the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball in 1947, he was drafted for service in 1942. He was originally assigned to a segregated cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kan., where he was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1943, and later transferred to the 761st 'Black Panthers' tank battalion at Fort Hood, Texas. The article also mentions an incident in 1994 in which Robinson refused to move seats on an Army bus, after being told to 'get to the back of the bus where the colored people belong.' The incident led to Robinson being court-martialed. He was eventually acquitted, transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Ky., and honorably discharged in November 1944. Advertisement His post-military career and the integral role he played in the Civil Rights Movement are widely known, as he went on to play for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues and then famously joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he became a six-time All-Star and World Series champion in 1955. Robinson, who died in 1972, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. MLB retired his No. 42 league-wide in 1997. Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., told The Athletic on Wednesday that he doesn't consider Robinson's legacy or content related to it 'DEI.' 'This is American history,' Kendrick said. 'And Jackie Robinson epitomizes, in my view, what it means to be an American. He embodies that, just as so many players of the Negro Leagues did. So these kinds of initiatives are certainly alarming. It makes the value of an institution like the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum that much more important.' David Robinson, the son of Jackie and Rachel Robinson who serves as a Jackie Robinson Foundation board member, said in a statement that the foundation was surprised to learn that the webpage had been taken down. 'We take great pride in Jackie Robinson's service to our country as a soldier and a sports hero, an icon whose courage, talent, strength of character and dedication contributed greatly to leveling the playing field not only in professional sports but throughout society,' Robinson's statement said. 'He worked tirelessly on behalf of equal opportunities, in education, business, civic engagement, and within the justice system. A recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, he of course is an American hero.' An MLB spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation. Advertisement According to The Associated Press, a webpage honoring Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, a Black Medal of Honor recipient, was removed last week but restored Monday, and an internet page featuring the contributions of Japanese-American service members was also taken down amid the department's DEI purge. — Levi Weaver contributed to this report.
