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The Guardian
03-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
These activists are ‘flooding the zone with Black history' to protest Trump's attacks on DEI
A coalition of civil rights groups have launched a weeklong initiative to condemn Donald Trump's attacks on Black history, including recent executive orders targeting the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington DC. The national Freedom to Learn campaign is being led by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), a social justice thinktank co-founded by the law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. Crenshaw is a leading expert on critical race theory (CRT), a framework used to analyze racism's structural impact. She has fought against book bans, restraints on racial history teaching and other anti-DEI efforts since the beginning of the Republican-led campaign against CRT in 2020. 'Our goal this week has been to flood the zone, as we call it, with Black history,' Crenshaw said about the campaign. 'We have long understood that the attacks on ideas germinating from racial justice were not about the specific targets of each attack … [but are] an effort to impose a specific narrative about the United States of America, one that marginalizes, and even erases, its more difficult chapters,' she added. The weeklong campaign will conclude with a demonstration and prayer vigil in front of NMAAHC on 3 May. Leading up to the protest, AAPF, the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund and six other advocacy groups signed onto a statement criticizing Trump's 'attempted mass erasure of Black history and culture', according to a press release published 28 April. In March, Trump ordered an overhaul of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum network, in order to demolish what he described as 'improper, divisive or anti-American ideology'. He singled out NAAMHC, a museum that has been lauded since its opening in 2016. The coalition's affirmation read, in part: 'We affirm that Black history is American history, without which we cannot understand our country's fight for freedom or secure a more democratic future. We must protect our history not just in books, schools, libraries, and universities, but also in museums, memorials, and remembrances that are sites of our national memory.' 'I wasn't shocked by it,' said Crenshaw of Trump's executive order against NAAMHC. 'I never did think that these attacks on civil rights, on racial equality, would find a natural limit because there is no limit.' Within this week's movement, AAPF has led sessions to educate people on Trump's dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, an element of the broader campaign. About 1,500 people attended a virtual event titled Under the Black Light: Beyond the First 100 Days: Centering Racial Justice and Black History in Our Fight for Democracy. There, panelists, including civil rights leaders and academics, discussed how attendees could organize against Trump's mounting censorship of history. Coffee meetups and a sign-making session were organized as additional parts of the campaign, providing further conversations between participants and academics about how Trump's initial executive orders connect to a larger thread of eroding racial justice. The group has also launched a 'Black history challenge' where participants are encouraged to find a historical site or artifact and 'put it into memory', or recognize it, 'as part of Black history's role in American history'. As a part of the challenge, Crenshaw posted a video on social media of Bruce's Beach, in Manhattan Beach, California. There, in 1912, a Black couple purchased oceanfront property and built a resort for Black people. The property was later seized by the city under the auspices of eminent domain. 'It's important to tell these stories so people understand that it's not a natural reality that many Black folks don't have beachfront property or that we don't have transnational hotel chains owned by Black people,' said Crenshaw. 'These things are actually created by the weaponization of law to impose white, exclusive rights and privileges.' The weeklong campaign comes as the Trump administration has attempted to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at all levels of local and federal government since the start of his second term. Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from any public schools that do not end their DEI programming. He later signed executive orders to crack down on diversity efforts at colleges and universities. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion Crenshaw added: 'If you want to sustain this idea of making America great again, then you've got to erase the ways that it wasn't great all along. We've always understood that what the end game was, was the elimination of any recognition that our country has had and still has challenges with respect to racial and other forms of justice.' In response, advocacy groups have come together to channel their outrage into the collective action of the campaign and protest. 'We want to be sure that we can preserve, beyond artifacts, the true experiences of those that have [undergone] the oppressive past of African Americans, and how that experience of resilience is important today,' said Reverend Shavon Arline-Bradley, president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). A partnership, especially given the importance of the NMAAHC, felt like the most significant way forward, said Arline-Bradley. 'This really is a collective, multiracial, multicultural, multi experience, coalition that is saying no. When you take away our history, when you take away African American history, then you really are trying to take away culture.'
Axios
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
America's DEI college chaos hits Indiana schools
Colleges have been a conservative target for years. Under President Trump, it's total warfare on all aspects of higher education — from student life to hiring to athletics. Why it matters: Even if some funding cuts are undone by future administrations or some directives don't hold up in the courts, many colleges are rushing to make changes they won't be able to undo easily. "The federal government is coming for higher education," says Jeremy Young, the Freedom to Learn program director for PEN America. "And if you are one of America's 4,000 college presidents, and you stick your neck out, it's going to get cut off." The big picture: The Trump administration is pulling multiple levers to squeeze universities. Institutions across the country are watching the administration's moves closely — and wondering if they'll be the next one in the spotlight. In a letter to schools last month, the Education Department said they could lose funding if they have policies related to race and diversity, making a broad interpretation that these policies violate the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action. Zoom in: The department gave schools two weeks to comply, after which it notified 45 colleges — including the University of Notre Dame — that they were being investigated over allegations that they participated in "race-exclusionary practices." The department said in a statement that the schools were being investigated for potentially violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which obliges schools that receive federal funds to provide students with an environment free of discrimination based on race, color or national origin. The schools allegedly violated the law by partnering with the organization The Ph.D. Project, which "purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants." The intrigue: Even before the Education Department's letter last month, Notre Dame had adjusted language on its website. As noted in The Observer, the university's student newspaper, the URL for Notre Dame's "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" page changed from to and the page title changed from "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" to "We Are All Notre Dame" in late January — just after Trump took office and signed an executive order to end "illegal DEI" policies. A university spokesperson told The Observer the change was unrelated to the Trump administration. State of play: Anti-DEI pressure is coming from the state level, too. The Senate advanced a bill that would prohibit mandatory DEI training in K-12 schools and restrict DEI programs within state colleges and universities. The House has not moved the bill, but has two more weeks to do so. Several lawmakers sharply questioned IU and Ball State officials in January during budget presentations over "woke" professors and programming for LGBTQ+ students. Ivy Tech, the state's community college system, closed its diversity, equity and belonging offices statewide last month in a move to protect state and federal funding.
Axios
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
America's college chaos
Colleges have been a conservative target for years. Under President Trump, it's total warfare on all aspects of higher education — from student life to hiring to athletics. Why it matters: Universities are scrambling to steel themselves for an onslaught of investigations. Even if some cuts are undone by future administrations or some directives don't hold up in the courts, many colleges are rushing to make changes they won't be able to undo easily. "The federal government is coming for higher education," says Jeremy Young, the Freedom to Learn program director for PEN America. "And if you are one of America's 4,000 college presidents, and you stick your neck out, it's going to get cut off." Driving the news: In a letter to schools last month, the Education Department said they could lose funding if they have policies related to race and diversity. And though the letter doesn't have the force of law, many institutions are acting quickly to comply — with moves big and small. Colorado State University is shifting employee roles, tweaking HR policies and scrubbing websites, Axios Denver's Alayna Alvarez reports. The University of Pennsylvania has edited websites — or removed them altogether, notes Axios Philadelphia's Mike D'Onofrio. Penn's medical school is looking at cutting programs that help diversify its student body, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The Ohio State University is shutting down two campus offices focused on DEI and cutting more than a dozen staff positions. It's renaming the Office of Institutional Equity to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance. Several colleges had already started cutting programs, shuttering cultural centers and changing up course catalogs even before Trump took office — either to prepare for the administration's changes, or in response to state-level action. Zoom out: DEI is making headlines, but the chaos is wider. Stanford, MIT, Columbia and Vanderbilt are already freezing hiring or cutting back on the number of Ph.D. students they'll accept as they hear of DOGE's proposed cuts to federal medical research. Universities are also working to comply with the NCAA's new ban on trans athletes. Many are fielding investigations over former trans athletes that competed on their teams, or responses to pro-Palestinian protests on campus. And the Justice Department is sending an antisemitism task force to several campuses. Changes are likely to last:"Once a college closes a DEI office, once it shuts down a research program, once it censors a syllabus, these things are not coming back," says Pen America's Young. "The political will is not there to bring them back on a college campus." What to watch: Some colleges are waiting and seeing which policy changes stick. Drexel University is holding off on changes as it monitors the situation, Axios Philadelphia reports. Western Michigan University's president told his campus to "please process as usual." University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz said he'll "only change operations if and when we have to."
