You are not alone if you are flummoxed — to say the least — by the Trump administration’s actions and/or executive orders. Millions of citizens are scratching their heads, trying to get a bead on the decisions. In one stroke of his pen, he proclaimed Black History Month, calling on public officials, librarians, educators, and all people to observe the month and its various activities. However, simultaneously with this announcement, a memo from the Department of Defense declared that “Identity Months Dead at DoD.”
Activities may be scaled back by the federal government, including Women’s History Month, Hispanic Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, and other identity designations, but many organizations and institutions will continue with their celebrations. “We are stepping in to fill that gap,” said Karsonya Wise Whitehead, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. “You don’t wait to be celebrated. We celebrate ourselves.”
A federal order cannot stop the media outlets from recognizing the various identity celebrations, and thousands of radio, television, and online programs are devoted to honoring Black History Month. We can also expect that other underserved communities will stage their moments of commemoration and tributes. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) recently featured a number of films celebrating the achievements of Black actors and directors; WBAI and WLIB radio stations have offered similar programming, and there is a vast number of online salutes to Black History Month.
Trump edicts are sure to have a destructive impact on other DEI-related entities and elsewhere, including USAID, the Department of Education, nonprofit organizations, tariffs, and all the terrible outcomes expected from Elon Musk’s leadership of the so-called DOGE. Even so, the fight-back is underway. We applaud the few courageous judges who have temporarily blocked some of the executive orders, although we have no idea how long those measures will last.
The fight-back tactics of Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota are admirable and should be adopted across the country, particularly the filing of lawsuits. These and other methods of resistance can be accessed at Omar.house.gov.
To this end, we just received an email from the Meyer Levin School for the Performing Arts in Brooklyn about a Feb. 12 event to showcase Black history. That’s just one example of the movement forward: a form of defiance coming from an ordinary segment of our community.