Whitewashing, DEI & CRT
1966
1966-01-01 Jerry Falwell founded the whites-only Lynchburg Christian Academy to circumvent the 1954 ruling to ban segregation. He wrote in his book ‘America Can Be Saved’, “I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them”. In 1977 courts ruled that segregated private religious schools could not qualify as charitable organizations or retain tax exempt status.
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/falwell-jerry-1933-2007/
2021 June
2021-06-01 Texas House Bill 3979 was signed into law to restrict how race, slavery and current events are taught in K-12 public schools. The bill removed educational material pertaining to Native American history, Cesar Chavez, and Susan B. Anthony. It also restricted or removed writings of Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther King Jr.
https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB3979/id/2339637
https://www.idra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/What-does-HB-3979-do-IDRA-reference.pdf
2021 July
2021-07-21 Fox News contributor Leo Terrell attacked Critical Race Theory in schools and AOC for defending it. Trump later appointed him to be Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in January 2025.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3857230367939923
2021 September
2021-09-17 During an interview on Jack Murphy Live, JD Vance shared a number of loaded opinions with listeners “we have to stop this nonstop assault on American history…making everyone think we should judge people by their worst flaws…” and continued to say very few leaders are willing to teach “true” civics and American history. He attacked CRT, ranted that “wokeism” was assimilation, and tied woke in with his own experience of being “assimilated” in higher education. He later called on conservatism as a counter-revolutionary force.
2021 October
2021-10-27 Republicans rallied against teaching Critical Race Theory.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/so-much-buzz-but-what-is-critical-race-theory
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/08/racism-is-the-only-reason-obama-might-lose.html
2024 March
2024-03-01 The phrase “Didn’t Earn It” emerged.
2024-03-01(For context – just interesting comparison to anti-DEI) Around this time, the US Department of Education updated their FAFSA form to include more racial subcategories for whites.
2024-03-28 After the Baltimore bridge collapsed, Phil Lyman posted an unfounded claim that the crash was caused by DEI, writing “This is what happens when you have Governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing and security of citizens”. He also shared a post from the Young Conservative Federation featuring a dossier of Karenthia A. Barber.
https://x.com/phil_lyman/status/1772647920124211378
2024 July
2024-07-19 Elon Musk fueled the conspiracy DEI caused by CrowdStrike by responding to a Bright Network DEI banner on social media, “Not very “bright” right now, is it?”. Interestingly timed, the conservative group America First Legal filed a civil rights complaint on CrowdStrike for discriminating against white males. Steve Guest posted “Equity is nobody in the world being able to get on an airplane simultaneously. Thanks CrowdStrike”.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1814252636855500948
https://x.com/SteveGuest/status/1814282729317421310
2025 January
2025-01-26 As part of Trump’s DEI initiative, The United States Air Force was directed to remove any training courses that include DEI, even those referencing the Tuskegee Airmen or the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WACS).
https://apnews.com/article/air-force-dei-tuskegee-women-wwii-pilots-ecdeac68dc7696535d093c7690ab73bc
2025-01-30 During a press conference, Trump blamed DEI, Biden and Pete Buttigieg for the Potomac place crash. During that same press conference Trump listed off disabilities, claiming those disabilities were threatening safe air operations as though the FAA did not properly vet its employee pool. After his address he signed an executive order demanding an end to DEI hiring practices.
2025 February
2025-02-04 Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas publicly claimed DEI hiring policies at the FAA contributed to the Potomac crash. He stated, quote, “Well, I think diversity issues did contribute to this accident, and what we know for sure is that under Joe Biden that they lowered the standards for people getting into air traffic control. And with that, the number of near misses increased 70% a year”. The Senator went on to say, “What I think you’re gonna find out is there were a lot of qualified white men that they were not hiring because they were holding spots for DEI hires”.
2025-02-21 General Charles Q. Brown was dismissed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as part of the Trump DEI initiative.
2025 March
2025-03-07 News outlets reported on more historical purges of military photos falling under the DEI initiative, mostly targeting women and minorities.
2025-03-07 News outlets continued to report on the DEI purge, warning of a broad attack on anything containing keywords.
2025-03-27 Trump signed executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” to “pivot towards a positive retelling of history”, but many see this as whitewashing and sanitization of the full truth.
2025 April
2025-04-11 The Trump administration sent a letter to Harvard demanding they conduct a federal government-approved audit of its student and faculty to determine “viewpoint diversity” among other requests. Harvard refused, calling the demands unconstitutional.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/harvard-university-trump.html
2025-04-29 The Department of Education launched an investigation into the Harvard Law Review. The DOE accused Harvard of discrimination against white males because they “appeared to favor minority writers” and cited an increase among faculty of people of color, women, and nonbinary people.
2025 May
2025-05-08 Trump had Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden fired on the 9th of her 10-year term as part of his DEI initiative. Carla Hayden received her termination by email from a low-level employee.
https://capitalbnews.org/carla-hayden-fired-library-of-congress-trump
2025 June
2025-06-01 Pete Hegseth renamed several U.S. Naval Ships that were named after prominent women, civil rights leaders, or any other American character he feels does not meet criteria for his “warrior ethos”
2025 August
2025-08-19 Trump sent out a social media post calling museums in Washington “WOKE”, writing, “Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was”. In his post, Trump instructed his attorneys to “go through the Museums and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities…”. He also tweeted “We have the HOTTEST Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums”.
2025 September
2025-09-17 The Trump administration ordered the National Park Service to remove or censor exhibits at Harpers Ferry West Virginia, including the Civil War Museum and John Brown’s Fort (a key site in an 1859 abolitionist raid).
2025 November
2025-11-12 Pete Hegseth gave a speech at the 4th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit. In that speech, he compared the current moment in history as a “1939 type moment or hopefully a 1981 moment” (context: 1939 is the year Adolf Hitler began his reign of terror). He talked about readiness, stating that means, “no more social justice, no more political correctness, no more toxic ideological garbage that infected the department”. He further stated, “No more identity months, no more DEI offices, no more dudes in dresses”. He went on to say “no more climate change worship, no more division, no more delusions, gender delusions or quotas, no more distraction. As the chairman of the joint chiefs puts it: Pete you’re clearing out the debris.
2025 December
2025-12-03 A Colorado Springs teacher was indefinitely suspended after posting her school district’s changes in curriculum that will include censorship of elements of science and elements of anti-slavery activism such as the efforts of Franklin Douglas.
https://www.fox21news.com/news/d11-fifth-grade-teacher-could-lose-her-job/
2026 January
2026-01-23 The Trump administration ordered the National Park Service staff to remove a slavery exhibit from a park in Philadelphia in alignment with Trump’s Executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history”.
2026 February
2025-02-10 Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum to rename Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg back to a Confederate general. However, in the memorandum Hegseth referred to PFC Roland Bragg, a different “Bragg” from the original General.
2026-02-17 A judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a slavery exhibit at the Presidential House in Philadelphia, citing George Orwell’s 1984, comparing the Trump administration to the book’s totalitarian regime which revised historical records to align with its own narratives.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/16/politics/philadelphia-slavery-exhibits-judge-orders-return-orwell
2026 March
2026-03-20 For the nation’s 250th birthday the Trump administration announced plans to display a statue of a prominent slave owner.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/climate/caesar-rodney-statue-trump.html
https://au.news.yahoo.com/delaware-removed-statue-founder-200-220009228.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyVzi16maCA&list=WL&index=5&t=6s
2026-03-27 Pete Hegseth removed two Black and two female officers from a promotion list, leaving some senior military officials to question if women and minorities were being singled out. In the same article presenting this information, the article wrote that Chief of Staff Ricky Buria told the Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll about assigning Major General Antoinette R. Gant command of the Military District of Washington President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/hegseth-promotion-list.html
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5804541-pete-hegseth-pentagon-promotion-list/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-official-told-military-officer-132409515.html