By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
In case you have not yet noticed, Trump and his sycophants are gleefully
seeking to blunt, limit or dismantle civil rights laws that were passed during
The Great Society (President Lyndon Johnson) during the 1960’s.
Since the end of legalized slavery in 1865, white America supported the bitter and punishing Jim Crow laws that corrupted life for Black Americans; it is now apparent that Trump wants to punish anyone who could or would benefit from equal treatment under the law.
Trump’s cabinet members are in lock step with his dystopian view of an
America in which only white people reign and rule and if there are any
laws that attempt to level the playing field, Trump wants to snuff them out.
Just recently Trump issued an executive order regarding civil rights laws
that were put in place to monitor fair elections since America has a hellish
history of doing any and all acts including mayhem and lynchings to stop
Black Americans from exercising their rights as voting citizens.
Suffice to know that if you examine the record of Trump and his facile
cabinet members exorcising, in their words, the demons of D.E.I. and “wokeness”, you will find a common principle running through all of those
racist-based acts: stop, repeal, limit, obfuscate and deny any program or
practice or law or ruling that remotely tries to rectify past racist acts in
America.
If you did not know better, one would think that a sub theme of the Trump administration is to eradicate or dilute the history and presence of Black people in America. His Project 2025 is ballistic about the historical 1619 Project.
When Joe Biden issued executive orders changing the names of military
instillations to remove names of Confederate generals who fought against the
United States in the civil war, Trump’s Defense Secretary Hegseth brought back two rebellious names: Fort Benning and Fort Bragg.
Now, Trump is lauding any of his cabinet secretaries when they bring back reports of “rooting out” DEI initiatives in their department and seeking to
eradicate any program that allows people of color to fairly compete with
white applicants.
On the immigration front, Trump is giving preference to white South
Africans on the basis that they are victims of race discrimination in the same country that they ruled for hundreds of years with an iron fist called apartheid!
Imagine that! Trump giving white South Africans a hand out and a hand up so they can be swiftly processed to come to settle in America. Now that they
can no longer ride roughshod over Black South Africans, the white South
Africans want out and they see Trump as “one of them.”
The assault on civil rights legislation since the 60’s onwards has been a
fetish of Trump. In his heart of hearts, he loathes and disdains anything that
remotely appears to rectify past hundreds of years of discrimination.
It is too numerous to count the number of governmental agencies or departments that were tasked with making sure equality and fairness in
hiring and promotions were adhered to. Not now.
For Trump, it is fair game to apply a wrecking ball to any civil rights
advancements because his knowledge of American history is practically non
existent on the history of Black Americans who have been on these shores since 1619 to the present date.
He allows his disdain for Black Americans to be executed by his suite of
cabinet flunkies who are more than happy to put a Lashonda or a DeMarcus
in their “proper” place.
For Black Americans, there is no rest for the weary because as soon as any
advancements are made, or were made, Trump, acting like a Mafia capo, gives
the “high sign” and members of his incompetent clown car go to work eradicating positive programs that benefit the marginalized and the least protected.
I mean…how does one eliminate programs for coal miners that monitor
Black Lung diseases and the quality of the air in a coal mine?
How does one attempt to stop funding for the premier broadcasting outlets such as NPR and PBS?
Why eliminate the watchdogs known as inspectors general whose jobs were to blow the whistle on acts of corruption and fraud in government? Who does this other than one who wants to hide acts of deception and abuse.
Who says he loves the veterans but has already cut thousands of VA jobs and has made more onerous the process to obtain war-related benefits?
Without sounding like Chicken Little and squawking about the sky falling, well, it is falling and when Trump continues to turn the thumb screws that will affect his devoted MAGA base and their benefits, the sky will continue to darken and fall.
Your response? Be woke, keep your head on a swivel, make sure you are
registered to vote in the right precinct and protest, protest and protest some more!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com