Trump & Co. Work to UNDO American Civil Rights Gains of Decades….

Claiming diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that became popular over the last two decades are themselves discriminatory and stifle merit, the Trump administration has also canceled government contracts it says were tied to “illegal DEI,” shuttered offices addressing civil rights violations and frozen research grants on racial disparities in healthcare.

The actions have alarmed advocates, who say they effectively erase decades of hard-fought progress on leveling the playing field for marginalized communities.

Hector Sanchez Barba, president and CEO of Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan organization that mobilizes Latino voters, criticized the directives as a “white supremacist’s agenda.”….

In one executive order, opens new tab targeting museums and cultural institutions, Trump accused them of fostering “national shame” and singled out the Smithsonian Institution — which includes 21 museums and the National Zoo — of promoting “improper ideology.”

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was also criticized for portraying American and Western culture as “inherently harmful.”

The administration did not specify what that meant, though critics have suggested the language is a reference to Trump’s longtime complaints of a focus on systemic racism in U.S. institutions that promotes anti-white bias.

The administration has also removed, sometimes briefly, historical content about African Americans and other minorities from government websites. In one instance, after facing public backlash, the National Park Service restored a quote and an image of U.S. abolitionist Harriet Tubman that had been removed from a website about the Underground Railroad network, which helped enslaved Africans escape, according to media reports,

Historians say U.S. institutions and museums offer an unbiased look at American history and fear the actions are part of a broader effort to suppress honest discussions about U.S. history, particularly issues of race, inequality, and systemic injustice, while promoting a sanitized view of American history.

“How on earth can you teach about Rosa Parks without talking about racism? It’s an effort to reframe the past and that matters because it reframes how we understand the present,” said Mark Bray, assistant teaching professor at Rutgers University, referring to the civil rights activist….

“There are three things happening that are interrelated: it’s the attempt to erase history, deny history and remove any evidence of history,” said Alphonso David, president and CEO of Global Black Economic Forum, which focuses on boosting economic opportunities for Black and marginalized communities….