In a World of Pete Hegseths, Be a Maya Angelou; The Bulwark, April 8, 2025

 

WILLIAM KRISTOL, 

ANDREW EGGER

, AND JIM SWIFT, The Bulwark; In a World of Pete Hegseths, Be a Maya Angelou

"Last week, pursuant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to purge so-called DEI content from military libraries and classrooms, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was removed, along with 380 other books, from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library.

Why?

Because impressionable midshipmen might follow in the footsteps of millions of other Americans, young and old, white and black, and be . . . what? Educated in aspects of American history and society they hadn’t personally experienced? Even—God forbid!—possibly influenced to have too favorable a view of diversity, equity, and inclusion?

To be clear: My sense is that the DEI movement over the last decade or two has featured a fair amount of foolishness, some of it overbearing and even offensive. There is no reason for public and private institutions not to review materials that were being used to promote DEI.

But Maya Angelou?

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is not “DEI content.” It’s a quintessentially American autobiography—a popular and important one. It’s a book a student at the Academy might want to read for his or her education, or for pleasure.

Angelou’s reputation and readership will survive being purged from the Nimitz library. Midshipmen can presumably still order the book from Amazon.

Still, it’s not a moment for national pride that Angelou’s book is being purged from a military academy.

And it is a moment to acknowledge that the attack on DEI by the Trump administration, and by many on today’s right, is not some kind of good-faith reconsideration of the excesses of the DEI industry over the last couple of decades. It’s far more an attack on the real diversity that characterizes today’s America, the real equity that a nation can aspire to, the real inclusion that marks a healthy society.

When I heard of the purge, I went back and read Angelou’s inaugural poem, “On the Pulse of Morning.”

These lines struck me now in a way they hadn’t in 1993:

Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.

Instead, as Angelou urges us earlier in the poem:

Give birth again
To the dream."

List of Books Removed from USNA Library; America's Navy, April 4, 2025

America's Navy; List of Books Removed from USNA Library

[Kip Currier: The freedoms to read, speak, and think are fundamental American values enshrined by our Constitution. Libraries should and must have books and resources that represent a wide range of information, views, and lived experiences. Whether or not we as individuals or members of groups agree or disagree with every book in a library is immaterial and contrary to our freedoms. As the late Robert Croneberger, Director of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (1986-1998), aptly observed, a library is not doing its job if it doesn't have at least one book that offends every person.

Military service members have served, fought, and died to preserve our freedoms and core values. Enlisted persons and their families should and must have access to a broad continuum of ideas and information. Anything less is blatant censorship that is antithetical to the American way of life.]

[Excerpts from list]

     "How to be an antiracist / Ibram X. Kendi.

Uncomfortable conversations with a black man / Emmanuel Acho.

Why didn't we riot? : a Black man in Trumpland / Issac J. Bailey.

Long time coming : reckoning with race in America / Michael Eric Dyson.

State of emergency : how we win in the country we built / Tamika D. Mallory as told to Ashley A. Coleman ; [forewords, Angela Y. Davis and Cardi B].

How we can win : race, history and changing the money game that's rigged / Kimberly Jones.

My vanishing country : a memoir / Bakari Sellers.

The gangs of Zion : a Black cop's crusade in Mormon country / Ron Stallworth, with Sofia Quintero.

American hate : survivors speak out / edited by Arjun Singh Sethi.

The rage of innocence : how America criminalizes Black youth /
Kristin Henning.

Our time is now : power, purpose, and the fight for a fair America /
Stacey Abrams.

What's your pronoun? : beyond he & she / Dennis Baron.

Rainbow milk : a novel / Paul Mendez.

The genesis of misery / Neon Yang.

The last white man / Mohsin Hamid.

Light from uncommon stars / Ryka Aoki.

Everywhere you don't belong : a novel / by Gabriel Bump.

Evil eye : a novel / Etaf Rum.

Lies my teacher told me : everything your American history
textbook got wrong / James W. Loewen.

Gender queer : a memoir / by Maia Kobabe ; colors by Phoebe
Kobabe.

The third person / Emma Grove."

Academic Publishers Braced for Slowdown as Trump DEI Purge Bites; Inside Higher Ed, March 21, 2025

Jack Grove for Times Higher Education; Academic Publishers Braced for Slowdown as Trump DEI Purge Bites

"Academic presses may face a slump in sales as U.S. university librarians become more cautious about buying books related to gender, politics or race in light of Donald Trump’s attack on “woke” research, publishers have warned."

Jackie Robinson’s Pentagon Page Removed—Then Restored—In DEI Purge; Forbes, March 19, 2025

Sara Dorn, Forbes ; Jackie Robinson’s Pentagon Page Removed—Then Restored—In DEI Purge

"A webpage dedicated to baseball star Jackie Robinson’s military career was removed from the Department of Defense website this week in the Pentagon’s purge of content it deems aligned with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives—but was later restored after the agency suggested it was a “mistake.”...

The page was “mistakenly” removed in the DEI purge, an unnamed Department of Defense official told ABC News, adding that it and others that had been taken down — including those honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Navajo Code Talkers — would be restored.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot said in a statement to Forbes that errors are corrected “in rare cases that content is removed—either deliberately or by mistake—that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive.”

Ullyot defended the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle DEI initiatives at the agency, however, referring to the acronym as “Discriminatory Equity Ideology” which he said “is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with services’ core warfighting mission.”"

Pentagon cuts off Hegseth town hall webcast after transparency pledge; Navy Times, February 7, 2025

 Stephen Losey, Navy Times; Pentagon cuts off Hegseth town hall webcast after transparency pledge

"The Pentagon cut off a webcast of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s first town hall with troops and department employees Friday as soon as questions began, and shortly after Hegseth promised to be transparent with service members and the public.

Hegseth delivered about 15 minutes of opening remarks, which touched on issues such as grooming standards, readiness, border security and the administration’s desire to root out diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the military, before opening the floor to questions...

The broadcast ended less than two minutes after Hegseth pledged to be open with service members and the public.

“I appreciate the service so many of you give,” Hegseth said. “I know so many people watching. It’s the honor of a lifetime to come alongside you. No one will work harder. No one’s going to be more — attempt to be more transparent with the American people and with you.”

When asked a follow-up question about why the department stopped broadcasting when questions began, the Pentagon’s press office said, “The [defense secretary’s] opening remarks were televised to allow a larger audience. The Q&A portion was open to in-person participants only.”

It does not appear the Pentagon broadcast any portion of town halls held by Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin.

However, the Pentagon did not indicate in its Friday morning email announcing Hegseth’s town hall that the questioning portion would not be broadcast. The webpage with the town hall feed originally indicated the broadcast was scheduled to run for about an hour and a half...

Hegseth said one of his top priorities is “restoring the warrior ethos,” before harshly criticizing the Pentagon’s previous focus on improving diversity in the ranks.

“I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is, ‘Our diversity is our strength,’” Hegseth said. “I think our strength is our unity. Our strength is our shared purpose, regardless of our background, regardless of how we grew up, regardless of our gender, regardless of our race. In this department, we will treat everyone equally, we will treat everyone with respect and we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission.”

The Trump administration views diversity, equity and inclusion programs — referred to as DEI — as efforts to divide the military instead of uniting it, Hegseth said.

But the Pentagon’s initial efforts to comply with the administration’s DEI orders have been rocky."

Biglaw Firm Quietly Begins Purging Diversity Language From Website; Above The Law, February 7, 2025

Joe Patrice , Above The Law; Biglaw Firm Quietly Begins Purging Diversity Language From Website

"This is the story we hoped wouldn’t happen, but let’s be honest — of course it did. It was always going to happen. 

Between the administration publicly threatening criminal action against private sector companies over diversity initiatives and law firms rushing to curry favor with the White House, it was only a matter of time before a Biglaw firm tried to memory-hole prior diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

As we’ve monitored Biglaw websites over the couple weeks since Trump returned to power, we took heart every time we noticed that a major firm still hadn’t tried to subtly purge its public-facing site of any mention of diversity. Unfortunately, though perhaps inevitably, the legal community is no longer pitching a perfect game...

The entire “Diversity and Inclusion”-turned-“Opportunity and Inclusion” page has changed. The old website included visual representations backing up the firm’s commitment. For example:

The accomplishments of these attorneys are now deleted. The page still offers general statements about inclusion, but any specific claims about individual achievements are gone, hiding from public view any way to measure the firm’s success in this area. The page also linked to “a robust educational toolkit” developed by the firm and a block set off in all caps recognizing that “WE PLEDGE TO FOLLOW THE MANSFIELD RULE.” 

And for what? If firms think scrubbing diversity efforts will shield them, they should ask Target how that worked out. The retail giant backtracked on its public DEI commitments — only to get sued by Trump’s fellow travelers anyway. These people won’t be satisfied until the entire workforce looks like a 1950s country club. It undermines firm culture for nothing."