THE DISAPPEARED
The Trump Administration is Erasing Anything and Anyone It Doesn't Like
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell - 1984
In George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, the government rewrites books and alters the past to maintain control over its citizens. By continuously changing historical records, The Party ensures that it is always seen as infallible and all powerful. This manipulation of history eliminates all evidence of dissent or failure and creates a reality in which The Party is never wrong. The altering of history also prevents the citizenry from understanding the past, which makes it impossible for them to challenge the government’s narrative or recognize the truth. In essence, controlling the past allows the government to control the present and future.
"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." - 1984
In Yoko Ogawa’s, The Memory Police, set on an unnamed island, ordinary things that you and I would take for granted occasionally disappear. What disappears is determined by the government and anyone that’s caught with “disappeared” objects, or indicates they retain memories of those objects, is taken away by the Memory Police.
“The island is run by men who are determined to see things disappear. From their point of view, anything that fails to vanish when they say it should is inconceivable. So, they force it to disappear with their own hands…lying still, eyes closed, ears pricked, trying to sense the flow of the morning air, you'll feel that something has changed from the night before, and you'll know that you've lost something, that something has been disappeared from the island.”
Yoko Ogawa - The Memory Police
Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Vice President to eliminate “divisive race-centered ideology” from all Smithsonian museums, educational and research centers, and the National Zoo.
Yes, even our zoos are too woke for this administration.
Entitled, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the order accuses the Smithsonian of being divisive through the promotion of “race-centered ideology.” “The Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive." Additionally, "Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history."
The order directs Vance and other members of the administration to work with Congress to prohibit future appropriations they feel "degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy." It also asks that appropriation be denied for any exhibits that recognize men as women “in any respect in the museum.”
You had to figure transphobia would rear its ugly head somewhere in the order.
The order goes on to claim that, “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth...under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed."
Wow! The Trump Administration just gave a next-level master class in projection! What the order describes is exactly what the administration has been doing since day one. In reality, this order is simply an escalation in their effort to end all DEI programs in the United States.
So, what is DEI? DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. These are principles and practices that aim to create fair, just, and inclusive environments, particularly in workplaces, educational institutions, and organizations.
Trump hates DEI. It’s also the vogue bogeyman of the Republican Party (replacing Critical Race Theory as Enemy #1), especially among the far-right flank of the party. Conservatives claim DEI programs and initiatives have a negative impact on meritocracy, individual freedoms, and promote divisiveness. They also believe it to be government overreach and a form of reverse discrimination.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has made it its mission to end DEI. Here are a few of the highlights:
President Trump has signed numerous executive orders calling for the elimination of DEI programs across federal agencies, cutting funding and rescinding previous policies promoting diversity.
Federal employees involved with DEI programs have been placed on paid leave while plans for their permanent termination are made.
All federal hirings must now be based solely on merit, with no considerations of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Educational institutions such as the University of Michigan, have shut down their DEI programs.
DEI content has been removed from all federal websites.
The Department of Defense, under the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has removed (at least temporarily) all content from the website that might be construed as DEI. This includes information regarding the military service of famed Brooklyn Dodgers infielder, Jackie Robinson, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, and the Marines at Iwo Jima. Other prominent figures and groups erased from our country’s history include:
Chief Joseph Medicine Crow - a native American author whose writings on Native American history and life on the reservation are considered seminal works
Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers - a recipient of the Black Medal of Honor (was removed from the Department of Defense’s website before being reinstated with the title, “DEI medal-of-honor”)
The World War II Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team
A website celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage
Bea Arthur, a Marine Corps Women's Reserve enlistee during World War II (best known for her role on “Golden Girls”)
Thousands of pages honoring the work and accomplishments of women and minority groups
In response to the removal of the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Mark Matsunaga, a former Honolulu journalist said, “Clearly this is part of an attempt to whitewash history.”
The president’s order also accuses former President Biden’s administration of promoting a “corrosive ideology” and claims, "Under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed."
In response, Georgetown university professor, Chandra Manning said, the president’s order is based on "the unfounded fear that Americans cannot handle the full story of our nation's past."
I think she’s onto something.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that’s being disappeared. People are disappearing as well.
“People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten.” - 1984
In my March 19th piece, “Deportations and Defiance,” I wrote about the Trump Administration’s deportation of immigrants to an El Salvadorian mega-prison. After detention and deportation, many of the immigrants mysteriously disappeared from the U.S. detainee tracking system after their deportation flights.
"We are living in a time where our society has become so regimented and controlled that it is easier to disappear a person completely than to try and make them conform."
Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451
On March 25, Rumeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national and PhD student at Tufts University, was arrested on the street near her home by ICE. Her detention came after she co-authored an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper this month. The article in question called on Tufts University to acknowledge the "Palestinian genocide" and divest from any companies doing business with Israel. This appears to be her only involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. In defiance of a court order, Öztürk was sent to a South Louisiana ICE processing center.
Earlier this month, President Trump called pro-Palestinian protests “illegal” and said he would prosecute and deport foreign students who participate in these types of activities.
We are living in a time where the President of the United States is attempting to impose full authoritarian rule over the American people, where the Constitution is openly defied, due process is suspended, and the things Americans have long cherished and taken for granted are quickly disappearing.
“We had been promised a return to normalcy, to order, but what came was not normal. We had traded one form of authoritarianism for another, this time in the guise of a populist savior.”
Ernst von Salomon on Hitler’s dismantling of Germany’s democracy
It only took Adolf Hitler 53 days to dismantle Germany’s democracy. I’m afraid it may not take Donald Trump much longer.