Black History Can't Be Erased Despite MAGA's Best Efforts

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are committed to hijacking this country back to the 19th century to make mediocre white men great again, however the rest of us will have to unite to keep from being erased.

Despite Donald Trump and MAGA’s best efforts, they can’t disappear or erase Black people and people of color from America. We’ve all been here since the beginning, and we’ll stay here and fight, build, and live long after these racists have perished.

The word “we” is important to understand the relationship between Black people and America—up to 30% of the Black people who were forced to come here as slaves were Muslims. (Spoiler alert: I’m Muslim. Surprise!) Without the labor, sweat, and blood of Black people, the Southern economy would be nonexistent because Scarlett O’Hara would have rather died of hunger than pick cotton. Black people built the White House. Black people fought and died in wars for American freedoms and the ones who survived returned to an America that still treated them as separate and unequal. American culture, whether it’s fashion, language, or music, takes its cue from Black culture. Last night, the Grammys finally acknowledged Beyonce with Best Country Album of the Year, which should be celebrated by everyone who isn’t a racist considering country music, much like Rock N’ Roll, owes a massive debt to Black musicians.

In the shortest month of the year, many in the United States of America still celebrate Black History Month and acknowledge the immense contributions of Black people, who were formerly enslaved, then suffered Jim Crow, and continue to endure despite systemic white supremacy. In 1915, historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded an organization dedicated to researching and promoting the achievements of Black Americans. During the Civil Rights Movement, college campuses began celebrating Black History Month which evolved from "Negro History Week.”

In 2025, we have Donald Trump, a criminal white supremacist President who has made it his mission to erase diversity and roll back all the progress that was made in the past 70 years. America was apparently great again when it was segregated and led by rich, mediocre, racist, white men. On cue, Trump initiated his own “Affirmative Action” for white mediocrity by nominating Pete Hegseth, referred to by his mother as a “sexual abuser,” as the Secretary of Defense. Despite being the least qualified candidate for such an important job, Hegseth promised with a straight face to “have the best and brightest in every position possible” and eliminate DEI. You should take MAGA both literally and seriously because Sec. of Defense Hegseth declared “Identity Months Dead at DoD” hours before the beginning of Black History Month. This includes groups for Asian Americans, Latinos, Muslims, and LGBTQ+.

To avoid any subtlety about their hateful, regressive agenda, this administration painted over words encouraging diversity, compassion, fairness, leadership, and constitution at the FBI Academy in Quantico.

Trump’s “DEI purge” has cast a white net across the government and is willing to sacrifice employees who didn’t even work on diversity or inclusion issues. Workers from the Education and Energy Department have been placed on administrative leave after Trump’s ridiculous Executive Order. If you’ve been paying attention that means this attack spares no one, not even white Christian men. Fascists only care about loyalty to themselves, and anyone who deviates will be sacrificed to the cult. Just look at Mike Pence and Mitt Romney.

Ultimately, racism has always been delusional, violent, and self-destructive. America f’d around and now we’re all finding out.

Florida just found out that the state’s math and reading scores fell to their lowest mark in more than 20 years. Maybe Florida Republicans shouldn’t have banned books, or rejected an AP course in African American studies, or pushed the “Stop Woke Agenda.” Whoopsie! Meanwhile, communities are still reeling from a devastating collision at DCA airport last week that claimed the lives of all passengers onboard an American Airlines plane and Blackhawk helicopter. It would’ve been nice to have a head of TSA, FAA chief, and air traffic controllers, but Trump initiated a hiring freeze to complete his purge. Whoopsie! On the economic front, our allies Canada and Mexico are responding to “the dumbest trade war in history” and forced Trump to cave and punt. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the US anthem from being booed at Canadian sporting events. Whoopsie! Oh, yeah, while all this is happening there’s an active coup initiated by a racist South African immigrant and his teenage lackeys who now have access to our financial data that will result in the rich getting richer and MAGA begging for scraps. Whoopsie!

In moments of crisis, individuals are willing to step up and speak out. While Democratic leadership is in “disarray,” we have Rep. Jasmine Crockett operating as a one-person messaging machine reflecting the righteous rage of Americans and fighting back against a corrupt broligarchy and a “thug in Chief.” There’s NY Attorney General Letitia James promising to protect the vulnerable and pursue accountability in the face of retaliation and threats. Black activists are leading “buy ins” at Costco and other stories committed to diversity and threatening to withhold their dollars from companies that bend the knee to Trump’s hateful “anti-woke” agenda. Florida educators are giving up their Saturday to teach Black history to students. Some organizations are aggressively promoting books banned by MAGA to celebrate Black literary and cultural excellence.

We’re in for a long walk, folks. It’s going to be a difficult few years for this country. There’s no getting around it. However, we can look to the wisdom, struggle, strategies, and success of Black Americans who still fight for a country that doesn’t fight for them. We are all in this together. Get woke or get erased.