I’m Black 365 days a year. Dump and his anti-DEI klan an’t change that.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez.
If you don’t know this by now —Donnie Dump decided to go on and issue a vapid and narcissistic Black History Month Proclamation this year even as his agency heads eliminate celebrating it. In his proclamation he made the decision to mention and honor a dis-invited from the BBQ person like Clarence Thomas in the same sentence with Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. He, or his writers managed to not capitalize “Black” in his text, referencing “black Americans” instead of Black Americans. We know that the America preparing to enter “a historic Golden Age” under his reign is dross.
My google doc copy of his text gives me a “Word count: 318.” Let’s compare and contrast it with POTUS Joe Biden’s from last year. “Word count: 944.” Both Dump’s and Biden’s are posted on the American Presidency Project website, so no need to go to Whitehouse.gov to read his.
Here’s POTUS Biden’s:
Proclamation 10699—National Black History Month, 2024
This National Black History Month, we celebrate the vast contributions of Black Americans to our country and recognize that Black history is American history and that Black culture, stories, and triumphs are at the core of who we are as a Nation.
The soul of America is what makes us unique among all nations. We are the only country in the world founded on an idea. It is the idea that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated with equal dignity throughout our lives. While we still grapple today with the moral stain and vestiges of slavery—our country's original sin—we have never walked away from the fight to fully realize the promise of America for all Americans. Throughout our history, Black Americans have never given up on the promise of America. Unbowed by the forces of hate and undaunted as they fought for centuries against slavery, segregation, and injustice, Black Americans have held a mirror up to our Nation, allowing our country to confront hard truths about who we are and pushing us to live up to our founding ideals. They have helped redeem the soul of our Nation, ensuring the promises in our founding documents were not just words on a page but a lived reality for all people. In the process, the vibrancy of Black history and culture has enriched every aspect of American life.
Since taking office, the Vice President and I have worked to continue this legacy of progress and lay down a foundation for a stronger, more equitable Nation. On my first day as President, I signed a historic Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. In February 2023, I signed an additional Executive Order to acknowledge the unbearable human costs of systemic racism and to direct the entire Federal Government to advance equity for those who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent discrimination, poverty, and inequality, including the Black community. That includes building an economy that grows from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down. So far, we have created over 14 million jobs and in 2023, the Black unemployment rate was lower than in any other year on record.
We are addressing historic health inequities for Black Americans by making systemic changes to our health care systems that increase healthcare access while lowering costs. Today, more Black Americans have health insurance than at any previous time in American history. We are working to address the Black maternal health crisis—ensuring dignity, safety, and support for Black moms. The Vice President has helped elevate this critical issue to a national priority by calling on States to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to one year.
My Administration is also working to close racial gaps in education and economic opportunity. To that end, we have delivered over $7 billion in funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and are working to expand access to home-ownership—a major source of generational wealth for families—while aggressively combating racial discrimination in housing. Our update to the Thrifty Food Plan is keeping 400,000 Black kids out of poverty every month and making sure millions more have enough food to eat. By 2025, we are working to ensure that 15 percent of Federal contracting dollars goes to small disadvantaged businesses, including Black-owned small businesses. We are also replacing poisonous lead pipes so every American can turn on a faucet at home or school and drink clean water.
To deliver equal justice under the law, we are appointing judges to the Federal bench who reflect all of America, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and more Black women to the Federal circuit courts than all previous administrations combined. I also signed a historic Executive Order that implemented key elements of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act: banning chokeholds and restricting no knock warrants by Federal law enforcement, creating a national database of officer misconduct, and promoting effective and accountable community policing that advances public trust and safety. I also signed the first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years as well as a long-overdue law to make lynching a Federal hate crime in Emmett Till's name. My Administration continues to call on the Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to secure the right to vote for every American.
Today, I am reminded of something Amelia Boynton said when reflecting on her march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what would be known as Bloody Sunday: "You can never know where you're going unless you know where you've been." America is a great Nation because we choose to learn the good, the bad, and the full truth of the history of our country—histories and truths that we must preserve and protect for the next generation. This National Black History Month, as we remember where we have been, may we also recognize that our only way forward is by marching together.
Now, Therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2024 as National Black History Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with relevant programs, ceremonies, and activities.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.
So, in spite of his announcement I think it’s pretty plain to see that Donnie Dump is talking outta both sides of his neck, and other unmentionable body parts. The following pronouncement is from his Department of Defense:
Immediate Release: Identity Months Dead at DoD Jan. 31, 2025
Guidance from the Secretary of Defense: "Identity Months Dead at DoD"
Our unity and purpose are instrumental to meeting the Department's warfighting mission. Efforts to divide the force – to put one group ahead of another – erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.
Going forward, DoD Components and Military Departments will not use official resources, to include man-hours, to host celebrations or events related to cultural awareness months, including National African American/Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month. Service members and civilians remain permitted to attend these events in an unofficial capacity outside of duty hours.
Well ain’t that cute. Defense Dude is giving us, and others “permission” to attend events — unofficially.
I’ve got news for him. We ain’t gonna stop being officially Black, women will still be women, LGBTQ’s will be who they are, as will Asian American and Pacific Islanders, folks with disabilities, Latino/a’s and Native Americans who don’t need any reminders to remain who they be.
So. For all of us who are who we are (and no damned directives from the White Big House will change it, us or history) I’d like to know what are you going be doing to learn more about and celebrate this Black History Month (and the months ahead)?
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Recently, white conservatives have lost their damn mind over relatively benign remarks made by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), which they have intentionally misconstrued as a threat to “fight” Trump and his MAGA goons “in the street.”
First, let’s start with what Jeffries actually said.
“Right now, we’re going to keep focus on the need to look out for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaires, donors, and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working-class Americans across the country with the bill,” Hakeem Jeffries said during a press conference, alongside Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, where he criticized Trump’s handling of the recent air collision in Washington, D.C., including his short-lived freeze on federal funding and his absurd and factless suggestion that DEI practices had anything to do with the tragedy. “That’s not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets.”
Now, the Trump administration’s whiney-ass response:
“While President Trump remains focused on uniting our country and delivering the mandate set by the American people, the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, incites violence calling for people to fight ‘in the streets’ against President Trump’s agenda,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told Fox News Digital. “This unhinged violent rhetoric is dangerous. Leader Jeffries should immediately apologize.”
“Will Minority Leader Jeffries apologize for this disgusting threat? Or will he double down on the same calls for violence that have plagued the country for years?” the White House asked in a press release.
Right-wingers up and down social media predictably followed suit in abandoning any semblance of logic, intentionally ignoring the “fight it legislatively” and “fight it in the courts” part of Jeffrey’s speech and deciding he was making some gangsta-ass pro-riot statement just because he used the words “in the street.”
Again, the caucasity here is just overflowing.
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As President Donald Trump and Republicans seize on diversity policies, political experts weigh in on Democrats' strategy to combat their agenda. The Grio: Can Democrats’ message on DEI convince white women to dump Trump?
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“People are suffering, and the leader of this country decides to go out and pedal lies, conspiracy theories, and attack people of color and women without any basis whatsoever,” said House of Representatives Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., similarly told theGrio last week, “Donald Trump is blaming white women and minorities for the deadly crash under the guise of DEI.”
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, who advises top Democrats like Jeffries and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told theGrio he sees some of the messaging from Democrats as it relates to white women and DEI as an intentional strategy.
“What Republicans have done is weaponize diversity, equity and inclusion to make it just about race and not about what it really means … which covers a multitude of things from race, age, gender, sex, disabilities, special needs, you name it,” said Seawright, who added that Trump and Republicans’ return to power has resulted in an attempt to “reframe DEI as a strategy to divide, exclude and insult.”
The Democratic insider said, “Sadly enough,” those who have benefited from DEI, emphasizing, “I’m not talking about Black Americans,” are “not the ones speaking up and speaking out at this moment.” He said it’s critical Democrats “paint a realistic picture of what it means when we say diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The apparent reframing of DEI beyond race to include gender, and more specifically, white women, is notable, considering the years-long frustration in Democratic circles over the voting patterns of white women. White women as a voting bloc have been accused of voting against their own interests. In the 2016 presidential election, a majority of white women voted for Trump despite his recorded comments about touching women’s genitalia without their consent. And in the 2024 presidential election exit poll, data shows an even greater amount of white women voted for Trump, despite his role in nominating three U.S. Supreme Court justices with the intent to overturn federal abortion rights under Roe v. Wade.
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A flagship programme to create malaria vaccines has been halted by the Trump administration, in just one example of a rippling disruption to health research around the globe since the new US president took power.
The USAid Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP) – which works to prevent child deaths by creating more effective second-generation vaccines – funds research by teams collaborating across institutes, including the US university Johns Hopkins and the UK’s University of Oxford.
Earlier this week, it told partners to stop work, after the president and his allies ordered a freeze on US spending. Researchers warned that the impact of the abrupt halt on other programmes could fuel the spread of drug-resistant HIV, and put medical progress back by years.
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Lacking an available pool of migrant labor, the United Stated has historically turned to another vulnerable group—incarcerated people. The New Republic: How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Could Fuel a Prison Labor Boom
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On January 20, President Trump signed the executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”—ostensibly the first step in what he promised would be the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Sweeping measures have quickly followed: sealing the border, canceling asylum appointments, attempting to end birthright citizenship, and revoking Biden-era humanitarian parole programs.
In the months before Trump’s inauguration, experts warned that his anti-immigrant policies would have severe consequences, particularly for the U.S. food system. Nearly 70 percent of farmworkers in the United States are born outside the country, and more than 40 percent are undocumented. The fear of ICE raids, detention, and deportation has already had a chilling effect on immigrant farmworkers, and the situation is likely to worsen.
But the problem of labor shortages in agriculture is not new, and whenever the demand for cheap, disposable labor has outstripped available workers, the U.S. has historically turned to another vulnerable group: incarcerated people. Over a century ago, the practice of convict leasing arose as a way to fill labor gaps by using incarcerated Black men as free labor for agricultural and industrial work. It eventually evolved into the system of prison farms, where prisoners—often poor and disproportionately Black—were put to work growing food for both the prison system and, at times, private interests.
With mass deportations threatening to strip the agricultural workforce, it’s not impossible to imagine that states could once again tap incarcerated workers to fill the gap. This shift, however, may not lead to the economic benefits that Trump and his allies have promised. In reality, agriculture has long depended on the labor of the most economically and racially marginalized segments of the population to keep costs low, and any sudden disruption could send shock waves through the system.
Stephen Miller, now White House deputy chief of staff, predicted in 2023, “Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers, who will now be offered higher wages with better benefits to fill these jobs.” But wages are unlikely to rise, particularly in an industry that often operates on narrow margins. Instead, the focus may turn back to prisons, where cheap labor has historically been a solution to agricultural worker shortages.
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Voices & Soul
“… If I hadn't lived my life like an Immortal
Maybe the pain of loss would be less
But I doubt it… “
- Justice Putnam
”Immortal Life”
by Black Kos Editor Justice Putnam
I made a vow when I was probably still in junior high to live life without regrets, now I regret making that vow. I know now a life without regrets is just making an excuse to ignore any pain I have caused. It is just ignoring the truth and valorizing the ignorance. I had some sort of idea I could live a life without telling anybody, “I’m sorry,” but now I know I have much to be sorry about. I don’t regret fighting injustice, or drilling water wells for schools in Latin America for UNICEF. I don’t regret knocking on doors to get out the vote, and I have no regrets heckling Edward Teller almost daily for twenty years at the Peet’s next to the Claremont on the Oakland/Berkeley border.
I might regret, though, thinking I had all the time in the world to live a life with no regrets. Pretty sure I regret that.
If I hadn't spent so much time living life like an Immortal
I might have spent more time in the little time we have
I might have gotten the glass of water quicker
And laughed more.
I might have told the story of that 3am ride with Hank
in a GTO driven by that minor league ball player
Down the 101 from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara
At a hundred-twenty miles an hour.
I might have come sooner when I heard the fall
Because minutes matter. Seconds, even.
And I might have answered that midnight phone call
Instead of letting it go to voice mail
And finding out too late it was a worried girl friend
Worried he'd be gone and then he was.
If I hadn't lived my life like an Immortal
Maybe the pain of loss would be less
But I doubt it.
When you are living life like an Immortal
You live forever and so does the pain
Of knowing you never hugged anyone enough
Not really.
Not mom or dad. Not your only son.
When you live life like an Immortal
You have all the time in the world
In the little time left to weep a little
To laugh and marvel at the beauty and sadness
Of it all.
And now I have the rest of my Immortal life
living it and knowing
There is so little time
To have all the time in the world.
- Justice Putnam
“Immortal Life”
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