To mark the beginning of Black Historical past Month, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation honoring the commemorative observance, which turns 100 years previous this yr. In it, Trump acknowledges the numerous contributions of African Individuals, however attracts a political line in how Black historical past is mentioned in America.
“For many years, the progressive motion and far-left politicians have sought to needlessly divide our residents on the idea of race, portray a poisonous and distorted and disfigured imaginative and prescient of our historical past, heritage, and heroes,” writes the forty seventh President of the USA. “This month, nevertheless, we don’t have fun our variations.”
Whereas Trump, who highlights the nation’s 250th anniversary this yr, acknowledges the distinctive contributions of Black Individuals to “authorities, legal guidelines, navy, economic system, workforce, and tradition,” he emphasizes that Black historical past is “not distinct from American historical past.” As a substitute, he notes, “the historical past of Black Individuals is an indispensable chapter in our grand American story.”
“For 250 years, these rules have impressed and knowledgeable the impartial, daring, and pioneering American spirit. It’s our bedrock perception in equality that drove Black American icons to assist fulfill the promise of those rules. And it’s our unwavering dedication to liberty that continues to maintain our Nation’s greatness,” stated the president.
Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a professor of sociology and African-American research at UCLA, tells theGrio of the proclamation, “commemoration should be coupled with accountability.”
“It’s not sufficient to declare a month of recognition when the methods we depend on to restore justice will not be themselves simply. Right here we are able to take into consideration ICE, for instance, and a number of different organizations, establishments inside the federal authorities, that are at present disserving the Black neighborhood and different communities throughout this month,” stated Hunter, a longtime racial justice advocate who has helped draft congressional payments associated to reparations and restorative justice.
Dr. Hunter stated what was most attention-grabbing from the presidential proclamation is Trump’s acknowledgement of slavery as a significant function of America’s historical past at time the place the instructing of slavery in lecture rooms has come into query amid the Trump administration’s efforts to rid the nation of what it deems to be variety, fairness or inclusion, or just DEI.
The proclamation reads, “We have fun the contributions of Black Individuals to our nationwide greatness and their enduring dedication to the American rules of liberty, justice, and equality — the rules that wrested the Western Hemisphere from monarchies and empires, ended slavery, saved Europe, put a person on the moon, and constructed the freest, most simply, and most affluent society ever recognized to mankind.”
“It’s hanging as a result of a big a part of the assault on schooling and likewise the banning of books has been across the dialogue of slavery as a reality. So although it’s in passing, it’s name-checked as part of American historical past at 250 years previous,” Hunter instructed theGrio. “That must be famous and likewise uplifted, as a result of the bottom that helps President Trump tends to be in denial about slavery as a reality of America. And he truly is stating it.”
Throughout his first time period as president, Trump vehemently rebuked the framing of slavery and racism as a core function of America’s historical past, as explored in journalist and creator Nikole Hannah Jones’s “The 1619 Challenge.” To counter that historic reality, Trump created a “1776 Fee” to as an alternative promote “patriotic schooling.”
By viewing each challenge by means of the lens of race, they wish to impose a brand new segregation, and we should not enable that to occur.
“Important race concept, the 1619 Challenge and the campaign in opposition to American historical past is poisonous propaganda, ideological poison, that, if not eliminated, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us collectively, will destroy our nation,” Trump stated in September 2020.
Trump’s passing point out of slavery struck Dr. Hunter as ironic.
“I learn it and stated, ‘Okay, so all of this time Nikole Hannah Jones was proper,” he instructed theGrio.
