Former President Barack Obama sparked outrage in MAGA World over the weekend with a publish on X marking the start of Black Historical past Month, triggering white conservatives who questioned the necessity for the annual observance and resurfaced an outdated “60 Minutes” interview the place actor Morgan Freeman referred to as the idea “ridiculous.”
Yearly, Obama praises the deserves of Black Historical past Month on his social media account, and Saturday was no totally different, particularly as President Donald Trump’s second administration had taken sweeping actions to undermine range initiatives on the federal degree.
The backlash comes two weeks after Trump’s second inauguration, which coincidentally fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Instantly after taking the oath, Trump ordered authorities businesses to eradicate any DEI applications that gained momentum amid the Black Lives Matter motion after George Floyd’s homicide in 2020, throughout Trump’s first time period.
Throughout his Jan. 20 inaugural handle, Trump famous that it was “Martin Luther King Day and his honor, this shall be a terrific honor, however in his honor, we’ll try collectively to make his dream a actuality. We’ll make his dream come true.”
Throughout his first hours as president, Trump banned all cultural consciousness occasions, whereas the Protection Intelligence Company halted all actions associated to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black Historical past Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Satisfaction Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and different “particular observances” in compliance along with his government order. All federal workers in range, fairness and inclusion roles had been instantly positioned on paid go away by the tip of Trump’s third day in workplace.
Paperwork associated to Range, Fairness, and Inclusion (DEI) have been quietly faraway from the web sites of key federal businesses, together with the Workplace of Personnel Administration, the State Division and the Division of Homeland Safety.
If it was Black Historical past Month, it was exhausting to inform from what was occurring in Washington.
Consequently, Obama’s voice stood out on Feb. 1 as one of many few within the political spectrum keen to publicly acknowledge the importance of Black tradition in American historical past.
“From our earliest days, Black historical past has all the time been American historical past—and Black of us have profoundly formed our American tradition by music, artwork, literature, sports activities, and past,” Obama wrote on X. “One month a 12 months shouldn’t be adequate to rejoice the ability of the actions and the individuals who have fought for the rights we get pleasure from at the moment. That’s one thing that we’ve to do every day, as we attempt to dwell as much as their instance and ensure our youngsters and grandchildren keep in mind their tales.”
However quite than embracing the worth of a various nation and honoring Black historical past, white conservatives took goal at Obama, utilizing Morgan Freeman’s outdated remarks as ammunition.
Freeman’s controversial “60 Minutes” interview aired in December 2005, practically 20 years in the past, when he criticized Black Historical past Month as “ridiculous.” Within the interview with CBS Information veteran Mike Wallace, Freeman argued that the way in which to fight racism was to cease speaking about it and questioned why Black Historical past Month ought to exist when there isn’t a equal for white historical past.
After Obama’s uplifting message, conservatives wasted no time digging up the outdated Freeman information clip from YouTube and blasting it throughout X, the place it went viral over the weekend, with white folks denouncing Obama for recognizing Black tradition and achievements and concurrently praising Freeman as a Black man who was talking their fact.
“Actually Barry?” one particular person wrote in a repost, addressing the previous president disrespectfully over the difficulty. “Please return into your gap with Massive Mike. All of us are sick of you”
White of us had a subject day propping up Freeman as a token who echoed their very own bigoted viewpoints and used his phrases to dismiss the importance of Black Historical past Month.
“Morgan Freeman is spot on,” one other particular person chimed in earlier than continuing to distort the information in an argument riddled with historic inaccuracies, fallacies, and false equivalence.
“Black folks offered black slaves. White folks abolished slavery. Morgan Freeman is spot on, black historical past month is a joke. Your entire narrative has been flipped to make you suppose in any other case. Historical past isn’t about emotions—it’s about information. However they don’t need you to know that.”
In contrast to the restricted scope of African involvement, the European and American methods handled Black folks as property, stripping them of their humanity for generations, separating households, and creating a permanent legacy of racial inequality. This degree of dehumanization was by no means a characteristic of African participation within the slave commerce.
Additionally, abolition was pushed by each Black and white activists, with previously enslaved Black folks, like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Fact, and Harriet Tubman, main the cost. The very want for Black Historical past Month arose as a result of conventional historical past usually erased or minimized Black contributions.
Nonetheless, many white folks remained entrenched of their misguided beliefs.
“Hmmmm so do we’ve a White Historical past Month? A Purple Historical past Month? A Yellow Historical past Month? A Brown Historical past Month? Good God this appears like a field of Crayola Crayons!!!” one particular person posted to X, however a number of Black voices checked into the feedback part to clap again.
“Why are you so pressed about black historical past month, it’s not so that you can rejoice,” one particular person responded. “in the event you white of us wanna make your individual white historical past month go forward but it surely’s already 99% of historical past. black historical past month is a time for black folks to look again at their historical past.”
Trump supporters additionally leaned into conspiratorial pondering, claiming a hidden power was altering historical past in favor of Black folks. However in actuality, historical past books have lengthy downplayed the horrors of slavery and the systemic racism that adopted. This isn’t the results of a secret agenda, however quite a long-standing concern of historic oversights and omissions.
Correcting it isn’t about flipping the narrative — it’s about telling the complete story, say civil rights advocates. They argue that the one ones attempting to suppress historical past are the identical folks banning books, limiting training on race, and trying to whitewash America’s racist previous.
