Frederick Douglass’ Family Outraged Over National Guard’s Withdrawal from Honorary Parade Days After Military Decides to Stop Recruiting from Black Engineering Event

One other day, one other instance of how the Trump Administration’s struggle on the excesses of DEI and “wokeness” has morphed right into a struggle on variety itself.

How else to elucidate the choice by the Maryland Nationwide Guard to withdraw from a celebration for American abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ birthday resulting from a Protection Division directive to not take part in any Black Historical past Month occasions, in response to Navy.com.

A proper memo from the Maryland Nationwide Guard’s Joint Operations Middle, dated Feb. 7, mentioned the reserve element could be “unable to help the occasion for a flyover, band, army autos and troop presence.” The celebration is named “Operation Frederick Douglass on the Hill” and marks the historic determine’s 207th birthday.

The memo, signed by Lt. Col. Meaghan Lazak of the Maryland Nationwide Guard, started circulating on-line over the previous week.

Douglass’ prolonged household acquired a observe simply final week from the Maryland Nationwide Guard informing them of the choice.

“Since this occasion is organized as a part of a Black Historical past Month celebration, the Maryland Nationwide Guard can’t help,” the observe mentioned. “The Maryland Nationwide Guard should decline occasions which have fun people based mostly all or partly on immutable traits.”

Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has championed the “anti-woke” measures, declaring on the final day of January that “identification months” are actually lifeless on the DOD. As a substitute, Hegseth has prioritized restoring the army’s “warrior tradition and ethos.”

“My coronary heart dropped,” mentioned Tarence Bailey Sr., a fifth-generation nephew of Douglass. “I used to be upset, particularly when trying on the causes.”

Most of the choices associated to the Pentagon’s directive appear petty. The Military Band lately canceled a live performance at George Mason College in Virginia, the place it was set to play music by Black singer Janelle Monáe.

And this week it was reported that the Military and different service branches had been ending their enlistment efforts on the Black Engineer of the 12 months Awards, an annual occasion that invitations college students, lecturers, and professionals with experience in science, know-how, engineering, and math.

“It’s f—ing racist,” one active-duty U.S. Military common said. “For the Military now, it’s ‘Blacks needn’t apply,’ and it breaks my coronary heart.”

The Military additionally ended a long-standing partnership with Ashley Corridor, an all-girls preparatory faculty in Charleston, S.C.

Navy.com stories, “For the primary time since 2017, the Military Corps of Engineers won’t take part in Ashley Corridor’s annual ‘Introduce a Lady to Engineering Day,’ an outreach occasion scheduled for Friday. The initiative, as soon as a staple of the Military’s public engagement efforts, was designed to attract college students into science and engineering careers, fields the place the army has lengthy struggled to fill essential roles resulting from steep educational necessities.”

The withdrawal from the Douglass celebration led to the cancellation of a scheduled parade that was depending on the Maryland Guard’s participation.

“I actually didn’t need to cancel the parade,” Bailey Sr. mentioned. “Particularly not in Uncle Frederick’s hometown. However the President’s motion compelled our hand. With out the Maryland Nationwide Guard and the Massachusetts Nationwide Guard’s 54th Massachusetts. The center of the parade tribute was lower out. Frederick Douglass doesn’t deserve this in any case he’s finished for this nation.”

With out federal funding and the donations the group hoped to obtain from the occasion, plans to construct a cultural heart in honor of Douglass could should be scuttled.

“The aim for this was to fund the constructing of an African American Cultural Middle and the Frederick Douglass Society on African American Historical past and Tradition,” Bailey Sr. mentioned, including the transfer ought to function a wake-up name to Black Individuals that though President Trump proclaimed February as Nationwide Black Historical past Month, there’s little help, monetary or in any other case, from the federal authorities to market it.