The challenge of celebrating Black History Month - Massapequa Post

On Feb. 5, not long after Black History Month began, President Trump’s Truth Social account posted a video depicting former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. In response to criticism from Republicans, the video was removed the next day, but with no apology from the president. That’s the immediate context in which Black History Month takes place, but it’s been an entire year since the last celebration of this month, during which the Trump administration has advanced white supremacy and moved aggressively to undermine America’s longstanding commitment to diversity.

The administration’s support for white supremacy isn’t new. In November 2019, in Trump’s first term, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights called for the firing of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, stating, “Stephen Miller represents white supremacy, violent extremism, and hate — all ideologies that are antithetical to the fundamental values that guide our democracy. Allowing him to remain a White House advisor is a betrayal of our national ideals of justice, inclusion, and fairness.”

Yet in the second Trump administration, Miller has even more power. As Ashley Parker, of the Atlantic, told NPR recently, “He’s incredibly powerful. Steve Bannon and other people jokingly call him the prime minister.”

Miller is perhaps best known, as NPR reports, as “a chief architect of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.” That crackdown has generated intense public opposition due to the killings in Minneapolis of two American citizens with no criminal records by ICE officers. Because ICE is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, it ironically shares the department’s mission to “safeguard the American people.” That irony is not lost on Americans, and the public response to those two deaths has echoed the outcry after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.

The irony of the administration continues, as the White House acts to ensure that America’s schools instill, in the words of Executive Order 14190, “a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand” — while detaining children through ICE crackdowns at accelerating rates. As MS NOW reports, “Recent independent analysis by the Marshall Project shows that the number of children held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has skyrocketed in Trump’s second term — from an average of about 25 children detained per day during the final 16 months of Biden’s presidency to about 170 children per day under Trump.” On some days, the analysis found, “ICE held 400 children or more.” What values, exactly, are those detained children learning at the hands of the administration? What values are all children learning as they witness detentions of other children, day care workers and young parents? These are actions of cruelty, not respect for human life and liberty. They are acts of lawlessness, not patriotism.

Now the administration proposes to change the way we vote in America. As The New York Times reports, “President Trump has repeatedly suggested that he wants the Republican-led federal government to ‘nationalize,’ or ‘take over,’ the running of elections.” His allies in Congress are simultaneously advancing legislation — the Make Elections Great Again, or MEGA, Act — that would make voting more difficult. These proposals completely ignore the fact that elections in the United States are free and fair.

As the Brennan Center for Justice writes, “In 2025, a new threat to free and fair elections emerged: the federal government. Since day one of his second term, the Trump administration has attempted to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems, targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, supported people who undermine election administration, and retreated from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the electoral process.”

Nationalizing state elections is blatantly unconstitutional, and the legislative actions would make voting more difficult. That is exactly what this White House and its allies want to achieve.

As Black History Month continues, and in the months and years ahead, ERASE Racism will be championing inclusiveness, fairness and justice for all.

Elaine Gross is founder and president emerita of ERASE Racism, a regional civil rights organization based on Long Island.