Whitewashing history is a tool of racism that is used to erase and deny the achievements and the very humanity of people of color in order to justify discrimination against them. Whitewashing was present in the founding of our country, weaponized by the KKK, and can be seen in the last decade and even the last month.
In mid-March, Pentagon webpages honoring service members who were people of color were abruptly taken offline. These pages included features on the Navajo Code Talkers and Jackie Robinson, among others.
Some Pentagon officials anonymously stated that the pages had been taken down because the administration’s search for DEI-related pages was too broad. However, the cause of such an action matters less than the result. Although massive public outcry resulted in the restoration of the pages, one might wonder: if the public had not spoken up, would the whitewashed history be the only official narrative still available?
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