Not long ago, they weren’t even topics of discussion in American politics. At least on the surface.
And when it started, it started small.
Remember?
It began as an attack on so-called “CRT.” And it was around 2020 and 2021 when they began talking about it.
I took note of it because “Critical Race Theory” is a theory/approach in law academia taught in upper level courses in some law schools. So when I first heard them talking about it, I wondered, “why are they talking about a highly academic law school field of study?” Seemed odd.
But the far right suddenly and bizarrely tried to convince America that “CRT” was being taught in middle and high schools across the country. And that somehow, that was causing all sorts of problems.
But it was such a stretch, it sort of fizzled out.
But they didn’t quit.
They went broader—not just attacking “CRT,” but censoring what is taught and read in schools and offered in libraries. History and literature in particular. And that’s when Toni Morrison and Anne Frank and all sorts of other works got thrown into the mix. Including essential elements of American history.
This new effort had more staying power.
Then they broadened again, going beyond just history—focusing attacks on “DEI” and broader efforts at diversity and inclusion and equality. Race, gender, LGBTQ+ status were now all fair game. Climate also got thrown into the mix for good measure. Science more broadly.
Finally, they lumped it all together into the word “woke,” and have declared war on all of it.
So, since 2020, what started as this concocted attack on CRT has now exploded into a broad, national, McCarthy-style witch hunt against all things that get labeled and swept up into the term “woke.”
And their new plan is to make it a national crusade at the highest levels of government.
If you read the pages of Project 2025, so much of what they attack, they first label woke—including things like overtime rules and other worker protections that have been around long before the term “woke” became their battering ram.
And from the earliest pages of the plan, the far right is consumed with excising any and all efforts and references to diversity and equity not just from the lexicon of government, but from any focus whatsoever in American life.
And while all this seems absurd and political on the one hand, once you drill down to what impact all of it would actually have, it’s deadly serious.
Not just as a matter of what we teach and learn, but how we even define the issues and problems we face and…what problems we try to solve, and how we approach solving them. And that’s when you realize that, if it were to play out as they hope, this far-right “war on woke” has truly devastating impacts. On everyday lives, and people and communities broadly.
Because, for example, if institutions are barred from solving problems that disproportionately impact certain groups of people due to historic and ongoing discrimination, it means that those negative discriminatory impacts remain locked in, and we are barred from solving them. Or even studying them.
Today’s NEW episode of “Trump’s Project 2025” walks through one example of that impact, and how it could kneecap life-saving medical research.
And we are honored to have Danai Gurira, of “Black Panther” and “Wakanda Forever” fame, narrate part of the chapter that explains all this.
You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts, including by linking HERE.
It’s a powerful episode, and I hope you’ll share it.
Author’s Note:
Just like Webster Powers’ words in the episode, Project 2025 could not be more clear. In fact, Powers’ words are lifted directly out of Project 2025 “The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensi- tive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” (page 4-5).
In the Health and Human Services Section of Project 2025, the plan takes aim at the Biden approach of “‘promoting equity in everything we do’ for the sake of “populations sharing a particular characteristic” including race, sexuality, gender identification, ethnicity, and a host of other categories.” (page 449)
And throughout Project 2025, various authors target programs and grants that they claim advances “woke” ideology. In the Education section, the plan calls for “[a]n accounting of how federal programs/grants spread DEI/CRT/ gender ideology….” (page 358).
Finally, because Project 2025 replaces experts and civil servants with political appointees, far more decisions over grant funding and contracts will now be in the hands of ideologues than actual experts. As Scientific American wrote: “The independence of science is being attacked across the board in this document,” says Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Climate and Energy program at the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists. “The importance of this science is that’s how we can ensure people’s health and the environment are being safeguarded.””
As Axios writes: “Throughout all scientific agencies in the government, the plan calls on the president to "ensure appointees agree with administration aims," which may allow political ideologues to overrule the expertise of trained scientists.”
NEW Episode: The Real World Casualties...