Diversity.
Equity.
Inclusion.
In 2025, under Trump, all three have been turned into words of suspicion. Banned and punished.
Now come more…
Women….
Black…
That’s right…the news out of one of Ohio’s great and most spirited and proud schools—Ohio University—shows just how sweeping and outrageous the mania has gotten.
OU has suspended two events there, citing the threat from Trump’s Washington:
The 2025 OU Black Alumni Reunion has been postponed.
So too has a school event planned later this month called “Celebrate Women.” It may be Women’s History Month—but apparently celebrating women is just a bridge too far.
In suspending these events, OU cited a letter that came from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which has been sent out across the nation. The letter (included below) essentially accuses colleges and universities of having engaged in illegal discrimination in a wide variety of ways, and suggests that universities have “toxically indoctrinated students.” The letter gives schools 14 days to change their policies or face potential loss of federal funding.
The letter sweeps broadly and vaguely, casting doubt on any activities that provide separation among different groups, in “all aspects of student, academic and campus life.” And apparently OU is interpreting this to mean that even events celebrating women amid Women’s History Month, and even a popular reunion that has brought together Black alumni for 40 years, are now suspect for advancing “discrimination.”
Under the letter and this reading, a wide variety of student groups, activities and organizations would also constitute illegal discrimination.
Many schools have spent all year tearing up aspects of their administrations dedicated to promoting equity, and scrubbing websites and programs of any reference to diversity and equity.
But now we’re seeing a growing second wave—the termination of long-standing events and activities along the lines of the OU cancellations:
Grand View University in Iowa canceled its International Women’s Day, planned for March 8
The University of Akron canceled its “Rethinking Race” forum that has taken place for 28 years, amid Black History Month
Rutgers cancelled a conference touting HBCUs
Michigan State cancelled a Lunar New Year event, but then apologized and rescheduled it for later
Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana is shuttering the office which organizes its Women’s History Month, Black History Month, LGBTQ+ History Month and Native American Heritage Month programs and activities.
No doubt, far more of this is on its way.
I went to a lecture last night by the famed professor David Blight—author of Frederick Douglass, among many great works.
He explained, “Universities are at this moment under threat…They are under attack…from without and from within.”
Why is this? I’ll name two reasons (although there are more):
One, as I’ve explained before, JD Vance and his ilk are explicit—that universities and colleges are their “enemy.” They believe today’s higher ed institutions stand in the way of their conservative ideas winning the day. And like the cuts to NIH, this letter and threatened/imposed cuts are part of that broader effort.
Second, the attack on diversity and equity—and events like those at OU—comes right out of the darkest moments of our past. Sadly, there has always been a backlash whenever American democracy has become more multi-racial and more representative. For example, the parallels between what’s happening now, and what happened during the “redeemer” period that tore apart the multi-racial democracies of Reconstruction, are disturbing.
And these two forces, coming together, are apparently so powerful that they’re now even outlawing celebrating women and reunions of Black alumni.
Day 97 — March 7, 2025
A new step in the Trump executive power grab became clear in recent days, with the Administration advancing a radical legal theory that could wipe out the balance of powers and the Senate’s “advise and consent” role in much of the federal government.
This TPM article explains it thoroughly. In a dispute over appointing an “acting chair” of the U.S African Development Foundation, the Trump Administration is making its “broadest assertion of presidential power over independent agencies yet…stak[ing] out a legal position that would undercut the Senate’s power to confirm new officers at agencies like USADF [and giving Trump] the “‘inherent authority under Article II’ to appoint acting officials without going through the Senate’s process of advice and consent.’”
The bottom line is that if taken seriously, Trump’s argument would allow for a huge power grab—“an opening...to bypass the Senate and install commissioners and board members at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Federal Election Commission.”
Here’s the letter referenced above:
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