Activism
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March 21, 2025
An article on Robinson’s army profession was restored to the Protection Division’s web site. It’s a reminder that we are able to beat again the racist proper.
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Jackie Robinson served within the US Military throughout World Struggle II.
(Bettman by way of Getty Pictures)
Rachel Robinson, a professor, nurse, activist, and the spouse of baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson, remains to be with us at 102 years previous. This month, the Division of Protection deleted a webpage detailing Jackie Robinson’s World Struggle II army historical past and changed it with an error web page with the letters “DEI” within the URL. Maybe essentially the most upsetting a part of it’s that Rachel Robinson has lived to see her late husband’s title demeaned by a brand new spherical of white supremacists 78 years after he broke the colour barrier in Main League Baseball.
“DEI” has change into the Trump administration’s all-purpose time period to demonize something that promotes the histories and experiences of Black and brown folks. On this context, its use is very blunt: It’s a racial slur. Former Fox Information host Pete Hegseth’s Division of Protection was sending the unmistakable message that Robinson’s accomplishments are fraudulent and exalted solely due to the colour of his pores and skin. Robinson was not the one goal in Hegseth’s fusillade of racism. Articles in regards to the famed Navajo Code Talkerswho’ve been commemorated in books and movies, had been taken down, in addition to commemorations of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. All erased, with a DEI error web page instead.
Not surprisingly, waves of anger adopted by media protection ensued over this brazen disrespect aimed on the unassailable Robinson. The fashion deepened when the DOD’s retort to each reporter from ABC Information to The Progressive was an an identical e-mail that appeared cut-and-pasted from the transcripts of fascist YouTube: a world Hegseth appears conversant in. The assertion stated that celebrating the achievements of individuals of shade (like Robinson) was an instance of one thing the army now opposes: “cultural Marxism.”
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To many, this certainly appeared like off-putting nonsense: the incel-speak of the net proper wing. However the phrase is extra nefarious than that. “Cultural Marxism” has lengthy been code on the far proper for Jewish conspiracy, particularly within the darkest corners of on-line media and on Nazi message boards. As an antisemitic slur, it predates our on-line world, in a position to be traced again to the Germany of the Nineteen Twenties when a rising Adolf Hitler denounced the “cultural Bolshevism” of main German artists. It’s incitement in opposition to us Jews, who’re in charge for weakening the US army via a grasp plan of celebrating Jackie Robinson. (Nobody ever stated bigotry has to make sense.) The informal use of the phrase is yet one more instance of the truth that that is an administration of antisemites and trusting them to “battle antisemitism” is a loss of life want.
When “cultural Marxism” was put ahead because the pseudo-intellectual, gobbledygook reasoning for Robinson’s ouster, even on ESPN’s homepage, the puzzled rage grew till Hegseth’s DOD buckled and restored Robinson’s web page. The intense gentle on the brand new politics of the DOD made the chastened Hegseth cower and the aforementioned disappeared tributes to the Code Talkers and the Tuskegee Airmen magically reappeared, too.
This may not sound like a lot, particularly in a local weather the place individuals are being disappeared for thought crimes in opposition to US international coverage. However it’s, I’d argue, a desperately wanted reminder that even on this repressive local weather, we are able to beat them again. Like sniveling bullies, they solely venture power once they suppose we’re weak.
Branding this DOD as white supremacist is a cost to not be made flippantly, however one struggles to seek out an alternate clarification for why any of this occurred. Robinson, in spite of everything, was a Republican. When the GOP was making an attempt to be much less racist as a treatment for Mitt Romney’s 2012 loss (they didn’t stick to that technique for very lengthy), they produced supplies that highlighted “well-known Black Republicans,” and Robinson was entrance and heart. Positive, the RNC omitted that he was a centrist “Rockefeller Republican” who, in a state of repulsion, likened the 1964 GOP Conference that nominated Barry Goldwater to a Nazi rallyhowever he was nonetheless a Republican.
What is evident is that Hegseth and buddies weren’t erasing Robinson merely due to his Blackness however due to what’s inextricable to his Blackness: a life story formed by the fact of Jim Crow and American apartheid. Robinson as soon as stated that if he had to decide on between the Baseball Corridor of Fame and full citizenship for his folks, he would select citizenship. Trying to erase this story just isn’t solely an effort to whitewash the sins of the previous, but in addition an announcement on who will get to say the mantle of “citizen” within the current. Or perhaps Hegseth and buddies are simply nonetheless upset over who received World Struggle II.
That the DOD needed to backtrack must be claimed as each a victory and a reminder of who these individuals are. Jonathan Coleman, the writer of the indispensable e book Lengthy Solution to Go: Black and White in Americastated to me, “Within the authorized world, when one thing is claimed, even whether it is later dominated inadmissible, legal professionals will insist you ‘can’t unring a bell.’ Within the case of Jackie Robinson, ‘restoring’ it’s a lot too little and far too late. The harm has already been carried out.”
Robinson as soon as stated that when he sees an American flag decal on a truck he is aware of “that individual just isn’t my good friend.” Hegseth is “that individual.” The secretary of protection and his ilk are the varieties of people who would have saved Robinson out of Main League Baseball. They’ve picked a aspect, and it isn’t the aspect of Jackie Robinson. I really feel for Rachel Robinson, and I’m positive I’m not alone. However she has confronted down greater bullies than this. We should always keep in mind that and know that we are able to do the identical.
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Onward,
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Writer, The Nation
Dave Zirin
Dave Zirin is the sports activities editor at The Nation. He’s the writer of 11 books on the politics of sports activities. He’s additionally the coproducer and author of the brand new documentary Behind the Protect: The Energy and Politics of the NFL.
