January 29th 2025.
Karoline Leavitt, the newly appointed press secretary, made her debut at the White House and faced a barrage of questions from the press. At just 27 years old, she is the youngest person to hold this position. On January 28th, she addressed various topics including immigration and the administration's decision to freeze federal funding for programs like Medicaid. However, renowned author and White House correspondent April Ryan was curious about the plans for celebrating Black History Month in February amidst the administration's efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and "woke" ideologies.
Ryan posed the question, "Is this administration planning to celebrate Black History Month?" Leavitt responded by affirming that the team still intends to celebrate, but she did not specifically mention Black history. Instead, she stated that they will be celebrating American history and the contributions of all Americans, regardless of race, religion, or creed. She added, "And America is back."
However, as of now, there have been no official announcements regarding the celebration plans. In fact, an email from the State Department seems to downplay the significance of Black History Month. According to The Independent, the email, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, provided minimal guidance on the celebration and asked officials to highlight individual Americans' contributions throughout history while keeping in line with the directive to eliminate DEI programs. This led one official to believe that there would be no public events or messages about Black History Month, which has been celebrated in the US since the 1970s.
During Trump's first term, he recognized February as "National African-American Month." According to one official, this is the first time in their decades-long career that they can recall not celebrating Black History Month. This lack of acknowledgment is concerning, especially since Leavitt's first public appearance as press secretary did not go well with some critics on social media and television.
The hosts of ABC's The View criticized Leavitt's use of the term "wokeness," with Whoopi Goldberg reminding her that it was the fight for diversity and inclusivity that paved the way for her to be in her current position. "Women were not invited to that table. Women were not invited to many tables in this nation," Goldberg passionately expressed, as reported by Fox News. She continued, "The reason we fought and busted our behinds to make sure that you didn't have to worry about this, and now to hear you talk about it and to hear anybody talk about the wokeness, the wokeness was put in place for a reason because Black people couldn't get into colleges, because women could not get into the colleges they wanted to go to."
Goldberg reminded Leavitt that this fight for equality is not just about Black or Asian women, but all women who were previously excluded from important conversations and opportunities. She added, "This is all women. Women were not invited to this party. It was a man's world, and we busted our a**es to make sure that this was a person's world."
Despite the backlash, Leavitt received praise from some for allegedly accomplishing more in less than 24 hours than her predecessor did in four years. However, some critics compared her to foreign state media like North Korea, calling her propaganda "so blatant it would make the dictator of North Korea blush."
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