Secular activists must speak up in condemnation of the Trump administration’s ongoing display of ugly prejudice against minorities.
In the same week that President Trump made insinuations without evidence that “diversity” was to blame for the flight disaster in Washington, D.C., it was announced that federal celebrations of Black History Month and other “special observances” are barred. Trump’s executive orders are prohibiting military personnel and other federal workers from celebrating Black History Month, which began on Feb. 1, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day and other “special observances” — even though Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth are federal holidays.
(The Freedom From Religion Foundation is pleased to begin observing Black History Month with the release of its updated report on prominent African American freethinkers.)
At his press conference a few days ago, Trump shocked the nation by launching an unwarranted attack on the Federal Aviation Administration’s commitment, as required under a 1973 law, to take steps to hire people with disabilities. Although the first Trump administration had no problem with the FAA website announcing that it “actively recruits, hires, promotes, retains, develops and advances people with disabilities,” that language has now been purged. When reporters asked Trump whether he was blaming the fatal collision on diversity hiring, Trump replied, “It just could have been.”
After the press conference, the White House issued a memo claiming that the Biden administration recruited individuals with “severe intellectual disabilities” under diversity, equity and inclusion hiring. Yet, anyone working as an air traffic controller undergoes comprehensive training and tests and must meet physical and mental health standards.
Trump had earlier issued an executive order to abolish DEI programs in the federal government, including at the FAA. Trump despicably charged that DEI “penalizes hard-working Americans who want to serve in the FAA but are unable to do so, as they lack a requisite disability or skin color.”
These broad-stroke attacks blaming attempts by the federal government to remedy longstanding discrimination also encompass people of color. However, 73 percent of air traffic controllers were white as of 2022, and only 3.9 percent of pilots were Black. Barely 2 percent of FAA workers have a targeted disability. “Historically, there has never been an incident, big or small, where DEI or diversity has ever been attributed as a sole cause or contributing cause,” points out Tennessee Garvey, chair of the board of directors for the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals board of directors.
What does endanger flight safety is the Trump administration’s threatening message, sent to hundreds of thousands of federal employees, including those at the FAA, offering them eight months’ pay to resign immediately. An email urging FAA employees to resign by Feb. 6 was followed up by a second such message Thursday night, as the investigation into the in-air collision between a passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter had begun.
The Office for Personnel Management back-pedalled on Friday, saying that air controllers weren’t eligible for the resignation plan or subject to the same hiring freeze as many in the rest of the federal government.
The mass layoffs are called for in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s Christian nationalist playbook, which proposes eliminating 2 million federal civil service positions. “A drastic reduction in the federal workforce would have widespread implications for the public, affecting essential services, economic stability, and national security,” warns Forbes magazine.
Trump’s commitment to carrying out the agenda of white Christian nationalists and Project 2025 poses a grave danger — not just to aviation safety, but to “one nation with justice for all.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 40,000 members and several chapters across the country. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
Photo by David Everett Strickler on Unsplash
