Trump Is Blaming Black People for Everything Wrong in This Country
Remember, ‘DEI’ is the new word for ‘niggers.’
The first chapter in Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny is titled “Do Not Obey In Advance.”
Anticipatory obedience, as he calls it, is when people voluntarily bend to the will of someone in power without having to be influenced, coerced, or forced into doing it.
It’s what Target did last week when announcing that company DEI initiatives would be ending.
While companies like Walmart and McDonald’s rolled back their DEI programs over the last year, Target drew ire from disapproving Black people everywhere after announcing last Friday that they would be ending their workforce and supplier diversity programs.
While the argument could be made that the wording in Target’s statement seems to indicate the company intends to continue to make efforts to increase and uphold diversity within its ranks minus the actual DEI signifiers, the problem lies in the cowardice it took to come out and say anything in the first place.
Target could have quietly changed the names of its DEI programs, continued to do the work and not said a word.
Their proclamation, however, only leaves room for the belief that they announced this to please Donald Trump and his idiocracy.
Target’s statement came on the heels of Donald Trump signing an executive order to dismantle federal DEI programs on his first day in office.
For those of you playing at home, this aligns with the plans he outlined in his Agenda 47 plan, which was cribbed from Project 2025.
As Trump makes it clear that he is returning the country to open white supremacy, institutionalized racism and targeted anti-Blackness, the people who are afraid of him are doing everything in their power to make sure he understands they are obedient and complicit in his bullshit.
Target bending the knee is anticipatory obedience, and as Snyder explains, it means they are “adapting instinctively, without reflecting, to a new situation.”
We are watching Trump and his ilk demonize DEI and turn it into a boogeyman that ruins everything.
Thursday, Trump blamed DEI for the D.C. plane crash that killed 67 people. It was, of course, a baseless claim. The numbers show that air traffic controllers are predominantly white and male, but truth doesn't matter in the idiocracy.
In Donald Trump’s mind, the mere presence of any form of diversity — Black people, queer people, disabled people, etc — is the problem. He sees it as a sign of incompetence. If you are not white and male, you are unqualified and useless.
Remember, kids, DEI is the new nigger.
So when companies capitulate to this bullshit and telegraph to the Donald that they are getting rid of DEI, they are complicit and perpetuating the idea that diversity is the problem and not white supremacy.
If you want to see how it’s done, Target, look at Ben & Jerry’s.
Ben & Jerry’s posted a video to their TikTok account where they loudly proclaimed that they will continue to support equality and speak out against social injustice. It was a big “fuck you” to the incoming administration, and they said it with their chest.
That’s how you stand on business.
We need more corporations to be like Ben & Jerry’s.
We need more people to speak up without fear.
Democracy dies in darkness, or whatever them weak-ass niggas at the Washington Post said.
This democracy is not dying in darkness. It’s dying right here in real time, and we are all bearing witness to it.
We’re sitting here watching it happen, and people in power are afraid to speak up.
Fuck this shit.
Be loud.
What struck me in the press conference was him repeatedly saying “we need superior intelligence” - so then just say what you mean and stop using DEI as your code word.
It’s an administration of dog whistles. Not gonna take them long to just say “nigger.” At this point, no more singing “Kumbaya.” As you say, “fuck this shit.”