Government websites have erased references to American heroes like Harriet Tubman and Jackie Robinson in order to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI push. But America is no stranger to revisionist history. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Noel King. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. Jackie Robinson, who integrated Major League Baseball in 1947, posing in his batting stance. Photo credit Bettmann/Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Mr. Jackie Robinson, number 42, integrated baseball, not because DEI, but because he was so good that to paraphrase his manager, I don't care if the guy is yellow or black or if he has stripes like a fucking zebra, he can make us all rich.
Jackie Robinson steps in against Ford. Deep in the left center, Irv Noren races after Robinson's blast. Jackie really teed off on Ford.
He also served in the military, during which time he was court-martialed after peacefully refusing to move to the back of an army bus. He was acquitted. The Department of Defense website featured Robinson in a section called Sports Heroes Who Served until March 19th, when his page disappeared and the URL redirected to one that had the letters DEI in front of Sports Heroes.
A Pentagon spokesman defended the removal, but about 90 minutes later, the page was restored. That spokesman resigned last week. Ahead on Today Explained, the Trump administration tries to rewrite history.
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You're listening to Today Explained. It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King with John Swain, who's an investigative reporter at The Washington Post. John, the mess that we're here to discuss today started with an executive order from President Trump. What was the order and how did it lead to the reporting that you've been doing?
That's right. On President Trump's first day back in office, he issued an order titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing. And basically, this order reversed something that Joe Biden had ordered very early in his term, which was the Biden administration made it government policy to pursue equity.
And that means we need to make the issue of racial equity not just an issue for any one department of government. It has to be the business of the whole of government. That involved training and programs in the government, to make that happen, and President Trump's order scrapped all that. It said, we're not going to do that anymore. It's immoral, it's wasteful.
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