Now I’m convinced. They are definitely doing this on purpose.
Content related to Black and female service members has been removed from Arlington National Cemetery’s website in a supposed attempt to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government.
The New York Times reported that “the graves of Black and female service members have vanished as the Trump administration purges government websites of references to diversity and inclusion.”
Among the obscured pages are cemetery guides focused on Black soldiers, women’s military service and Civil War veterans. Some of the materials were still online Friday, but they were no longer easily accessible through the cemetery’s website.
A part of the site devoted to segregation and civil rights was largely scrubbed. That section once included a walking tour focused on Black soldiers and a lesson plan on reconstruction.
The cemetery, which is operated by the Army, said in a statement on Friday that it remained committed to “sharing the stories of military service and sacrifice to the nation with transparency and professionalism” and that it was working to restore links to the content.
“We are hopeful to begin republishing content next week,” Kerry Meeker, a cemetery spokeswoman, said in an email on Friday.
The cemetery’s website still had a page discussing Section 27, which includes the graves of former slaves. It also retained a page highlighting important historical Black American figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Colin Powell.
As can be expected, Democrats jumped on the news to do their “Orange Man Bad” Riverdance routine. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) claimed this was part of Trump’s effort to downplay the contributions of women and racial minorities in America. “Even if you have concerns about the way D.E.I. was handled in a number of different places, I’ve never seen a problem within the military,” he told The New York Times.
Charlie Sykes of the Lincoln Project, in a post on X, claimed the erasure of the content “is in line with President Trump’s directive to remove references to and support for diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
FFS.
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) March 16, 2025
Arlington National Cemetery has begun wiping from its website histories highlighting Black, Hispanic and women veterans. The change is in line with President Trump's directive to remove references to and support for diversity, equity and inclusion
https://t.co/xWajVLze7o
This comes after other military agencies have removed references to history concerning women and racial minorities. In February, the Art Museum of Americas canceled two shows featuring Black and LGBTQ artists, claiming it did not wish to run afoul of Trump’s executive orders.
At first, I wanted to give some of these folks the benefit of the doubt. After all, it is not always easy to determine how an executive order is supposed to be applied.
But there is absolutely no way these people genuinely thought Trump’s executive orders applied to discussing the history of women and Black Americans. There is nothing in the text of these orders suggesting such.
The policy is related specifically to DEI trainings and other programs that foment racial division while judging people by their skin color. I have my criticisms of how the right has handled the debate over DEI – but folks on the left have gotten ridiculous with this issue.
The folks taking these actions are clearly doing so to make it appear as if Trump is waging a crusade against any mention of people who are not straight White men when there is no evidence supporting that claim.
They know that when they take these extreme measures, Democrats and their close friends and allies in the legacy media will use it against Trump and his supporters. Do they really think they are fooling anyone?