BY SOUMANOU SALIFOU

Black History Month starts tomorrow. It’s the month when Black people, along with some people of other racial backgrounds, honor the achievements of African Americans and their role throughout U.S. history. Should we worry that Trump’s bombastic actions and offensive rhetoric might negatively impact this year’s and future Black History Month celebrations?

The power of the president of the United States is immense. The expected dizzying cascade of executive orders (300 so far?) signed by Donald Trump in less than two weeks of his return to the White House—legal as they are—are arguably no different from a king’s orders. Trump’s frontal attack on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (DEI) makes one wonder how far he would go and what the impact of his actions and rhetoric would be, in particular, on the Black community.

Yesterday, in the wake of the tragic loss of 67 lives due to the plane crash near Reagan National airport in Washington, Trump baselessly blamed DEI. Implying that DEI promotes the rise of incompetent minorities, he said, in the bombastic way he is known for, “We have to have our smartest people” as air traffic controllers. “It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. They have to be talented, naturally talented.”

For decades, government entities at the federal, state and local levels have been a part of the celebration of Black History Month. ABC News, based on a memo that the news organization says it has obtained, reported yesterday that as a direct consequence of Donald Trump’s executive order banning DEI, the pentagon intelligence agency “has paused special event programs and related events, including for Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance and Pride Month.”

History has made us travel this dark road before. It took 15 years of fight by civil rights leaders, from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, for President Reagan to sign into law the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday on November 2, 1983. It took an additional 17 years for it to be recognized in all 50 states. Reagan vetoed the piece of legislation, but it was overturned by the required, hard-to-obtain two-thirds majority. This only federal holiday in honor of a civilian man came about, as the legendary civil rights leader himself had said much earlier, because “the moral arch of the universe bends toward justice.”

Sadly, in pursuit of a share of the political cake, some Black men who, no doubt, have plucked the fruit of Affirmative Action side with the prevailing forces of the moment and claim that there is no racism in America. But they and those they ape are a minority in the eyes of History.

One needs not be a historian or even much of an intellectual to appreciate the power of the captivating words posted on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture by its founding director, Lonnie Bunch. Titled “Knowing the Past Opens the Door to the Future: The Continuing Importance of Black History Month,” the material says, “Experiencing Black History Month every year reminds us that history is not dead or distant from our lives.” It goes on to say that “It helps us to remember there is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honoring our struggle and ancestors by remembering.”

To echo the call of one Karl Marx, I say, Black people of the world, unite!!