LEONARD GREENE: Trump trashes equity and diversity as he issues proclamation honoring Black History Month – New York Daily News

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Make up your mind, already.
On the one hand, you want to eliminate everything that has anything to do with equity and diversity, including any acknowledgement of months that celebrate cultural heritage.
Then, on the other hand, you want to wish us a happy Black History Month.
Well, too late.
“This National Black History Month, as America prepares to enter a historic Golden Age, I want to extend my tremendous gratitude to black Americans for all they have done to bring us to this moment, and for the many future contributions they will make as we advance into a future of limitless possibility under my Administration,” President Trump said in a proclamation.
Trump went on to cite abolitionist Frederick Douglass, freedom fighter Harriett Tubman, economist Thomas Sowell, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and professional golfer Tiger Woods as examples of Black people who “represent what is best in America and her citizens.”
There used to be a saying Black people employed to sarcastically acknowledge underwhelming acts of generosity and recognition:
“That’s mighty white of you.”
I give you Donald Trump.
The last thing Black people need is for Donald Trump to be picking out our heroes, especially if they have names like Clarence Thomas.
Scratch that. That’s the next to last thing we need.
The truly last thing we need is for Donald Trump to undo all the progress and contributions we have made to American society.
Trump’s Black History Month proclamation came on the heels of a Department of Defense announcement that it would no longer recognize or celebrate months dedicated to specific cultural or gender identities.
Gone, according to a memo, are Women’s History Month, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
Service members will be able to observe such commemorations on their own time.
Again, mighty white of them.
Many conspiracy theorists have complained about Black history being relegated to the calendar’s shortest month. But it was nothing quite as sinister as that.
Black History Month actually began as Negro History Week in 1926 when historian Carter G. Woodson and others pushed to set aside time to celebrate and promote Black history and achievement.
They suggested the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation executive order that freed American slaves.
Nationwide, schools and communities joined in and organized local celebrations, established history clubs and hosted performances and lectures.
These celebrations continued for decades, gaining momentum in the 1960s, thanks to the Civil Rights Movement and by the late 1960s, thanks to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.
By the 1970s, Negro History Week evolved into Black History Month. Republican President Gerald Ford was the first president to recognize Black History Month in 1976.
Ford called upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Woodson had put it another way.
“If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” Woodson said.
So, is Black History Month history going forward? That remains unclear.
But current festivities going on this month at the National Park Service and other government institutions are sure to eventually raise the question among Trump and his supporters about the need for a Black History Month.
They will remind us that there has never been a month, or even a day set aside to celebrate the achievements and history of white people in America.
Of course, they would be wrong. Those set-aside times are just called something different.
They have names like April, May, July and August — and every day that ends with a ‘Y.”
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