The new Trump-Vance administration seemingly mocked diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, NBC News reports, in cutting DEI programs on the federal level.
During Trump’s inauguration speech on Monday, he touched on how his presidency will bring honor to Dr. King’s legacy all while “thanking” the Black and Hispanic community who voted for him.
“Martin Luther King Day, and his honor, this will be a great honor, but in his honor we will strive together to make his dream a reality,” he said. “We will make his dream come true.”
Hours later, his administration released a statement describing the executive
order to get rid of DEI programs as a “return to the promise and the hope that was captured by civil rights champions, that one day all Americans can be treated on the basis of their character, not by the color of their skin,” echoing the famous 1963 speech where KIng said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”Dr. King’s ideology has been used a number of times by conservative lawmakers to explain their reasoning behind wanting to get rid of DEI programs.
Florida’s controversial governor and presidential failure Ron DeSantis referenced King while introducing legislation that would allow students to sue schools for teaching race-conscious information in 2021. He claimed King “didn’t want people judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.”
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy once said that “critical race theory goes against everything Martin Luther King Jr. taught us—to not judge others by the color of their skin.”
Assistant editor of the University of Maryland’s Freedmen and Southern Society Project
and co-founder of The Activist History Review, William Horne, told NBC News that conservatives use Dr. King’s words often when trying to end racial equity initiatives but they don’t really care about them.“If you simply look into any of Dr. King’s work, it’s very clear that he’s arguing for something really radical…,” Horne said. “They really care about a different way of framing white supremacy, not as state violence. I wish I could say that it doesn’t work. Historically, we’ve seen these very tactics work, this exact kind of rhetoric is the very rhetoric that helped sponsor Jim Crow.”
As part of the anti-woke political movement, a Trump administration official said announcing the order on MLK Day was “very fitting” with a plan to cut funding for DEI initiatives throughout all agencies. The goal is to end “DEI inside the federal government,” according to CBS News.
The Office of Management and Budget will be ordered to end all related mandates, policies and programs including initiatives that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in departments. Trump’s goal is to restore a merit-based hiring system.
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