#TalkRadio – August 26: #FreeDC! #HandsOffOurHistory! President Trump’s Rising Racist Authoritarianism and New US Polling Data on Anti-Black Racism

INTRODUCTION:

Hi Igniters For Change! The Igniting Change Radio Show on Tuesday, August 25th, 2025, from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Eastern Time, Entitled “#FreeDC! #HandsOffOurHistory! President Trump’s Rising Racist Authoritarianism and New US Polling Data on Anti-Black Racism”, will be live with Radio Show Co-Hosts and Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) Co-Leaders Attorneys Barbara Arnwine, Esq. and Daryl Jones, Esq. and will feature special guests Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead and Adjoa Aiyetoro, Esq.

On August 21st, 2025, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), led by Igniting Change guest Dr. Karsonya Wise-Whitehead, issued a statement on President Trump’s recent continued attacks on African-American history by whitewashing the Smithsonians. The following excerpts are taken from that statement which can be read in full here: https://afro.com/preserving-black-history-threatened/

Earlier this week, the president, on his social media platform, wrote a post openly attacking the Smithsonian Institution museums, asserting they were “OUT OF CONTROL.” He wrongly claimed that they only focused on “how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.” He also noted that “I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities, where tremendous progress has been made. This country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.” As a follow-up, the White House released a directive calling for a full review of all archival materials to determine if said materials are aligned with the president’s plan to “Restore Truth and Sanity to American History” (Executive Order 14235). This plan aims to remove any exhibit or artifact that does not align with his definition of American exceptionalism.

When the executive order was first released, ASALH felt compelled to speak out and partnered with other civil rights organizations, including the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), to lead the National Week of Action’s “Hands Off Our History” rally. We met in Washington, D.C., and rallied around the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (our beloved Blacksonian) to call attention to what was happening and what people needed to do next. We also laid out our North Star, providing our members with a blueprint for daily acts of resistance because we knew, like Toni Morrison once told us, “The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.”

As you may be aware, the first steps have already been taken. The first occurred in 2017 with the whitelash election; then in 2020 with the rise in anti-Blackness and White supremacy after the murder of George Floyd. The right wing conservatives took a third step in 2023 with the banning of over 10,000 books, a majority of which featured people and characters of color. And, a fourth step occurred earlier this year when 47 issued multiple executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in higher education, medicine, K-12th grade history courses, research and science—to name just a few steps in the race toward fascism. The president and MAGA are now in full stride as they speed to defund libraries, whitewash history curricula, zero-base the Department of Education, position the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and dismantle the Black middle class. (It is not lost on us that the work that was done to push and remove 300,000 Black women from the workforce was deliberate and intentional. It is also another step.) These steps are veiled attempts to rewrite and distort the narrative by removing any mention of the racist actions, words and deeds that have shaped American history. This regime is actively seeking to erase the lived experiences of Black people.

But, we knew that this moment would come. We have been preparing, and we are ready. Our work to uphold the legacies of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Baker, Constance Baker Motley, Derrick Bell, Harriet Tubman, Paul Robeson, Dorothy I. Height, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Vincent Harding and Barbara Jordan, among many others, demand that we stay ready. Our work as truth seekers obliges us to “speak the truth to the people” and demands that we stay ready. Our work to preserve the history of our experience and plant the seeds for future knowledge and resistance to sprout demands that we stay ready.

ASALH stands in fierce opposition to this latest directive and all efforts to erase or distort our history, to silence our voices and to minimize our story. The history of the United States is written in blood and tears, in cross burnings and lynchings, in protesting and picketing, in voting and in protesting, in fear and in terror, and in fighting for justice and for peace. (End of excerpt)

In another revealing development, “[a]ccording to a new Gallup poll, a majority of Americans—and a supermajority of Black Americans—believe that anti-Black racism is widespread in the United States. The 64% of Americans who think this particular brand of racism is widespread is tied with its polls from 2021 and is the highest figure recorded in its periodic polls since 2008…Despite the insistence of Donald Trump and his Republican Party in recent years that anti-white racism is prevalent, most Americans do not share that view; only 29% of respondents in the latest poll believe that it’s widespread, in contrast to the previous polling in 2016, when it came in at 41%…As it relates to civil rights, although the polling indicates that while the majority of white Americans believe that civil rights for Black people have improved during their lifetimes, that figure is lower than it has been in the past.

“However, as a longer view of the public opinion regarding civil rights by Cornell University’s Roper Center points out, over time, the gap between Black and white sentiment regarding civil rights has been steadily narrowing. This has been driven in large part by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, largely considered the most transformative piece of legislation for the lives of Americans, in particular, Black Americans, over the last half-century.” (Source: https://www.blackenterprise.com/majority-americans-believe-anti-black-racism-widespread/ )

On August 19th, 2025, the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), whom our Igniting Change guest Attorney Adjoa Aiyetoro served as the former Executive Director, and its D.C. Chapter denounced the federal takeover of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the Militarization of the District of Columbia. Taken are excerpts from this statement:

President Donald J. Trump has invoked powers under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 to effectuate an unprecedented federal takeover of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, that on its face appears racially motivated, undermining local governance and the autonomy of the District’s elected leadership. President Trump, in furtherance of his federal takeover, has deployed federal military personnel and FBI agents across the District of Columbia under the clearly false pretext of addressing a purported surge in violent crime when there is clear and compelling evidence to the contrary. Official statistics from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department indicate that violent crime has declined over the past two years, including a 26% reduction in the current year; and, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia reported in January 2025, that overall crime in the District is at a 30-year low.

The National Conference of Black Lawyers and its D.C. Chapter unequivocally denounce the federal takeover of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the militarization of the District of Columbia. NCBL and its D.C. Chapter calls upon all legal professionals, civil rights organizations, and elected officials to stand in defense of D.C.’s sovereignty and the rights of its residents. (End of excerpt)

These and other related matters will constitute the subjects of Tuesday’s show.