Why it feels Black people are less free this Juneteenth
Though I grew up less than 300 miles east of Galveston in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Juneteenth was never mentioned in any of my K-12 social studies or history lessons. Those in control of what we learned — governors, state superintendents, district superintendents — seemed indifferent about our knowing that bit of history.
We all know about Juneteenth now. In 2021, after years of tireless advocacy by Opal Lee, then a 94-year-old Black retired schoolteacher who had previously walked 1,400 miles from Texas to Washington, D.C., to demand a federal holiday, President Joe Biden signed the bill establishing that federal holiday into law. So why, just four short years after the recognition of a holiday commemorating freedom, does it feel like Black people are less free?
A big reason is that President Donald Trump seems to be doing everything he can to eliminate any semblance of diversity, equity and inclusion. He has removed, and seemed to target, Black leaders who occupied prominent positions in government, appointed new leaders who have expressed open hostility around matters of voting rights and civil rights, promised to change the names of military bases back to honor treasonous Confederate figures and, more than once, removed the names of icons of Black history from some government websites because their roles as Black historical figures were being acknowledged.
On top of all that comes Trump's specific threat to deprive schools that teach curricula that are diverse in their inclusion of historical figures and events that aren't white-centered of federal funding. This increases the likelihood of Juneteenth's once again becoming a footnote in American classrooms. Because how can a teacher properly explain what Juneteenth is without veering into territory that Trump and his administration would disparage as DEI and 'woke ideology'?
At the university level, college administrators and educators across the country have expressed 'extraordinary fear' of losing federal dollars if they don't acquiesce to the Trump administration's demands to tone down any curriculum that, they wrongly assert, places a burden of guilt on white students. And while Ivy League institutions like Harvard University have the endowment backing and wealthy alumni support to better withstand the Trump administration's threats to their budgets, historically Black colleges and universities and the students who attend them are much more vulnerable.
It's hard to get in the spirit of Juneteenth in 2025 following last month's news that Trump, days after telling HBCUs that they have nothing to fear from his administration, proposed a federal budget that would cut $64 million from Howard University's budget. Or following the news that the Trump administration ended a $16.3 million grant to Florida A&M's College of Pharmacy in part, the National Institutes of Health claimed in a letter, because it funded 'amorphous equity objectives.'
Trump's proposed budget would also slash the federal Pell Grant program, which 40% of undergraduate students and 60% of Black undergraduate students used to pay for college in 2019-20. As for students who attend the 37 United Negro College Fund HBCUs, 73% received Pell Grants. Reducing funding for Pell Grants, then, is a way of making sure that fewer Black people can access the freedom that can accompany higher education.
There was a lot of history I wasn't taught and should have been taught during my K-12 years. The horrors of chattel slavery were glossed over, and enslavement was presented as merely a period of unpaid labor that Abraham Lincoln ended. I wasn't taught that Rosa Parks' refusal to move to another seat on a Montgomery bus was not a singular act of defiance but the culmination of years of preparation and advocacy. Nor was I taught that Martin Luther King Jr., who led the bus boycott in that city, modeled it after a successful bus boycott in my hometown, Baton Rouge. I wasn't taught about the radical King who opposed the Vietnam War and, when he was assassinated, was planning a Poor People's Campaign. I wasn't taught about the 1921 Tulsa race riots or the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia. And I didn't even know who James Baldwin was.
But for all the things I didn't learn about Black history, women's history, queer history, I can't say that the president of the United States was actively working for me not to learn them.
That's what makes Trump's anti-DEI push such an attack: the intention.
When I think about how our ancestors would just have assumed their bondage was still intact had they not learned of their freedom on June 19, 1865, I can't help but think about how the toll of miseducation can be a modern form of captivity for a people deprived of the fullness of their story.
And how oppressive it is for the White House to work to ensure that their knowledge of self remains hidden.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Inside a US guitar string maker's strategy to navigate the trade war
By Timothy Aeppel FARMINGDALE, NY (Reuters) -Once a week, executives of D'Addario & Company, a maker of strings and drumsticks for the world's top musicians, gather at the company's headquarters about 40 miles east of New York to strategize how they should respond to the President Donald Trump's trade war between the U.S. and the rest of the world. 'We literally call it our trade war task force,' said CEO John D'Addario III. Back in April, Trump was generating so much turmoil on trade that they met daily. But as they've gotten the hang of responding to constantly changing rules, they've scaled back to meeting weekly to map out plans to protect their business and take advantage of opportunities that may arise. Strategy sessions like this are happening across corporate America as Trump's tariffs create kinks and extra costs in global supply chains built up over decades. For D'Addario, a family-owned business that has been around for over half a century, this has meant looking at every aspect of their business to assess exposure, resulting in strategies that include setting up their own free trade zone and rerouting shipments to avoid tariffs, Reuters reporting shows. U.S. companies are learning there are no quick fixes to their trade woes. What seems to work one week may be outdated the next as the levies, or threats of levies, shift. In the past few months, the U.S. has slapped a minimum 10% tariff on most imported goods, with higher rates on steel, aluminum, cars, and car parts. The trade war so far has pushed the effective U.S. tariff rate to around 20%, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a level not seen since the 1930s. D'Addario is one of the world's leading makers of music accessories, with annual sales of $235 million and six U.S. factories. Five of those plants are clustered in this Long Island suburb, including one that churns out 750,000 strings a day for everything from bass guitars and banjos to violas and mandolins. The company has a devoted following among professional musicians as well as amateurs. John Oates--of the former rock duo Hall & Oates--uses their strings, as does jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and country singer Chris Stapleton. Neil Peart, the late Rush drummer, used D'Addario's drumsticks--and the company still sells sticks that were designed specifically for his playing style and bear his signature. A set of those hung on the wall of the conference room where the task force met one recent morning. While the company makes nearly all their products in the U.S., their supply chain and distribution are global. They export nearly 45% of what they make to 120 countries. Their biggest foreign market is Japan. TRADE WAR ROOM D'Addario's global footprint means they keep finding new vulnerabilities. For instance, one item on the agenda of the recent meeting was Japanese oak. D'Addario uses the wood, known as Shira Kashi oak, to craft a line of drumsticks coveted for their durability and feel. Some drummers won't play anything else. But the cost of the material is set to jump on August 1 if Trump makes good on his vow to push through a wide range of new tariffs, including 25% on Japanese goods. 'There isn't really any good alternative—people want their Shira Kashi oak,' Hank Sheller, the company's strategic sourcing manager, told the group of eight other executives gathered around a conference table three days after Trump announced the new levies on Japan. The group concluded that, in this case, a price increase to offset tariffs would be readily accepted by consumers because the wood is so unique. 'That's just something people will pay for,' said D'Addario. Other topics under discussion were more difficult to resolve, like what Trump's promise of a 50% copper tariff, announced the day after the Japan duties, would do to their costs. D'Addario doesn't buy raw copper but consumes large amounts of copper rod that it draws out into ultra-fine thread used to wind many types of musical strings. 'The problem is we don't really know the origin of the copper we're getting—whether it's from a domestic source or imported,' said D'Addario. 'But it's more likely there will be a cost increase for us, even if it is a U.S.-based supplier.' And unlike Japanese oak, copper strings are a commodity, so raising consumer prices to cover the tariff cost is unlikely. The task force has found ways to sidestep some tariffs. For example, after the U.S. started raising tariffs sharply on China, they shifted how they ship Chinese-produced goods to customers outside the U.S. It previously imported most of those goods, which account for about 5% of their total sales, to its warehouse on Long Island, where they were stockpiled and then sent on to end customers as they filled orders. The task force realized they could get around U.S. tariffs by having the goods sent directly to foreign customers from the Chinese factories. It helped that the Chinese factories were eager to help. In the past, they resisted directly shipping smaller orders. 'As a result of tariffs, our Chinese suppliers suddenly became much more accommodating,' said D'Addario. 'WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS' The task force has also applied for permission to create a free trade zone in part of their warehouse in Farmingdale, which will allow them to hold imported products and only pay tariffs when they need to be used to supply domestic orders. 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'At least we'll have the capability proven,' he added, 'so we're able to respond to whatever happens.' Despite the task force's efforts, the company's tariff bill is still expected to hit $2.2 million by the end of this year, compared to just $700,000 last year. Part of that is new costs to import cane from the company's own plantations in France and Argentina, which it uses to make woodwind reeds. The tariff on cane has risen to 10% and is set to go much higher. 'Trump said he'll put a 30% tariff on Mexico and Europe, so we're expecting anything from our plantation in France to cost even more,' said D'Addario. 'Assuming it goes through. We'll see what happens on August first.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Chicago Tribune
4 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
ICE arrests increase across Chicago under Trump, many with no convictions, data shows
With the Trump administration pushing far more aggressive immigration enforcement across the country and in Chicago, a Tribune analysis of newly released data shows a significant increase in the number of immigrants detained in the Chicago area — particularly those with no known criminal background. The findings come from a Tribune analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained and shared by the research group Deportation Data Project. The analysis shows that, as President Donald Trump's administration has pushed enforcement in sanctuary cities such as Chicago, ICE saw notable spikes in the number of people initially detained at two ICE processing centers in the area. The figures peaked at 88 bookings on an early June day that, at the time, drew attention for clashes between Chicago community members and federal immigration agents. Of the 88 booked that day, the latest analysis found, three-fourths had no criminal record logged by ICE. The surge in detentions — including immigrants with no known criminal record — mirrors broader trends across the country. The second Trump administration has increasingly focused on boosting the number of people arrested who lack legal status to be in the country, even if the efforts ensnared more people who didn't fit the traditional ICE focus on tracking down and deporting those who committed serious crimes. The analysis suggests that the efforts locally have done both — with ICE agents under the second Trump administration detaining double the rate of those convicted of violent felonies and sex crimes, while detaining nine times as many immigrants with no known criminal past. Local ICE officials have not released such detailed data on their enforcement efforts. When told about the Tribune's analysis and asked about its findings, a spokesman for ICE's local office did not immediately respond. The data used by the Tribune in its analysis was obtained by the law school of the University of California at Los Angeles, as part of a December 2024 lawsuit it filed to force ICE to release the data under the Freedom of Information Act. Court records show that ICE produced the raw data in batches this summer, and the law school shared the data with the Deportation Data Project, which posted the latest batch online Tuesday to share with reporters and researchers. (ICE refused earlier this year to directly provide the Tribune with similar raw data the newspaper had requested under the open records law.) The raw data has limitations. It does not identify detained people by name — unlike traditional jail logs or prison rosters, which by law typically must identify the people being held behind bars. And while the data lists details of each detention and some biographical information on who was detained, it does not list the cities, or even the counties, where people were arrested. 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Los Angeles Times
4 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Summer school for migrant students takes a double hit from Trump. Fewer kids go to the zoo
The 8-year-old girl is a migrant student whose family moves frequently in search of seasonal work. But for five weeks this summer, she found stability, fun and academic nurturing in a program for children like her that included visits to the L.A. Zoo twice a week. But like the axolotl, the salamander she studied, this program is critically endangered. Because migrant students may have family members who are living in the country illegally — or may themselves lack legal status — the Trump administration wants to end federal funding for it, saying the program wastes money and violates his policy directives. And in a more immediate blow to the program, amid fears over immigration-enforcement raids, fewer children went to the zoo and virtually no parents attended concurrent education workshops on how to support their children's learning. Although the federally funded zoo experience is a tiny program within the Los Angeles Unified School District — and a small part of a summer school that reaches tens of thousands of students, it offers a window into how Trump administration policies filter down to the classroom affecting California's complex education mission and some of the state's most vulnerable children. There are 1,700 students defined as migrants in the nation's second-largest school system, which has about 400,000 students ranging from transitional kindergarten through high school. Parents of these students typically work in agriculture or the dairy industry and they move with the seasons. The children sometimes move with the parents; sometimes they stay behind with relatives in the Los Angeles area or a different home base. Their parents typically have limited education and often limited English-language skills. The federal government provides L.A. Unified about $1.4 million for extra help for migrant students throughout the school year, part of some $400 million in federal migrant education grants available nationwide. The annual distribution of this funding was supposed to begin July 1, but the Trump administration held it back, even though it was approved by Congress earlier this year. Nationwide, this withheld funding for various education programs surpassed an estimated $6 billion, although some was released last week. Last week California joined other states in suing the Trump administration for holding back the money, much of which the administration wants to eliminate entirely in future years, including the migrant education funding. Those who applaud the federal cutbacks say that state and local governments should pay for these programs if they are valuable. Others believe the federal government retains an important role in helping children with special needs. Without federal involvement, 'some students are going to lose, and historically, it had been students of color, it had been migrant students, it had been low-income students,' said Mayra Lara, director of Southern California partnerships and engagement for the advocacy group EdTrust-West. RR — a rising third-grader whom the The Times agreed to identify by her initials to protect her and her family's privacy — has attended the zoo program for two consecutive years. 'I was kind of excited because I had the same teacher, because I really wanted the same teacher because she was nice and kind,' said RR, who wears glasses and has a dark ponytail. The number of participants who study at the zoo program is relatively small — because many families leave the area for summer work. In a typical year, 45 students, mostly in elementary school, take part. This summer, however, the number plummeted to 25, even though L.A. Unified provided buses to take students to the zoo and to Malabar Elementary in Boyle Heights, the home base for classroom work. What happened is no mystery to Ruth Navarro, the program's lead teacher for L.A. Unified. Concerned about immigration raids, four families asked if the district could pick their kids up from home. The district figured out a way to do this, but the families eventually declined to participate regardless, Navarro said. 'Even though we were willing to go to their home to pick them up, they didn't want to let their child out the door because of fear of what might happen to them,' Navarro said. Normally, the school system needs three buses to pick up participating students. This year, one of the buses was canceled. In addition, virtually no parents took advantage of a program for them that coincided with the hours their children were in class, Navarro said. This effort included workshops on such topics as social emotional learning and how to help children improve their reading skills. There also was advice on how to access help with immigration issues, Navarro said. In response to fears, parents were provided with an online simulcast for the workshops — in which about 15 parents participated, Navarro said. Los Angeles Unified also expanded an online version of the Malabar elementary classes, in which about 40 students participated to varying degrees — far more than usual. But the online students missed out on the heart of the program — seven trips to the zoo and in-person classroom interaction. RR took full advantage of summer learning — and became expert on the axolotl. At first, 'I thought it was just like a normal fish, but until I noticed the legs. I was like, 'Wait, a fish doesn't have legs,' ' she recounted. RR, like other students, created art projects of her animal and also served as a docent for parents and visitors. 'They have gills that help them breathe underwater,' she explained, holding a microphone next to the tank, adding that the axolotl can change colors to hide. 'There's one camouflaging over there,' she said, pointing. RR thinks it would be fun to be an axolotl and breathe underwater. She's never been to a pool or an ocean. The students are typically extremely shy at the start of the summer, said Coral Barreiro, community programs manager for the L.A. Zoo. 'They learn interpretation skills, which is amazing for building up confidence and public speaking in the future,' Barreiro said. 'They meet with the zookeepers, and they basically, at the end, mimic everything that we've done and make it their own.' L.A. Unified is continuing its migrant student program for now by using reserves that were designated for other purposes. During the school year, the migrant program pays for services such as tutoring and an extended instructional time after school and on Saturdays. Some argue that migrant programs — and many other examples of federal education spending — are not the responsibility of the federal government, including Neal P. McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. 'The federal government doesn't have constitutional authority to fund programs like that, not to mention we have a $37-trillion national debt,' said McCluskey, who was not taking a position on the value of the effort. 'If government is going to provide such a program, it should be state or locally funded.' The Trump administration, in its budget proposal for next year, echoes this argument, but also classifies the migrant effort as an outright negative. 'This program is extremely expensive' per student, according to budget documents. 'This program has not been proven effective and encourages ineligible noncitizens to access taxpayer dollars stripping resources from American students.' Critics of the administration's approach say that the federal government has long stepped in to support the students who need it most — when a state is unwilling or unable to do so. Without federal regulation and funding, state and local governments have not 'done right by all students,' said Lara, of EdTrust-West. The pending cuts and withheld funds, she said, will result in 'denying opportunity to students. State and local governments are going to have to make really tough decisions.'
