LUKAS BLANKENSTEIN / CONTRIBUTOR

On March 18, the Department of Defense (DoD) purged all articles relating to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) from their website. This removal occurred in response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, ordering an end to all DEI programs across the federal government, including the DoD. Immediately after the purge, DoD spokesperson John Ullyot, citing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, spoke of how pleased he was by the rapid removal of the articles.

“DEI is dead at the Defense Department,” Ullyot stated. “It is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the Force,  Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.”

One of these removed articles was about the military history of Jackie Robinson. Robinson was the first ever African American baseball player to play in the MLB. He started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1974, breaking the color barrier. This was prior to the team’s move to LA and before baseball was desegregated.  

Over his illustrious career, Robinson was a six-time All Star, 1949 MVP and 1955 World Series champion, before retiring in 1956. His number, 42, was permanently retired in 1997 by the MLB, meaning no other player is allowed to wear 42 as their regular number. Robinson is the only player in MLB history to receive this honor. 

Before breaking the color barrier, Robinson was a soldier during World War II (WWII). The article removed from the DoD website was part of a series of articles about sports stars who served in the military. The article detailed Robinson’s time with the army, including becoming a second lieutenant and serving with the “Black Panther” tank battalion. The article also detailed how Robinson was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a military bus, which Robinson was eventually acquitted for. When the article was removed, the URL redirected to one that read “DEI” in front of the words sports-heroes.

The removal of the article sparked widespread condemnation from the baseball world. On March 18, ESPN’s senior MLB insider, Jeff Passan, wrote a scathing condemnation of the DoD staff, referring to the people who removed Robinson’s article as “ghouls” and urging them to restore  the article. The tweet was viewed 4.2 million times and received 38.7 thousand likes. 

USD first-year Sophia Pinedo gave her reaction to the removal of the article.

“It’s sad to hear and disrespectful,” Pinedo said. “It’s not every day you hear about something like this, and it’s hard to understand.”

The article was one of many articles  that caused controversy with its removal. In addition to Robinsons’ article, articles on the Navajo code talkers, corporal Ira Hayes and the Tuskegee airmen were all removed in the same manner as Robinsons’. The Navajo code talkers were a group of Navajo speakers who were used to code messages during WWII in a way that was essentially uncrackable by non-Navajo speakers. Corporal Ira Hayes was a Native American marine, and was one of six men pictured in the famous photo, “Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima.” The photo has since become used as a common symbol for the Marines, including being used as the inspiration for the U.S. Marine Corps war Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. 

The Tuskegee airmen were an African American Air Force battalion that served during WWII. Colonel James H. Harvey III, one of the last remaining Tuskegee Airmen, spoke on the removal of the articles with the Associated Press, blaming Trump for worsening prejudices in America and accusing President Trump of racism.

“I thought there was progress in that area, but evidently there isn’t,” Harvey said. “I’ll tell it to [Trump’s] face. No problem. I’ll tell him, ‘You’re a racist,’ and see what he has to say about that.”

In response to the backlash, the DoD quickly apologized and claimed that the articles were removed by mistake. An hour and a half after proclaiming DEI to be dead, Ullyot released an apology, proclaiming his love for those whose articles were  stripped   from the website.  

“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong, and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” Ullyot said. “In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive. We instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”

The  articles were all returned shortly thereafter. Ullyot was also removed from his role, taking up a new role in the DoD dealing with “special projects.”

The removal of the articles also coincides with Major League Baseball (MLB) quietly scaling back a number of their own diversity initiatives. In February, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that their value of diversity was to remain unchanged. However, on March 21, three days after the Robinson debacle, the MLB removed all references and careers  related  to  diversity from their career page. This included the MLB’s Diversity Pipeline Program, a program launched by the MLB in 2016 to help identify and develop management and administrative          candidates    from underprivileged backgrounds. 

Manfred claimed that while they were still committed to diversity, they were currently evaluating their options to follow the law. 

“Our values, particularly our values on diversity, remain unchanged, but another value that is pretty important to us is we always try to comply with what the law is,” Manfred said. “There seems to be an evolution going on here. We’re following that very carefully. Obviously, when things get a little more settled, we’ll examine each of our programs and make sure that while the values remain the same that we’re also consistent with what the law requires.”

On March 30, a new wrinkle was added to the story. It was reported that Jackie Robinson’s biography was flagged for removal from the Nimitz Library in the U.S. Naval Academy.  This new batch of flagged books is in order to comply with a Trump executive order to end “racial indoctrination” in schools. The order flagged 900 books to be removed by the academy, including “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.” and “Einstein on Race and Racism.” 

The story around Jackie Robinson’s military legacy is still developing. It does, however, raise questions on who else’s stories are being buried — who’s stories, as a result of these orders, are being stripped from websites and libraries. The removal of Robinson’s article and biography will continue to be debated as government policies proceed.

Jackie Robinson signing to be the first African American to play for a professional MLB team, the LA Dodgers. Photo courtesy of @tonibarnhill808/Instagram