Jackie Robinson Illustrates the Trump Admin’s White-Supremacist Ideology; MAGA-Curious Gavin Newsom–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: March 20, 2025

Indy Digest: March 20, 2025

For the last couple of decades, a Jackie Robinson poster has been on the wall above my desk. In addition to a photo of the Brooklyn Dodgers/civil rights icon, the poster includes the definition of courage:

cour•age n. 1. The mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. 2. Valor.

In elementary school, I read a biography about Jackie Robinson—and to say it left an impression would be an understatement. He’s one of my heroes, and the story about him breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier, in part, led me to become a moderately fervent Los Angeles Dodgers fan.

Today, more than 54 years after his passing, Robinson is helping illustrate the pettiness and discriminatory nature of the Trump administration’s DEI purge.

As reported by CBS Sports: “The United States Department of Defense has restored an article on its website honoring Jackie Robinson after having removed it in an effort to purge ‘DEI’ (diversity, equity and inclusion) content. As explained on the now-restored page, Robinson served in the military during World War II. He later broke the color line in Major League Baseball, becoming the first Black player in MLB in 1947. The DOD page honoring Robinson was taken down recently, and its removal (along with removal of other articles) caused backlash online.”

To make matters even worse, the Department of Defense issued this appalling statement:

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. We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform.

DEI—Discriminatory Equity Ideology does the opposite. It divides the force, erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.

We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. 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.

This is a load of white-supremacist bullshit. First: DEI actually stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. You’ll rarely hear Trump administration officials actually use those three words together, because the vast majority of people believe diversity, equity and inclusion are good things. Instead, the administration uses the term “DEI” and claims, as in the above statement, that it’s a bad thing.

Second: The contributions of Jackie Robinson, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen and others can’t be fully appreciated and understood without the context of diversity, equity and inclusion. Jackie Robinson is so heroic because he had courage and was willing to do what needed to be done to stand up to systemic racism and break MLB’s discriminatory color barrier. That is part of United States’ history—like it or not.

The word “whitewash” comes to mind. Here’s one of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of the word: to alter (something) in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as to portray (the past) in a way that increases the prominence, relevance, or impact of white people and minimizes or misrepresents that of nonwhite people.

That’s exactly what the Trump administration and its anti-DEI crusade are doing right now. This has nothing to do with discrimination; it has to do with the belief in white, Christian, male supremacy—period.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The latest installment in our “What in the heck is Gavin Newsom doing?” series comes to us from our partners at Calmatters: “When Gov. Gavin Newsom launched his new podcast last month, he touted it as an opportunity to understand the MAGA movement’s motivations and figure out a path forward for Democrats after the party’s bruising losses in the 2024 election. But the early response has predominantly been bewilderment—from supporters, critics and the public alike — as listeners struggle to make sense of Newsom’s intentions, his political evolution and what the show signals for his leadership of California. The governor’s about-face from leading critic of President Donald Trump to MAGA-curious pundit comes at a critical moment for the state, as California launches legal battles against Trump administration policies and faces potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding cuts. Republicans have dismissed Newsom’s concerted shift to the center on some issues as disingenuous and roasted him for diverting his attention away from solving the state’s problems. Even many allies who applaud Newsom for reaching across the ideological aisle were troubled by his early guests and how the governor boosted their ultraconservative views.“

• Maybe our economy can be saved somewhat by … (checks notes) … Rand Paul?! Time magazine says: “Senate Republicans had gathered for one of their regular private lunches last Wednesday when Rand Paul commanded their attention. As Senators sipped diet sodas and grazed on sandwiches, the Kentucky lawmaker went through a slide deck with charts and statistics in service of a bold proposal: come out against President Trump’s tariffs. The arguments in Paul’s presentation, which has not been previously reported, were not a surprise to his audience. One of the most prominent libertarians on Capitol Hill, he’s a fierce proponent of free trade. But his attempt to corral colleagues against the Trump trade agenda was seen as a provocation to the President’s close allies. ‘The public feels like free trade has sold us out,’ Paul said, according to two Senators who were present, “but Americans are richer because of it.” Claiming that free trade agreements have spurred upward social mobility, one of his slides asserted that the middle class has shrunk in recent years only because more people had moved into the upper class.”

• Today’s recall news involves … Lean Cuisine! The Associated Press reports: “Nestle USA is recalling certain batches of its Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s frozen meals for possible contamination with ‘wood-like material’ after a report of potential choking. The recall applies to limited quantities of meals with best-before dates between September 2025 and April 2026. They include Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli, Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli, Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry and Stouffer’s Party Size Chicken Lasagna. The products were distributed to major stores in the U.S. between September 2024 and this month. No products beyond those listed are affected. Nestle officials said they are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department and investigating the source of the wood-like material. The company said it launched the recall after consumers reported the problem, including at least one potential choking incident.”

• And … Teslas! Again! CNBC reports: “Tesla is recalling more than 46,000 of its Cybertrucks due to a cosmetic exterior trim panel that it said can ‘delaminate and detach from the vehicle,’ potentially becoming a road hazard and ‘increasing the risk of a crash.’ The voluntary recall covers a part of the vehicle known as a cant rail and affects all Cybertrucks manufactured from November 2023 to February 2025, Tesla wrote in its filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dated March 18. Owners of affected vehicles can take their Cybertrucks to Tesla’s service department for free replacement of the cant rail, the company wrote.”

• The Los Angeles Times headline is “Fewer California kindergarten students immunized against measles last year, new data show.” Sigh. We’re doomed. (Kidding.) (Sort of.) Some details: “Despite having some of the nation’s strictest school vaccination laws, California reported a decline last year in the share of kindergarten students who were immunized against measles, including in 16 counties where students no longer have herd immunity against one of the most contagious diseases. New data from the California Department of Public Health show that last year, 96.2% of California students in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella in the 2023-24 school year, down from 96.5% the year before. And 93.7% of kindergarten students were up to date on all their immunizations, down from 94.1% in the same period the previous year. Data on vaccination rates for first-grade students, which are usually higher, were not yet available.”

• And finally … maybe Trump can unite us after all, by pissing us all off? (Kidding.) (Totally kidding.) ABC News says: “The Social Security Administration’s plan to require in-person identity checks for millions of new and existing recipients while simultaneously closing government offices has sparked a furor among lawmakers, advocacy groups and program recipients who are worried that the government is placing unnecessary barriers in front of an already vulnerable population. The new requirements will impact anyone who needs to verify their bank information with the agency, as well as families with children who receive Social Security benefits and cannot verify a child’s information on the SSA website. They are intended to combat fraud and waste within the system, which President Donald Trump and officials in his administration have claimed are widespread. The agency announced Tuesday that, beginning March 31st, those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s ‘my Social Security’ online service will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process. They also announced recently that Social Security field offices across the country will be closing.”

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