title taken from “Brighter Days” by Lil Bitts

Are we over Black Excellence?

Happy Blackity Black Black Fist Black History Month!

Did you see Kendrick Lamar’s Blackity Black Super Bowl performance at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans last night? I must say that I don’t usually listen to K Dot’s music, but I definitely will now! Many are still dissecting the message sent by having Samuel L. Jackson playing “Uncle Sam,” the reason the stage was arranged like a Playstation game controller, and why Serena Williams was cripwalking like a G, while others have missed the point entirely. Meh. I’m not going into it here. As someone who loves poetry, subtext, and nuance, the performance delivered! I’m mad late to the party, but I’m here now. Turn it up!

It’s fitting that this performance comes during a racially tense Black History Month - that will be celebrated regardless of the federal government’s stance on it. It also comes as a number of prominent companies, such as Target, McDonald’s, Walmart, Google, Meta, etc. are "rolling back DEI" (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives primarily due to political pressure, backlash from certain customer segments, and a misunderstanding of what DEI even means.

Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions, conservative activists who perceive DEI as "woke" activism have used the courts and social media to target workplace programs. They've targeted corporate sponsorships, employee-led affinity groups, and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.

With some Black History Month activities being scaled back by the federal government and the Department of Defense issued a memo declaring “Identity Months Dead at DoD," sometimes you gotta pop out. “When our history is under attack what do we do? We stand up and we fight back,’’ said Karsonya Wise Whitehead, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Removing DEI and Affirmative Action programs not only affect college enrollment and employment, it also can affect our healthcare.

A conservative think tank associated with Project 2025 has launched a website that identifies federal civil servants who have worked on diversity programs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dubbed DEI Watchlist, the website includes “dossiers” on roughly 50 employees — including the head of HHS’ Office of Climate Change and Health Equity who was put on leave at the end of January.

Thousands of HHS webpages were taken down entirely. Some have come back online, but they have been scoured of the terms. A note has also been included at the top of all webpages for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” I mean, these some whole other politics.

Removing markers of race, sex, age, or sexuality can lead to misinformation and cause real harm to the general population. “If you’re removing information about the groups at highest risk, then that information is incomplete,” said Oni Blackstock, a primary care and HIV doctor and the founder of Health Justice.

Groups are pushing back at this incredible overreach. The city of Baltimore and three other groups sued Trump and his administration on February 4th, asking a federal court to halt and declare unconstitutional a pair of executive orders that seek to end diversity programs.

The lawsuit alleges the orders exceeded the president's authority under the U.S. Constitution and asks the court for preliminary and permanent injunctions to block the orders, in addition to finding them unlawful and unconstitutional.

"In the United States, there is no king," reads the lawsuit from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.

On February 5th, Democratic lawmakers joined hundreds of protesters outside the Treasury Department to denounce Elon Musk’s “hostile takeover” of the federal civilian bureaucracy. Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Representative Maxine Waters also spoke, yet Jasmine Crockett said with her whole chest, “We are not going to sit around while you go and desecrate our constitution. We are going to be in your face and on your asses!”

My goodness! I’m tired just thinking about the moves that all of these Black leaders are making to ensure the United States does not slip into a dictatorship bent on silencing voices of the marginalized and disadvantaged.

Maybe it's time for Black people to relax from being at the forefront of political movements and civil rights fights, especially those that do not only affect us. When the people needed us, we helped them. Didn’t gloat. What if this time we wait for other women, the disabled, and Latino immigrants to initiate the movement and we just cheer from the sidelines? I mean, are we over Black Excellence?

I would never recommend that we sit out the fight entirely, but instead of rushing in to be on the frontlines, maybe we just chip, chip, chip.