One of the most common rebuttals you’ll get when you criticize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in any meaningful fashion are historical red herrings. If you’re so opposed to DEI, such arguments go, then you must have a problem with people learning about America’s history of slavery, the civil rights movement, and anything to do with race relations. Obviously, these arguments are fallacious ones — but that hasn’t stopped them from coming up in the middle of modern debates over DEI and America’s struggles with racial division.
Recently, the Air Force was forced to confront this argument. In the wake of President Trump’s executive order prohibiting discriminatory DEI practices at the federal level, reports surfaced that the Air Force had removed (for “review”) instructional materials pertaining to the historical legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first…
