Linda McMahon unsure if teaching Black history flouts Trump's anti-DEI policy

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Wed 4 Jun 2025 18.07 EDT
Last modified on Wed 4 Jun 2025 18.55 EDT


Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said on Wednesday she was unsure if teaching students about two of the most notorious racist episodes in US history would fall foul of the Trump administration’s onslaught against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Testifying before the House of Representatives’ education and workforce subcommittee, McMahon appeared uncertain of her facts when confronted by Summer Lee, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania. Lee asked her about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and Ruby Bridges, a civil rights workers who as a six-year-old, braved a screaming mob to become the first Black child to attend a previously all-white school.

The exchange occurred after Lee asked her if teaching an African American history course would breach the administration’s anti-DEI policies. “I do not think that African studies or Middle East studies or Chinese studies are part of DEI if they are taught as part of the total history package,” she said. “So that if you’re giving the facts on both sides, of course they’re not DEI.” Lee said she was unsure what both sides of a Black history course would be and raised the questions about Tulsa and Bridges, prompting McMahon to respond that she would “look into them”.

That in turn led to Lee asking: “Do you know what the Tulsa race massacre is?” McMahon replied: “I’d like to look into it more.” The Tulsa episode is widely seen as the single worst outbreak of racial violence in American history, when an attack on the city’s Black community led to the destruction of more than 1,000 homes and business, and the deaths of between 50 and 300 people, according to various estimates. The attack happened during a period of racial tensions marked by the growth of the Ku Klux Klan.

Lee then asked if it would be illegal to teach Bridges’ book, Through My Eyes, which documents her experience of attending a formerly segregated school in New Orleans in 1960, under the escort of federal marshals. The episode was later depicted in a famous Norman Rockwell painting, entitled The Problem We All Live With. McMahon said she had not read Bridges’ book, leading Lee to ask: “Have you learned about Ruby Bridges?”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/04/linda-mcmahon-black-history-dei-policy

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Link to tweet

The Obama Foundation
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Feb 10, 2023
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Replying to @ObamaFoundation
In 2016 during #BlackHistoryMonth, @MichelleObama unveiled Alma Thomas' Resurrection painting as a fixture in the Old Family Dining Room—making it the first artwork by a Black woman to be displayed in the public spaces of the White House and enter into the permanent collection.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host a Passover Seder dinner in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, April 3, 2015.
The Obama Foundation
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Outside of the Oval Office, President Obama displayed Norman Rockwell’s painting of six-year-old Ruby Bridges entering an all-white elementary school with federal marshals, depicting a pivotal moment in the fight for desegregation.
President Barack Obama meets with Ruby Bridges outside the Oval Office, 2011. Together they stand in front of a painting of her as a young girl.
10:24 AM · Feb 10, 2023

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Well, teaching about slavery and segregation

IS teaching “white history” too.

[sop]

2. "If you're giving the facts on both sides, of course they're not DEI." What facts? I'll "look into them."

Republican facts aren't the same as real facts.

[Vinca]

3. History is history, not a white supremacist fairy tale.

[Timeflyer]

4. It's American history, Linda. Let's finish Reconstruction already--kids can deal with it, even if their parents can't.

[newdeal2]

5. As long as each chapter starts and ends with the words

“very fine people on BOTH sides” of the issue, there’s no problem.

Holocaust, Jim Crow, etc.

[ananda]

6. And she'll be out in 5... 4... 3... 2...

...

[twodogsbarking]

7. History books will now say that slaves had nice air-conditioned homes and a 30hr work week.

Health benefits, child care, limo drivers, and the internet.

[mdbl]

8. Linda McMahon doesn't even know white history.

She's just a dumb ass who is unqualified for her position as are most of Dump's appointees.

[moniss]

9. When you look into her history in the

steroid mess in wrestling it isn't pretty. She is detestable at a level slightly below her husband. It would be refreshing if a member of Congress were to question her as follows:

Member: "Madame Secretary the charter school movement has done everything possible to not have to adhere to the same standards as public schools. In fact people in political positions have been known to assist them in evading accountability and some have likened it to those in sports entertainment who have used inside information about investigations in progress in order to warn a doctor.

So Madame Secretary you do know about such things and so I ask whether you will refrain from tipping people off about investigations or will you continue as you have in the past?

Of course the likely response will be:

Secretary McMahon: "The people in professional wrestling are now and have always been people of the highest morals and character and would never engage in deception of any kind."

But at least somebody would publicly throw it to her face about her conduct.

[Sane1]

10. She Believes Pro Wrestling is Real!!!

How can any sane person who believes pro wrestling is “real” be taken seriously on any other subject??!!??

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Most unqualified education secretary ever.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. And we thought Betsy DeVos was the worst! And they managed to go even further into the pit.

[mdbl]

13. Jesus she's stupid.

Oh yeah, that's why Dump chose her.

[live love laugh]

14. Do they give "both sides" of "white" history?

If they did we would not need black history lessons.