Illustration of Authoritarianism

 

The Attacks on DEI and Jim Crow of the Mind

Two years ago I wrote and published a book titled Jim Crow of the Mind and the New State Laws Designed to Preserve the Idea of White Male Supremacy. I warned that more states may join the fifteen states that the book addresses. 

Today, the laws of those fifteen states have become the national policy of the Trump administration. The national attacks on programs labeled "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) are only a part of the Trump administrations' Jim Crow policies focused on education. These policies are designed to suppress any views that challenge the idea of white male supremacy. It should now be apparent that Donald Trump is a white male supremacist. (The few white women he has appointed were also intended to be submissive white male supremacists.)

In Chapter 20 of my book, titled "The Danger: What Lies Ahead?" I wrote: 

Are these state laws a prelude to increased racism and sexism throughout the country? Are they the beginning of something much worse?

It is clear now that the answer to both questions is a terrible Yes.

I also wrote in that chapter:

These laws are not just about several states but about the fabric of the nation as a whole. These state laws further rip the national fabric, and either we sew it up now or it will rip even more until the nation is completely torn apart, far more so than today.

It's taken only two years from those words to come to the shredded nation we have today. We have a lot of sewing to do, and let us hope that it is not too late.

To better understand what is happening to us and the nation, I invite you to read my book and my previous posts going back many years. I also invite you to visit my website to see what else I have written on the subject of democracy, racism, and sexism: johnlhodge.com.

Why living forever is a bad idea

In response to an article in the March 22, 2025 edition of The Economist, "Cyborgs, superhumans and cranks," about efforts to create a superhuman who might live forever, I wrote the following letter that was published in the April 12th edition:

Wanting to be superhuman is the peak of arrogance. What if Stalin did not die and remained in power for ever? Or J. Edgar Hoover? If the old did not die their ideas and way of life would govern us for ever. We would today be living as people did millennia ago. No, for the sake of humanity, it is best that the old die off (including me, but not yet), so the young can bring about change.

Dr John Hodge

Boston

ICE's political abduction of Ozturk, a Tuft's graduate student

 Today the Boston Globe published my mini-essay as a letter:

 

LETTERS

Last Tuesday it was Rumeysa Ozturk. Who will it be next?

Updated March 31, 2025, 2:30 a.m.

A collection of flowers and messages was on display on March 28 at the Mason Street site in Somerville where Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey, was arrested.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

 

Trump administration’s tactic: Divide and oppress

Friday’s welcome editorial, “The chilling arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, and the damage done,” makes only a brief mention of the most critical point: The federal government’s targeting of people for their political views, whether they are citizens or not, is a violation of freedom of speech and due process of law.

The First Amendment protecting freedom of speech and the right of assembly does not state that it applies only to citizens. It also protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The Fifth Amendment establishing due process of law applies to any “person.” The 14th Amendment contains clauses pertaining to citizens but establishes due process of law and equal protection of the laws for “any person.”

These elements of the Constitution project a humane vision of democracy.

We lose this vision when we allow the federal administration to divide us into separate categories of citizens and noncitizens. Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts graduate student who was swept off a Somerville street by masked plainclothes agents and then detained out of state, was a documented legal resident until her legal status was suddenly revoked without legal process. Now every noncitizen is at risk of having their legal status suddenly revoked. Once that is allowed, citizens will be next. Our silence is acceptance.

John L. Hodge

Jamaica Plain

Other letters that followed mine on this topic are also well worth reading.