During this time studying in both the United States and Germany, W.E.B. DuBois’ observed much of the racism that CPUSA leader Henry Winston would later identify as a “breeding ground” for fascist ideology. Describing his experiences in academia, Du Bois wrote:

“In graduate school at Harvard and again in Germany … race became a matter of culture and cultural history. The history of the world was paraded before the observation of students. Which was the superior race? Manifestly, that which had a history, the white race … and consequently in America and Germany, Africa was left without culture and without history.”

Indeed, if racism is a weapon utilized by the ruling class, historical and cultural erasure is one of its most reliable forms of ammunition.

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed the Supreme Court’s reversal of affirmative action, the banning of books discussing racism and social justice, along with the elimination of African American studies in publicly funded academic institutions. Today, this treacherous form of racism, that of erasure, is once again being openly wielded by wealthy corporate bosses and the owning class of our country. In fact, they seek to erase the multiracial, multinational working class from the workplace itself.

In the weeks following the election of Donald Trump, a tsunami of companies — household names like Walmart, McDonalds, Target, Toyota, and Molson Coors — have announced plans to roll back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The Trump Administration, in just the first day of being in power, eliminated all mention of DEI at the federal level. This includes revoking Executive Order 11246, signed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, which prohibited federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of gender, race, and nationality in their hiring practices.

Certainly, the elimination of nondiscriminatory hiring practices and workplace policies will not and never has created a “more fair” or “merit based” system. Trump and his MAGA cronies have asserted that this move attends to the needs and demands of U.S. workers — that it strengthens the foundations of U.S. society, but it unquestionably does the opposite. The move risks putting us back on the same foundation of the racist segregation era. It risks resurrecting long defeated old Jim Crow, just under different pretenses. The division of labor based on race, nationality, and gender did not create a stronger workforce in the United States then, and it will not now.

It is precisely unity between the multiracial, multiethnic, and multi-gendered masses in the workplace — with the demand for better jobs and better pay — that facilitates fairness and equality.

The idea that considerations made for the historical oppression of some groups in the U.S., such as that imposed against African Americans during Jim Crow, necessarily takes away considerations made for “more deserving” individuals is also unequivocally false. In actuality, it is precisely unity between the multiracial, multiethnic, and multi-gendered masses in the workplace — with the demand for better jobs and better pay — that facilitates fairness and equality.

A gift to the bosses

As NAACP President Derrick Johnson said recently, the Trump Administration’s action will “only worsen America’s racial hierarchy and benefit the oligarch class.” Concealing and obfuscating the history of struggles for social justice within minority communities aim to keep working people ignorant of the strength in class unity, and only fodders the flame for Trump and MAGA’s false narrative, making it that much more potent.

It is no wonder why many large corporations and wealthy bosses have fallen in line behind Donald Trump. Nor do we have to wonder why the erasure of African American history curriculums included the stripping away of important notes on resistance, or why books such as To Kill a Mockingbird or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry were banned by far right actors. The onslaught against DEI is indeed the ruling class wielding the weapon of racism, using erasure as its ammunition, against working class unity.

This is even further demonstrated by the actions of the unelected head of unofficial government entity DOGE. Elon Musk’s not-so covert attempt to carry out a coup against the executive branch of the federal government is being performed under the guise of cutting “illegal” DEI mandates and programs. In just a little over a week, we saw and continue to see Musk and Trump fire longtime civil servants, issue a memo to freeze federal grants, implement federal hiring freezes, and access databases with confidential information.

Almost immediately, we saw its disastrous effects. Just days after the Trump Administration gutted agencies dedicated to keeping the country’s airways safe, such as TSA and FAA, we witnessed multiple plane crashes leading to nearly 75 total lives lost. In turn, like a malefic merry go round, the President responded by doubling down on his anti-DEI tirade, detracting from the real root cause — his anti-working class onslaught of the federal government.

One interesting line from the now rescinded memo that issued the freeze on federal grant spending was this:

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity … does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

Within this lie, there is a kernel of truth. And that is that real Marxists, at least those of us in the Communist Party USA, will always fight for equality, along with diversity and inclusion. We will always struggle to unite the multiracial, multiethnic, multi-gendered working class against forces determined to keep us divided — forces determined to usher in Jim Crow 2.0.

As a single, united, and class conscious force, workers can break the foundations of fascism currently being laid by Trump and his MAGA cronies.

Images: African American employees of Ottenheimer on strike for poor treatment by

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