Luis Torres, Ph.D.
The state and national battles for equitable education for racial and ethnic minorities and other still-marginalized students arrived in Denver, Colorado, yet again, this time at a rally at the State Capitol on April 25, 2025. This rally followed other recent demonstrations at the Capitol, decrying especially the Trump administration’s actions against “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs and policies nationally, K-12 through higher education. The April 25 rally featured local and national speakers, especially those attending the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in Denver. However, the rally was neither sponsored nor supported by the AERA national office or conference.
Readers of El Semanario might remember the announcements for the rally, published in the last two editions, which spelled out, in part, its focus:
“With its recent barrage of Executive Orders and administrative actions, the Trump administration is attacking the right to think, teach, question, study, learn, and research. This includes attacks on the rights of immigrant students and workers including deportations; erasing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, including curriculum and books; dismantling the U.S. Department of Education; threatening resources for students with disabilities and students living in poverty; defunding education research; and undermining academic freedom and freedom of speech.
This multiplicity of academic challenges wove through the various speeches. The morning demonstration began with a land acknowledgement by Alexandria Flores, Jicarilla Apache and Hopi representative from Denver, welcoming the crowd with a special salutation to those from other areas of the country, including researchers, K-12 educators, professors, and authors from such other states as Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Such widespread representation demonstrated the extent of concern the Trump administration’s actions have generated, especially in the field of education, K-20 (K-12 through Doctorate) for those American society considers non-essential and on the margins. Ms. Flores stated that our students are still suffering from the effects of colonization, including by those who should be protecting students, such as political and social leaders. She called for struggling on behalf of our ancestors, noting our generation will become the future ancestors.
Dr. Tom Romero from the University of Denver echoed Ms. Flores’ speech, noting that as a child in Denver he was bussed arising from the landmark Denver Public Schools Keyes Case which led the U.S. Supreme Court to mandate desegregation in the schools. He stated the crisis in education for oppressed students is intensifying due to further dismantling of educational opportunities.
Among the other speakers following Dr. Romero was Dr. Angela Valenzuela, Professor at the University of Texas in Austin, author of the widely regarded book, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring. She highlighted that our struggle for education “is a generational fight for non-profits, schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, and against the dismantling of our institutions.” She noted that the anti-DEI groups fear especially Gen-Z “because [they] are the most diverse group in our history.” In Texas, “they want to erase us, but we are not going to be erased” because the youth are mobilizing for the fight.
Dr. Terrell Morton, from Illinois, referred to himself as a “critical race theorist in S.T.E.M. education,” and noted that from the cutbacks targeting DEI in education, his work has been defunded and was informed it was “because work does not align” with the Trump administration’s perspectives. He noted, echoing Ms. Flores’ earlier remarks, that “It was the bold and courageous actions of our ancestors” that led to the opportunities we have had in education, now at risk.
Two widely-known educational leaders from Denver drew the rally to a close. Dr. Ramón Del Castillo asked, “How does educational research lead to change” and academic improvement? He referred to the numerous efforts in Denver’s history that have led to advances for the Latino community, including the recently released La Raza Report for Denver Public Schools (DPS), for which he was a lead researcher. He commended DPS Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero for supporting the Report and its research about the “Barriers and Opportunities” in DPS for the “Latinization” of the district. Nita Gonzales quoted her late father, nationally-known civil rights leader Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, as saying of U.S. Latinos, often depicted as only and entirely immigrants, “We did not cross the border, the border crossed us.” She referred to the anti-DEI movement’s banning of books and stated, “When they ban books, we build libraries. Let this not be a moment, let this be a movement.”
Many of the rally speakers referred to “anti-DEI,” a blanket term for opposition to marginalized students. As has been stated in El Semanario, “anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)” means “pro-MIE—Monoversity, Inequity, and Exclusion.” Those who promote diversity, equality, and inclusion—including the remarkable Pope Francis who recently passed—are often derided as “woke,” which is infinitely preferable to being “slept.” If they want to trumpet that they are “slept,” they should do so in their brief waking hours.
It has become clear to this educator that the Trump administration’s extolling of “America First” in so many ways, including in K-20 education curriculum, is merely Western European Curriculum First, what schools have perpetually promoted. Ironically, it is actually U.S. Multicultural Studies, or Ethnic Studies, that is truly “Made in the U.S.A.,” or “America First Curriculum.” One might ask, where was English language and literature made? In England, of course, a foreign country. Where was French made? In France, a foreign country. Where were German and/or Spanish made? In Germany and Spain, foreign countries. Where was psychology made (as it is studied and taught in America)? In Germany, in the 1850s, and Psychoanalysis, in Austria, foreign countries. The U.S. prides itself on inventing computers, but Charles Babbage in the 1800s was a pioneer in the field from England, not made in the U.S.A.
None of these comments about Western European influences of what are termed Made in the U.S.A. curriculum are meant to denigrate the U.S. and its education. However, the Rally speakers considered that curriculum by and about our marginalized communities, from K-12 through higher education, was truly “Made in the U.S.A.” and yet it is targeted for slash-and-burn today. This is true, among others, for Indigenous Studies, Black Studies, or Chicana/o Studies, all made only and entirely in the U.S.A.
As speaker Dr. Terrell Morton, from Illinois, stated, grants funding his research have been cut—an anxiety haunting educators today. Media is replete with such accounts. According to the Bay Area Morning Report, “The Department of Government Efficiency cuts have led to the U.S. National Institutes of Health losing more than 1,200 grants. That impacts a San Jose State biomedical program helping students….” According to The Denver Post article, “What’s at risk with cuts to federal humanities funding in Colorado?”, April 17, 2025, “Earlier this month, the Trump administration notified all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils — including Colorado’s — that their funding had been eliminated effective immediately, throwing the organizations focused on arts, history and education into calamity…. The NEH reaches 300,000 Coloradans annually and works with more than 120 program partners offering nearly 300 free public humanities programs statewide.” Further, the article quotes “Nicki Gonzales, a history professor and vice provost for diversity and inclusion at Regis University, [who] said the private Jesuit school in Denver was awarded a $126,000 grant by the NEH… to build out a museum archive and gallery studies academic program…. The terminated grant was earmarked for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, a federal designation for universities serving a large Latino population that meet certain qualifications.”
An especially distressing outgrowth of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI fervor is its effect upon the history of and contributions by racial and ethnic minority military veterans. An Associated Press article of April 16, 2025, “Army and Air Force libraries are ordered to review books for DEI material,” noted that “Army and Air Force libraries have been told to go through their stacks to find books related to diversity, equity and inclusion…. The orders from service leaders come about two weeks after the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, removed nearly 400 books from its library after being told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office to get rid of those that promote DEI.” However, what does “promote DEI” mean in this context? The article explains that “Books on the Holocaust, histories of feminism, civil rights and racism, as well as Maya Angelou’s famous autobiography, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing’’.…” were removed.
According to the Associate Press article “War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge,” (March 7, 2025) such removal followed a flurry of anti-DEI activity in March about condemning books, images, and articles, but with surprising targets. These include the removal of photos and articles about the plane from WWII that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima because the pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets Jr., named the plane after his mother—”Enola Gay.” Her surname was likely derived from “English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of the places in Normandy called Gaye from an early proprietor bearing an ancient Germanic personal… Catalan: probably also from the personal name Gai (Latin Gaius)” (https://www.ancestry.com › name-origin › surname=gay). Other such anti-DEI blunders by the Trump administration include “[R]eferences to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient… and the first women to pass Marine infantry training” along with, initially at least, “some photos of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated WWII unit… but those may likely be protected ….”
As the rally speakers indicated, we will be the ancestors of today’s still-marginalized students. If such blunders as eliminating a photo of the Enola Gay pass for military precision and government aptitude, what will become of our students? It falls on us to answer our own question.
Luis Torres, PhD, retired, served as Deputy Provost for Metropolitan State University of Denver for Academic and Student Affairs and professor of Chicana/o Studies. Torres is a noted advocate for equity in education, policy and community efforts. Torres is also a member of The Weekly Issue/El Semanario Advisory Board.
