- The Pentagon removed Jackie Robinson’s military service story from its website, sparking outrage.
- The deletion is part of a broader effort to eliminate DEI content from official online platforms.
- The Defense Department defended the webpage removals, citing the “DEI” framing of the articles.
An online article about baseball icon Jackie Robinson’s military service was taken down this week as part of the Defense Department’s DEI-dragnet altering and erasing military history.
But it wasn’t just the Dodgers Hall of Famer who got swept up in the Pentagon’s widespread online DEI purge.
Many of the web pages, including the tribute to Robinson, had the word “DEI” added to the website’s address, an alteration that many took as an official suggestion that these recognitions were largely or solely because of the person’s race or gender.
This “DEI” labeling of years of old press releases and images, some dating from Trump’s first administration, extended to the recently fired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, trailblazing women and racially segregated units like the Tuskegee Airmen, Business Insider found. This adds to the list of articles that have received this treatment, including the highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient, whose web address was briefly changed to include “deimedal.”
The Pentagon doubled down on its decision to remove the content, claiming the articles had “DEI” framing, some of which originally appeared during cultural commemorations like Black History Month. Some pages, like Robinson’s, were later restored after an uproar. The removals demonstrate the extent of the department’s commitment to complying with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s directive to eliminate materials and practices it deems to be DEI.
The Defense Department declined to questions about why the DEI label was added to some web pages in addition to deleting its content or who had done so.
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