US leaders are erasing Black history. That threatens our future | Stacey Abrams and Esosa Osa

Democracy flourishes when Black Americans advance. The evidence is clear: birthright citizenship, constitutional due process, anti-discrimination laws from education to housing to employment and equitable small business investments, are all byproducts of the systemic corrections known today as DEI. Yet, in recent years, DEI has been used as a smokescreen by cynical politicians and activists to roll back progress and consolidate power. Across classrooms, museums, boardrooms and federal agencies, the key pathways to opportunity and success are under attack through a coordinated disinformation campaign of erasure, distortion and suppression.

The impact of these tactics is concrete and undeniable. Since the start of this year, Onyx Impact’s research has found, 306,000 Black women have lost their jobs and $3.4bn in grant programs investing in Black communities has been slashed – including $9.4m in sickle cell disease research, $42m in programs designed to address Black maternal mortality and $31m in cuts to address asthma rates and air pollution harming Black children.

Concerted attempts to stifle the progress of Black communities is not new; however, history has proven that when progress for Black people is erased, everyone suffers. During Reconstruction, Black Americans made extraordinary strides – holding office, building businesses and founding schools. Less discussed is how other oppressed communities, from white sharecroppers to Latino gauchos, also benefited from increased access to legal and economic systems. When Black people faced a century of Jim Crow and state-sanctioned discrimination, other communities saw a similar retreat on their access to full citizenship. When the civil rights movement sought to eliminate the vestiges of Jim Crow, its practices of nonviolent civil disobedience expanded freedom and opportunity not just for Black Americans, but for communities of all backgrounds. From the Native American movement to the advancement of gay rights to women’s economic empowerment, Black civil rights opened the aperture for expanded human rights.

Nevertheless, every time Black communities gain ground, forces threatened by change work to push us back. As we face the current regime, DEI is the bulwark that guarantees a pluralistic democracy. Its power is rooted not in politics, but in the promise of America itself: that all people are created equal and deserve a chance to thrive. Defending DEI, accurate historical education and equitable access to opportunity protects the very principles that allow our nation to live up to its highest ideals. Authoritarians and their acolytes despise DEI because it secures the rights of all.

And when we do not recognize this, the consequences are immediate and real. The newly released Onyx Impact report, Blackout: The Real-World Cost of Erasing, Distorting, and Suppressing Black Progress, documents more than 15,000 instances, in just nine months, where Black lives, histories and pathways to success have been directly harmed or erased by the Trump administration and their legislative and judicial cronies. This report provides not only a stark account of harm but also a way forward. Its rigorous, data-driven analysis empowers citizens, journalists and policymakers to recognize the instances and patterns of erasure, distortion and suppression.

We must, though, understand these attacks as part of a deliberate campaign. The goal is to rewrite our nation’s story and restrict the futures of Black Americans, and by extension, any American deemed unworthy. We can be tempted to view their actions in isolation, but that is by design.

Distortion is one of the most insidious tactics. It reshapes reality in ways that narrow our expectations and cements bigotry as policy. Scholarships and education programs are being cut, leaving Black students with fewer chances to pursue a quality education. These cuts also affect Native American students and served as a predicate for attacks on Hispanic students. Black families continue to live in districts with underfunded schools due to historical patterns of segregation and inequality, and the concomitant effect of slashing services disproportionately harms all low-income children and disabled people. Support for Black-owned businesses and vital health initiatives have been slashed, leaving our nation without the data necessary to address systemic disparities in our economy and healthcare system. The follow-on effect will undermine research and investment for women across racial categories. By rewriting who counts, who is valued and what histories are taught, these policies compound the barriers that communities have fought for centuries to overcome.

Erasure and suppression work in tandem, and practitioners predictably start with Black America. Those seeking to cripple democracy have removed Black stories from curricula, exhibits and public memory, costing us the lessons of confrontation, remediation and redemption. Rising autocracies know to pressure schools, universities, corporations and government institutions into silence. Together, these tactics do more than harm Black communities – they hollow out our democracy itself. Civic trust erodes, economic opportunity narrows and our national narrative becomes dangerously incomplete.

The question before us now is: what will we do in response? Will we allow fear, disinformation and autocracy to write the next chapter? Or will we act, fiercely and deliberately, to defend the truth, honor Black progress and protect the right to opportunity for every American? The answer will shape not just this moment, but the very future of our country.

Protecting and defending the historic progress we’ve made is a moral imperative, one that demands concerted civil action. As the struggle for liberation has taught us, when we fight for freedom, we win. We absolutely face coordinated attacks on truth, which are intended to sow despair or lead to inaction – but we cannot allow that. The 10 Steps campaign, a nationwide mobilization effort to protect democracy, provides a clear playbook for understanding the threat that faces our country and the roadmap for action, helping individuals and communities navigate this moment and demand freedom and power. Additionally, Onyx Impact documents information threats, amplifies truth and equips communities to resist the harmful false narratives that are used to rationalize the dismantling of our democracy.

When linked, these initiatives show that protecting Black history and progress is a shared responsibility if we are to defend America – a responsibility that demands action from every corner of society.

Our nation’s future will not arrive on its own. Its success or failure will be determined by what we choose to do and resist today.

America’s story began by deciding that from many, we could become one. E pluribus unum is the essence of DEI, the lived reality of the Black experience and the proof that we can build something bigger than fear and despair. Together, we can preserve opportunity, honor truth and strengthen our democracy for generations to come.

• Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia in 2018 and 2022, is the founder of American Pride Rises, a group dedicated to defending the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

• Esosa Osa is the founder and CEO of Onyx Impact, an organization created to fight digital harm, amplify Black voices and create healthier online ecosystems