from WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, February 19th.

We want to take a closer look now at the role of identity politics in some of what the Trump

administration has been ordering. These involve ways they're trying to eliminate discussions of identity politics in some of what the Trump administration has been ordering.

These involve ways they're trying to eliminate discussions of identity in some ways and elevate

it in others. For example, on the restrictive side, you've probably heard about some of these.

CBS News reported, for example, that the Pentagon's intelligence arm has issued a memo

pausing any activities related to Martin Luther

King Day, Juneteenth, Black History Month, LBGTQ Pride Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day,

among other so-called special observances, also National Disability Employment Month, which is October.

Another directive says government employees may no longer use pronouns in their email signatures,

and you know that Trump declared there are only two genders officially erasing even the existence

of trans or non-binary Americans. USA Today reported that President Trump issued an executive order declaring he would divert

federal funding from schools that teach, quote, discriminatory equity ideology, unquote, which

USA Today describes as a vague phrase that loosely refers to systemic racism.

And it goes on, the edict says it will sanction schools that assert some people are

oppressed because of their race or that the U.S. is, quote, fundamentally racist, sexist,

or otherwise discriminatory, unquote, that can't be taught.

Now, maybe you heard that West Point, in particular,

disbanded identity-related clubs at the school. The Washington Post first reported that an order signed by Chad Foster, deputy commandant at West Point said the clubs, which include many. The

Post article gave some examples that may not come right to mind,

like the Society of Women Engineers and the Latin Culture Club, will be immediately disbanded

and ordered them to, quote, unpublish, deactivate, archive, or otherwise remove all public-facing content.

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