All the "Woke" History that Trump is trying to Erase

Summary

The video argues that the Trump administration is attempting to remove or alter parts of the United States’ public historical record, especially material about slavery, racism, Native American history, women, and LGBTQ+ people. Mr. Beat acknowledges that historians reinterpret the past and can be biased, but says politically directed removal is different: it risks letting whoever holds power decide what is remembered and undermining a shared factual basis for democracy.

The examples below reflect the video’s account. It says some material was restored after public backlash.

Slavery and the founding era

• The video describes the removal of displays about nine enslaved people held by George Washington, along with changes to exhibits about slavery at Harper’s Ferry and the Smithsonian.
• It places these displays in the broader context of chattel slavery: forced labor, violence, family separation, and the denial of basic rights. It stresses that prominent founders, including Washington, participated in the system.

Women and people of color in NASA’s history

• The video says NASA removed or altered web content containing diversity-related language, including profiles and retrospectives about women employees.
• It highlights Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, whose mathematical work supported early U.S. spaceflight, as well as Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, and other women and minority engineers.

Minority military service

• The video says the Air Force stopped teaching about the Tuskegee Airmen and that military websites removed many profiles and articles about minority veterans.
• It recounts the Tuskegee Airmen’s World War II service, their record as combat and bomber-escort pilots, and their role in challenging military segregation.
• It also describes the Navajo Code Talkers’ use of Navajo-language code to transmit military information quickly and securely during World War II.

Native American land loss and forced assimilation

• The video says federal agencies reviewed or removed signs and educational materials discussing broken treaties, forced displacement, violence, and Native land loss.
• It describes the scale of land dispossession and points to policies and events such as the Trail of Tears and the Dawes Act.
• At Little Bighorn Battlefield, it says signs about federal boarding schools were removed or changed. The video explains that these schools sought to suppress Native children’s cultures and languages, including through restrictions on names, clothing, hair, family contact, and speaking Native languages.

Women workers in the Lowell mills

• The video says an educational film at Lowell National Historical Park was discontinued. It had described dangerous textile-mill conditions in the 1800s, including long shifts, low pay, and the employment of children.
• It connects women workers’ strikes against wage cuts with later limits on working hours.

Gender and LGBTQ+ history

• The video says restrictions on federal funding for teaching about gender as distinct from biological sex have led some schools to avoid transgender history and the development of gender-equality movements.
• It notes that some Native nations recognized people who held multiple gender roles, and discusses We’wha as an example.
• It traces modern U.S. transgender history through Christine Jorgensen, Marsha P. Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera, the Stonewall uprising, later organizing, and the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision on workplace discrimination.

The lesson the narrator draws

• Learning about past wrongdoing is not a reason to feel personally guilty, the video says; it is a way to understand history and avoid repeating mistakes.
• It argues that history should include both achievements and harms: celebrating the good does not require hiding the bad.

The video also contains a DeleteMe sponsor segment promoting a personal-data removal service and a brief humorous exchange in which Mr. Beat addresses someone named Oliver.

Speakers and sources featured

• Mr. Beat — presenter and narrator; the only clearly identifiable speaker throughout the history explanation.
• DeleteMe — sponsor featured in an advertisement read by the presenter.
• Oliver — addressed during the closing humorous exchange; the subtitles do not establish whether Oliver is a separate speaker.
• Major Howard Connor — quoted by the narrator regarding the Navajo Code Talkers; not heard speaking in the video.
• Historical figures discussed, rather than featured as speakers: George Washington, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, We’wha, Christine Jorgensen, Marsha P. Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera.