Black veterans are warning that the Trump administration's effort to purge the Defense Department of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content is sending a negative message that could impact recruitment efforts.

The Pentagon has faced backlash in recent weeks after efforts to comply with President Trump’s executive order banning DEI in the military resulted in the removal of webpages dedicated to Jackie Robinson; Colin Powell; Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, a Black recipient of the Medal of Honor; the Navajo Code Talkers and Japanese Americans.

Though the military later restored the pages and said the removals were a mistake, veterans like Richard Brookshire said there is a message being sent.

“There's executive orders that actually do things, and then there's executive orders that are made to send a message, and that message was very clear. Their intent is to try and resegregate as much of this society as possible that they think they can get away with. If they can't do it through legal means, they're going to try and do it by making Black people feel that we are unwelcome or unsafe in these spaces,” Brookshire, co-CEO and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project, told The Hill.

“The President does not put forward an executive order like that, and then also have his Secretary of Defense strip all of this Black history from these websites without this being an aligned effort. These are not isolated things that are occurring in a vacuum.”

Brookshire added that the idea of DEI is not new to the military, but it wasn’t always known as DEI. Rather, it was equal opportunity. Learning about other service members' history and culture was also a natural occurrence.

“We come from a massive, diverse country and because of that, we need to make sure that we're creating a unit where people from all different walks of life can thrive, work together and accomplish the mission,” he said. “They have to take people from all walks of life and create a cohesive unit, and that means understanding how people are diverse and how to create an inclusive environment.”

A 2023 survey by Syracuse University found that there are more than 350,000 active duty Black Americans and more than 2.4 million Black veterans. The majority of the survey's respondents reported having a good experience in the military, and more than half said that they considered........

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