White Comfort Is Being Protected. Our Reality Is Not.

What censorship looks like when it hides behind policy and privilege.

What does it mean when your existence is being eradicated from history?

When a government starts banning words like “BIPOC,” “women,” “community,” or “diversity” from research and grant proposals, it is not just a language change. It is a direct attack on people like me. As a disabled, adopted immigrant and a person of color, I know what it feels like to be erased, overlooked, or forced into silence. Now, with the Trump administration cracking down on how universities and researchers even talk about identity, gender, and marginalized groups, it becomes more than censorship. It becomes a policy-driven erasure.

This is not about “wokeness” or political correctness. It is about stripping funding from the very studies and support systems that recognize our existence, histories, and needs. If we cannot say the words, we cannot name the problem; if we cannot name the problem, we cannot solve it. Our

Whitewashing History: It's when uncomfortable or inconvenient truths get left out or softened to protect reputations, avoid accountability, or maintain a certain narrative.

Please make no mistake; this is not the first time our history is being whitewashed.

These are just some of the words being banned:

Activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, barrier, barriers, biased, bias, BIPOC, Black and Latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, discrimination, discriminatory, backgrounds, groups, diversified, diversify, enhancing, equal opportunity, equality, equitable, ethnicity, excluded, female, fostering, gender, hate speech, Hispanic minority, historically, implicit bias, inclusion, inclusive, increase, indigenous community, inequalities, inequities, institutional, LGBTQ, marginalize, minorities, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting, race, racial, justice, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, underappreciated, underrepresented, underserved, victim, women.

For some context:

During the Great Depression, over one million people of Mexican descent, many of them U.S. citizens, were rounded up and deported in what is now known as the Mexican Repatriation. Most Americans have never heard of it because it has been buried under decades of silence. Rough estimates range from 300,000 to 2 million People of Mexican origin and American citizens of Mexican descent who were forcibly removed. This deliberate erasure reflects what is happening today under the Trump administration, which is banning words like “immigrant,” “Latino,” and “Hispanic” from federal research and grant applications. When language is controlled, memory is controlled. We cannot hold anyone accountable if we cannot name the communities being harmed. History has already shown us what happens when stories about marginalized people are deleted. It is not just censorship. It is a warning.

Make no mistake, this rhetoric and policy are deeply harmful to marginalized communities. Silencing the words that describe who we are is not just censorship. It is a stepping stone towards genocide. You are tossing our voices into the fire and pretending we were never here. How are we supposed to apply for grants, scholarships, or university programs if we are not even allowed to name our identities or our own experiences? This is not about bureaucracy. This is about power. Banning our words is denying our existence.

That is the most explicit expression of white privilege, when your identity is always seen as neutral, and ours is treated as a threat.

All photographs are copyrighted by ©Adriano Kalin.