这封信的作者是Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colo. 16 岁的Peter Philpott,他是学生公开信大赛的前 10 名获胜者之一,我们收到了 9,946 份参赛作品。
Dear President Trump,
On snow days of my childhood, after the forts were built and hills sledded, and as the wintry sky began to darken, I’d go home and watch historical documentaries about airplanes. My favorite era was World War II, and one day I stumbled upon a film about the Tuskegee Airmen, who broke the color barrier of American flight in their famous red-tail planes. I was hooked.
These men introduced me to the best of America — glory and courage — but also its worst: racism that undercut their striving and punished them for their triumphs. The Tuskegee Airmen excelled when skeptics expected them to fail. They accomplished more than many all-white squadrons, flying effective bomber-escort missions, defeating Germans in dogfights, suffering exceptionally few losses. Then they returned to Jim Crow’s America: a stark contrast from the victory parades awaiting their white counterparts.
But you, President Trump, want to erase those stories. You have made “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” one of your primary targets. That term refers to improving job opportunities for marginalized people, but your anti-DEI policies also attack history, culture, and education. Your administration eliminated (temporarily, due to public outcry) the Tuskegee Airmen from the Department of Defense’s website, along with Navajo Code Talkers and Colin Powell. Executive orders like “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” and “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” have led schools to purge books by and about Jackie Robinson and Maya Angelou. The National Park Service attempted to explain the Underground Railroad without mentioning slavery. You laud these actions as “patriotic” because you think truthful history is “subversive” and “anti-American.”
You want us to think DEI policies thwart a merit-based system in which only the most qualified get the job or a place in history books. But what DEI really does is remove obstacles, freeing talented people to take flight in ways that — like the skill and bravery of the Tuskegee Airmen — help us all. It’s so essential that colleges and businesses are seeking ways to continue this work without attracting your attention. Dismantling barriers is truly a key to making America great.
American history is a story of achievement and struggle: a contest between our best and worst selves. It’s a fact, not a “distorted narrative driven by ideology,” that the Tuskegee Airmen had to fight to excel — just like Robinson and Johnson. Their trials, inseparable from their successes, are the stories that engrossed me in our complicated, messy, inclusive, and fascinating history. Acknowledging this history, learning from it, seeing the obstacles, and obliterating them: an honest reckoning with our past helps free us to be our best.
Mr. President, we should have pride in our accomplishments and remorse for our mistakes. We should learn from our history, and course-correct. Let’s not be afraid to elevate all of us. When the military tried it back in 1941, they found some of the finest pilots to ever fly.
Sincerely,
Peter Philpott
Works Cited
Collins, Jeremy. “The Tuskegee Airmen: An Interview with the Leading Authority.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, 14 July 2020.
Elias, Jennifer, and Annie Palmer. “In Trump Era, Companies Are Rebranding DEI Efforts, Not Giving Up.” CNBC, 30 March 2025.
Ismay, John, and Kate Selig. “Naval Academy Takes Steps to End Diversity Policies in Books and Admissions.” The New York Times, 29 March 2025.
Otterman, Sharon, et al. “Trump’s D.E.I. Ban Has Been Open to Interpretation in Schools.” The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2025.
Sandiford, Michele. “DoD Continues Removal of Historic Content from Websites, Citing DEI.” Federal News Network — Helping Feds Meet Their Mission., Federal News Network, 20 March 2025.
Swaine, Jon, and Jeremy B Merrill. “Amid Anti-DEI Push, National Park Service Rewrites History of Underground Railroad.” The Washington Post, 6 April 2025.
Trump, Donald. “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” The White House, 29 Jan. 2025.
“Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The White House, 27 March 2025.
Tuskegee University. “Tuskegee Airmen Facts | Tuskegee University.” Tuskegee.edu, 2019.