American democracy faces its greatest peril since 1861. President Donald Trump and his Project 2025-infused zealots are ripping through two centuries of progress in human rights, civil rights, sexual rights and democratic rights. Historically, race always has been the elephant in our culture.
Trump’s inquisitors, leaving nothing to chance, are banning words. I have poured the list of Trump’s banned words into a gallon bucket. I have shaken the bucket as if it were filled with all the possible winning tickets of a lottery and jump-started a sentence that led to a paragraph, and a paragraph that led to this article. I have used every word on the banned list except obesity. Oops, I used it as well. And more words have been added to this list since I started writing.
Rodney Kennedy
Some of these word-scrubbing zealots are more zealous than their superiors. They make mistakes so egregious they have to put back some words, pictures and stories due to public outrage. When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth banned the books of Maya Angelou but kept Hitler’s Mein Kampf on the shelves of the library of the Naval Academy, more than eyebrows raised.
I concluded the banned words are a direct attack on democracy. Instead, they are excellent words providing a foundation for celebrating democracy and human rights. These words should not be banned but debated, discussed, wrestled with, deliberated and hammered out. I gladly accept my identity as a promoter of democracy and confess a sense of trauma even reading a list of banned words.
Walt Whitman’s contagious democratic spirit fills his poetry: “O Democracy, for you, for you I am trilling these songs.” I consider it poetic justice that we can be led to renew our democratic freedoms by a queer socialist poet capable of saving America from itself.
The list of banned words concentrates on four areas that are an attack on America’s true democratic values.
Support antiracism
Democracy has no space in its diverse and beautiful house for racism. A person can swear on a stack of King James Bibles she is not racist but when she has a meltdown over words like all-inclusive, antiracist, biases, diversity, equity, indigenous people, inequality, the racial bias shines a light on the deeply embedded racist.
No matter how many times a person says, “Everyone who knows me knows I’m not a racist, but I just don’t like to hear people talk about injustice, inequities, minorities, multiculturalism and oppression,” there’s an implied confession.
“The new face of racism in America doesn’t hide under white robes or burn crosses. Now, it hides behind denial and banning words.”
The new face of racism in America doesn’t hide under white robes or burn crosses. Now, it hides behind denial and banning words. But scratch beneath the surface, and there’s old Jim Crow with his loaded biases including implicit biases. There’s a sense MAGA misses segregation.
Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Americans have, first reluctantly and then robustly, promoted the rights of African Americans. Affirmative action signaled a willingness to start making up for the huge disadvantages African American students faced in education. Attention was given to minority enrollment and minority hiring opportunities. Progressives long have been supporters of minority opportunity and have gladly supported minority-serving institutions.
America was proud to fly the flag of inclusion, to embrace inclusive leadership, increase diversity, and overcome inequalities. You can count on progressives fostering inclusivity. When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, some thought America had accomplished Martin’s dream. As important as it was to elect a Black man, not once, but twice as our president, it didn’t mean the tide of racism had permanently turned.
Only in 2016 did we learn that one man, Donald Trump, whose only ideology is white supremacy, would take advantage of the latent racism in our nation to win the presidency, not once but twice. Under Trump, every gain we thought we had made permanent in civil rights was in danger of being demolished. White supremacy now works to exploit tribal loyalties.
At least 10 words are on the list directly using variations of race: race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial identity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially and racism. The incongruity reminds me of a mother in a Southern short story who believed, “If you don’t discuss something, it doesn’t exist.”
This heteronormative, masculine movement attempts to hide its ideology of male supremacy by banning male dominated. It is like a group of Southern Baptist pastors pretending the SBC is not male dominated. Among the banned words that cry MAGA denial, sensitivity to reality and easily jarred feelings, I discovered the following words: Underappreciated, underprivileged, underrepresented, undeserved, underserved, understudied, under studied, undervalued, victim, victims and vulnerable populations.
The anti-DEI fervor of Trump and his surrogates has moved with remarkable and cruel speed. High-ranking African American women have been fired from their positions. President Trump has fired Carla Hayden, first woman and first Black person to lead the Library of Congress.
“The word-banning fever reaches epidemic proportion when liberals promote diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The word-banning fever reaches epidemic proportion when liberals promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The banned list becomes repetitive: diverse, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, equity, equality, equitable, equitableness, entitlement, inclusion, inclusive, inclusive leadership, inclusiveness and inclusivity.
One interesting word or acronym on the list is BIPOC. The meaning: Black, Indigenous, People of Color. Throw in Black and Black and Latinx and you have a full-grown racism. Two odd synonyms on the list are key groups and key people. And what is the MAGA addiction to acronyms? DEI, DEIA, DEIAB, DEIJ, MSI, EEJ, EJ, GBV, LGBT, LGBTQ, Mx, MSI and msm. One gets the sense MAGA is stitched together by lies, conspiracy theories, revenge, slogans and acronyms.
They aim for a homogenized all-white culture void of distressing mentions of indigenous people and indigenous community. Trump and MAGA want nothing to do with special populations.
Trump attempts to disrupt our democratic support for marginalized groups we are not members of by placing allyship on the banned list. As white progressives, it is part of our calling to support minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ, women, Native Americans and every group suffering from oppression and discrimination.
No doubt socio-cultural and socio-economic show up in the list as manifestations of MAGA fear of multi-culturalism, diversity and differences.
MAGA tips its hand at serous disdain for a diverse culture by adding cultural competence, cultural differences, cultural heritage, cultural relevance, cultural sensitivity, culturally appropriate and culturally responsive to the banned words list.
A residual hate bubbles under the MAGA surface. This is why they fight so hard to preserve the freedom of hate speech.
Support LGBTQ
MAGA has more white rage against LGBTQ people than any other group. The banned list insists on a subtle mockery with the phrase men who have sex with men (an allusion to Leviticus 18:22 and an utter disregard of Acts 10:15 — “What God has made clean, you must not call profane”).
“MAGA has more white rage against LGBTQ people than any other group.”
They struggle in all areas of human sexuality from abortion to transgender identity. MAGA has created an imaginary but frightening “gender war.” The usual MAGA fear of feminism also includes sex, sexual preferences, sexuality, nonbinary and they/them. Evangelical repression of sex is now coming up through the sewers of clergy sexual misconduct, sexual misbehavior and sexual misunderstanding.
For decades MAGA fought to define a human embryo as a child. Now, they fight over gender assigned at birth — male or female. Somehow MAGA has nightmares about the occurrence of intersex — having sex organs or other sexual characteristics that are not clearly male or female, that are a combination of typical male and female organs or that do not correspond to the individual’s chromosomal sex.
Understandably, a group willing to go to war over public restrooms, having previously fought over the closet, would not embrace the term chestfeed, a gender neutral term.
While MAGA evangelicals have a decided and century-old disdain for biology, when it comes to sexuality they are suddenly determined opponents of the words biologically female and biologically male.
Support science
Trump is the most powerful man in the world and he is a climate-denier. The banned words swirling around the issue of global warming demonstrate this is about more than words because Trump is acting irresponsibly by ignoring and attempting to destroy research and progress in defeating global warming.
Trump mocks the idea of clean energy, climate crisis and climate science. His slogan, “Drill, baby drill” is a direct slap in the face of the attempts of our scientific community to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels before we become fossils as did the dinosaurs.
“Trump is the most powerful man in the world and he is a climate-denier.”
Climate deniers are a determined bunch of politicians, engaging in an all-out effort to place barrier/s to any attempt to ward off the coming climate apocalypse.
Anti-science now controls the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That a nonscience, nonphysician, conspiracy theorist is the director of HHS boggles the mind. Kennedy recently went swimming in a creek with high bacteria levels, including E. coli. He has a strange aversion to fluoride in water. He continues to ignore the measles epidemic even as it spreads. He promotes conspiracy theories about the cause of autism, pontificates on mental health, promotes unscientific ideas on dietary guidelines/ultra processed foods, peanut allergies and vaccines.
Of course, people-centered care, person-centered and person-centered care make the list. People-centered care extends the concept of patient-centered care to individuals, families, communities and society.
The disregard of the Trump administration for the well-being of all Americans shows up in the banning of health disparity and health equity. The terms refer to everyone having a fair and just opportunity to attain the highest possible level of good health.
The banned words tell us how little the Trump administration cares about environmental justice and environmental quality. The most crucial of all the dangers bearing down on our planet is not a giant meteor falling from the sky, but our own negligence in caring for the environment.
The administration’s lack of concern for health shows up in the banning of Cancer Moonshot, COVID-19, science-based, stem cell or fetal tissue research, health disparity and health equity. For example, Cancer Moonshot was a 2016 initiative aimed at more scientific discovery in cancer research with the goal of preventing more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047. In 2022, 608,366 people died of cancer. Anyone not wanting to do everything scientifically possible to eradicate cancer deaths seems anti-humane. But a determined MAGA has banned NCI (National Cancer Institute) budget as a topic of deliberation.
Support democracy
We must find ways to advance democratic ends. One way of doing this job is to reject the banned words and use them in our speeches, essays, books, articles and sermons. I see the banned words as tropes that make a democratic turn toward preserving human rights and civil rights.
The banned words include anti-democracy words: activism, activists, advocacy, advocate and advocates. Trump’s attack on law firms he deems his enemy illustrates his disdain for advocacy. So does his relentless attack on judges and the Constitution.
I have questions about the list: Why is pregnant people on the banned list? Why put commercial sex worker and prostitute on the list? Does MAGA really believe they can eradicate the world’s oldest profession?
“Does MAGA really believe they can eradicate the world’s oldest profession?”
Placing marijuana on the list merely confuses me.
Why ban word such as disabilities, disability and disabled? (Maybe this has to do with Trump’s aversion to disabled people. He mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability). This helps explain why accessible and accessibility are banned words.
Are you serious? The Gulf of Mexico is on the banned list. I suppose Trump wasn’t satisfied with denying the Associated Press to participate in press conferences.
Why the angst over the word systemic? My best guess is MAGA is sensitive about the reality of systemic racism as it exposes how they may not be individually racist, but are racist to the core in cultural, ethnic and political ways.
Why does discussion of federal policy make the list? No authoritarian administration desires discussion or deliberation, only fealty.
Why would any sane person oppose the word belong or sense of belonging?
Some final words
People who despise diversity only know how to celebrate sameness, a mind-numbing monotonous sameness void of the richness of African Americans (Blacks), Hispanics, Asians, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and queers. Ours is a rich and multi-cultural nation blessed by the God who made of one blood all nations of the earth.
The land of purple-colored mountains holds within her bosom the richness of indigenous communities. Native American reservations now dotted with casinos show in living color the American struggle to care adequately for others.
The church, having inherited the universal gospel of Jesus, is called to be the clear, authentic voice of inclusion. The early church struggled with inclusion before the Gentiles were admitted as full members.
In my self-assessment, I stand with Whitman to affirm to want “nothing which all cannot have.” I affirm I have not been under the influence of alcohol or opioids. I have pointed out the disparity in Trump and MAGA’s relentless campaign against democracy. If my defense of democracy puts me at risk, so be it. Others may stereotype me as a typical progressive, but I am at peace with my expression.
There is nothing to fear in the words on the banned list and I have taken it on myself to move them all to the celebrated words list. I believe all words should be free to walk in the corridors of all minds at all times. There are more than a million words in the English language, and I don’t want to lose even one.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.