Column: Trump's reversal of race and gender progress faces an obstacle

Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., left, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outside the Pentagon in January. The Trump administration is hell-bent on “restoring” this country to an entirely fictional time when white people succeeded based purely on merit, people of color got ahead solely because of affirmative action and women understood that they were the inferior sex. Hegseth has stated flatly that women don’t belong in combat, and in his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors,” he questioned Brown‘s promotion to the top military job. “It’s a marked attempt to chill DEI initiatives … placing them in the crosshairs of the federal government such that even if conducted lawfully, private employers may be forced to respond to federal probes,” the Associated Press reported. Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, called for a 40-day “Target fast.” The length of time may be symbolic, but the call to action is not; a Lenten boycott of the retailer, says Bryant’s website, is “a spiritual act of resistance.” The week before, a group called the People’s Union USA asked Americans to boycott Amazon and its companies, including Zappos, Ring, Whole Foods and Prime Video, for one day.