By: Jacob Lee of Closter, NJ
1st place in ICNA CSJ-NJ’s BHM Essay Contest 2025
Topic: Creating a Fair World: How We Can Continue the Fight for Justice (Grades 7 & 8)
An American Airlines plane with 60 passengers and four crew members crashes into an Army black helicopter, and a fiery explosion can be seen piercing through the dark sky of Washington D.C.. The noises of debris and chunks of metal crashing into the Potomac River echo across quiet neighborhoods. As bodies are being recovered from the terrible tragedy, President Trump speaks on national television that DEI policies are to blame for the entire situation. When asked for evidence, he just shrugs and says he has “common sense”.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are frameworks that promote everyone’s participation in society, regardless of their traits. DEI has given many people who were neglected in the past an opportunity of being accepted. Yet, despite the overall positives that DEI had brought into marginalized communities, the Trump administration is slowly pulling back these programs. As the government removes DEI, corporations and businesses have followed suit as equal opportunities are no longer marketable in New America. Additionally, every negative news event, whether it’s another public shooting, major accident, or any petty crime gone viral, forces each minority group to collectively hold their breaths, hoping that the perpetrator does not share their identity. Essentially, any accomplishments by a minority is undeserved due to DEI while any transgressions by an individual represents the entire group’s moral failings, at least according to New America.
However, hope is not all lost, or more accurately, we cannot afford to lose hope. DEI was created to even the playing field from decades of systematic discrimination against anyone who is not a White male. Ironically, the political bigots may be correct to some extent in their rejection of DEI. There was no DEI when the nation collectively marched for the Civil Rights Movement, when we said no more to Jim Crow. There was no DEI when women gained the rights to suffrage and unshackled their bonds to the patriarchal leech. If the government refuses equality, then the people no longer have an obligation to play civil. There needs to be massive rallying momentum aimed for the 2026 midterm election so that the people can effectively defang the serpent coiled around the neck of America. Rallying during a major event is one avenue to push back, but we must also be aware that they are going to categorize it as a “riot” and even employ martial law that our current president is salivating over. That is why we need to employ new tactics, such as organizing a united front online that fights disinformation and keeps the demands clear for all unconvinced.
The current president is not a sympathetic individual; when asked if he would visit the crash site, he remarked that it was on water and questioned if they wanted him to “go swimming”. And that is what the current administration wants for the people: to struggle to stay afloat with rising costs of tariffs and other economically obtuse policies. Make the people suffer in economic hardship then offer mere breadcrumbs to make us feel complacent, while also bombarding us with unconstitutional actions left and right until we are left tired. That is precisely why we need to start momentum now, both in the physical and online world, so that the people don’t give up from feeling burnt out. It is absolutely ridiculous that we need to fight for the rights of every minority again. But we must get our second, or even third and fourth, wind in this long struggle until we gather a mighty enough storm to lift every single American from the treacherous waters of tyranny.