Every federal agency in the U.S. is currently trying to figure out how to purge forbidden words from documents posted online, in a desperate attempt to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to purge “DEI” from every facet of American life. And nowhere is that effort more bizarre than the National Science Foundation, which is currently combing through websites and research papers for a long list of words that include “female,” “disability,” and “LGBT,” among a host of others.
The review comes in response to a memo sent out Jan. 29 from the Office of Personnel Management, written by acting director Charles Ezell. Every agency has interpreted the memo a little differently, but at NSF they’ve compiled a list of words that need to be found which will initiate a review to see if it’s allowed.
According to the Washington Post, a word like “women” appearing will get the content flagged, but it will need to be manually reviewed to determine if the context of the word is related to a forbidden topic under the anti-DEI order. Trump and his fellow fascists use terms like DEI to describe anything they don’t like, which means that the word “women” is on the forbidden list while “men” doesn’t initiate a review.
Straight white men are seen through the MAGA worldview as the default human and thus wouldn’t be suspicious and in need of a review. Any other type of identity is inherently suspect.
Some of the terms that are getting flagged are particularly eyebrow-raising in light of the Nazi salutes that Trump supporters have been giving since he took office. For example, the term “hate speech” will get a paper at NSF flagged for further review. Redefining terms like “hate speech” is obviously part of the fascist project.
Darby Saxbe, a professor at the University of Southern California tweeted the list of banned words on Monday., including a decision tree she says had been sent to all program officers at NSF.
Forbidden keywords that initiate a review at NSF, according to Saxbe:
- activism
- activists
- advocacy
- advocate
- advocates
- barrier
- barriers
- biased
- biased toward
- biases
- biases towards
- bipoc
- black and latinx
- community diversity
- community equity
- cultural differences
- cultural heritage
- culturally responsive
- disabilities
- disability
- discriminated
- discrimination
- discriminatory
- diverse backgrounds
- diverse communities
- diverse community
- diverse group
- diverse groups
- diversified
- diversify
- diversifying
- diversity and inclusion
- diversity equity
- enhance the diversity
- enhancing diversity
- equal opportunity
- equality
- equitable
- equity
- ethnicity
- excluded
- female
- females
- fostering inclusivity
- gender
- gender diversity
- genders
- hate speech
- excluded
- female
- females
- fostering inclusivity
- gender
- gender diversity
- genders
- hate speech
- hispanic minority
- historically
- implicit bias
- implicit biases
- inclusion
- inclusive
- inclusiveness
- inclusivity
- increase diversity
- increase the diversity
- indigenous community
- inequalities
- inequality
- inequitable
- inequities
- institutional
- Igbt
- marginalize
- marginalized
- minorities
- minority
- multicultural
- polarization
- political
- prejudice
- privileges
- promoting diversity
- race and ethnicity
- racial
- racial diversity
- racial inequality
- racial justice
- racially
- racism
- sense of belonging
- sexual preferences
- social justice
- sociocultural
- socioeconomic
- status
- stereotypes
- systemic
- trauma
- under appreciated
- under represented
- under served
- underrepresentation
- underrepresented
- underserved
- undervalued
- victim
- women
- women and underrepresented
Again, this isn’t just happening at NSF. As Gizmodo reported last week, CDC is also purging its websites and reports of forbidden words.
All of this is happening while billionaire Elon Musk, an unelected representative of Trump’s government, is ransacking his way through the federal bureaucracy, gaining access to highly sensitive data with basically no one to stop him.
It’s still not clear what happens on the other side of all this. But when they’re flagging words like “women” and “trauma,” less than three weeks in, it can’t be good.
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