The Cost of Silence: The Erasure of Black Progress Threatens Our Democracy

We all pay the price in lost freedom, diminished democracy, and weakened civic trust.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

By Esosa Osa and Kam Middlebrooks

Imagine waking up in a country where the stories of its greatest struggles and triumphs have been deleted—where the record of who built, shaped, and defended democracy is erased. This is not a distant dystopia. It’s happening now, in America, as a coordinated campaign seeks to erase Black progress, distort the truth, and suppress dissent. The cost is not only borne by Black communities, but it’s also a direct threat to the integrity of our democracy and the future of us all.

Today, we are witnessing a coordinated campaign to thwart the progress of Black communities by using the term DEI as a smokescreen. The goal is clear: to gain illegitimate control by erasing inconvenient truths, distorting reality, and suppressing dissent. The architects of this campaign are not just targeting Black Americans; they are also undermining the very foundation of American democracy, deceiving the public to consolidate their own power.

Last week, Onyx Impact released Blackout: The Real-World Cost of Erasing, Distorting and Suppressing Black Progress. This first-of-its-kind report provides a comprehensive analysis detailing how Black history and Black futures are under attack. What we prove is that the attacks we’ve seen from the administration and its acolytes are not happenstance; this is a coordinated disinformation campaign that has already caused real harm in Black communities. In just eight months, Onyx Impact found 15,723 examples of harm that put Black health, wealth and futures on the line – from $3.4 billion in federal grants being cut or frozen to 6,769 federal datasets containing research about Black communities being erased. All behind a disinformation smokescreen redefining DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—as a culture war.

We have seen this playbook before. After the Civil War, Reconstruction promised a new birth of freedom—only to be followed by the Nadir, a period when Black progress was violently rolled back, history was rewritten, and democracy itself was undermined. Today’s Blackout campaign is a digital-age replay of those tactics: erase the record, distort the evidence, suppress the dissenters. The lesson from history is clear: When we allow the erasure of Black progress, we all pay the price in lost freedom, diminished democracy, and weakened civic trust.

Let’s start with erasure. Across the nation, there has been a widespread effort to erase Black history from public memory—replacing stories, physical items, and achievements with propaganda. Access to the work of Black authors, thinkers, and artists is fundamental to an honest and complete understanding of American society. These voices are central to our nation’s intellectual, cultural, and historical fabric. Despite this, during the current administration, 21 states have engaged in 591 instances of banning books by Black authors or about Black experiences, and Onyx has documented over 700 digital erasures and dozens of physical-site changes across federal agencies. This is not just an attack on Black memory—it’s an attack on the American story itself. When we erase Black history, we erase the evidence of how democracy has been expanded, defended, and realized. We risk forgetting the very lessons that protect us from authoritarianism.

Erasure works in tandem with efforts to distort the truth about Black communities. This is done by rewriting, manipulating, or sanitizing information, datasets, and funding. Distortion is not just about hiding facts—it’s about deceiving the public, replacing evidence with ideology, and making it easier for those in power to justify discrimination and exclusion. Onyx Impact has documented at least 14,072 examples of distortion, including the removal of 6,769 federal datasets and over $3.4 billion in federal grants cut or frozen for programs serving Black communities. This campaign is designed to make Americans doubt the reality of injustice, to obscure the evidence, and to convince us that the fight for equity is unnecessary or even harmful. Distortion is not just about the past—it’s about shaping who gets to lead and who gets to decide what America stands for.

The real-world cost is staggering: jobs lost, businesses shuttered, health programs defunded, and opportunities blocked. These are not abstract harms—they are measurable setbacks detailed in the report that weaken the entire nation’s economic vitality and civic health. When the record is deleted and the remedy defunded, the entire country suffers.

The last tactic, suppression, is about pressuring and intimidating institutions and private businesses into silence or compliance—using threats, investigations, and policy changes to bully those who don’t agree with their agenda into submission. The administration’s efforts to pressure private companies, universities, and more to drop their equity commitments is the most prominent example. The report documents at least 289 examples of suppression. This tactic extends the reach of both erasure and distortion by creating a broader environment of fear and uncertainty, establishing parameters for a less inclusive future in which Black progress is not only ignored but also actively thwarted. Suppression is not just a threat to Black communities—it’s a threat to the open discourse and free exchange of ideas that democracy depends on. When fear replaces truth, we all lose. This is how authoritarianism takes root: by convincing the public that dissent is dangerous and that only a narrow, sanitized version of history is safe.

Together, erasure, distortion, and suppression are used as tools to seize illegitimate power and control. If we allow this campaign to continue unchecked, we risk repeating the mistakes of the Nadir—when democracy was hollowed out, rights were rolled back, and the promise of America was betrayed. The lesson of history is that silence and neutrality are not options. The cost of inaction will be paid not just by Black communities, but also by every American who values truth, justice, and democracy.

The time to act is now. Defending the full American story is the responsibility of every citizen who believes in democracy. We must not allow the erasure, distortion, and suppression of Black progress to become the blueprint for broader authoritarian control. Let us choose to be the generation that refused to look away and defended the integrity of our democracy by demanding an end to this campaign. The future of American freedom depends on it.

Esosa Osa is the founder and CEO of Onyx Impact, an organization created to fight digital harm, amplify Black voices, and create healthier online ecosystems. Kameron Middlebrooks is the deputy executive director at Onyx Impact, where he leads strategy, operations, and the execution of Onyx Impact Initiatives.

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