Close-up of an eye showing the details in the iris and sclera.
This article was originally published on Word In Black.
Overview:
The far-right nonprofit organization behind an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion “watch list” has added more names and faces of federal employees to its list.
The far-right nonprofit organization behind an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion “watch list” has added the names and faces of employees from the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security government workers to the provocative website.
The American Accountability Foundation, the group behind the “DEI Watchlist” website, added the new batch of federal workers — most of whom are people of color, including members of the DOJ’s voting rights team — sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Then the organization gloated about it in a Substack post.
“They call us racist, they imply we’re some sort of terrorist organization, and even demand we be prosecuted,” the post states. “Why? Simply because we dared to join President Trump’s war on the Deep State.”
An Attempt to Intimidate
But federal employees’ unions and other supporters call the website — whose subjects are mostly Black or Latino, and whose “offenses” consist of personal statements, social media posts or professional histories that lean left — a nakedly partisan attempt to intimidate professionals who are simply doing their jobs.
Meanwhile, Maryland’s two senators, Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, are holding an emergency meeting regarding Trump’s assault on the federal government. The Maryland suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., are home to thousands of federal employees who are frightened, angry, and confused.
The senators’ meeting could be a sign that Democrats are organizing resistance to Trump’s plan to upend the federal government and slash its workforce.
A Connection to Project 2025
Led by a former Republican Senate staffer and linked to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a government overhaul, the AAF entered the spotlight when news broke about the website.
Mimicking a criminal most-wanted poster, the stark, black-and-white website has rows of black-and-white head shots with names and identifiers underneath. It includes “dossiers,” on each person — including the actions that landed them on the so-called “watchlist.”
Initially, the website featured some 50 mid-level and senior employees who work for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health agencies.
Those listed on the site had originally been identified as “targets” because of “offenses” linked to diversity, equity and inclusion, addressing issues of concern to minorities, or speaking openly in favor of racial equality.
Part of the Attacks on Civil Rights and DEI
Appearing amid Trump’s attacks on civil rights and DEI programs in the federal government, the website went viral among several private group chats of federal health workers from government agencies.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told Word In Black the website is a “flagrant” attempt to intimidate public health workers and scare them away from improving healthcare for all.
“It is clearly designed to frighten and distract them from their legal, lifesaving and ethical work,” Benjamin says.
He later told the news agency AFP that the website and the information on it invites the kind of “doxxing” and harassment unleashed on Ruby Freeman, the Georgia election worker whom Trump supporters publicly targeted and falsely accused of fraud after the 2020 presidential election.
Freeman, a Black woman, says Trump’s supporters tormented her with death threats, phone calls and other forms of harassment. She later won a million-dollar judgment against Rudy Giuliani, a former Trump confidante who was part of the effort to target her
Endangering Worker Safety
Putting names and photos on a provocative website “puts people at physical risk,” Benjamin said. He also hopes someone with legal standing will file suit.
One of the CDC employees told AFP that they are anxious but are not backing down.
“First, it was a little bit of fear,” the person said, “Is my life about to change forever? Then, I think it turned into a bit of anger.”
The site published each employee’s name, photo, job title and other easily available public information. But it also included academic transcripts, political contributions, social media posts and detailed information about that person’s work history.
Supposed DEI Offenses
AAF targeted one person for giving the thumbs-up to a LinkedIn post from a connection who contributed to a book on race. Another person made the list for helping people sign up for the Affordable Care Act — during Obama’s second term about a decade ago. Still another was identified for updating their Facebook profile picture during the coronavirus pandemic: “Stay Home Save Lives.”
Led by Tom Jones, a top aide to Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a summary on the AAF web page claims the organization deploys “aggressive research and investigations to expose and neutralize” bureaucratic threats to the far-right “America First” agenda.
“Every day, our work is exposing the truth behind the people and groups undermining American democracy and threatening the freedoms of the American people,” according to the website.
The site also says the AAF staff is composed of “researchers, analysts, and former legislative and campaign staffers with decades of experience holding policymakers accountable for their actions.”
Late last month, AAF received $100,000 in funding from The Heritage Foundation — the same organization that created Project 2025, a 900-page manifesto the Trump administration disavowed during the campaign, according to AFP. But Trump’s recent steps to reorganize and slash the federal workforce is straight from the Project 2025 list of recommendations for transforming the government.
DeMint, Jones’ former boss, is a former president of The Heritage Foundation.
In an interview with The Guardian, Jones scoffed at complaints that the DEI watchlist has endangered the workers identified on the website, challenging them to show any threatening communication they’ve received.
“What it really is is a cowardly way to change the subject,” he said.
