Ivanka’s and Melania’s Black History Month tweets are brazen with their hypocrisy
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Ivanka’s and Melania’s Black History Month tweets are brazen with their hypocrisy

Tess Cagle—
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Michael Vadon (CC-BY-SA) Tess Cagle

Ivanka’s message sounds a lot like #AllLivesMatter.

The women in the Trump family kicked off the beginning of Black History Month doing the absolute bare minimum: tweeting about it.

Melania Trump’s tweet was downright hysterical. She called for a “celebration of diversity,” using a word that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention isn’t allowed to use anymore thanks to an edict from her husband’s administration.  

People on Twitter were quick to point out the hypocrisy of her message and asked her if her husband would be participating this month as well.

But Ivanka Trump’s tweet was the real icing on the cake.

Upon first read, it seems nice. She starts off strong with her nods to Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., although we couldn’t help but notice she left out other Black leaders less popular among white people, like Nat Turner and Malcolm X.

Ivanka interestingly uses the phrase “sojourners of truth.” Sojourner means to “stay temporarily,” so it’s odd she said prominent leaders in the Black community “stayed temporarily” in freedom.

But then she veered totally off course with the second part of her message.

“…we resolve to continue to bring greater equality, dignity, and opportunity to all Americans, regardless of race or background,” she said.

Emphasis on all Americans.

Sounds a little too much like an #AllLivesMatter tweet, right?

People on Twitter called out Ivanka for all the things wrong with her message.

Ivanka and Melania missed the point that Black History Month is about celebrating Black people—not all the people who just so happened to have benefited from the efforts of Black people. 

Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle is a reporter who focuses on politics, lifestyle, and streaming entertainment. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman, Damn Joan, and Community Impact Newspaper. She’s also a portrait, events, and live music photographer in Central Texas.

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