Disappearing Words

As a sensitivity reader, one of my jobs is to offer suggestions in a manuscript that could strengthen the inclusivity, respect, and overall sensitivity of the writing. As needed, I suggest alternative wording or phrasing to help prevent inadvertent text going to print. To do so, I draw on lived experiences and evidence-based resources to provide concrete suggestions for clients.

Little did I know, those trusty resources would start to disappear from the internet. In this blog article, I will discuss some differences in resources that I used as a sensitivity reader from December 2024 to January 2025 (and on). I'll provide some background on disappearing words from federal websites and active dismantling of DEI.

What a Difference a Month Makes

I received a request to do a sensitivity read for a public health textbook late last year. Since the textbook had a lot of content, the project was broken up in two parts: Part I was due December 2024, and Part II was due April 2025.

So, as I was working through Part I of the textbook, in one section I provided some suggested rephrasing of a term, citing a CDC health equity web page as a reference. I included the link in the manuscript and once I finished the full review, I sent it off to the client.

Then, to my surprise, when I was working on Part II in late January 2025, I went to a couple of federal web pages for reference and the websites were gone. Poof, no longer existed.

So, What Happened?

On January 20, 2025, federal websites, resources, and select words started to disappear from the internet.

In what would have seemed like an act so implausible even a year ago, the federal government began actively dismantling resources and programs related to equity (and public health). On the president's first day of office, the White House revoked Executive Order 13985 from the Biden Administration (Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government).

Part of this new order included this directive:

(i)    terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions); all “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees. 

In addition, public health information was on the chopping block. As noted in a 2/4/25 article by The Guardian, "Several federal government websites and databases dedicated to public health have gone dark in recent days, sparking fears about the Trump administration’s plans to remove, alter or otherwise censor vital health information repositories." And "In total, a New York Times analysis found some 8,000 pages from more than a dozen government websites were taken down in recent days, although some have since returned. The CDC and Census Bureau websites appear to be among the hardest hit."

In a New York Times article dated 3/7/2025, a list of words considered "woke" were flagged by the government to limit or avoid:

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html?searchResultPosition=1

The Aftermath

Since January 20, 2025, some information was required to be restored to it's previous version. And while that's the case for some sites, they were restored with apparent "disclaimers" about the original information that was published. Stating things like "Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the truth." Completely discrediting the work of what was once considered the gold standard in public health research.

And so, you could imagine my shock when I was simply trying to provide some resources for a client for a public health textbook and all of a sudden they were gone. Altered. Smeared. Luckily, I still had the concrete recommendations that I provided from Part I of my project (among various other resources).

But still. As someone who was trained in public health research to utilize the CDC as a key public health resource, it was disheartening to see sites vanish and discredited.

I never thought I'd see the day where this level of censorship is happening in our country. Though, as with any setback, I (we) continue to find a way to keep on keeping on.

Other websites exist. PDFs of toolkits are still saved on computers. Writers keep writing and clients keep requesting sensitivity readers.

We continue on and fight the good fight.