Protesters gather at a rally organized by the American Federation of Government Employees against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) purges and resignation offers made to the federal civilian workforce, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2025. Credit: Allison Robbert / AFP via Getty Images
When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the nefarious shadow group leading our nation’s descent into its current Orwellian political nightmare, demanded access to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s personnel files and classified security systems earlier this month, two federal workers refused to let them in.
USAID Director of Security John Voorhees — and his deputy, Brian McGill — who were placed on administrative leave, are not heroes of the swashbuckling Hollywood variety.
Their act of rebellion against tyrannical abuses of power was downright mundane if not for the courage it took to do it. They simply did their jobs and, in so doing, sought to protect colleagues’ information from the exploitative impulses of a despotic regime run amok.
This type of resistance is, perhaps, the most underrated and the most difficult to accomplish.
There’s an inherent cognitive dissonance in resisting flawed systems from within when one’s livelihood and the very stability of a nation depends on homeostasis within those systems.
Yet, in this perilous moment — when life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for millions of Americans teeters on the edge of a blade — many in the federal workforce are holding the line.
These are patriots who peacefully protested in front of federal buildings, filed lawsuits, and took to the airwaves and social media to decry the rending of the tenuous fibers of their undervalued and mission-critical work. Similar resistance efforts are underway in the judicial and legislative branches of government.
It is no coincidence that the Trump administration’s malicious efforts to erase diversity, equity, and inclusion gains target the federal workforce, which tends to employ a larger percentage of people of color (especially Black people) than the private sector. Historically, public sector jobs provided Black Americans a pathway to the middle class with adequate incomes that allowed them to purchase homes, save for retirement, and send children to college.
These everyday resistance fighters of all hues have weathered a barrage of disparaging executive orders and missives demanding they retire (or saw hope for jobs rescinded). Many went home, agonized over seeing their life’s work in public service perverted, and ultimately made the difficult decision not to aid a corrupt system. Others vowed to stay and fight the good fight from within the sullied system.
From the deepest, most rebellious recesses of my writer’s heart, I sing odes to resistance born from ordinary people in everyday spaces — and I hope we are all inspired to recognize and nurture resistance’s flame wherever it may spark.
In recent weeks at The Emancipator, we’ve covered defiance from the 50-yard line to the farthest corners of the earth.
As we round out our resistance-focused coverage month, please consider the following examples of vox populi insurgency.
The revolution was televised
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime performance set the stadium and the nation’s discourse ablaze when he executed a roughly 14-minute masterclass in subversive political and social critique, peaceful protest, and American history.
The Emmy, Pulitzer, and Grammy award-winning recording artist artfully wove references to hip-hop as the music of revolution, double entendres about the trap of performative Blackness, the prison industrial complex, and the nation’s racial and socioeconomic divisions as a rigged American game we are all forced to play.
Self-preservation as an act of political warfare
Audre Lorde, a revolutionary writer and poet who spent time in Berlin and Ghana, once wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” In “Blaxiting,” as Madison J. Gray reports, some are resisting by rejecting America’s toxic anti-Blackness and seeking refuge in places that are more affirming of their right to live freely and seek joy.
‘Latinx’ is defiant world-building
As MAGA and DOGE openly persecute trans folks and cut off funding to projects using the words “Latinx” and “Latine,” inclusive language remains a method of resistance, author David Bowles writes. “Breaking free of linguistic constraints is vital to the work of speaking a better and more beautiful future into existence, one ‘articulated from other places of enunciation’ than what the culture of power may permit.”
Resist corrosive messages of internalized oppression
Speaking of resistance through self-discovery and joy, for Cole Arthur Riley, New York Times-bestselling author of “Black Liturgies” and creator of the popular social media feed of the same name, resistance starts with internally interrogating the narratives we tell ourselves about what it means to be beautiful and worthy of acceptance.
“Internalized oppression is, in many ways, even more dangerous than an oppression at the hand of the tyrant or this external force because it is grounded in a belief,” Riley told our colleague Adeline Gutierrez Nunez during a recent interview.
We encourage you to find your own ways to resist and hope you find support for the fight in our newsletters and coverage. Our theme for April is belonging and connectedness. If your own rebellious writer’s heart is likewise inspired, please pitch us!
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When the system is rigged, resist
by Halimah Abdullah, The Emancipator February 18, 2025
Halimah Abdullah is an award winning veteran national political journalist with more than 20 years of experience covering politics and government at the local, state, and federal level. She has edited and helped manage Washington coverage for such organizations as PolitiFact, Newsela, NPR, ABC News and NBC News — networks where she also wrote. Her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Capital B, CNN.com, Newsday, McClatchy newspapers, MSNBC.com, thegrio.com, TODAY.com, and The New York Times, among...
More by Halimah Abdullah
When the system is rigged, resist
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When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the nefarious shadow group leading our nation’s descent into its current Orwellian political nightmare, demanded access to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s personnel files and classified security systems earlier this month, two federal workers refused to let them in.
USAID Director of Security John Voorhees — and his deputy, Brian McGill — who were placed on administrative leave, are not heroes of the swashbuckling Hollywood variety.
Their act of rebellion against tyrannical abuses of power was downright mundane if not for the courage it took to do it. They simply did their jobs and, in so doing, sought to protect colleagues’ information from the exploitative impulses of a despotic regime run amok.
This type of resistance is, perhaps, the most underrated and the most difficult to accomplish.
There’s an inherent cognitive dissonance in resisting flawed systems from within when one’s livelihood and the very stability of a nation depends on homeostasis within those systems.
Yet, in this perilous moment — when life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for millions of Americans teeters on the edge of a blade — many in the federal workforce are holding the line.
These are patriots who peacefully protested in front of federal buildings, filed lawsuits, and took to the airwaves and social media to decry the rending of the tenuous fibers of their undervalued and mission-critical work. Similar resistance efforts are underway in the judicial and legislative branches of government.
It is no coincidence that the Trump administration’s malicious efforts to erase diversity, equity, and inclusion gains target the federal workforce, which tends to employ a larger percentage of people of color (especially Black people) than the private sector. Historically, public sector jobs provided Black Americans a pathway to the middle class with adequate incomes that allowed them to purchase homes, save for retirement, and send children to college.
These everyday resistance fighters of all hues have weathered a barrage of disparaging executive orders and missives demanding they retire (or saw hope for jobs rescinded). Many went home, agonized over seeing their life’s work in public service perverted, and ultimately made the difficult decision not to aid a corrupt system. Others vowed to stay and fight the good fight from within the sullied system.
From the deepest, most rebellious recesses of my writer’s heart, I sing odes to resistance born from ordinary people in everyday spaces — and I hope we are all inspired to recognize and nurture resistance’s flame wherever it may spark.
In recent weeks at The Emancipator, we’ve covered defiance from the 50-yard line to the farthest corners of the earth.
As we round out our resistance-focused coverage month, please consider the following examples of vox populi insurgency.
The revolution was televised
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime performance set the stadium and the nation’s discourse ablaze when he executed a roughly 14-minute masterclass in subversive political and social critique, peaceful protest, and American history.
The Emmy, Pulitzer, and Grammy award-winning recording artist artfully wove references to hip-hop as the music of revolution, double entendres about the trap of performative Blackness, the prison industrial complex, and the nation’s racial and socioeconomic divisions as a rigged American game we are all forced to play.
Self-preservation as an act of political warfare
Audre Lorde, a revolutionary writer and poet who spent time in Berlin and Ghana, once wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” In “Blaxiting,” as Madison J. Gray reports, some are resisting by rejecting America’s toxic anti-Blackness and seeking refuge in places that are more affirming of their right to live freely and seek joy.
‘Latinx’ is defiant world-building
As MAGA and DOGE openly persecute trans folks and cut off funding to projects using the words “Latinx” and “Latine,” inclusive language remains a method of resistance, author David Bowles writes. “Breaking free of linguistic constraints is vital to the work of speaking a better and more beautiful future into existence, one ‘articulated from other places of enunciation’ than what the culture of power may permit.”
Resist corrosive messages of internalized oppression
Speaking of resistance through self-discovery and joy, for Cole Arthur Riley, New York Times-bestselling author of “Black Liturgies” and creator of the popular social media feed of the same name, resistance starts with internally interrogating the narratives we tell ourselves about what it means to be beautiful and worthy of acceptance.
“Internalized oppression is, in many ways, even more dangerous than an oppression at the hand of the tyrant or this external force because it is grounded in a belief,” Riley told our colleague Adeline Gutierrez Nunez during a recent interview.
We encourage you to find your own ways to resist and hope you find support for the fight in our newsletters and coverage. Our theme for April is belonging and connectedness. If your own rebellious writer’s heart is likewise inspired, please pitch us!
Halimah AbdullahContributing Managing Editor
Halimah Abdullah is an award winning veteran national political journalist with more than 20 years of experience covering politics and government at the local, state, and federal level. She has edited and helped manage Washington coverage for such organizations as PolitiFact, Newsela, NPR, ABC News and NBC News — networks where she also wrote. Her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Capital B, CNN.com, Newsday, McClatchy newspapers, MSNBC.com, thegrio.com, TODAY.com, and The New York Times, among... More by Halimah Abdullah