The scale-back of these cultural markers is more than a technical adjustment — it is a retreat from acknowledging the histories and struggles of marginalised communities across the world.
Abhishek Roy Choudhury
Feb 13, 2025 13:51 IST First published on: Feb 13, 2025 at 13:51 IST
Taking pride in a world where social progress and equity are celebrated, it is disheartening to witness our digital landscape slowly shifting towards erasing the diverse cultural markers it once embraced. Google’s removal of significant observances, including Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride Month, Indigenous Peoples’ Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish Heritage Month, and Hispanic Heritage Month, from its popular calendar app, is one of the several actions taken by tech giants in response to the new Trump administration. These actions reveal a shift in their stance on inclusivity and reveal a broader pattern of selectively amplifying certain narratives while erasing others. The digital ecosystem leader, once seen as a champion of diversity, claims the removal is the result of a “sustainability challenge”, arguing that it is focusing on public holidays and national observances sourced from third-party services like timeanddate.com. The scale-back of these cultural markers is more than a technical adjustment — it is a retreat from acknowledging the histories and struggles of marginalised communities across the world.
DEI under fire
Google’s decision should be seen as part of a broader narrative aimed at resisting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts that have gained momentum in recent years. Companies like Meta and Amazon have also rolled back DEI initiatives. With Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushing for more “masculine energy” in workplaces, arguing that society has become “neutered” & “emasculated”, X’s Elon Musk tweeting that DEI initiatives must “DIE,” and US President Donald Trump suggesting that DEI policies were to blame for last month’s aircraft collision in Washington DC, a narrative of suspicion and incompetence toward marginalised communities is reinforced and rhetoric against cultural, gender, religious, and racial minorities is normalised as “common sense”. The question emerges: Whose stories matter now? When an observance like Women’s History Month in March is erased it is not just an oversight, it’s a deliberate choice to erase histories of struggle and progress in favour of a narrower, more conservative narrative.
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Push towards homogeneous regression
By removing observances that celebrate diversity and inclusion, tech giants would be imposing a homogenised cultural narrative on our digital landscape. In the Global South, where colonial legacies and systemic inequalities still endure, this trend will overlook local histories and struggles, further deepening existing disparities. The fight for DEI justice is not just about changing policies; it’s about reshaping the public discourse, where the dominant political powers are pushing “common sense” towards a regressive deadlock, justifying harmful biases and stereotypes. The prevalence of regressive “common sense” is more harmful in an era where misinformation and disinformation are widespread, and historical facts are getting increasingly challenged by “alternative facts”. Citizens must hold corporations accountable for their role in shaping cultural discourse. The sad irony of the situation is that in a time when we should be moving forward, embracing diverse identities and histories, we seem to be gravitating toward a more homogeneous, less inclusive world. This is not the kind of progress we need. As these companies scale back their DEI commitments, they are reinforcing a dangerous message: That the struggle for cultural representation and equity is something that can be dismissed or forgotten. This isn’t just about Google, it’s about the future we’re collectively creating, one where cultural erasure should never be an option. Let’s not allow this to be the new “common sense.” Because, as the saying goes, if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it.
The writer is German Chancellor Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Views are personal
