The Blackout Report: What’s Really Happening to Black Progress in America

If you’ve been wondering why it feels like so much of what we’ve built is under attack — from our schools and libraries to our health programs and even our data — you’re not imagining it.

A new study called The Blackout Report, published by Onyx Impact, confirms what many of us have felt for years: there’s a coordinated effort to erase, distort, and suppress the progress Black people have made across this country.

What the Report Found

The Blackout Report tracked more than 15,000 documented attacks on Black progress between 2023 and 2025. These attacks fall into three main categories:

• Erasure – Removing or banning books, lessons, and historical references that tell Black stories.

• Distortion – Altering or deleting public data about Black health, wealth, and education — making it harder to track disparities or demand change.

• Suppression – Silencing voices, cutting funding, or applying pressure on agencies and individuals who speak up about inequities.

It’s a lot to take in — but the numbers don’t lie. The report counted:

• 1,362 cases of erasure (banned books and censored curricula)

• 14,072 cases of distortion (deleted data, funding cuts, and resource removals)

• 289 cases of suppression (targeted attempts to quiet or punish advocacy)

Together, these actions represent billions of dollars in lost or diverted investments — including programs that addressed Black health, clean water, small-business funding, and HBCU research.

Why This Matters

The danger isn’t just what’s being removed — it’s what that removal means for the future.

When data about Black health outcomes disappears, it becomes harder to prove what we already know — that systemic inequities exist.
When our history books skip over Black innovators, children grow up without knowing the shoulders they stand on.
And when public funds are quietly redirected, our communities lose the power to heal, grow, and thrive.

The Blackout Report makes it plain: this isn’t accidental. These aren’t isolated incidents. It’s a pattern — a deliberate campaign to weaken Black infrastructure, to make progress invisible, and to keep future generations from building on what our ancestors fought for.

The Bigger Picture

This blackout isn’t just about removing stories — it’s about controlling the narrative.
If they can erase the record, they can rewrite the truth.

The report calls this “the battle over visibility.” Because when our data, history, and representation vanish, our issues become easier to ignore — and our victories harder to celebrate.

That’s why this fight isn’t just about the past. It’s about protecting the present and the future.

Defending the Record

The creators of The Blackout Report urge all of us — individuals, journalists, educators, and community leaders — to “defend the record.”
That means:

• Preserving and sharing our history.

• Demanding transparency in government data.

• Supporting Black media that tells the full story.

• Holding leaders accountable when they cut funding or distort facts.

In short, we must make sure the truth stays in the light — because once the record disappears, so does our power to correct it.

What We Can Do

Here at Bronzecomm, we’ve seen this play out firsthand — in the erasure of Chicago’s historic Black neighborhoods, the closing of Black-owned businesses, and the cuts to programs that once supported our youth. But we’ve also seen resilience.

Each time someone tells our story, shares our data, supports our publications, or stands up for the truth — that’s how we fight the blackout.

The message of this report is clear: Black history is American history, and defending it is everyone’s responsibility.

In Summary

The Blackout Report reminds us that progress is not guaranteed — it must be protected.
It’s a warning, but also a rallying cry: to teach, to record, to fund, and to keep telling the truth about who we are and what we’ve achieved.

Because if we don’t guard our legacy, someone else will rewrite it.

Check out the website along with the full Blackout Report.