We’re about 16 months into a concerted, intense targeting of Black Americans by the president and his administration.
As is clear from the repeated daily news cycle, Trump and his administration have been bad at everything they have set their mind to. They’re terrible in the courts. They’re terrible in the court of public opinion. They’re terrible at the technocratic, practical stuff a government is supposed to do. They’re terrible at war and diplomacy. They’re bad at what they’re trying to do. Simply put, they’re not great.
But on race, on the treatment of African Americans, even being terrible at what they’re doing has still proved disastrous for the country. It’s not just posturing and messaging that validates and excites the worst bigots in the country (though it’s that too), but we’re now about 16 months into a concerted and intense targeting of Black Americans by the Trump administration.
On his first day in office, the president proclaimed war on diversity efforts, not only in government, but in any institution in the country over which he can exert leverage, from schools to law firms to private businesses of every stripe.
He immediately started firing or trying to force out some of the highest-profile Black public officials in the government, seemingly regardless of any other criteria, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr.; the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden; Gwynne Wilcox, an attorney who served on the National Labor Relations Board; Robert Primus, a member of the Surface Transportation Board; Alvin Brown, who served on the National Transportation Safety Board; Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics; Willie Phillips, head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. ....
Less than a month later, the Trump administration announced another rule change, rescinding Clause 52.222-21 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which is titled “Prohibition of Segregated Facilities” and reads:
The Contractor agrees that it does not and will not maintain or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any of its establishments, and that it does not and will not permit its employees to perform their services at any location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained.
That clause has been in government contracts for decades. Trump rescinded it. Which means, as bluntly reported by NPR, that “the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.”....
The war on Black Americans being waged by this president and this Republican Party is one of the only things they’ve put their mind to that they’ve actually done well at: a comprehensive attack on Black public officials in the federal government and in Congress. Now, around the country, everywhere Republicans are in charge, they are scrambling to make sure that Black public officials can no longer hold office.
We’re in the middle of something really radical in this country: an effort not just to get rid of our constitutional republic, but to get rid of the multiracial democracy our Constitution is supposed to protect. The fight to save it is looking like it’s going to be the fight of our lives.
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