Trump Promises ‘Restitution’ To ‘Victims’ Of DEI ‘Discrimination’ And To Shut Down Department Of Education
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Do y’all remember during Donald Trump’s campaign when the president-elect spent significant time faking solidarity with Black people by likening the systemic racism we face in the justice system to his own legal problems, which he considered to be unjust prosecutions by “racist” Black prosecutors? Remember how he went on about how he’s the best president for keeping Black people employed and that if Vice President Kamala Harris ascended to the White House, all of our “Black jobs” would go to illegal immigrants?
Well, it has barely been a full week since Trump won the election, and already he’s doubling down on his promise to wipe the very concept of diversity, equity and inclusion — initiatives that help qualified Black people receive opportunities we wouldn’t receive otherwise in industries that are traditionally dominated by white men (*gestures widely towards every major industry in the nation*) — and he’s out here promising reparations for white people who have been “victims” of DEI.
This week, Trump dropped a couple of video messages detailing his plans for his second term as president, which include directing the Department of Justice to go after DEI and “pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination and schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity.” He also said that schools engaging in DEI initiatives would have their endowments taxed and he proposed that a “portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies, policies that hurt our country so badly.”
It’s just wild, man. It’s such an uphill battle for Black people to convince white America that we’ve ever been “victims” of systemic racism, despite all of the data that backs the assertion. No such data exists that indicates white people are discriminated against in America, which is why white conservatives rely on the many myths surrounding affirmative action and DEI — namely that they offer white people’s positions to undereducated and underqualified non-white people — to make their case for anti-white discrimination. All white people have to do is cry about largely fictitious anti-whiteness and the president-elect is essentially offering them the reparations that have been denied to Black people after two and a half centuries of slavery and another century of legally-sanctioned second-class citizenship limited (or eliminated) Black access to the same educational resources and hiring practices that white men have enjoyed throughout American history.
As I’ve written before, if every Black person you see in a position of power and prestige is a “DEI hire,” then every white man you see in those same positions is a “white supremacy hire.”
And make no mistake: Trump might not have specifically identified white people as the “victims” of DEI, but he has promised to fight an “anti-white feeling” that “can’t be allowed” in a country that is more than 60% white and where white people dominate every important entity in Western society — from the corporate world to state and federal governments to all aspects of the justice system.
Mind you, this is the same president who, in 2020, exclusively targeted predominately Black and Latino voting districts with his election fraud propaganda. But, you know, systemic racism is a lie — until the concept is appropriated by white people.
Anyway, while laying out his plans for his forthcoming administration, Trump also doubled down on his promise to end the Department of Education while also promising to strengthen the American education system via proposals like bringing prayer back in public schools and teaching students to “love their country, not to hate their country.” (In other words: he wants to whitewash the Black history that would provide insight on why DEI is necessary today and then tell school students to pray about it.)
From the grio:
The 45th and soon-to-be 47th president said that “very early” in his second administration, he would be “closing up” the department headquartered in Washington, D.C., and sending “all education and education work and needs back to the States.”
“We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it,” Trump said of the states.
He said of the federal agency, “You can’t do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation, and yet we’re absolutely at the bottom.”
As usual, Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
According to the World Population Review, the U.S. ranked No. 1 in education overall in 2024. Now, when it comes to specific areas of focus, America doesn’t rank as high. For example, we the nation ranked 36th in literacy, which, to be fair, is up from when we ranked 125th in literacy in 2019 when — you know what — let’s not talk about who was in office then.
Also, it’s unclear where Trump is getting it from that the states will “do a much better job of” educating citizens. He couldn’t be talking about the Republican-led states that dominate the least educated states in America.
It’s also worth mentioning how doubtful it is that Trump even understands what all the Department of Education does.
More from the grio:
Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross warns that Trump’s plan to eliminate the Department of Education will have sweeping impacts on Black and brown communities.
“There [are] a vast amount of individuals across this country who don’t understand essentially the functions of the department, up to and including student debt relief. But also…things like the Pell Grant, which helps provide college accessibility for over 80% of the Black population,” Cross told theGrio. “Many of those students will go on to HBCUs and other institutions, and they would not stand a chance without being able to have some of the grant funding support that comes out of the Department [of Education].”
Look: We all know that Trump’s campaign relied on white people and the undereducated because that’s who votes for him. In an America where education is undervalued, facts become irrelevant, and easily debunked lies are granted the legitimacy that science, fact-based research and empirical data are denied — and that’s the America where Trump thrives.
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