Trump Declares Economic War on Middle-Class Blacks

President Trump’s war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), critical race theory, and racial preferences is a far-reaching battle. It is also an economic “war” on blacks, especially middle-class blacks who benefit from the racial spoils system. If successful, its impact will be huge. One might recall President Woodrow Wilson, who fired all black federal workers save those in menial jobs, a policy that decimated Washington DC’s black middle class.

Mr. Trump’s policy will end the jobs of tens of thousands of government bureaucrats charged with recruiting and promoting blacks and other favored groups (such as gays and women), but ending diversity mania goes well beyond that. Future hiring will be merit based. The Trump administration is working to reverse a 1981 court order that prohibited using any test that disproportionately disqualified black and Hispanics, so if they performed worse than whites and Asians, the test had to be revised until more blacks and Hispanics could pass.

Eliminating waste and bloat more generally will also reduce jobs for blacks. The Department of Education, which may soon be shuttered, has 4,200 workers, nearly 30% of whom are black. The department’s average salary is $144,698.

Trump’s anti-diversity campaign targets colleges, which must now end DEI departments and race-based programs. The University of Michigan is the leader here with some 1,100 DEI functionaries. Now, with programs designed to boost black enrollment gone, counselors and tutors responsible for helping less qualified students graduate will also be out of jobs. The ax will likewise fall on faculty whose courses depend on black student enrollment. Ditto for the diverse staffs of racially themed dormitories and social centers.

There will be a massive exodus in the private sector, notably in personnel departments long obsessed with “making the numbers” and eliminating anything “racist.” Blacks who were hired under DEI will lose their protected status and perhaps their jobs. Add the lawyers in companies’ legal departments advising on how to avoid discrimination suits. Nor will there be any justification for foundations such as the legally dubious Walmart Center for Racial Equity, set up in 2020 with a budget of $100 million to lift up blacks. These cutbacks will be a great cost-saving; the annual price tag of DEI initiatives per firm ranges from $10,000 to $216 million.

Blacks who get special treatment for federal contracting will also have to look elsewhere. Specifically, Mr. Trump just rescinded federal order 11246 that required race (and sex) preferences in all federal contracts for firms with 50 or more employees and that do at least $50,000 in business annually. Preferences for veterans and for the disabled will continue.

Private consulting firms could be hard hit. Race experts profit handsomely from lecturing whites on overcoming their toxic implicit anti-black bias and how to make hiring tests more inclusive by eliminating questions that test abstract reasoning. This thriving industry depends entirely on DEI and the racial spoils system. Paradigm is a company that boasts of hundreds of top clients. Services include workshops on reducing harassment, formulating strategies for inclusiveness, and “building a culture for everyone.” Sollah offers no fewer than 9,000 skills to promote diversity and inclusion, and invites prospective clients to sample its programs for free.

This profession grew to consume the billions that were allocated for DEI and similar preference schemes. There were no professional qualifications for entry into this lucrative field that was supposed to ward off huge settlements in discrimination cases. Mr. Trump’s policies will decimate the industry.

It’s not certain where these people will go. The out-of-work dean of inclusion is unlikely to switch to a traditional academic discipline. Nor will private firms want to hire middle-aged ex-government employees who spent their careers in bureaucracies infamous for inefficiency. What will HR people specializing in anti-racism seminars do next?

Blacks, especially, will suffer from government downsizing, and this will only increase as states and cities launch their own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives. Blacks are 12.6 percent of the population, but are 18.2 percent of the federal workforce. However, they under-represented at the senior levels: 11.7 percent are black while 75.7 percent are white. Blacks will bear the brunt of shrinkage because it is easier to fire clerks, secretaries, and security guards than engineers and data analysts. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s push for cost-cutting via automation will also hurt blacks in less demanding occupations. “Government efficiency” is not black friendly.

“Creative destruction” is inherent in capitalism. Think of permanently unemployed coal miners and steel workers, some living lives of despair. The situation for blacks may be worse. People in top DEI positions make $329,00 to $430,000. Who will hire these professional grievance mongers? Even hiring lower-level blacks risks litigation and internal strife. Race “experts” will have a hard time making themselves more marketable. Promoting DEI was probably their smartest (and maybe only) career choice.

Will these now unemployed middle-class blacks go quietly like Appalachian coal miners? Might they demand “make work” jobs as the price of civil peace? One possibility is that black-run cities such as Baltimore and Chicago will “soak up” these now unemployed workers, further bloating their bureaucracies.

Given America’s hyper-sensitivity to any race related injustice, why the silence about the racial consequences of Trump’s policies? Yes, there are anti-Trump demonstrations, but there’s been hardly a peep about soon-to-be unemployed blacks even from firebrands such as Jasmine Crockett. “Trump’s War on Blacks” could soon become the leading “civil rights” issue, and heat up the summer of 2025.

Perhaps the political landscape has shifted; helping blacks is no longer a priority for many Americans. What was initially sold as a “little push” up the economic ladder has become an intolerable racket rife with incompetence, and opposition to it has gone public without that many cries of “racism.” Critically, the racial spoils system has obviously failed to bring equality, let alone racial harmony.

Thanks to Mr. Trump, cutting waste and restoring merit is more than just an economic policy. This may be the beginning of a long-awaited counter-revolution.