How Trump is Unsubtly Re-Segregating the Government in His Image

Since he took office in January, President Donald Trump has either fired or forced out thousands of government workers. That is big news and widely reported, but it has only served to hide what else the president is really up to.

While many have rightly been outraged by the chaos his administration has caused, they may have missed the way he has also been systematically firing high ranking Black folks in the government. The New York Times laid it all bare last week.

Charles Q. Brown, Jr, the first person who looks like us to lead a branch of the military and the first Black man to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was dismissed in February. Carla Hayden, the first Black person to oversee the Library of Congress, was fired in May.

Then there’s Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to sit on the board of the Federal Reserve, had to sue the president when he tried to kick her out her seat. There are more Black people he has pushed out of the government. Gwynne Wilcox, Alvin Brown and Wyllie Phillips…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s call it like it is: What we are witnessing is the resegregation of the federal government and Trump isn’t even trying to hide it.

He is unceremoniously firing Black people who are often the first person from our community to hold their position because, to quote what people from the presidential administration have said, “they don’t align with President Trump’s values.”

What happens to the positions that are vacated? The president then replaces the Black people who have been fired or dismissed with white men who are either less qualified or openly loyal to the president.

 As Gwynne Wilcox, the first board member to be fired from the National Labor Relations Board in the agency’s 90-year history, said after she was dismissed, “We had targets on our backs by virtue of the color of our skin.”

To put it differently, Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, the president of a think tank that tracks Black representation in government said, “Trump seems to be very proud to have [Black people] behind the podium, but not behind him in cabinet meetings.”

Of 98 confirmed senate appointees since he took office, only a measly 2% of them are Black. Compare that to 21% for the Biden administration. And George W. Bush was no friend to our folks, but he nominated 17% of people from our community.

If you are Black and in a high ranking position in the government, there is a good chance that you will get an email that says ‘Thank you for your service,’ but in reality its saying don’t let the door hit you on your way out.