The Trump administration's budget proposals include cuts from many Section 8 programs--the Department of Labor ($2.5B), Department of Housing and Urban-Development ($6.2B) and the Community Development Block Grant Program ($3B)--where African American "workers make up 18 percent of the nation's 2 million federal workers -- more than any other minority group."
Tanya Ward Jordan, president of Coalition for Change, says, "The Trump freeze... will undoubtedly hit the black community hard."
Among 28 states that have passed their own laws regarding affirmative action is Michigan, which, in 2006, added to its Constitution Section I Article 26, "prohibiting preferential treatment and discrimination in state employment and contracting." Economists expect to see more years of growth for the state since the decision. However, Director of University of Michigan's Research Seminar George Fulton says, "It's just not clear to us what the policy initiatives moving forward are going to be with this [Trump] administration."
Affirmative action means reaching out to those disproportionately harmed and providing minorities with means to protect their legal rights and to secure their futures. Minorities can only begin to know whether they should increase their hopes once what President Trump says and does become in sync. In the courts, congress, and state and local actions, the battle will be fierce, but hopeful.
Robert Weiner is a former spokesman for the Bush and Clinton White House. Paula Hong is a policy analyst and Sophomore at Georgetown University at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.
(Article changed on June 2, 2017 at 20:20)
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