The Urban League has just released its annual report, an update from its think tank on Black America. The 2025 Report is the 49th edition.
President Marc Moriel warns and demonstrates that America is regressing with its “unprecedented extremist, anti-diversity movement to erase 60 years of freedoms gained under the Voting Rights Act and undermine Democracy.” He cautions that these regressions are not just a negative for Black America but for all of America.
Black America since slavery has had to fight to be citizens, to be equal, and to be treated fairly. The fight has evolved from a physical stance to the right to vote, to changing laws, to marching, and to standing up for justice in a multitude of ways that have changed the world of unfairness and inequality. The King fight was for justice in the main of America to be proper and correct to make America live up to its creed. The fight has been to have the law apply to the American philosophy. Laws changed, like the Voting Rights Act. Democracy got better. President Lyndon Johnson, the southerner, changed America with his policies.
Today, the laws and behaviors supporting inclusion and diversity are being eroded, from the banning of books to the challenging and removal of museum exhibits. The clock is turned backward. The Trump administration has made DEI controversial with policies that eliminate opportunities because they become illegal. There must be an understanding that Trump aims to deregulate and concentrate power for the white and the rich. He pushes America back toward a time when racism was accepted as normal. It was an era when Black Americans were deemed unworthy, inadequate, and inferior.
You saw Trump’s disrespect when he spoke to Joseph Nyuma Boakai, the President of Liberia, who spoke a beautiful and elegant language. In Trump’s arrogance, he had to ask, ‘Where did you learn to speak like that?’ The insult is profound. Trump’s behavior is reminiscent of a time when water fountains and bathrooms bore signs that read ‘NO COLORED ALLOWED.”
The disrespect is painful. Still, it was a time when racism was widespread and racial resistance was clearly expressed and practiced. Trump reminds you of the Grand Dragon.
Black America has too many memories and practices about who we were and how we were treated in the land of opportunity and the home of the brave, the slave. Laws can change, but America is too diverse and educated for the old ways of racism to persist.
The Trump philosophy is outdated, but he has awakened a part of America where the change of racism has not taken hold. America’s racism is like apple pie. Trump has given permission for racism and racists to come alive and act. Picking Mexican Americans off the street for no reason other than that they are of brown skin and speak Spanish or speak with an accent is a racist stereotype. They are all bad; they are all criminals. Putting them in jail for little to no reason defies America’s sense of fairness.
Trump is a threat to the legal system, as he attempts to rule with a dictatorial hand to defy the American way and America’s core values.
Trump is not challenged, and this is the real problem with America, as Moriel’s National Urban League reports reveal. If hatred targets Black America, all Americans are affected. The tariffs won’t just impact Black America; they will impact all of America.
The Trump advantage is social media. Without scrutiny, he has shifted the direction of the press, with hatred expressed and unchecked, through social media. The League reports label it as recognized with no censorship, and misinformation has changed America’s body politic. Digital technology has transformed the world—how we think, organize, communicate, and educate.
Marc Moriel warns us that, “A democracy willing to destroy itself rather than deliver justice is a democracy in crisis.“
