The targets of Trump’s DEI attacks must unite — because no one else is coming to our rescue

The Trump administration is ripping away the bandages that once covered America’s bigotry, revealing the festering sores underneath.

There’s the resentment of those who believe seeking racial equality is an attack on white people.

There’s the hatred of those who hide their prejudice behind a veil of Christianity.

There’s the insecurity of those who believe a level playing field reduces their chances of winning.

But for those who are the targets of Donald Trump’s war against diversity, equity, and inclusion, there’s only the nagging uncertainty of wondering what’s next.

We’ve seen the president revoke a 60-year-old antidiscrimination hiring rule, and sign executive orders meant to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Tens of thousands of people have been fired from federal jobs.

The General Services Administration released a memo that could open the door for federal contractors to maintain segregated facilities. Black war heroes have been scrubbed from military websites, including longtime Republican and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell.

Taken collectively, these actions represent a normalization of racism. For me, and for all those who are targeted by this administration’s racial policies, there is only one solution. We must begin a movement, but movement requires hard choices.

We must ask ourselves if we’re willing to sacrifice when the backlash inevitably comes. Can we lose a job to the movement? Can we lose our friends to the movement? Can we lose our lives to the movement?

Those are the questions our ancestors had to ask, and some of them answered with their blood. But today, when too many battles are fought in the safety and comfort of social media, we must ask ourselves an additional question: How are we willing to change?

In a capitalistic society, battles are fought and won with money, so if people of color are to win such a fight, we must change how we view and spend our money.

In my community — the Black community — we must move past the relentless consumerism that has kept too many of us trapped at the edge of America’s capitalistic culture. This is not just an opinion. The numbers bear it out.

We must begin a movement, but movement requires hard choices.

African American spending power reached a record $1.6 trillion in 2021, even as our net worth dropped by 14%. We also saved less than other groups, and the racial wealth gap between Black and white families was around $11 trillion.

If we are to build a Black economic agenda and use that agenda to defend ourselves against the Trump administration’s racial policies, we must take a sober look at how and where we spend money.

It is no longer enough to purchase the trappings of wealth for ourselves. We must build for future generations. That means going beyond seeking out a good job, because as Trump’s mass firings of federal workers showed us, good jobs can easily disappear.

We must focus more intently on harnessing our economic strength through business ownership.

We must build networks that utilize the community’s collective capital. We must mentor others and teach them entrepreneurship.

In short, we must work together, because no one else is coming to our rescue.

And while it is necessary to boycott those who’ve joined the Trump administration’s anti-DEI agenda, we must be clear-eyed enough to keep anger from clouding our judgment.

We must move strategically and in unison because this is about more than removing our dollars from those who are practicing anti-Blackness. It is about placing our dollars with those who support our community.

To that end, we must shop with an end goal in mind, knowing that when we support business owners in our community, we build their capacity to hire within our community, reinvest in our community, and strengthen our community.

Beyond redirecting our spending, African Americans must save with an eye toward the future, invest in the products we believe in, and in the words of the elders, stop letting money burn a hole in our pockets.

I know that’s a tall order. I know it’s a lot to ask when we’re still healing from an election in which the country chose a convicted felon over a qualified Black woman. However, we cannot afford to sit back and tell ourselves we’re minding our business as the country burns down around us.

We live here, too, and it’s time for us to help put the fire out.