The Trump administration is facing accusations of deliberately targeting the black middle class amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Black workers comprise 19 percent of the federal workforce, compared to 13 percent of the overall U.S. labor force.
Many of the suburbs surrounding Washington, DC, rank among the wealthiest African American communities in the nation.
The shutdown entered its 30th day on Wednesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or temporarily out of work.
Some critics have blamed President Donald Trump, claiming the shutdown disproportionately harms black Americans, particularly women.
“When asked about the accusation, the White House responded, ‘How are we targeting them with the government shutdown? We want the government open,’” the Daily Mail reported.
Comedian Clark Larew Jones posted on Threads, saying, “As a black millennial kid, nothing in my family was more coveted than a good government job.”
Jones’ post sparked responses claiming the administration wants to eliminate the middle-class opportunities available to black Americans, per the Daily Mail.
One user wrote, “This is why the DC area has one of the wealthiest and successful black cohorts in the country, it is because of good government jobs.”
Baltimore-based rapper Dapper Dan Midas added, “300,000 black women have lost their jobs since January,” highlighting the scale of the employment disruption.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) has raised similar concerns, writing a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“What I’m calling on the Fed to do is collect the data, to analyze the data and to come up with a plan. 300,000 black women have been pushed out of the labor force in the public and private sector, and that is a crisis,” Pressley said last month.
Black women make up roughly 12 percent of the federal workforce, nearly double their share of the overall labor force.
While federal layoffs and anti-DEI policies have impacted job opportunities, other factors have contributed, including the expiration of pandemic-era supports, such as childcare subsidies.
Brittney Cooper, a Rutgers University professor of race and gender, said on Threads, “You can’t bounce 300,000 black women out of stable jobs without it having a seismic effect on overall black economic stability.”
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) noted that federal hiring freezes threaten long-standing pathways to stable middle-class employment for black Americans.
NCRC highlighted Prince George’s County in Maryland as an example, noting, “PG County has consistently been among the wealthiest Black communities in the country,” largely due to federal employment opportunities.
The Center for American Progress reported in August that black employees once made up one-third or more of staff at agencies like Education, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, calling the workforce purge an “unprecedented assault.”
The shutdown stems from a partisan dispute over ACA marketplace subsidies. The Republican-led House has largely remained in recess, while the Senate struggles to reach 60 votes to break the stalemate.
