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OP-ED: Trump’s Policies Hurt Black America—and Everyone Else

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE—While Black History Month calls us to honor generations of resilience, the Trump administration has spent its first year dismantling the very pathways those generations fought to build—from federal jobs and DEA programs to student aid and an honest telling of American history. What’s happening to Black America isn’t an isolated story. It’s a blueprint for how this administration governs everyone.

Published

2 months ago

February 23, 2026

Oakland Post

By Brandon Weathersby

As we mark another Black History Month, a moment that should honor the resilience and achievements of Black Americans, we instead confront a painful truth: Donald Trump has spent the first year of his second term in office making life harder for Black families, narrowing the pathways to opportunity that earlier generations fought to open, and going to great lengths to strip the nation of an honest accounting of Black history.

This is not abstract. It is not rhetorical. It is real, measurable harm that is being felt in classrooms, workplaces, neighborhoods, and households across the country.

The economic story alone should force us to examine what it means to live under a president who sells prosperity to Black Americans just to rip it away as soon as he is sworn in. Under Trump’s first year, Black unemployment rose to pandemic-era levels, driven by mass federal layoffs that landed hardest on Black workers, who have long relied on public service as a stable path to the middle class when private sector discrimination closed other doors. And in the private sector, Trump’s pressure campaign to force corporate retreat from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs helped push 300,000 Black women out of the workforce. The result has been a collapse of career ladders that supported entire families and communities—losses that ripple through households already strained by high housing and food costs.

Trump’s attacks also targeted institutions that support Black entrepreneurs, including the Minority Business Development Agency, which has historically delivered billions in capital and contracts and helped create thousands of jobs. Trump attempted to eliminate the agency through an executive order, and even after the courts blocked that effort, its operations have never fully recovered. The message to Black business owners was unmistakable: their progress was never a priority for this administration.

For generations, Black Americans have seen education as a ladder to the middle class and economic stability, but Trump is pulling the bottom rungs out of reach for some Black scholars. The spending bill signed into law last summer by the president caps federal student loan borrowing for graduate, law, and medical students. It also restricts how much parents can borrow to help cover student tuition, reduces the maximum Pell Grant award, and limits aid for part-time students. This leaves Black students facing a system that shuts more doors than it opens and makes higher education more inaccessible than it has been in decades.

What makes this moment even more dangerous is that Trump has paired these economic attacks with a determined effort to control how Americans think about race, history, and identity. His signature executive order framed any discussion of equity as a threat and challenged schools to choose between honest teaching and their federal funding. In the months that followed, teachers reported fear and confusion about teaching routine lessons on Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Trump’s whitewashing of history didn’t stop at the classroom door. His administration ordered reviews that led to the removal of exhibits acknowledging the role of slavery in the lives of the founders and the service of Black soldiers in World War II. He has pursued the restoration of Confederate names of military bases with the zeal of a man intent on rewriting the nation’s memory. These choices do not reflect a president who values unity or truth. They reflect a worldview that sees Black history as something that must be neutralized to preserve a false national story that centers on white grievance.

When you step back from each individual decision, a larger truth about this presidency comes into focus.

The way he treats Black America is not an exception. It is a window into how he has failed the country as a whole by stifling opportunity, fueling division, and abandoning any real commitment to shared prosperity. It is a warning about what happens when a president replaces opportunity with grievance and chooses culture war fights over real investment in people. When young people are taught incomplete history or denied education opportunities, and when families cannot rely on stable jobs or critical resources like food assistance, health care, or childcare, the entire country loses ground.

One year into a second Trump term, the consequences are visible across the country as growth for working families of every background has stalled, pathways to education and work have narrowed, and public institutions have been bent toward political theater rather than genuine public service. The setbacks facing Black America are not isolated; they expose a broader pattern of neglect and a government more interested in punishing Americans than in lifting them up.

The rights and opportunities secured by earlier generations are not guaranteed. They depend on leadership that sees prosperity as a shared project and understands that communities thrive when the government invests in their success. That is what Black America deserves, and it is what the entire country deserves. We need leaders who view our history as a source of strength and who treat economic stability and opportunity as national priorities, not bargaining chips in partisan fights.

Trump and the Republicans who rubber-stamp his agenda have shown they will not provide that leadership. Black History Month is a reminder that we can demand better for Black America and for the country as a whole.

Brandon Weathersby is the Presidential Communications Director at American Bridge 21st Century.

Oakland Post

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IN MEMORIAM: Rest in Power — Minnesota Loses a True Warrior in Yusef Mgeni

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN RECORDER — Yusef Mgeni, a brilliant historian, community organizer, former St. Paul educator and fierce advocate for Black people, died on April 7, 2026, leaving behind a legacy that will echo through generations of Black Minnesota history and community building.

Published

12 hours ago

April 15, 2026

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By MSR News Online

Minnesota and the world lost a powerful voice and a true warrior on April 7, 2026. Yusef Mgeni is gone, but his legacy will echo for generations.

Yusef was a brilliant historian, a community organizer, a former St. Paul educator, and a fierce advocate for Black people. He carried with him an extraordinary archive of speeches, books, articles, and photographs documenting the work of countless Black scholars and leaders. His knowledge was not just deep. It was generational. Talk to him about any subject concerning Black history, and he would give you a dissertation.

His roots in this community ran deeper than most people knew. Yusef was the grandnephew of Fredrick McGhee, the pioneering 20th-century civil rights activist and attorney who made his mark in St. Paul at the turn of the century. That lineage was not lost on Yusef. He carried it forward with pride and purpose, spending decades making sure the stories of Black Minnesotans were told, preserved, and passed on.

As a journalist, Yusef called NAACP leaders and community figures to identify the issues that mattered most to Black people and wrote about them in local newspapers. He was a contributor to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a platform he understood and respected deeply. As a former St. Paul NAACP vice president, he remained active and engaged well into his retirement, answering emails and voicemails for residents who were at their wits’ end, helping them navigate evictions, legal challenges, and systemic barriers.

“Generally, they contact us when they are at their wits’ end,” he once said. “They are going to get evicted; their car is getting repossessed. We assist in navigating the system.”

His work was always about access. Under his leadership and alongside other NAACP leaders, the St. Paul chapter helped establish a landmark covenant between the police and the St. Paul community in 2001, a model that contributed to dramatically lower excessive-force costs than in Minneapolis in the decade that followed.

Yusef was also a passionate champion of ethnic studies in Minnesota’s schools, understanding that education rooted in Black and Brown history was not a supplement to American history but central to it.

“Ethnic studies is also American history,” he said. “The fact that the legislature and the MDE have both endorsed ethnic studies requirements in schools is a real plus for giving people the opportunity to explore and learn more about American history, and more importantly, to see themselves reflected in that learning.”

In the 1970s and ’80s, Yusef worked alongside Mrs. Clarissa Walker at the Sabathani Community Center, where they poured their energy into uplifting and empowering the community. Their work helped shape the cultural and political landscape of South Minneapolis during a critical era. They were part of a generation that built institutions, nurtured young people, and fought for justice with unwavering commitment.

Yusef also played a key role in the early development of KMOJ Radio, helping to establish a platform that amplified Black voices long before it was common or convenient. His activism extended through education, the St. Paul NAACP, the Million Man March, and the Urban Coalition, always rooted in a deep and abiding love for his people.

He was also an interviewee in the Rondo neighborhood oral history project preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society, ensuring that the voices and stories of that community would never be lost.

Not long ago, a colleague was blessed to sit with Yusef at his home, where he reflected on his life and his legacy. He talked about his work in education, his activism, and his years of service to the community. But what stood out just as much was how he spoke about his family and his people, with warmth, with pride, and with purpose.

Today, we honor him not only for what he accomplished but for the spirit with which he did it.

A scholar. A builder. A warrior. A keeper of our stories.

Thank you, Yusef, for everything you gave and everything you sacrificed on behalf of Black people. Your legacy stands tall, and our community is better because of you.

Rest in Power, Yusef Mgeni.

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Revolve Fund to Provide $20,000 to Support Food Access Efforts in Alabama Black Belt

THE AFRO — “Revolve Fund complements its core mission of improving capital access for entrepreneurs by partnering with leading organizations that are addressing critical community needs,” said James Wahls, founder and managing director of Revolve Fund. “Like BBCF, Revolve understands at the most fundamental level, everyone should have access to healthy food.”

Published

13 hours ago

April 15, 2026

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By Revolve Fund | The AFRO

SELMA – As over 40 million Americans grappled with the reality of not being able to feed themselves or their families due to SNAP delays, Revolve Fund is seeking to help. Revolve Fund has announced a $20,000 community grant to the Black Belt Community Foundation as part of the duo’s continued partnership. The grant will increase the foundation’s capacity to execute programs and fundraise to support food access efforts in the Alabama Black Belt region.

“Revolve Fund complements its core mission of improving capital access for entrepreneurs by partnering with leading organizations that are addressing critical community needs,” said James Wahls, founder and managing director of Revolve Fund. “Like BBCF, Revolve understands at the most fundamental level, everyone should have access to healthy food.”

“BBCF is deeply grateful for the Revolve Fund’s grant to underwrite direct food support in the Black Belt during the current disruption of SNAP benefits, continuing high food costs and unprecedented strain on our local food banks,” said Christopher Spencer, president and CEO, Black Belt Community Foundation. “As BBCF mobilizes resources and community partners during this time, Revolve is one of the first philanthropic organizations to step forward to support our Food for Families in the Black Belt Campaign. We look ahead to our productive, continued partnership with them to positively impact and transform the Black Belt region of Alabama.”

“While our communities need and deserve so much more, we hope our contribution will support the foundation’s ability to work with other philanthropic partners, individual donors, charities, and public partners,” Wahls added.

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Mamdani Plans City Grocery Store in East Harlem

NEW YORK CARIB NEWS — The store will be located at La Marqueta, a historic marketplace beneath the elevated Park Avenue tracks. The project is expected to cost approximately $30 million and is slated to open next year, utilizing currently vacant space within the city-owned facility. Operating rent-free, officials say the model is intended to lower overhead and pass savings on to consumers.

Published

13 hours ago

April 15, 2026

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New York Carib News

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced plans to establish the city’s first municipally owned grocery store in East Harlem, a flagship initiative aimed at addressing rising food costs and improving access to affordable essentials.

The store will be located at La Marqueta, a historic marketplace beneath the elevated Park Avenue tracks. The project is expected to cost approximately $30 million and is slated to open next year, utilizing currently vacant space within the city-owned facility. Operating rent-free, officials say the model is intended to lower overhead and pass savings on to consumers.

Mamdani unveiled the plan during an event marking his first 100 days in office, reaffirming a campaign pledge to build a network of five city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough, by the end of his first term in 2029.

“During our campaign, we promised New Yorkers that we would create a network of five city-owned grocery stores,” Mamdani said. “Today, we make good on that promise.”

The mayor positioned the initiative as a direct response to surging grocery prices, noting that food costs in New York City rose by nearly 66% between 2013 and 2023, significantly outpacing the national average. He argued that the city-run stores would provide fair pricing, improve worker conditions, and ease the financial burden on low-income households.

“We’re going to make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table,” Mamdani said, adding that staples such as eggs and bread would be more affordable.

However, the proposal is already drawing scrutiny. The estimated cost of the East Harlem store would consume nearly half of the $70 million budget initially outlined for the entire five-store program. Despite this, Mamdani remains confident that the initiative will deliver long-term benefits and help reshape access to affordable groceries across the city.

The announcement also drew political attention, with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders making a surprise appearance at the event in support of the mayor’s broader economic agenda.