Directly after the firing of Omarosa Manigault, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to inquiries about White House diversity saying, “We have a really diverse team across the board at the White House.”
One would assume diversity is the norm in the U.S. today, but a look at the faces around the White House tell a different story.
Trump’s cabinet is more white and male than both of his immediate predecessors. According to the New York Times, former President Barack Obama’s original cabinet was composed of 64 percent men of color or women. In former President George W. Bush’s first cabinet, 45 percent were men of color or women.
Trump’s cabinet includes only five women. It also includes Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson, the only African American to make the roster, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, the only Asian American to make the roster and U.N. secretary Nikki Haley, one of three Indian Americans to make the roster. That’s as far as Trump diversity goes.
“Something that we strive for every day is to add and grow to be more diverse and more representative of the country at large,” Sanders said.
White males do not represent the country at large, but they do represent Trump’s base and preferred associates. Ninety percent of Trump’s picks for federal courts are white, and 80 percent are male. This is not growing diversity in any form.
Trump’s lack of inclusion directly represents his priorities as president. He doesn’t want to help minority communities, so they aren’t around him. He doesn’t respect woman, so they aren’t around him.
If I was a person of color working in the White House, I don’t think I would want to be attached to a president who is so outwardly prejudiced against minorities.
The second year of the Trump travesty is in full effect, and he has made it clear he thinks there are good white nationalists. He made it clear when he called Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas.” He had made it clear he prefers immigrants from white European countries, not “shithole” countries composed of people of color. He’s made it clear he believes all Mexican immigrants are drug dealers or rapist.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was recently fired via Tweet. Did the White House seek to grow diversity with his replacement? Nope, CIA Director Mike Pompeo was already set to take the position. The Trump administration just moved one white male from one post to another.
Frankly speaking, “spin doctor” Sanders really did make it sound good, but the facts are different. Across the board, Trump has the whitest cabinet since Ronald Reagan, and the number of women in the White House is minuscule. Promoting diversity and inclusion at the highest level would be a start to making America great, but keeping America white seems to be the goal.
Justin Franklin is a 19-year-old political communication freshman from Memphis, Tennessee.
