Free Republic

President Trump has cut hundreds of thousands of jobs from the federal work force, disproportionately affecting Black employees.When President Trump started dismantling federal agencies and dismissing rank-and-file civil servants, Peggy Carr, the chief statistician at the Education Department, immediately started to make a calculation. She was the first Black person and the first woman to hold the prestigious post of commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. As a political appointee, she knew there was a risk of becoming a target. But her 35-career at the department spanned a half dozen administrations, including Mr. Trump’s first term, and she...

An Education Department employee was attending a funeral this week when she got the call: She was being placed on administrative leave because she works on projects that connect Black students, among others, to federal government programs. A disabled veteran employed at the Department of Veterans Affairs grew emotional when he heard about the rescinding of telework options, unsure whether it would mean the end of his job taking care of fellow soldiers. A Federal Trade Commission employee was so anxious that he told family members not to talk about politics on unencrypted lines. Across government agencies, workers eyed one...

The warning came one day after the administration ordered that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the government be shut down by 5 p.m. Wednesday.The Trump administration on Wednesday threatened federal employees with “adverse consequences” if they fail to report on colleagues who defy orders to purge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from their agencies.Tens of thousands of workers were put on notice that officials would not tolerate any efforts to “disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.” Emails sent out, which were based on a template from the Office of Personnel Management, gave employees 10 days to...

The vice president released a plan to help Black men financially, held interviews with two Black media outlets and put out targeted ads in battleground states.Vice President Kamala Harris made a sweeping push on Monday to energize Black voters, among whom she faces slipping support, unveiling a plan to bolster the finances of Black men, appearing in interviews with two Black media outlets and releasing a pair of ads in battleground states targeted to that crucial voting group.Taken together, Ms. Harris’s blitz put forward a broad argument that her administration would deliver meaningful policy changes for Black Americans and that...

At Tuesday’s debate, Kamala Harris, the vice president, will try to promote herself as a change candidate without criticizing President Biden, whom she has served for years.Vice President Kamala Harris will try to use her debate on Tuesday against former President Donald J. Trump to argue that Americans are ready to turn the page on the politics of the past decade, with its turmoil and social animus.But Mr. Trump, standing just feet away, is likely to make a different case: He is expected to try to paint Ms. Harris, the sitting vice president, as the candidate of the status quo.The...

“I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,” said the Illinois attorney general. “I’m asking all of you all to do the same.” A day after Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she intended to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, more than 40,000 Black men from across the country convened on a virtual fund-raising call to discuss what the moment required of them. For four hours, one Black man after another — prominent politicians, activists, entertainers — laid out the challenges ahead for Ms....