What TF Is Project 2025 And Why Black Americans Should Know? by Mitti Hicks
July 10, 2024
Conversations around Project 2025 are circulating on social media
Now that we are inching closer to the general election in November, conversations around Project 2025 are circulating on social media as more people -– mainly Democrats -– sound the alarm about what would happen if former President Donald Trump or any conservative leader is elected.
Democrats and other political strategists are warning voters that the next conservative elected to the presidency would dismantle the federal government. It would be carried out through the blueprint known as Project 2025, or the Presidential Transition Project. The Heritage Foundation, a group founded in 1973 as an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., is spearheading the project.
“Project 2025 is a very methodical and strategic way to try and disenfranchise as many Americans as possible, specifically Americans that are not going to fit who don’t fit into the white supremacist image that is being crafted by the individual who has crafted Project 2025,” lawyer Elizabeth Booker Houston tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
It’s important to note that while former President Donald Trump denied any association with Project 2025, it was written by several former Trump appointees with input from more than 100 conservative organizations.
What Is Project 2025?
The best way to look at Project 2025 is as a wish list for right-wing conservatives. In nearly 1,000 pages, the documents provide a thorough outline of how the next Republican administration could reshape the federal government through a collection of policy proposals aligned with a far-right agenda. The project goes as far as offering recommendations for key White House staff, cabinet positions, Congress, federal agencies, commissions, and boards. The plan also recommends a vetting process for appointing and hiring people who fit its ideologies.
“It is not enough for conservatives to win elections,” the project’s website states. “If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration. This is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project.”
The transition project focuses on four main areas: Policy, Personnel, Training, and a Playbook for the next conservative leader.
Project 2025 would expand and strengthen presidential power while limiting or eliminating federal agencies.
So, How Does Project 2025 Impact Black People? Rolls Back Civil Rights Protections in Employment and Housing
Changes proposed in Project 2025 would roll back civil rights protections and cut diversity, equity, and inclusion-related programs. It would also roll back LGBTQ+ rights in healthcare, education, and workplaces.
According to Democracy Forward, Project 2025 proposes that the federal government end the long-standing use of “disparate impact” in assessing discrimination by ending its use in discrimination cases. The disparate impact standard determines discrimination under Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. This standard allows the DOJ and others to bring civil rights cases when people violate their civil rights in employment and fair housing. Getting rid of it makes it harder for the federal government to enforce civil rights protections in housing, education, and employment.
Get Rid of Federal Agencies That Help To Ensure Equity
Project 2025 calls for eliminating federal agencies such as the Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency. These agencies ensure equal access to education and, as in the case of the EPA, ensure communities are not disproportionately harmed.
Project 2025 proposes eliminating the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights even though the harms of pollution, climate change, and other hazards have historically impacted communities of color.
Make It Harder For Under-represented Communities To Access Head Start, Medicaid, and other federal programs.
According to Democracy Forward, more than 1 million children participate in the Head Start program, which promotes school readiness for children under 5 in low-income families. The U.S. Health and Human Services data shows that 28% of Black families participated in Head Start. Project 2025 proposes eliminating Head Start.
Limits Access To Food Assistance
An average of 40 million Americans rely on food assistance monthly. Project 2025 would restrict access to food assistance. Meanwhile, research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that 92% of all SNAP benefits go to households with income at or below the federal poverty line.
“Taking away any sort of equity that could help Black Americans for us to finally be on an equal footing in this country, they’re stripping that away with Project 2025,” Booker Houston says. “We saw that with raced-based Affirmative Action and [conservatives] calling it special treatment. That’s not special treatment. It’s Black people trying to get out of the dugout while everyone else is born on third base. We know that what we need for our community to thrive is equity because we are starting from hundreds of years of enslavement and Jim Crow.”
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