The most terrifying policy proposals for a possible Trump second term are all spelled out in one document, Project 2025. From eliminating the entire education department to outlawing all stem cell research, the 900-page blueprint would radically reshape the federal government. You want to know how bad it is? Trump has tried to distance himself from it, even though a slew of his former advisors helped write it.
But as awful as Project 2025 is, my next guest read the entire plan and discovered how it is on how it is uniquely bad for black Americans. Among the plans ending support for black homeownership and businesses. Joining me now is.
Michael Harriot, columnist for The Griot and author of Black AF History, the unwhitewashed story of America. Michael, thank you very much for coming to the Saturday show. First, give me three of the policies that target African-Americans.
So three of the worst are the effort to basically end every civil rights department in every federal agency. So we know there's a civil rights department in the DOJ, but there's also one. and the Department of Education, which he wants to end. He also wants to end the federal procurement agency's discrimination policies. But the worst of all is the effort to end or to include what they call school choice, which is basically the privatization of every school district in America.
So those are the three things, just among the three things, that are harmful to African Americans. You argue there's a kind of evil genius to Project 2025 writing, and I'm quoting, as much as it pains me to admit it, their strategy to erase racism throughout America is pretty brilliant. What's their secret?
So so one of the things that we know about some of the racial disparities in America is because of every federal department collects racial data. You know, we know that then. white men are sentenced to shorter sentences than black people who commit the same crime and have the same criminal history because the sentencing commission collects that data. Same with education. And what they want to do is end the collection of this racial data that proves the disparities that we've been fighting about and fighting for progress in for all of these years.
So it's kind of brilliant to just erase any evidence of racism, and then you can claim, well, racism doesn't exist. You know, you point out that Project 2025 openly attacks the idea of equity in America. What does that tell you about the motivation of this whole agenda? Well, you know, if you read the entire project, right, it's not really even concerned with equity. It's not just that it's concerned with diversity and equity.
It's patently against it, but only for... non-white people, right? It wants to increase diversity, for instance, for white men in the military.
We know for years that the military has been getting less and less white. And there's a section in Project 25 that says explicitly, like, they want the military to reflect the racial demographics that have been changing since 1974. So it... decreases diversity and equity for everyone except white people.
We know that white men are increasingly less likely to get a college degree. So it wants to erase the requirements in every federal agency that requires bachelor's degrees for jobs because, of course, that's their version of this merit-based equity that they've been talking about because they want it for white men and no one else. Real quickly, Michael, how do we stop these plans from being enacted?
Is the only solution vote in November? Well, no, because the solution is not just voting, right? Because it's not just a Trump plan.
Some of the plans require congressional approval. So it's voting down ballot. It's voting. It's fighting the agencies that are, you know, going to intentionally. become MAGA.
And it's fighting on every front. And voting is just the start. But the activist population that just talks about voting, we also have to get involved in politics so that things like this won't come true.
Because once this comes true, like voting will be ineffective for changing the government. Michael Harriot, I want to thank you for two things. One, for coming on the Saturday show.
And two, for reading all 900 pages. and pointing out the things we need to know.