Trump’s Shutdown Threatened the American Dream, Especially for People of Color

Federal employment has long provided a pathway to the middle class for families of color, especially African American families. The 1960s saw a resurgence of federal employment for people of color. The reversal of former President Woodrow Wilson’s segregationist policies, the equal employment initiatives of the Johnson administration, and other important victories of the civil rights movement made holding a job with the federal government an opportunity to move into the middle class.

These jobs provided people of color with an opportunity to serve the country while receiving competitive pay and some measure of protection against racial discrimination. Today, people of color are almost 37 percent of federal executive branch employees. While they remain underrepresented in senior positions in the federal government, these jobs have helped countless families build wealth and gain access to the American dream.

Shutdown jeopardized the financial security of more than 228,000 federal employees of color

President Donald Trump and Republican Senate leadership held hundreds of thousands of federal employees hostage to force taxpayers to pay for a southern border wall that Americans do not want. The shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history and ended on January 25, 2019—cost the economy tens of billions of dollars and jeopardized the financial security of those who work in the service of this country. According to new Center for American Progress analysis, more than 228,000 federal employees of color were furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown, including approximately 2,000 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders; 9,000 American Indians or Alaska Natives; 9,500 people of more than one race; 29,500 Asian Americans, 77,700 Hispanic/Latino Americans; and more than 101,000 Black/African Americans.*

View the complete January 31 article by Connor Maxwell on the Center for American Progress website here.