Or: The War on DEI and the Myth of White Superiority.
Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
Four of the most mediocre white men “on God’s green earth” (read that in my Grandma’s voice) dared to open their mouths to talk about “superior intelligence.” By now, we should all know that going forward, racists will find a way to blame all tragedies on Black and Brown people. Whether it’s an aviation disaster or any high-stakes failure, the immediate assumption will be that melanin is responsible, because white people are naturally gifted with superior intelligence and competence.
“Air traffic controllers are 75% white and 84% male”
In the immortal words of Bob Marley, “Don’t let them fool ya, or even try to school ya ...”
Remember that time when we were told that immigrants are coming in to take “Black jobs”? In their minds, you see, certain immigrants only have the intelligence to work at manual labor. They are here to do construction, farm work, janitorial services, childcare, and elder care. In the minds of racists, Black and Brown people belong in those service roles, not in positions of leadership or expertise. It is commonly held that our descent into this nightmare started when President Obama made fun of the current occupant at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I beg to differ. The seed of resentment was planted when he first realized that a Black man would ascend to the highest office in the land. Imagine what a shock that must have been to his racist soul? And what an existential threat that realization posed to racists’ idea of the natural order of things? The thought of a Black person as a president, a pilot, or an air traffic controller challenges their worldview, making them desperate to discredit any progress made by marginalized communities.
The underlying belief that white men are inherently more competent and natural born leaders, while people of color and women are bound to make catastrophic mistakes is not just an ignorant assumption, it is a blatant, provable, monstrous lie. And worse, it’s a desperate attempt at counter-programming.
In fact, the war on DEI has nothing at all to do with protecting meritocracy. It is all about preserving a racist hierarchy. White men are not now naturally superior and have never been. They know that, and we all know that. Yet, those who desperately cling to this debunked myth will continue to ignore evidence in favor of their delusions. They will continue to terrorize us with half-baked policies designed to strip away opportunities and to keep power in the hands of a shrinking minority.
Rest in peace to the 67 people who lost their lives. My deepest condolences to all their loved ones. They all deserved better than to have their deaths exploited in service of a hateful ideology.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Black elected officials are condemning President Donald Trump‘s remarks on Thursday in which he blamed DEI hiring for the deadly Washington, D.C., airport collision of an American Airlines plane and Army helicopter. The Democratic leaders say that rather than bringing the country together and focusing the attention on the 67 victims and their families, Trump decided to traffic in “racist” attacks on communities of color and women.
This is a tragedy that occurred above DCA airport. Lives have been lost. Families have been devastated. People are suffering, and the leader of this country decides to go out and pedal lies, conspiracy theories, and attack people of color and women without any basis whatsoever,” said House of Representatives Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a video posted on X. “Have you no decency? Have you no respect for families whose lives have been turned upside down?”
During a press conference Thursday morning, Trump suggested that DEI policies at the Federal Aviation Administration from previous Democratic administrations could be a cause for Wednesday’s deadly crash into the Potomac River at the Ronald Reagon Washington National Airport.
“I put safety first, [Presidents] [Barack] Obama, [Joe] Biden, and … the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level,” said the president inside the White House James Brady Press Briefing Room. When asked directly by reporters whether he was blaming the deadly collision on DEI and whether there was any evidence to support it, Trump said, “It just could have been.”
Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y., wrote on X, “While families grieve and our nation mourns the 67 victims of last night’s heartbreaking crash, Donald Trump and his cronies are already abusing this tragedy to further their racist, repugnant agenda.”
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I had to write this because it’s embarrassing at this point. Every couple of months, another Black entertainer is spotted hugging up with some known racist, performing at an event hosted by “an alleged to them but racist to the rest of us and their friends,” or smiling in photos with people who actively harm our community. Then, without fail, the social media collective formerly known as Black Twitter erupts with outrage, YouTube creators post their “we need to talk” videos and TikTok gets flooded with hashtags like #canceled. But the truth? Nobody’s getting canceled, and nothing changes. We wash, rinse, repeat and act shocked when the next headline drops.
So why do we keep doing it? Why, in 2025, are we still justifying entertaining racist and their friends? It boils down to three things: fear, desperation and our unshakable tendency to forgive people who don’t deserve it.
Let’s start with the fear factor. The entertainment industry is not built for us; it was built for them. White executives control the money, the platforms and the access. If you step out of line, you risk being blackballed—cut off from the opportunities that keep your career alive. Just ask Mo’Nique, who spent years speaking out about unfair treatment in Hollywood and was labeled “difficult” for it. It wasn’t until recently that she started getting work again.
For many Black entertainers, the thought of being shut out like that is terrifying. They’ve worked their whole lives to get to this point, and the industry knows it. That’s why they dangle the big gigs in front of us—the award shows, the Netflix specials, the Super Bowl halftime spots—and say, “Don’t rock the boat, or this could all go away.” And let’s be real, the Black community doesn’t always make it easy to take a stand. We’ll call someone a “sellout” for entertaining Massa, but when they disappear from the spotlight for staying true to their principles, we move on to the next celebrity without looking back.
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Incarcerated firefighters play a crucial role in a state where wildfires seemingly get worse every year. But the state’s shifting politics may stymie efforts at reform. The New Republic: They Helped Save L.A. Will California Ever Pay Them Fairly?
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After 19-year-old Maliki Jabari-Lathum pleaded guilty to felony home invasion charges in March 2023, he served the first part of his sentence at a juvenile detention center, where he could complete high school. He quickly excelled in the program; when he graduated in June 2024, a group of guards and teachers approached him and his family with a suggestion.
Jabari-Lathum, they said, would be a good fit for Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp, where incarcerated teenagers and young adults in California receive formal training in firefighting. For prisoners, the program offers skills that may prove valuable when they’re released. California gets something, too: a supply of practically free labor that is increasingly necessary as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and destructive.
Jabari-Lathum jumped on the offer. He was sent to Pine Grove, which is an hour outside of Sacramento, and has been fighting fires across California for the past several months. Although he travels widely and is, in many respects, an employee of the state, he is very much still a prisoner. Phone calls and visits with family are heavily restricted, as is contact with the outside world.
In early January, Jabari-Lathum told his mother, Leanna, that he might be deployed to the Los Angeles metro area, where fires were rapidly spreading. “I’m not going to be able to call you,” he reminded her. “Hopefully I’m OK.” He would spend most of January fighting the fires, unable to contact his family.
For days, Jabari-Lathum and his fellow incarcerated firefighters battled intense blazes, ultimately playing a pivotal role in containing one of the most destructive fires in California’s history. Their effort highlighted the essential role they play in the state’s approach to fire management. But it also led to renewed focus on the nature of their work itself, which some have compared to slave labor, and California’s long-standing dependence on it. The ethical dilemma that this dependence presents is hardly new.
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Tens of thousands of people are now fleeing the densely populated city of about 1.5 million. Earlier this month, about 400,000 people had already fled fighting elsewhere in the region and headed toward Goma, according to the United Nations, joining about 6 million people across the nation who are already displaced by conflict. Hospitals are overwhelmed by hundreds of casualties, and bodies lay on the streets, the U.N. and other aid agencies told a news briefing Tuesday.
“Roads are blocked, and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed,” the U.N. special representative for Congo, Bintou Keita, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday.
During the U.N. meeting, Congolese Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner accused Rwanda of sending its troops over the border to help the rebels in “a declaration of war that no longer hides itself behind diplomatic manoeuvres.” She added that “Rwanda is preparing to orchestrate a carnage in broad daylight.” Rwanda’s representative did not deny the claim, although the country has denied backing M23 in the past.
Goma is the provincial capital of the Congolese state of North Kivu, whose governor—Maj. Gen. Peter Cirimwami—was shot dead by M23 fighters as they advanced, capturing the nearby towns of Saké and Minova. Goma is close to the Rwandan border and acts as a vital transport hub within a key mining region, making it a significant territorial gain.
While the rebels once briefly held Goma in 2012, the group has never held as much territory as they do now. Since 2021, the rebels have seized control of the regions surrounding lucrative mines, including Rubaya—one of the world’s largest sources of coltan, a mineral used to power laptops and smartphones.
A U.N. report published in December accused M23 of shipping the mineral to Rwanda and obscuring the shipments as Rwandan production—an operation that has resulted in “the largest contamination of mineral supply chains in the Great Lakes region recorded to date.” The report also suggested that Congolese gold was being illegally siphoned off through Rwanda.
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A new Pew Research report released Jan. 23 revealed that the Black population in the U.S. has seen substantial growth since 2000. Over the past two decades, the Black population has increased by a third, rising from 36.2 million in 2000 to a staggering 48.3 million in 2023. This growth includes not only Black Americans but also individuals within the broader Black diaspora, such as those identifying as Hispanic, whose numbers grew by 210%. Immigration from regions like Africa and the Caribbean also played a significant role in the major increase.
Among the states, Utah has experienced the most rapid growth in its Black population, surging by 89% from 2010 to 2023. While the report gave little data on what sparked the surge, a 2024 report from Lending Tree revealed that some Black residents living in the state were thriving. Provo, Utah, in particular, stood out for having the lowest unemployment rate among Black residents, at just 3.6%, and ranked high in 6th place in terms of education, with 34.1% of Black adults holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.
The median household income for Black residents in Provo in 2024 was $59,471, placing it below the national median of $69,021, but the state made up for this area when it came to income. Last year, the metro area contained the 13th-highest percentage of high-income earners, with 27.7% of Black households earning $100,000 or more annually. However, Provo’s ranking for homeownership was more modest last year, coming in at 53rd, with 39.5% of Black residents owning their homes.
Arizona, Nevada, and Minnesota saw their Black populations grow by 60% between 2010 to 2023, ranking as the next-fastest-growing states with Black populations of at least 25,000 in 2010. The states with the largest numerical increases in Black residents during the same period are also home to the largest overall Black populations. Texas added 1.2 million Black residents, followed by Florida with an increase of 800,000, and Georgia which grew by 610,000.
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