The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced Monday that it is investigating the city of Chicago and its Mayor Brandon Johnson for allegedly discriminating against white people in forming his administration.
A letter signed by Civil Rights Division head Harmeet K. Dhillon cited Johnson’s Sunday appearance at the predominantly Black Apostolic Church of God. The mayor, who is Black, emphasized the importance of diversity in his administration,
“In your remarks made yesterday at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn, you ‘highlight[ed] the number of Black officials in [your] administration,’” the letter reads, before listing several of the Black people in current city leadership.
Johnson’s remarks were in response to a question and he said the diversity was a positive step forward in a city where roughly one-third of the population is Black.
“Two administrations ago, 70 to 75% of the administration was primarily made up of white and white men,” Johnson said. “In my administration, 45% of my administration is Black, 25% is Latine, 30% is white, 8% is Asian. It is the most diverse administration in the history of Chicago.”
As the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division was announcing its brand new investigation into so-called reverse racism, Attorney General Pam Bondi made a separate announcement on Monday unveiling a new “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative.” According to the DOJ, the effort will use the False Claims Act to “investigate and, as appropriate, pursue claims” involving alleged violations of federal civil rights laws.
“Institutions that take federal money only to allow anti-Semitism and promote divisive DEI policies are putting their access to federal funds at risk,” Bondi said in a statement. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate these violations of civil rights—inaction is not an option.”
These moves by the DOJ are just an extension of the Trump administration’s broader effort to dismantle and weaponize the federal government by painting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as the dreaded DEI bogeyman rather than an instrument of progress.
Within hours of being sworn in as the nation’s top lawyer, Bondi sent an internal memo promising to crack down on DEI initiatives and explore ways to prosecute companies with diversity policies.
Related | Trump’s new attorney general plans to make fighting racism a crime
The fallout from the Department of Justice’s turn has been swift and far-reaching. The department’s Civil Rights Division is losing 70% of its lawyers as a result of the pandemonium exacted by President Donald Trump’s racist executive orders, according to NPR.
"The Civil Rights Division exists to enforce civil rights laws that protect all Americans," Stacey Young, a former division attorney, told NPR of the 250 lawyers who have left or are in the process of leaving. "It's not an arm of the White House. It doesn't exist to enact the president's own agenda. That's a perversion of the separation of powers and the role of an independent Justice Department."
Chicago’s mayor acknowledging he has hired Black people who have historically been sidelined is not a civil rights violation. You need only look at the sheer volume of deeply unqualified white people who make up Trump’s Cabinet—from the secretary of defense to the secretary of homeland security to the secretary of education—to see blatant favoritism in our government.
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