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MAGA Judge Rules Minority Business Development Agency Must Serve Whites Too

Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 12:46 PM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

The gaslighting way MAGA Republicans are trying to whitewash the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow would shock even George Orwell.Minority business programs must benefit Whites

Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) to serve (majority) White businesses too.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell had such orders in mind when he conspired with former President Donald Trump to pack the federal judiciary. They recruited young White men. The primary qualification? Their blind faith in MAGA propaganda and conspiracies.

Indeed, the fateful symmetry is striking: their judge, Mark T. Pittman, issued his order on the very day McConnell endorsed Trump for reelection.

After all, the aim of both Pittman’s order and Trump’s reelection is to make America look not just like Blacks were never enslaved or discriminated against but like they were never here.  

Even White racists now favor integration

MAGA politicians are leading a crusade to rewrite or whitewash the narrative of racial equality in America. Judge Pittman’s order furthers this crusade.

They aim to proselytize, legislate, and legalize the belief that any effort to redress or even teach the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow is unfair to Whites. They presume that Whites should be entitled to enjoy the legacy of White privilege without question or guilt.

Frankly, Pittman’s order is as bizarre as it is cynical. To put it into perspective, this order is like ordering:

  • the Veterans Administration to serve all Americans, including those who have never served a day in any branch of the military;
  • the WNBA to recruit men; and
  • breast cancer awareness campaigns to provide equal information about prostate cancer.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Hand of Black judge holding gavel with image of White judge inset

An Orwellian take on racial equality

Pittman and his fellow MAGA crusaders are willfully overlooking the whole point of efforts to redress centuries of slavery and discrimination. Blacks, not Whites, have been victimized. 

Forget reparations; these MAGA crusaders are rolling back efforts to make any redress. This order effectively says, “Hey, let’s extend affirmative-action benefits to those who have always benefited from White privilege derived from enslaving and systematically discriminating against Blacks.”

Their perverse and metastasizing view is that Whites are entitled to enjoy the legacy of White privilege without question or guilt.

A case study in editorial gaslighting

I can’t overlook the image The Hill ran with this story. It features a Black judge’s hand wielding the gavel.

That is not just misleading; it’s a masterstroke in gaslighting. For starters, no Black judge in his right mind would ever issue such an order. But The Hill knew full well that Pittman is a White judge.

Therefore, visually ascribing this order to a Black judge betrays an insidious intent to deceive. Moreover, the audacity of cynicism this image conveys is intended to crush the hope of Black folks. The subliminal message is that we live in an America where all judges are like the venal, self-hating, self-abnegating Justice Clarence Thomas.

images chronicling Blacks from Jim Crow to the presidency.

The crusade to make America White again (MAWA)

This ruling isn’t a one-off. MAGA crusaders are whining and proselytizing from sea to shining sea about the unfairness of any program intended to redress the legacy of slavery and discrimination.

They are hell-bent on turning back the clock on racial progress. From eroding voting rights and attacking affirmative action to the vilification of Harvard’s first black president as a mere DEI hire, their mission is clear: advance leaders across all segments of society that reflect the lily White 1950s, not the diverse 2020s.

But little can be more Orwellian than ruling that support for minority businesses is a threat to equality (which does not exist and never has). And it wasn’t just the MBDA on trial; America’s commitment to racial equality was on trial too.

But keep hope alive. Because here is how Reuters reported on a similar case mere hours after Pittman issued his dystopian order:

A US appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by a conservative group opposed to diversity initiatives that challenged a Pfizer fellowship program designed to boost the pipeline of Black, Latino and Native American people in leadership positions.

In other words, if Pittman were a fair judge, he would have dismissed this MBDA case too.