MAGA’s Discrimination Makeover

An exposition of how MAGA is transforming the way Americans understand discrimination, as seen through the eyes of an imagined knowledgeable MAGA operative.

It’s so good that Dumocrats think we are incompetent and stupid. Not that it’s good to be called stupid but it brings their guard down so they don’t notice how smart and treacherous we can be.  Take discrimination as an example.  We have effected a well-thought-out revolution in this area.  Indeed, our whole discrimination plan was already methodically laid out by the Heritage Society’s Project 2025 in advance of Trump’s second term.  Trump wisely denied knowing anything about that document before the election, but right after his inauguration in 2025 he set it all in motion.  Easy peasy.

 It used to be that people thought discrimination had to do with not treating minorities well or fairly.  Let’s face it—most people thought of blacks when they thought of discrimination.  How not?  A race subject to a long history of slavery and then segregation—although we at MAGA only want to talk about those things as a distant blip on our unblemished history as a Christian nation.  And we are working hard to root out the words of the haters of America, eliminating mention of past racial injustices from government websites, museums, national parks, and schools. 

However, because of our very smartness we have completely reversed what most people think of discrimination.  How?  To begin with, we have gotten them to think of discrimination in terms of something that thwarts meritocracy.  It’s easy to see why this was a smart move. After all, what is more American than to reward people on the basis of what they deserve or merit.  Dumocrats who believe in meritocracy can argue that meritocracy only works if the playing field is level; but really, who is going to credit that argument? Not the majority of Americans who don’t have time for such subtleties.

And here’s the kicker.  Our smartness can be seen in convincing people that the discrimination that does exist is not directed against underrepresented minorities but against whites.  The clever slogan for this is reverse discrimination. It works like this.  If an underrepresented group is receiving any special support, any help at all, that qualifies as reverse discrimination and an offense against meritocracy and fairness. 

Whereas Dumocrats in the past were considered the lead proponents of civil rights, MAGA has taken over that role.  We have cleverly co-opted the words of Martin Luther King—let no one be judged by the color of their skin. 

On the other hand, Dumocrats are still stuck talking about differences in skin color; but meritocracy is color blind, as so succinctly stated by Rep. Brendan Gill,

It’s like we used a magic wand. Now there are no racial minority problems that need fixing in this country unless there is some legally provable action by someone who keeps someone else from getting what he or she deserves because of their racial minority identity.  And that requires legal proof that the action in question was direct and intentional—no easy task that.  And we have the backing of the Supreme Court on this too.  Ah, the taste of victory is so sweet.

While we upended how discrimination is thought of in this country, we definitely didn’t stop there.  We had to make sure our views were enforced.  That started with an attack on the common understanding of civil rights laws.   In their origin, federal civil rights enforcement recognized that policies could be legally discriminatory if they unintentionally caused unequal outcomes or had disparate impact on protected groups.

We got rid of that understanding by cleverly declaring it unlawful.  In line with Executive Order 14281, the Dept. of Justice issued an official opinion declaring the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) long-standing disparate-impact guidelines unconstitutional. The administration argues that holding employers liable for unequal statistical outcomes forces them to engage in racial engineering.  Although this order does not have the force of law as determined by the Supreme Court, it is good enough because the government will act as if it is law.  And so with one executive order, civil rights laws no longer officially protect groups in the way that they were meant to be protected.

It’s even now prohibited to collect demographic data that might prove systemic or outcome-based bias.  The administration has moved to eliminate a 60-year old requirement that employers furnish workforce demographic data to the EEOC. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has banned federal agencies from collecting demographic statistics such as underrepresentation in their recruitment or hiring efforts.

So now the official position for Americans to follow is that there is no longer cause for concern if blacks are not represented or less represented in universities or corporate management, or if there are disparities in outcomes for blacks in health, employment, wages, or wealth.  Blacks on average just happen not to place high on the meritocracy scale, whether it’s their own fault, coincidence, or an act of God.  The same goes for other “protected” groups. Empathy and female sentimentality just get in the way of a just society based on meritocracy.

And this position is chiefly enforced by our constant attacks and threats against Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) programs, which have been the chief cause of reverse discrimination.  The effect has been that universities, employers, organizations, and government agencies and offices live in dread of being called out for illegally providing protected minority groups with any assistance whatsoever.  Trump and his administration have been particularly aggressive in threatening colleges with legal action.  Many targets capitulate in the face of such attacks.  DEI programs that have not voluntarily shut down are trying to figure out how they can operate within the administration’s legal guidelines.  Good luck with that.

All of these radical changes have occurred in the first 18 months of Trump’s administration.  How impressive is that!  Certainly not likely to have been engineered by stupid or  incompetent people.  Dumocratic perspectives have been routed. 

One reason for such success is the administrator’s constant focus on effecting these changes.  As the Washington Post observed,

The results are visible to anyone who cares to look.  Virtually the only discrimination cases of any legal consequence are now solely for reverse discrimination against whites and for antisemitism. Efforts in regard to the latter were thought to have political advantages for MAGA. 

Victory has been almost total. Enforcement of MAGA goals of meritocracy and the reversing of benefits unfairly received by protected minorities in the past have had consequences that you would think would face major political and media backlash.  Consider:

• Only one black serves in Trump’s cabinet or in a cabinet-level position, the lowest representation in over 30 years.
• His Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fired the nation’s top military leader, the chair of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, who is black. Hegseth had previously questioned whether Brown earned his position based on race rather than merit. He has directly blocked the promotions of at least four black officers to one-star general and admiral ranks in 2026. Nearly 60 percent of the senior officers Hegseth has fired are female or black (although women and minorities currently account for fewer than 20 percent of all generals and admirals).   (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/us/politics/hegseth-navy-promotion-list.html). 
• The administration has also fired blacks who held the following notable positions: Librarian of Congress, Director of Defense Health, Vice-Chair of the National Safety Board, Chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, National Labor Relations Board member, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission member.
• Government websites have been scrubbed of the profiles or educational materials honoring notable Black military heroes and civil rights figures like Jackie Robinson (14 of 18 articles removed);  Sergeant William Carney, first black American Medal of Honor Recipient; General Colon Powell, first black chairman  of Joint Chief of Staff (profile later restored after public outcry); Medgar Evers, Army veteran and civil rights organizer; digital Arlington Cemetery walking tours of black Civil War soldiers and notable Reconstruction figures.

None of this has drawn sustained cries of protest, as it probably would have in the past. Now there’s barely a mumble.  MAGA has political and media immunity. Perhaps more than anything, that speaks to its success. Should Dumocrats speak out in protest, it is easy to beat them down with the refrain that here they go again with their betrayal of meritocracy and obsessive attachment to serving specific identity groups, and not the country as a whole.  They are living in the past.  We, however, are busy making America great again.