Trump blasts civil rights protections and says it resulted in white people being treated ‘very badly’
President Donald Trump said that landmark civil rights protections ushered in during the 1960s have resulted in white people being treated “very badly.”
The president was interviewed by The New York Times last week and was asked whether he believed civil rights protections that began in the 1960s with the passage of the Civil Rights Act “resulted ultimately in the discrimination against white men.”
“Well, I think that a lot of people were very badly treated,” Trump replied. “White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university or a college.”
“So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases,” the president said.
Trump added that the protections “accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people,” and claimed that “people that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job.”
“It was a reverse discrimination,” he said.
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, the country’s oldest civil rights organization, blasted Trump’s comments in a statement to The Times.
Johnson said there was “no evidence that white men were discriminated against as a result of the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act, and efforts to rectify the long history of this country denying access to people based on race in every measurable category.”
Trump’s remarks follow his administration’s rapid dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion offices and as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission urged white men to come forward if they believe they have experienced discrimination at work.
The agency, established under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, enforces federal anti-discrimination laws in hiring and in the workplace, where employers are prohibited from discriminating against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, religion, sex, skin color, national origin, age, disability or genetic information.
Last month the agency’s acting chair, Andrea Lucas, posted a video on social media asking: “Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex?”
Lucas — a prominent critic of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — said white men “may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws.”
“Contact EEOC as soon as possible,” she said in the video. “EEOC is identifying, attacking and eliminating all forms of race and sex discrimination, including against white male applicants and employees.”
Vice President JD Vance held a similar position on the matter in December, when he shared a link to an essay that claimed diversity initiatives had deprived white men of opportunities.
