Racial justice advocates descended on Capitol Hill to slam the Trump administration’s policies that they say are an “attack on the Black economy,” as Black Americans see rising unemployment and disproportionate impacts of America’s affordability crisis.
“The state of the Black economy is under attack,” said U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who hosted a press conference on Wednesday with coalition groups, including the NAACP, Color of Change, the National Urban League, and The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
“We are plagued by an economic crisis that is a direct result of Trump’s reckless financial policies that are precisely targeting Black communities who already carry the weight of systemic economic harm and now suffer from the daily impact of this affordability crisis felt from grocery stores to the housing market to the gas pump,” said Pressley.
The Wednesday press conference, where participants held up signs that read “Stop Silenceing Black Voices” and “Cut Costs. Not Jobs,” came as Black Americans are reeling from a 7.3% Black unemployment rate, a persistent racial wealth gap, and a myriad of economic barriers for Black workers and Black-owned businesses.
Critics of President Donald Trump say his historic cuts to the federal workforce, an anti-DEI agenda, and rollbacks of civil rights enforcement are directly and deliberately harming the Black economy.
“Black families across this country are being told to believe in an economy they cannot feel,” said Nadine Smith, president and CEO of Color of Change.
“There are a few things you cannot lie to Black people about. You cannot lie to us about money. You cannot lie to us about our grocery bills. You cannot lie to us about rent, about layoffs,” said Smith. “You cannot tell us the economy is strong when our families are deciding between medicine, food, gas, and keeping the lights on. The numbers confirm what we are already experiencing.”
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, highlighted a report by his organization that warns of signs of a Black recession.
“In this report, we noted the attacks on programs, departments, and practices that were designed to ensure equal opportunity for Blacks in the federal workforce and in the private sector. We noted that by the end of 2025, Black unemployment had risen to 7.5% compared to the national unemployment rate of 4.4% and white unemployment at 3.8%,” said Asante-Muhammad. “At the same time, we are all facing a crisis of rising costs caused by military aggression abroad, tariff instability, reduced federal support, and growing uncertainty in the economy.”
He also called out Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which he notes, “expands tax advantages that disproportionately benefit the wealthy while simultaneously reducing investments in programs that working families rely upon, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance.”
Asante-Muhammad added, “Policy choices created these outcomes; different policy choices can change them. And we call for a change of policy that can finally bridge the inequalities of the past and create a future prosperity for all.”
When asked what economic policies should be prioritized to address the racial disparities in the U.S. economy, should Democrats win back control in Washington, Rep. Pressley told theGrio she would like to see things like “massive investments” in building affordable housing and the restoration of student debt cancellation and forgiveness, which is a “racial justice issue.”
“It would mean restoring agencies and grants that have been dismantled and defunded that specifically support Black-owned businesses. It would mean addressing the algorithm biases. It would mean a restoration of all the federal jobs that Black workers were denied,” the congresswoman told theGrio.
Referring to Trump’s infamous 2024 campaign claim that immigrants were taking “Black jobs,” Pressley asserted, “Haitian migrants were never after your Black job. It was always Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and they have taken…a sledgehammer to the infrastructure of our federal workforce.”
The Massachusetts lawmaker said that the Trump DOJ’s attempts to prosecute the Southern Poverty Law Center for its clandestine work to infiltrate and expose white supremacist groups, and the current voting rights battle that is targeting majority-Black districts, are also clear attacks on Black infrastructure.
“They are coming for the Black family, they’re coming from the Black worker…for the black voter,” she said. “This has been a systemic, coordinated, unrelenting attack. And I’m calling on every person of conscience, Independent, Republican, and Democrat, to give a damn — and especially my own party when Black people are the base of this party — to speak stridently and unapologetically to our issues.”
