What America Is Saying to Black Americans Today — A Clearer, Harder Message

No one can fully inhabit another person's life — to feel their joys, pride, and the burdens of their history. I cannot claim to know what it's like to be Native American, nor can someone in Indonesia fully grasp the generational wounds of an immigrant in the United States. Still, I've been reflecting on what it feels like to be Black in America today.

The experience has never been easy: forced abduction from Africa, centuries of chattel slavery, the Jim Crow era after Reconstruction, mass incarceration, constrained social mobility, persistent racial bias, and recurring episodes of police violence. Progress — driven by the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act, and expanded access to education and economic opportunity — has been real. Yet advances have often been followed by retrenchments that threaten to erase gains.

Visible Signs of Retrenchment

It is hard to say whether racism is increasing, or whether social media simply makes stark displays of hatred feel more commonplace. One vivid example: on July 5 this year, hundreds from the white nationalist group Patriot Front marched in Washington, D.C., during the nation's 250th-anniversary events. Photographs showed masked participants — an eerie echo of Ku Klux Klan imagery — and one image in particular lingered: a lone Black woman on public transit surrounded by masked marchers. Her face suggested less panic than weary resolve, anger, and a hard-won belief that justice might ultimately prevail.

On Free Speech and Consequence. Since the legal fight over a planned Nazi march in Skokie, courts have afforded broad First Amendment protections even to abhorrent views. People are entitled to speech, however vile, but speech should not be freed from consequence. The ease with which racists now organize openly suggests they expect little meaningful pushback.

Policy Signals That Matter

The Voting Rights Act: In April, the Supreme Court substantially narrowed when Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can require majority-minority districts. The Louisiana ruling found a second majority-Black district unnecessary under the statute and held limits on race-based districting. Dissenting justices warned the decision will make it harder to challenge maps that dilute Black voting power.

Confederate Monuments: Many Confederate statues — erected largely during the early 20th-century Lost Cause revival — remain in place, continuing to symbolize a sanitized celebration of those who fought to preserve slavery and rebel against the United States.

Military Base Names: Several Army bases renamed in 2023 after a congressional directive have since had their familiar names restored by the administration. While some official namesakes are reportedly different people with the same surnames, reinstating the old names sends a strong cultural signal about which histories we choose to honor.

Changes in Military Leadership: Under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an unusually high number of senior officers have been removed from promotion lists or dismissed without fully detailed public explanations. In one case, nine names were taken off a 31-candidate list for promotion to one-star admiral — including all three women on that list and at least two Black men. The Pentagon says promotions are merit-based but has not publicly explained each decision. Simultaneously, anti-DEI reviews temporarily scrubbed online tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, and other minority service members; some pages were restored, but others remained unavailable.

Backlash Against DEI: There has been a broad push to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across government, academia, the media, and corporate America. Whether one believes the pendulum once swung too far toward equality of outcome, DEI initiatives remain important to inclusion and civic participation. The current sweep against them harms policy and inflames public hostility.

Erasing Hard History: Efforts to minimize slavery’s brutality are increasingly visible. For example, the National Park Service removed explanatory panels at the President's House site in Philadelphia that told the stories of nine people enslaved by George Washington. Such moves risk whitewashing slavery and diminishing the recorded contributions of Black Americans.

Racialized Narratives of Fraud: Fraud cases — including the large Feeding Our Future scandal in Minnesota — deserve investigation and prosecution. But focusing on the ancestry of many participants while downplaying that the nonprofit’s founder was white feeds a narrative that criminalizes whole communities rather than individuals. At the same time, high-profile clemencies for some white-collar offenders can appear inconsistent.

Mass Incarceration: The United States still imprisons people at one of the world’s highest rates. Black Americans are incarcerated at roughly 5.5 times the rate of white Americans and make up nearly half of those serving life or virtual-life sentences. The consequences for families and communities are devastating.

Refugee Policy: The administration set a historically low annual refugee ceiling of 7,500 and has signaled many of those slots will go to white South Africans (Afrikaners). At a moment when refugee admissions from Haiti and Somalia have been sharply constrained, this decision conveys a painful message about perceived preferences in who is eligible for sanctuary.

Why This Matters

These decisions and cultural signals vary in origin and intent, but taken together they create a pattern: the diminishing of Black history, rights, and contributions in public life. That pattern matters not only to Black Americans but to the health and cohesion of the republic.

We should neither conflate every setback nor ignore the cumulative effect of these policy and cultural shifts. Naming what is happening is a first step; the next steps must be accountability, honest historical remembrance, and a renewed commitment to equitable civic inclusion.

— Glenn

Glenn Sonnenberg writes the column Thinking Things Through. He leads a real estate investment firm, serves on nonprofit boards, and holds a J.D. from the University of Southern California. Follow him on Substack.