Policy makers, advocates, and activist committed to equity & justice, should check out this policy brief by the @jointcenter.bsky.social, analyzing how the proposed extension of the 2017 TCJA would affect Black Communities ✊🏾 (2/2) jointcenter.org/wp-content/u...

Our nation has glaring inequities in poverty, income, and housing that reflect deeply unequal opportunities across lines of class, race, and gender. If we are serious about broadening opportunity and creating a country where everyone can thrive, we have to attack inequities.

We have seen it in who benefited and who didn’t from the New Deal, which was considered a monumental achievement focused on aid and recovery; and who benefitted and who didn’t from early GI bill investments.

This country has a long history of using policy to create racial and gender inequities. We see it in the generational impacts of practices like redlining, which cut off lending & investments & devalued homes in majority black communities…

These are just two examples of a number of programs the budget targets for cuts that help to ensure equal footing for those in both rural and urban areas, who live in communities that have been historically underserved and deprioritized.

Having access to affordable and fair housing is a basic need and right. It’s also linked to positive outcomes in health care, education, & career attainment. How does restricting access to fair and affordable housing for people and families help the country?

The budget would also cut the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program, which supports efforts to “remove barriers to affordable housing” and “to increase housing production” www.grants.gov/search-resul...

How does cutting efforts to improve children’s learning so they can thrive make our country or our democracy stronger? www.ed.gov/grants-and-p...

For instance, Trump’s Cuts to Woke Programs include preschool development grants, a birth-5 program that is designed to “improve states’ early childhood systems by building upon existing federal, state, and local” early learning programs.

Trump’s “Cuts to Woke Programs” include a list of investments like pre-school and efforts to broaden housing opportunity

Every member of Congress should push back against these false accusations since the objectives of these programs address the needs and interests of those in their states and districts who have long struggled to have the basics they need to thrive.

Using terms like “woke” & “DEI” as racist dog whistles to pit communities who are more alike than different against one another is beyond irresponsible, it's dangerous.