Simone Biles celebrated her “black job” after winning the all-around gold medal x2 at the Paris Olympics. “I love my black job,” the all time most decorated female Olympic gymnast wrote on X. Ricky Davila adds,“Simone Biles is the Greatest of All time (GOAT), winning Gold medals and dominating gymnastics is her black job.”

Donald Trump coined the phrase on June 27 when he declared, “undocumented immigrants crossing over the southern border are taking Black jobs now,” and altogether doubled down at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. “There are a lot of Black journalists in this room, and coming from the border are millions of people who are taking Black jobs.”

Rachel Scott of ABC News inquires, “What is a Black job?”

Trump replies. “A Black job is anyone who has a job.”

And there, dear reader, is sadly where our discussion begins.

DEI

A number of Trump’s prominent supporters have been recently attacking Kamala Harris' candidacy as a “DEI hire,” suggesting the presumptive Democratic nominee is merely a token Black candidate. After a quick back and forth on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Trump challenged Harris’ race by directly questioning his rival’s racial identity.

I've known her a long time, indirectly, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Harris' identity as a Black woman has long been in the spotlight as the child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. An alumnus of the historically Black Howard University, she has referred to herself as a “daughter of the Civil Rights Movement” having a stroller view of marches against racial injustice she attended with her parents.

“I was born Black and I will die Black," says Harris. The GOAT put it like this. “I’m just Simone Biles from Spring Texas that loves to flip.”

Diversity-in-Training

Diversity refers to the presence of variety within the organization. It encompasses gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture, class, religion, even opinion. But does diversifying a dominant sex, race or culture come at the cost of fair competition?

In recent years, DEI efforts and policies have generated criticism. Particularly, how does diversity enrollment and hiring effect academic freedom or standards and practices. Does affirmative action discriminate in favor of racial minorities in admissions, hiring, tenure, contracting, financial aid and competition?

That discussion began with President John F. Kennedy in ’61 with an Executive Order instructing government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated fairly during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” The Civil Rights Act of 1964 drafted the matter into law.

By the turn of the century, corporations were spending $8 billion annually on diversity training, and Civil Rights, Black Lives Matter and MeToo Movements have bolstered the global diversity and inclusion market to $7.5 billion today. According to the D&I Industry, diversity will be a global $17 billion dollar industry by 2027, giving historically marginalized groups a quick pass to the front of the line.

Color of Law

While diversity connotes variety, equity refers to concepts of fairness and justice, e.g., compensation and substantive equality. In particular, it considers societal disparities, allocates resources, and proffers decision making authority to groups that have historically been disadvantaged. In equity training people are not treated equally. They’re treated equally according to their circumstances. Pushing the boat out:

In 2024, the greatest share of players by ethnic group in the National Football League (NFL) were Black athletes, and constituted the majority of players, according to the NFL. Roughly 40 million Blacks represent just 12% of the U.S. population, though somehow dominate the wealthiest professional sports league in the world by revenue.

Today, U.S. colleges and universities enroll nearly 20 million students but only 3 million are Black. They’ll go on to earn about 15% less than their White and Asian counterparts, according to the Economic Policy Institute. While DEI frameworks tout progress with 'representation' over the past 60 years, a scant 11% of U.S. congressional members today self-identify as Black.

Some math: There are 333 million people in the United States, and only 47 million are Black. Black athletes dominate 70% of the NFL players, and 81% of the NBA players. Yet nearly all team ownership and management are White, including the coaches at the World Champions Centre. Minorities, by definition, founding father Samuel Adams throws his hat in the ring:

It doesn't take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom.

So whether your ancestors came from Brown’s Town, or settle in the City of Spring, each and all hearken unto this deferred dream:

In force for a generation, equal opportunity laws have brought Blacks in large numbers into corporate managerial ranks, and further into an increasingly fair competition with America's ruling class.