By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), through the Center for Policy Analysis and Research (CPAR), recently released a Project 2025 fact sheet for Black voters ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.
Photo Credit: Unsplash / René DeAnda
Project 2025 is an extensive plan crafted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to provide the next conservative president with the resources and policies needed to vastly restructure the federal government.
“This extreme proposal is designed to roll back progress, unravel justice, equality and fairness, and erode the most foundational ideals of our democracy,” said Janai Nelson, president of the Legal Defense Fund, in a statement. “These disturbing and egregious measures include aims to severely diminish Black political power, threaten and subjugate Black communities within the criminal legal system and undermine every person’s right to quality education and reproductive health care.”
“More than ever, it is paramount to the future of our multiracial, multiethnic democracy to advance an affirmative vision of justice and equality that serves everyone,” Nelson continued.
CBCF was founded in 1976 as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research and educational institute.” Their fact sheet outlines how proposed policies could impact criminal justice, the economy and more, potentially widening educational gaps and worsening economic inequalities for Black Americans.
According to the CBCF, when it comes to civil rights, “Project 2025 seeks to dismantle the civil rights divisions of the Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which investigate workplace and housing discrimination.”
“It would also prevent the Department of Justice from investigating voter suppression and election subversion, which would remove a crucial layer of oversight that safeguards every American’s right to vote,” reads the report. In addition, if implemented, “Project 2025 seeks to outlaw diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in federal agencies and ban what it calls ‘anti-White indoctrination,’ including critical race theory and affirmative action.”
“If successful, these changes would strip away career and educational opportunities for people of color, further reducing resources for Black communities that have long faced systemic barriers,” warns the organization.
When it comes to criminal justice, CBCF leadership warns that “while most criminal justice reforms currently occur at the state and local levels, Project 2025 advocates for a larger federal role in law enforcement, with potential negative implications for Black communities.”
“Motivated by a mandate to ‘restore law and order,’ Project 2025 targets progressive prosecutors and empowers the federal government to bring charges against individuals it believes local jurisdictions have wrongfully allowed to evade responsibility for their conduct,” reads the report. “The plan also includes increasing police funding and reducing support for community-based alternatives, such as mental health responders. These programs, which dispatch unarmed responders to address mental health crises and homelessness, have been successful in diffusing police-citizen conflicts in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.”
Aside from reducing resources that have been proven to help the community, “Project 2025 calls for the increased use of the death penalty and stricter federal sentences for drug possession,” according to information released by the CBCF. “These directives would empower the federal government to enforce inequitable laws that contribute to the overrepresentation of Black citizens in the criminal legal system.”
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