On the first day of Black History Month, Queen Bey blessed us with the incredible announcement that she's pregnant — with twins.
Naturally, people went absolutely nuts. But one tweet really stood out: It used Beyoncé's pregnancy announcement to highlight the major problems with President Trump's cabinet (in fewer than 140 characters of course).
"Sad that there are more Black people in Beyoncé right now, than in Trump's entire cabinet team," Twitter user Gráinne Maguire posted.
Sad that there are more black people in Beyoncé right now, than in Trumps entire cabinet team.
— Gráinne Maguire (@GrainneMaguire) February 1, 2017
She's not wrong, and it's pretty fucking sad.
Trump's cabinet officials are the least diverse group since the Reagan administration. Yeah, that's right. A presidential cabinet has not been so male and so white in almost three decades (and that includes 12 years under Republican presidents).
Right now, women make up a meek 17% of Trump's cabinet. Racially and ethnically, it's no better: Dr. Ben Carson is the only Black man in the cabinet, and no Latinos were tapped for a position. The latter hasn't happened in 28 years.
And it's a pity when you consider it's 2017, and the two previous administrations were praised for their diverse selection of cabinet members. During President George W. Bush's first term, 45% of the cabinet was composed of women or nonwhite men. And during President Barack Obama's first term, that figure increased to 64%.
And maybe your thinking aligns with that of press secretary Sean Spicer, who argued that Trump should focus on hiring the best people for the job instead of filling some diversity quotas.
"The number-one thing that I think Americans should focus on is, 'Is he hiring the best and the brightest? Is he hiring people that are committed to enacting real change?'" he said in mid-January.
But it's a problem the president's selections, including Rex Tillerson and Betsy DeVos, have zero experience in government. Were there really the best selections? And we're not just talking about race, ethnicity, and gender. This cabinet is full of people who are straight, cisgender, able-bodied, Christian, and wealthy. Are they really representative of all the people living in America? Hell no. By now, we should be able to recognize that offering a seat at the table to people with diverse backgrounds and life experiences is crucial if we want to tackle many complex social and economic issues. As long as we have white, straight, wealthy men at the top, things will not get better for women, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, or low-income Americans. The knowledge that there are more Black people inside of Beyoncé than at the highest levels of the U.S.government is one of the many reasons it feels like this administration is stuck in another era. And well, that's a damn shame.
But it's a problem the president's selections, including Rex Tillerson and Betsy DeVos, have zero experience in government. Were there really the best selections? And we're not just talking about race, ethnicity, and gender. This cabinet is full of people who are straight, cisgender, able-bodied, Christian, and wealthy. Are they really representative of all the people living in America? Hell no. By now, we should be able to recognize that offering a seat at the table to people with diverse backgrounds and life experiences is crucial if we want to tackle many complex social and economic issues. As long as we have white, straight, wealthy men at the top, things will not get better for women, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, or low-income Americans. The knowledge that there are more Black people inside of Beyoncé than at the highest levels of the U.S.government is one of the many reasons it feels like this administration is stuck in another era. And well, that's a damn shame.