“It used to be that they would just outright say n—-r. They just don’t say that anymore,” Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott told theGrio.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has personally felt the wrath of the political tide against so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion. In March 2024, when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed—killing six and disrupting the nation’s supply chain–Mayor Scott was targeted by some Republicans and conservatives online who called him a “DEI hire.” The nickname suggested that Scott, elected by Baltimore voters in 2020 and reelected in 2024, only held his position because he is Black and was not qualified for the job.
“I felt like I was the first person they said was a DEI elected official,” the 40-year-old mayor told theGrio. Scott, who launched a “Definitely Earned It” campaign for Black History Month, now embraces the term.
“Yes, I am the DEI–the duly elected incumbent–mayor,” he said. “I have a degree in political science from one of the premier institutions in this country. I am overqualified for the position.” The youngest mayor ever elected in Baltimore added, “We’re also going to continue to show people and young people and young Black people that you can be yourself. You can like hip-hop, you can play sports, you can dress in a different way. You can wear your hair in a different way. None of that defines you.”
Ironically, Scott is now a plaintiff on behalf of the City of Baltimore in a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration for revoking federal funding for DEI programs. The Trump administration has also terminated thousands of federal employees who work in DEI-related jobs or offices.
“We have to make sure that we’re protecting those people. We know, for us, equity is the law of the land in Baltimore City, so everything that we do can be impacted,” said Mayor Scott. “It outright threatens to cut off all federal funding for any entity that has any type of diversity programs that are ill-defined in the executive order.”
Scott said the orders are “unconstitutional” and an “attack” on “people, places and things that they don’t like for whatever reasons they have.”
The federal judge presiding on the case led by Democracy Forward temporarily blocked key parts of Trump’s executive orders, arguing that they likely violate free speech rights under the First Amendment. The Trump administration has concentrated a lot of its efforts to dismantle DEI. President Trump went as far as to blame the deadly American Airlines and Black Hawk helicopter collision crash on Democrats’ DEI policies in hiring.
Before the recent political movement against DEI, Republicans took aim at buzzwords like “critical race theory” and “woke” and pointed to racial topics or concepts to justify banning Black history curriculums and books in schools.
“We’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it personally,” said Mayor Scott, who noted that this anti-DEI moment in America is no different than every other critical point throughout American history and the uphill battle for Black progress.
“Every time throughout the history of this country, you see Black people, in particular, gain some footing, there’s always concerted efforts to stop that,” he told theGrio. Scott recalled the burnings and destruction of economically thriving Black communities like the Greenwood district—otherwise known as “Black Wall Street”—in Tulsa, Okla. (1921) and Rosewood, Florida (1923), among others after slavery was abolished and post-Reconstruction.
“You’ll hear from people consistently saying Black people should start their own communities … Black people did that in all these communities, and what happened? White mobs came and burned those towns down,” said the Baltimore mayor. Scott pointed out the irony of the anti-DEI movement finding political rise after a “historic four years of investment into Black culture, Black organizations, Black schools [and] HBCUs,” referring to actions taken by the recently departed Biden-Harris administration.
“We have to understand that this isn’t anything new under the sun and that we’ve seen this time and time again,” said Scott. “It used to be that they would just outright say n—-r. They just don’t say that anymore … It was affirmative action. It was welfare queen. It was coon.”
Mayor Scott added, “This is folks who are afraid to realize that their way of thinking and their way of life doesn’t have to be threatened because people who don’t look like them and don’t think like them.”
As Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla, and SpaceX, leads the Trump administration’s policy agenda of rooting out DEI-related employees and making steep cuts to federal programs, Democrats have pointed out that many of the proposed cuts will devastate millions of Americans who rely on the government for critical health care, food and housing assistance and more.
Though Black and brown communities are often believed to be the main beneficiaries of such federal programs, Democrats point out that what is getting lost in the political discussion is that Trump voters themselves—low-income, poor and rural white voters—will also suffer.
Reflecting on that and the racial tensions instigated by today’s DEI debate, Scott recalled a quote from former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was “trying to uplift all in the war on poverty.”
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best-colored man, he won’t notice you picking his pocket. Hell, give him someone to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you,” said President Johnson.
“Those words have never rang more true than they do today,” said Mayor Scott. He said of Republicans and billionaires like Musk, “These folks don’t care about working people. They don’t care about poor people, whether they are Black and living in the city or they’re a poor person living in middle rural America.”
Scott said this is a moment not just for Democrats but all Americans to be “unafraid to call these things out for what they are”—even if it makes others uncomfortable. He explained, “You’re going to have to talk about sexism, you have to talk about racism, you’re going to have to talk about greed, you’re going to have to talk about all of those things in order for this country to actually live up to the things that we say.”
The mayor added, “Everyone can have the American dream because, for far too many people throughout the history of this country, the dreams quickly turn into nightmares.”
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