Published: Dec. 24, 2025, 5:46 a.m.
“So we have relegated DEI to the dustbin of history, which is exactly where it belongs. In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”
You might imagine this quote belonging to a podcaster. Or perhaps a social media influencer. Or maybe even a pundit on Fox News.
You would be wrong. This quote does not belong to someone on the outside of the political sphere looking in. This quote belongs to the person next in line for the office of President of the United States.
Whenever I write a column discussing race, I inevitably receive an email wherein a reader characterizes my writing as evidence of “victim mentality.” The specific language used varies somewhat, but the general theme is that I (and Black people generally) should stop blaming white people for our problems. Whatever problems Black people face are the result of our own decisions. We would be “so much further along” as a race if we accepted this fundamental truth.
When I heard Vice President JD Vance’s remarks about race, something occurred to me. The media generally have framed the Republican Party under President Donald Trump as a party animated by grievance. Republican voters, particularly the base, have suffered wrongs and selected Trump as the one to right them, i.e., “Make America Great Again.”
But perhaps this framing isn’t quite right. True, grievance is a storyline that plays well. But there is a larger context within which that story is told. One that perhaps explains why the storyline plays so well. While animated by grievance, the base is also consumed by a victim mentality.
Before I go further, let me first discuss what I mean when using the term “victim mentality.” The term refers to the [Begin Ital] unreasonable [End Ital] belief that you’re always a victim, in almost all interactions and situations. Said another way, a victim mentality is where you often feel like a victim, [Begin Ital] even when the evidence says otherwise [End Ital]. The italics are for emphasis.
JD Vance’s comments reflect an unreasonable belief that white people are the victim when it comes to race. Why is that belief unreasonable? Well, because the evidence says otherwise.
The hands on the levers of power in the United States are white. Consider political power. Forty-four of the 45 men who have served as the President of the United States were white. The most racially and ethnically diverse U.S. Congress on record, our current one, is 74% white. Of the top staffers to this Congress, 79.9% are also white. The U.S. population is 57.5% white.
Consider industrial power. A 2023 survey of Fortune 500 companies conducted by the Diversity Research Institute found that 79.5% of company executives were white. Among members of company boards of directors,76.4% were white. Note that this survey was conducted while Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was “all the rage” within corporate America. The time when, per JD Vance, white people were apologizing for being white.
Now, perhaps you view the power exerted in those arenas as too remote. You don’t quite see or feel how power used in those places affects you. Let’s bring things a bit closer to home.
Consider professions that most Americans think highly of and that also have an outsized impact on their daily lives. Professions like medicine, law, and education. How white are these esteemed professions? Among physicians, 63.9% are white. Seventy-eight percent of lawyers are white. Eighty percent of public school elementary and secondary teachers are white.
The evidence is clear: In America, the person who holds the most powerful political office, the one who writes the supreme laws of the land, the one who decides winners and losers in entire business industries, the one who treats your sickness, the one who represents you in court (and the one who decides judgment), and the one who teaches your children are all more likely than not to be white.
How, then, can someone who is white possess a reasonable belief that he or she is the victim when it comes to race? The answer is simple. That person can’t.
This is not to say that no white person has ever been affected by their race. If we are truthful in discussing how creating racial diversity looks, it looks like considering race. One cannot achieve racial diversity (or remedy racial discrimination) without considering it. This means that, if I have a qualified white person and a qualified person of color, I may decide to choose the person of color to meet those goals.
But to that person who read that last paragraph and thought, “Yes, that happened to me,” or “That is the racial discrimination we are talking about,” I say to you this: Stop being a victim. There is no such thing as systemic racism.
Take some personal responsibility. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. No one took your job. You’re not entitled to it.
It’s not always about race. Maybe you just weren’t good enough. Maybe you didn’t work hard enough. Maybe you weren’t smart enough. Did you think of that?
Eric Foster, a community member of the editorial board, is a columnist for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. He is a lawyer in private practice and writes from Atlanta. The views expressed are his own.
To reach Eric Foster: ericfosterpd@gmail.com
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