Ahead of Trump’s State of the Union, Black Communities Reflect on a Hard Year

ARLINGTON, Virginia — A year into the second Trump administration, Tony Brown is still sifting through wreckage, trying to make sense of how the swift gutting of the federal workforce detonated a life that he thought would be secure.

Brown had finally landed what he had spent more than a decade chasing: a federal job, this one as a data scientist at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. But then, in February 2025, after he had been in the role for only a couple of months, a letter arrived informing him that he was being cut. The layoff didn’t only cost him a paycheck — it also rattled his sense of worth.

“I’m in the private sector now, but I had to get a therapist even months after I got the new job,” Brown told Capital B. “[U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought] said that the goal was to traumatize the civil servants. I still feel that trauma.”

As the country prepares to tune into President Donald Trump’s primetime address to Congress on Tuesday, the overhaul of the federal workforce — a move that has hit Black communities particularly hard — is sure to weigh heavily on the minds of many Black Americans.

But it likely won’t be the only concern, given the fragile state of the country. Economic growth slumped at the end of 2025, as the Black unemployment rate jumped to 7.5%. And the recent deaths of U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents have reignited Black anxieties over law enforcement accountability.

Trump will walk into his address with 6 in 10 Americans disapproving of his performance. This figure lays bare the electoral challenge facing the Republican Party in the midterm elections this fall, though some Black conservatives continue to support Trump, unfazed by the racist video targeting Barack and Michelle Obama he recently shared online.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger — the first woman governor of the state — will deliver the Democratic Party’s response to Trump’s address. At least a dozen Democrats have said that they will boycott the president’s State of the Union speech.

As Trump’s second term grinds on, Brown, who intends on watching the address, clings to the hope that Trump and his advisers will listen to the concerns of all Americans — and especially those in the most vulnerable communities.

“They really need to understand that they’re not the administration of just a certain kind of American,” Brown said. “They’re making choices that affect everyone.”

Below is a look at three defining issues from the past year and their impact on the lives of Black Americans.

Job insecurity

What has happened? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month that U.S. employers added just 181,000 jobs last year — a sharp drop from the 1.46 million positions created in 2024. Similarly, the bureau reported in December that the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% toward the end of last year, which marked a four-year high.

This insecurity has extended to the federal government, where some 300,000 employees were fired or pushed out by the end of 2025. The administration has characterized this overhaul as an opportunity to improve government efficiency and weed out waste. Experts and former workers, however, warn that the cuts have resulted in the loss of expertise that’s essential to the functioning of government services.

What has been the impact on Black Americans? Black unemployment surged to 7.5% in December — the highest since 2021, the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Black women have been particularly burdened, with at least 300,000 reported to have left the labor force last year. And while Black Americans make up about 14% of the U.S. population, they account for roughly 18% of federal employees, meaning that the recent cuts have landed with disproportionate force in these communities.

This fragility keeps Brown on edge, even in his new role. The instability that he once associated with federal government work now feels inescapable.

“Between tariffs and all these other stressors on the economy, the private sector is just as vulnerable as the federal government,” he said. “Companies are still letting people go.”

Immigration crackdown

What has happened? Tensions in the Twin Cities spiraled in January, after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renée Good in Minneapolis, firing into her car as she tried to leave a standoff during a neighborhood monitoring effort. A few weeks later, federal agents opened fire again: Two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers killed Alex Pretti during an operation in Minneapolis. The administration has also targeted Black critics who documented the violence in Minneapolis.

What has been the impact on Black Americans? The administration’s immigration crackdown has reignited deep anxieties, especially among Black Americans and other vulnerable groups, about being unfairly singled out and targeted for deportation because of their background.

Michael Duruaku said that the administration’s hard-line rhetoric over the past year has forced blunt discussions among his family about what it means to be Black in the U.S. This tension has been felt sharply where he lives in a Minneapolis suburb.

“I have an 8-year-old son who is, I think, a little more aware of the world around him,” Duruaku, who’s Nigerian American, told Capital B in January. “He’s asking a lot of questions about how all this impacts us, about why Black people and migrants are being targeted.”

Medicaid restrictions

What has happened? Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law last summer. Among other things, it ties eligibility for Medicaid — a government health care program for low-income people — to strict work requirements or other qualifying activities.

What has been the impact on Black Americans? An estimated 20% of Medicaid enrollees are Black, though Black Americans are 14% of the U.S. population.

Health care experts have warned that imposing work requirements is tantamount to kicking people off the program.

“People are busy, and a monthly administrative burden is enormous,” Michael Linden, a former senior official with the Office of Management and Budget, told Capital B last year. “A lot of people end up not getting Medicaid because they miss a month of filing, or the forms are complicated, or they’re just trying to put food on the table.”

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