On Sunday, February 12th, Democratic Strategist Jamal Simmons stated that President Trump’s cabinet appointments were “starting to make it seem a little bit like American first is really white America first.” He made the statement in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

Here is his statement,

“The thing that is so concerning to me is that the president is undermining all the American institutions. He’s going after the press; he’s going after the judiciary, things we’re talking about. It’s starting to make it seem a little bit also like America first is really white America first. Because if you look at what he’s doing, he’s going after immigrants. Even in the administration—the reason we know who Colin Powell and Condi Rice are is because Republican presidents appointed them to significant jobs.”

Simmons believes that working to minimize illegal immigration is racist. The left, predictably, continues to trot out the same hackneyed arguments that have been in the playbook for decades. The quandary is that these allegations have become old and tired.

This fact might be difficult for people like Mr. Simmons to understand, but black people do not need a white president to become well known. Colin Powell was a dominant figure long before President Bush appointed him to his cabinet. Condoleeza Rice was successful in her own right before her selection to President Bush’s cabinet. The notion that black officials need a white president to make them famous is itself insulting and racist.

Why is the emphasis on the diversity of President Trump’s cabinet so important? Under a black president with a more diverse cabinet, minorities have not fared much better. The reality is that minorities do have opportunities to succeed. There are a great many “people of color” who have achieved success in this country regardless of their public status. President Trump’s cabinet is not going to do anything to change that.

Simmons also said,

This president doesn’t have African-Americans, Latinos, in unusual jobs in his cabinet,” Simmons continued. “This is something that I think we all have to worry about. The United States of America has been moving in a direction for about 30 or 40 years, where everybody gets to participate. We have been teaching our children that. You see Democrats, progressives, but also independents on the streets because this president is moving us away from that direction.

The left does not want to admit this, but black people and other minorities can succeed in the United States. It is true that the black community is dealing with poverty, high crime rates, and low-quality education. However, these issues were present long before Trump ever decided to run for office.

Instead of bemoaning the lack of diversity in the president’s cabinet, we need to focus on pushing for policies that actually benefit minorities, rather than the leftist programs that are destroying our inner cities. Rather than believing that prejudice is our greatest obstacle, we need to repudiate the victim mentality. It is the only way we will move forward.