Before Donald Trump’s inauguration, advocates were already worried about how aid would be distributed to Los Angeles wildfire victims. Recovery money has long favored the white and wealthy.

On Monday, one of Trump’s first moves could make the problem worse. One of his flurry of executive orders eliminated the “equity action plans” government agencies had created as a first step toward reversing the long-term inequities in welfare distribution.

Among those agencies was a top purveyor of disaster assistance: the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Advocates worry that the recent moves could slow progress toward correcting decades of uneven aid distribution.

“You could throw a pin to any state on the map and see a disaster where there was an inequitable distribution of resources,” said Noah Patton, the disaster recovery manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The message right now to FEMA personnel is there’s nothing wrong continuing with business as usual.”

The wildfires that ripped through Los Angeles destroyed the houses of the rich and famous, but also swaths of the historic Black community of Altadena.

With Republicans in Congress threatening to attach conditions to aid for California, getting aid could become trickier for everyone — but history has shown that the white and well-connected are better at working the system.

Trump’s new order will help maintain that unequal status quo.

Trump’s Order

One of Trump’s first moves on Inauguration Day was to issue an executive order aimed at “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” in the words of the White House, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

For months on the campaign trail, Trump took aim at diversity programs as a supposed hot bed of “anti-white” racism. Much of the discourse centered on the U.S. military, especially after Trump’s selection of DEI critic Pete Hegseth to........

© The Intercept