by WorldTribune Staff, September 8, 2025 Real World News
Asheville in North Carolina is about to spend $2.9 million in taxpayer funds on a racial reparations program that the Trump Justice Department says likely violates federal civil rights laws.
The assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division issued a warning to Buncombe County in a Sept. 4 letter that was obtained by the Asheville Watchdog.
“The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has recently become aware of concerning recommendations presented to you by the Asheville-Buncombe County Community Reparations Commission,” the letter states.
“After our initial review, we are deeply concerned that many of the recommendations, if implemented, would violate federal civil rights laws,” the letter adds.
Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, is 81 percent white according to U.S. Census Bureau data and heavily liberal, giving 61 percent of its votes to Democrat candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
The county established a task force in 2022 that was mandated to consider ways to compensate black residents whose families had supposedly suffered from systemic racism across generations.
In the letter to the county, the Justice Department says it “will be closely monitoring your actions.”
“To the extent these recommendations are formally adopted, you are now on notice that my office stands ready to investigate and enforce violations of federal civil rights laws to the fullest extent possible,” the letter says.
“We have a serious problem here in Asheville NC,” writer Matt Van Swol noted. “I took a deep dive into the 170 page report, and what I found is terrifying. Buckle up, because you’re not gonna believe this.”
What Van Swol found in the reparations report includes:
• A “race-targeted housing policy” which explicitly calls to “sustain and expand rates of Black homeownership” with “targeted funding” exclusively for the black populations over three years.
“Literally a program that allocate benefits by race-ALONE! A clear violation of the 14th amendment, in writing,” Van Swol noted. “If you’re a poor white, latino, asian… or any other race, but black… Tough luck. You don’t get the money.”
• A free transportation service exclusively for “expectant Black mothers.”
• A “Black Chamber of Commerce” to apparently fix the problem of just 14% of total Community Development Block Grants going to black-led non-profits. Less than 10% of the population of Asheville is black.
“Could you imagine calling for the establishment of a “White Chamber of Commerce”? No, you couldn’t. Furthermore, government entities will support them through procurement and grant funding,” Van Swol noted.
• City of Asheville managers must take a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training course.
• All police officers and candidates to become police officers in Buncombe County must take implicit bias awareness training.
• All school funding must be linked to “racial equity metrics.”
“Finally, they just say the quiet part out loud,” Van Swol wrote. “A shocking admission that all they really want, is more control. By having more control over funding, the Buncombe County government can implement policies…. to promote equity. There it is. The truth.”
Asheville, NC set to begin taxpayer-funded reparations program; Justice Department says its illegal added by Editor Two on
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