The Trump White House's Intern Program Is Once Again Very, Very White
The White House is yet again facing fierce criticism over the lack of diversity of the participants in its intern program.
A photograph released Friday shows President Donald Trump posing with the spring intake, who are overwhelmingly white:
“The White House intern photo is like a Where’s Waldo for a non-white person — in a country that is about 40% non-white,” tweeted political scientist and Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas.
“Diversity this ain’t,” added France 24 correspondent Philip Crowther.
Other tweeters shared similarly biting comments:
This is the official photo of the 2018 White House Spring intern class.
Notice a pattern? pic.twitter.com/ALiJkwe9Qy— Rob Bennett (@rob_bennett) March 30, 2018
The Trump White House interns could be the whitest group I’ve ever encountered.
And I’m including the Nantucket Yacht Club. pic.twitter.com/QDTXHUPN74— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 30, 2018
The Spring 2018 White House Interns! I see a theme here! pic.twitter.com/ENxUhySKDX
— Secret Squirrel (@_scrt_sqrl_) March 31, 2018
Looks about white to me.
— Audra McDonald (@AudraEqualityMc) March 30, 2018
Other commenters compared the current intake to those from former President Barack Obama’s time in office:
White House interns, 2018 and 2015 pic.twitter.com/1ZlWxal931
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) March 31, 2018
White House interns sure look less different these days. pic.twitter.com/T72cobobAa
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 30, 2018
Yup.
And this was my White House intern class (summer 2012). pic.twitter.com/CRGCXg2OQ6— Molly Dillon (@mollyd522) March 31, 2018
Trump’s White House faced similar accusations over the program last summer when people noticed how photographs of Vice President Mike Pence posing with interns featured very few people of color.
Omg all but 1 of the @WhiteHouse interns are white. pic.twitter.com/kXZH2EwXui
— emily rochefort (@em_rochefort) July 26, 2017
America:
•38% People of Color
•31% White Women
•31% White Men
White House Interns:
•2% POC
•25% WW
•73% WM
This's what "#MAGA" looks like pic.twitter.com/Q2YEddtB4I— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) July 25, 2017
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) came under fire in July 2016 over this selfie with Capitol Hill interns, who were also almost exclusively white:
A post shared by Speaker Paul Ryan (@speakerryan) on Jul 16, 2016 at 11:12am PDT
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.