Ronald Brownstein, Columnist

Andreessen Is Wrong About DEI and the Working Class

The venture capitalist identified a real problem — declining opportunities in White working-class neighborhoods — but pointed to a scapegoat rather than the real cause.

July 23, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

By Ronald Brownstein

Ronald Brownstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He is also a CNN analyst and previously worked for The Atlantic, The National Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He has won multiple professional awards and is the author or editor of seven books.

Identified a real problem, misidentified its cause.
Photographer: Steve Jennings/Getty Images

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Once it might have made waves for a prominent venture capitalist to rant against racial diversity programs in higher education. But in the era of President Donald Trump, anti-affirmative action screeds are common — and so is the sight of a billionaire bemoaning his mistreatment. So the comments made by Marc Andreessen, reported earlier this month by the Washington Post, elicited barely a collective shrug.

But Andreessen’s words are worth a closer look because they encapsulate such a core belief of Trump’s political movement — and also reflect its tendency to identify real challenges facing his voters while pointing them toward scapegoats rather than solutions.