These are the questions young people have been asking me since Nov. 5th
Young people's concerns are everyone's concerns.
I've been chatting with my college students since November 6th about the very real consequences of this year’s presidential election. For many of them, this was their first time voting and they already remember life living under the first Trump Administration in 2016. Most of them were shocked by the election outcomes, concerned about their futures, and nervous about how to navigate the next four years. Here are the questions they asked most frequently:
Do people believe what Trump says he will do to America?
Yes. Some do. Actually, many people do. Based on the Cook Popular Vote Tracker, more than 77 million people voted for Donald Trump compared to almost 75 million for VP Kamala Harris. Many of those voters not only believe in Trump’s messaging about mass deportations, reducing abortion access, and anti-trans stances, they hope that, when he enacts these policies, the rules simply won’t pertain to them.
Shortly after the election, rumors on social media suggested that Google Search phrases like “Can I change my vote?” “What is a tariff?” and “What does the Department of Education do?” were surging. While there seems to be some truth to this, it isn’t clear if these surges were in part because of the rumor itself or people’s anxieties about the election outcome. Either way, it seems that belief in Trump’s policy stances, while very real, may be causing more cautiousness now that Inauguration Day is on the way.
Is it actually possible for a president to shut down the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency?
In short, yes. These departmental agencies are a part of the federal bureaucracy which falls under the purview of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government. These agencies are managed by the president’s administration and many are led by appointees from the entering administration.
As we have seen in the short three weeks since the election, Trump’s appointees include mega billionaires, climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, reality TV stars, dog killers, and everything in-between. In fact, there has been news that Trump’s advisor, Boris Epshteyn, sought bribes for some of these positions.
With Elon Musk in charge of cost cutting (after seeing how he gutted and decimated Twitter - now called X), it would be naive to think that Trump’s incoming Class of Terribles wouldn’t be salivating at the idea of cutting an agency responsible for administering millions of dollars in aid to low income college students and erasing any evidence that climate change exists.
Can Trump really enforce an abortion ban at the federal level?
This is an interesting and complicated question. A federal abortion ban is possible when you have a united or unified US Congress (meaning only one party occupies the House of Representatives and the US Senate). Because we have a bicameral system wherein both both branches of the US Congress must ratify a bill before it becomes a law, this alignment between the two houses increases the likelihood that Republican policy initiatives will see success over the next few years. Because of this, Trump will (presumably) have congressional support when he enters the White House in January 2025. A united Congress increases the likelihood that one party’s policies will get passed because the opposing party simply won’t have the numbers to vote it down.
What is most likely to happen to abortion is what we are seeing now, decreased access and legal stipulations that make even simple life-saving procedures nearly impossible to obtain. This will result in the deaths of many birthing people who would have otherwise been protected under Roe v. Wade.
Is Trump really associated with the Project 2025 report?
Absolutely. While the Trump campaign (and the candidate himself) attempted to cloak his affiliation with the report during his campaign, it has become clear that the framers and masterminds behind Project 2025 are already in close proximity to Trump himself and his future administration. Trump’s appointments to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), immigration on the Mexico-US Border, and policy management all come from “key players” in the creation of Project 2025.
In many ways, the Trump Administration is already saying the quiet part out loud with regards to the types of policies and leadership they hope to espouse. Whether people are sure about Trump’s involvement in the formulation and drafting of Project 2025 or not, they should still see the report as a detailed outline of precisely the type of executive leadership we will see over the next four years.
Are we really headed toward fascism?
I mean, yeah and maybe, no?
This question is difficult to answer because many people still believe that (as Black Panther George Jackson once stated), fascism is already here. It’s not, though.
Fascism is a hyper-nationalist political position often associated with the far right that typically involves patriarchal gendered violence and racial discrimination, militarization against political opponents, racial purity and ethnocentrism claims which are closely linked with policy goals, and dictatorial leadership capped off with a cult of personality. Historically, we have considered Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini key examples of fascist leaders. These men used institutional power to not only institute their policy goals, they effectively turned their national militaries into personal militias dedicated to single-party rule and power held by the authority of force.
Can we acknowledge that there are fascist sentiments and symptoms of deeply white heteropatriarchal cisgender capitalism which often resemble the nature of a fascist state? Yes. But, are symptoms of what may be on the horizon the same as the institutional and systemic fact of a regime’s existence? Certainly not.
Yes, we live in a country founded on anti-Blackness, Indigenous genocide, white supremacy, capitalist exploitation of poor people and immigrants, and structural patriarchy. But, those symptoms are not synonymous with a fascist regime. The existence of prisons is not fascism but using prisons to control Black and Brown wealth and mobility or imprison political opposition certainly is. The fact that we have failed as a nation to provide adequate healthcare to birthing people, queer and trans folks, and immigrants isn’t fascism but enshrining those facts into law via congressional votes certainly would be. Acquiescing to such a violent reality, one that hasn’t even arrived yet, does nothing to help us build a freer world. It does nothing except lead to a place of despair.
What should we do now?
Well, it’s time to work. What do I mean by work? I mean that we have to center the tenets of Black August: study, fast, train, and fight. These tenets center not just reacting to the political and social atmosphere but on building lasting structural power and community resources so that we are prepared for what comes next.
Study: What should you be reading (yes, reading…like books) to learn more about capitalism, fascism, patriarchy, anti-Black discrimination, feminist movements, immigrations, and getting free? I prefer books written by Black women, queer folks, abolitionists, anti-capitalists, immigrants/undocumented colegas, and disabled people.
Haymarket Books is offering ten books for FREE. Yes, FREE. You can find them here.
On my website, I have a syllabus of Black Feminist literature, podcasts, poetry, and media that are critical in this moment. Find it here.
Fast: How do I take care of my body while I work to build a better world? What are the systems, processes, and habits that I can limit while I am on this journey? I don’t believe that is always about food. It can be about taking control of your relationship with anything that distracts, invites toxicity, or disrupts your life.
Nedra Tawwab’s book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, offers great, practical advice about how to set healthy boundaries with work, family, friends, finances, and social media so that you can build a better, more loving life for yourself. Buy it from a local, Black-owned bookshop here.
I also really like the workbook that accompanies Tawwab’s book. Here.
I really appreciate the practicality of K.C. Davis’s book How To Keep House While Drowning as it provides simple, daily tools to encourage ourselves with household and life (adulting) tasks. For us neurodivergent people, these tasks can often be the greatest barriers to overcome each day. Don’t buy it from Amazon. It’s on Bookshop.org, too.
Train: How can you build the skills necessary to fight potential harms that come from the incoming presidential administration? This step requires acquiring tools, tactics, and strategies from experts who can guide you on your journey toward helping build a freer world.
Abolitionist and educator Mariame Kaba is facilitating (along with her comrades) several training sessions on how to engage in mutual aid programs, raising kids in a liberationist tradition, and navigating activism as a disabled person. Register here.
Many organizations are offering free teach-ins on issues facing us all. Follow IG accounts like BYP100 or Advocates for Youth for info on open, national calls. Or, follow orgs in your city and state to learn about their upcoming events, in-person and virtual.
Fight: What can I do when the time comes to square up? How can I build these hands?
Go get some skin in the game and get involved with organizers and movement work. I tend to focus on Black, queer, and trans people and organizations like the Black Feminist Fund, Black Trans Travel Fund, New Pride Agenda, Black Feminist Future, and the National Black Trans Advocacy Group.
The only way we can build the world we want is if we each take some responsibility for our part in it. Until we commit to this work, we are actively complicit in the very problems that plague us. This is not about being an “ally” or “accomplice,” two words that are largely meaningless outside of their appeal to well-meaning white Americans hoping to set themselves apart from the other white folks.
This is about really understanding that doing nothing is a choice. Standing by silently is the same as supporting the status quo. Believing that we are powerless makes it so.
We can and should choose to fight.