It has not yet been sixty days,
but in two scant months the 47th President has upended
business as usual, in federal government, in
classrooms, in business. Many of us who cover
this news are experiencing extreme whiplash.
Wolf tickets barked at our allies. Tariffs
here and gone tomorrow. Tantrums in the Oval
Office. State Departments of Education being
threatened. Stock markets crashing, with the
market logging its worse performance for a
“new” President since 2009. People are
apprehensive about their pensions and their
jobs and have dialed back their spending as a
result. Consumer spending drives the economy,
and many consumers aren’t confident enough
(consumer confidence is down by more than 9
percent) to take on extra spending. We are in
the middle of a “ball of confusion” the
Temptations referenced in their 1970 song.
The 47th President promised no
business as usual. What he meant was no
business at all! The disruption that has
riddled both the federal government and our
total way of life is, at best, disturbing. Not
everyone is experiencing it, but everyone
knows someone who is. What are we to do? I say
that in the middle of disruption, of being
shaken up, we go back to basics, back to our
roots. What does that mean? We shop Black,
work Black, live Black, aspire Black. Too many
of us drank the integration Kool-Aid without
tasting all the integration flavor. In other
words, nothing wrong with integration if we
value ourselves. The white man’s ice is not
colder. White man’s laws are not fairer. Those
deluded folk who seemed to think that the 47th President would be better
for the economy are now about to find out what
Malcolm X meant when he talked about “chickens
coming home to roost”. Some of the very people
who were touting 47 in November are now
whining about job losses, portfolio shrinkage,
and deportation.
We’ve been there, done that with
government cutbacks. The most glaring history
is that of the racist President Woodrow Wilson
who fired most of the senior Black people in
his administration. Most notably, the demotion
of Daniel Murray, Assistant Librarian of
Congress was a disgrace that reminds us that
those who serve at “the pleasure of the
President” can be easily let go. Their firings
may be challenged but the work of their
agencies will slow, if not stop. And the 47th President’s overreaching
has a chilling effect on the progress of some
agencies.
For example, the 47th President attempted to
remove Gywnne Wilcox as a member of the
National Labor Relations Board shortly after
he was installed.
A federal judge reminded 47 that
he did not have the authority to fire the
member of the independent agency. In her
decision, US District Judge Beryl Howell wrote
that “An American president is not a king –
not even an elected one – and his power to
remove federal officers and honest civil
servants like plaintiff is not absolute. The
NLRB were crippled for a few weeks because
they lacked a quorum. What else can we look
forward to?
As an African American history
scholar, I am especially concerned about
Smithsonian Leader Dr. Lonnie Bunche, an
amazing scholar and leader. His term lasts
until 2027, but if he serves “at the pleasure”
of a President who does not believe in Black
history or diversity, his days may be
numbered. Similarly, Dr. Carla Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress, was
appointed by President Biden to serve as the
first woman and the first African American in
that role. Her term ends in 2026. 47 may hold
his powder, or he may go after her sooner.
These amazing public servants may find their
jobs on the chopping block as 47 and his
co-President Musk take their buzz saw to the
federal employees’ jobs and lives.
It’s overtime for us to fight
outward and build inward. Fight outward –
protest, protest, protest. Build inward -
strengthen our connections, work more
collaboratively, and when folk like Dr. Bunche
and Dr. Hayden are threatened, prepare to clap
back.
In 1919, the Harlem Renaissance
poet, Claude McKay, wrote:
If we must die, let it not be
like hogs, haunted and penned to this
inglorious spot.
While round us bark the mad and
hungry dogs
Making their mock at our
accursed lot.
The powerful poem, written when
the Red Summer of 1919 saw multiple massacres
of Black people in at least 26 cities. Been
there, done that?
The poem ends both defiantly and
as inspiration for today:
Like men (Malveaux adds women)
we’ll face the murderous cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying but
fighting back.
In the middle of disruption, we
must return to our roots, and we must fight
back, surgically and strategically. We have no
choice.
