On Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 4:30 p.m., the Multicultural Center partnered with Africana Studies to host an event named “Black in the Trump Era,” co-sponsored by NAACP Minorities Stockton in Law Chapter. Guest speakers Lynese Wallace and Tim Alexander gave their insights about the nation’s economy during Donald Trump’s presidency and what that means for black people and people of color.

Dr. Donnetrice Allison, Professor of Communications and Africana Studies, moderated the questions and asked the speakers about their understanding of the current political climate. 

Lynese Wallace is a Strategist and Policy architect who has worked closely within congress — she has worked in politics and policy for eight years at the municipal level and was present during the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. Timothy Alexander is a trial attorney, or civil rights attorney, and he has practiced in New Jersey and Philadelphia for ten years. Prior to this, he was a law enforcement officer. 

As Trump’s first month in office has concluded, the nation has seen a variety of executives orders passed, prompting one of the audience members to ask the question of “which ones do you think are most harmful to Black people and why?”

Some of the troubling orders Wallace mentioned included the big rollback of DEI initiatives, known as the “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” executive order per the White House website. She discussed the effect it can have on the corporate and academic world, stating “it’s fair to say that the Trump administration specifically is utilizing and weaponizing DEI as a dog whistle for their racism.”

Wallace also mentioned the incident of January 6 and how many of those who participated in this attack are getting pardoned for their crimes through the “Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021” executive order. Wallace perceives this is a big “slap in the face” for those people to get pardoned, while there are wrongfully convicted people with such high bails that they probably can’t afford. 

She initially said that when the events unfolded on January 6, she had a discussion with coworkers regarding if the roles were reversed how would that ultimately play out, as well as what accountability would look like if it was black and brown people leading an attack on the capitol.

Alexander mentioned the criminalization of protest, explaining that as an activist who attends protests, “excercising your first amendment right and getting penalized for it is beyond believing.” He continued his point and said it’s “taking us back to an era where black people were penalized for exercising not just their rights but their voices as well.”

To add, an important aspect that Alexander referenced is the freeze on cases of the Civil Rights Enforcement in the Department of Justice (DOJ). During this time, Alexander stated that the DOJ was told not to take any new complaints, and as a result, he explained that “[some] Trump supporters are disappointed in his direct effort based on race when he promised he was going to based his presidency on the economy, instead he has been focusing on race.”

This then brought Alexander back full circle to corroborate with Wallace on the point of dismantling DEI. He states that it’s “absolutely terrible,” saying “you know who hurts the most from it — white women, and black men received the least amount of benefits from DEI.” Alexander drove the point about how dismantling DEI in some ways won’t affect black people as heavily as other minorities. “He’s attacking white women and he doesn’t even know it because he doesn’t understand DEI.” 

The topic of New Jersey becoming a red state was also discussed. Although New Jersey, under current governorship of Democrat Phil Murphy, has not been “red” in an election since George H.W. Bush’s presidency in 1988, the recent Presidential election saw a shift towards the Republican vote.

If New Jersey does happen to become a red state, Alexander believes this can affect many women: “This is about women’s rights, and women’s rights as a citizen is much bigger than reproductive health — there is not a single law in the book any where in this land that tells a man what he can and cannot do with his body, so why are women discriminate against?” Alexander ended his point by telling students and audience members to “stay vigilant because these executives orders are damning.”

Dr. Allison also made a point about DEI, and she stated that she had a conversation with a friend about “there [being] a mounting fear of stigmatization for workers and DEI as a whole.” This led to the question of “[out of] the things [Trump] has proposed, which are most likely and least likely to come to fruition?” 

Wallace answered first by stating in times like this, it is very hard to navigate which likely of these laws are going to be passed and which ones aren’t. This is mainly because we have already seen so many bills and executives being mentioned to pass that the country can’t navigate which ones won’t come into fruition and which ones would. She mentioned that “it’s harder for them to pass forward a largely unpopular agenda,” which is one of the main reasons why it’s so tricky to navigate definitiveness. 

“They are going to try and do everything and that’s what they are already doing.” She explains that there is a strategy that former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon conceptualized entitled “Flood the Zone.” This is when there is an initial distraction with an unsettling amount of initiatives and information while something on a larger scale happens behind the scenes.

Wallace expressed in regards to this concept that “the only thing I know for sure is that there is going to be blatant corruption that will happen, the billionaires will continue to get richer and off the backs of regular people [and] weaponization of [the] government is sure to happen if anything else doesn’t happen.” In short, Wallace wonders what rebranding and rebuilding would look like if the economy were to take a big hit because of these executive orders.

Alexander agrees with Wallace’s points but he also talks about it from an attorney perspective and what that could possibly mean for not just this generation of college students, but also the younger generations. He continued to hone in on the point of staying vigilant because “something can be happening right now and we won’t know until the next day on the news or until we read about it.”

He inspired the youth to use their voice and share their ideas because “young people have great ideas and are much smarter than people allow them to be.” This segued into one of the last questions, which was “what can we do to organize and fight back against some of the things his administration is proposing?”

Alexander brought up the idea of disrupting discourse and how to get people to pay attention to political dialogue. He stated that “you are voting for someone initially who is the representation of your ideals,” so one has to be willing to have uncomfortable conversations, especially with people that can possibly have different ideals and opinions.

Dr. Allison and Wallace agreed with these points, Wallace stating “there is so much chaos that people’s minds are becoming lethargic to the point where people can’t grasp how to make a change.” Alexander added onto the point by saying in a way, most people have the same ideas as each other but because they can be worded differently or come from conflicting sources, no one takes into consideration the potential similarities.

An example Alexander used was when he was campaigning, he took ideas from both political parties and switched them around so when he presented in front of both Democrats and Republicans, they actually agreed with everything he stated. Overall, Wallace and Alexander both support staying active and strong – they both understand that it can be hard to navigate the world, but don’t become ragged because of its weight. 

Before the event ended. there was a short Q&A and discussion so the audience could engage with the speakers. One of the topics brought up was the picture of Trump with a crown on and the caption “Long Live The King.” Alexander was asked if he thought this could be grounds for treason or impeachment with removal, and he responded with “[no], it’s not grounds for impeachment.” He explained that from a legal standpoint, he can’t see that happening because of the main definition of high crimes and misdemeanors, but these are actions that are used to “shake people up.”

Since Wallace was there both times when Trump was impeached, she tried to give a general background on how the process works. She explained that for the impeachment process, it starts first within the House of Representatives and then onto the Senate. “Until we have a Senate that is politically courageous and politically motivated to convict Donald Trump, the impeachment process thus far has not and will not work,” Wallace stated.

DEI came up again in this discussion because on February 14, 2025, the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights wrote a letter to many universities stating that they have two weeks to abandon all DEI initiatives because it puts mainly White and Asian students at a disadvantage. Access the full letter by going to this link here.

In the letter, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor, stated that academic institutions have “indoctrinated” students with a “false premise” that the United States is built on “systemic and structural racism.” Continuing with this letter, Trainor mentions that there are programs other than DEI that are “insidious” because initally, DEI is one giving preference to certain racial groups but also is teaching different students that a certain group of people bear more socioeconomic burdens that other may not have to deal with.

In summation, the letter states that students should go to school in a judgement-free environment and DEI doesn’t allow that to happen; therefore, institutions must get rid of any DEI initiatives or protocols within that fourteen day time frame. This was an important topic because of the discussions that also surrounded Affirmative Action, even though in this instance, legacy admissions have impacted admission rates the most because it is mainly White Americans students who benefit from such.

Alexander quickly responded to the mention of this letter by stating he hasn’t seen it yet, and the event ended around 6 p.m. on the notion of how now it is really the time to stick together so the change that is wanted can come into fruition.

Reporter for The Argo, Diamond Rogers, had the opportunity to have quick interview with Dr. Allison on some of her remarks that she made during the discussion. One of the questions revolved around the well being of Stockton students in regards to her discussion on the mind becoming overwhelmed by the constant changes and news. She replied by stating that “it can be a gateway for people becoming less and less active and when people start to become inactive, then we watch cycles of dangerous actions play out.” She reminded that people must keep their minds clear and concise amidst the outside noise, prompting a follow-up question as to how one can do such a thing.

“Well, technology is used everyday so I can’t say we have to get completely rid of it because however how we consume [news] and how much we consume it is completely up to us. So we have to be cognizant of how we interact with media so we can keep a sharp mind.” 

Rogers also did an interview with members of the NAACP chapter on Stockton’s campus, namely President of this chapter, Rachel Dunlap and the Secretary Guivenchiali St. Jean. Questions such as when the NAACP chapter was established, what are some things they do around campus, the importance of this event and their chapter, and what to look forward to in their next and upcoming meeting were asked.

Dunlap gave a quick background about the NAACP and what it originally stands for — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — and she stated how she started off as Vice President before earning her present day role. She said that “even though the NAACP is serious and we try to do everything by the constitution and by law, I still want there to be joy because joy is the most powerful thing you can do and it’s the most powerful form of resistance.”

She explained that she definitely would love to do more fundraisers and campaigns for their events, expanding more to have space for everyone who wants to get involved. St. Jean talked about the importance of how black people need to “not continue to strengthen a system that is designed to be a crutch to be used against marginalized groups.”

Make sure to check out the NAACP Chapter’s next meeting on on March 7 at 4:30. For more information, check out their Instagram, @stocktonu_naacp. For more events like these, visit the Multicultural Center’s Instagram, @stocktonu.mc.

Sources:

https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-sffa-v-harvard-109506.pdf