Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The past few months have been an uneasy time for Black Americans, who wonder what the future will hold with Donald Trump back in the White House.
Trump’s reelection has understandably raised considerable concern within Black communities about the status of civil rights protections.
In a nation where white people make up 75% of voters, 60% of white men voted for Trump, while Latino men split almost evenly between both candidates. Black men voted overwhelmingly for Harris, but the 25% who voted for Trump is more than twice the percentage Trump received in 2020.
The Associated Press VoteCast reported Latino support for Trump rose from 35% in 2020 to 43% this year, despite his incessant hounding of Latino immigrants.
In addition, 53% of white women voted for the former president, even after he arrogantly boasted about terminating Roe v. Wade. The LGBTQIA+ community was seemingly missing in action while Trump ran anti-trans commercials around the clock in the run-up to his victory.
In essence, the majority of Black men supported Harris, whereas men of other ethnicities broke for Trump. Such results do not resoundingly prove race and gender were decisive factors in men’s voting decisions. But they did reveal alliances we thought we had with other groups were fragile at best, fair-weather fans, as it were.
Black theologian Bishop D. Kimathi Nelson described Trump’s 2024 election as the official end to America’s second Reconstruction. He argued that the first Reconstruction (1866–1877) was a period of expanding rights for Black people that lasted for a dozen years. He further argued that the second Reconstruction, which began in 1965 and ended in 2024, was another such period of expansion providing opportunities and possibilities for Black people.
Nelson’s comments are certainly worth considering. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard outlawed affirmative action policies in higher education, resulting in a tidal wave of state and corporate rollbacks targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. In the months that followed, legislative efforts and legal challenges have rapidly accelerated the dismantling of these programs, further demonstrating that such opportunities for Black and Latino communities are being systematically erased. Corporate DEI programs are intensely being scrutinized.
That’s where Black people find ourselves now, because Trump’s agenda, as laid out in the Project 2025 political initiative, would harm us by dismantling the very federal agencies that safeguard us from discrimination at both state and local levels.
The majority of Black people knew that, which is why 83% of Black voters supported Vice President Kamala Harris.
As with the end of the first Reconstruction, which brought a screeching halt to Black progress, a rollback of rights and an unprecedented rise in violence and mistreatment against Black people, this second Reconstruction might very well do the same thing. It is likely to include other non-whites as well.
Many Black Americans have learned a simple but valuable lesson from Trump’s resounding political victory: sometimes you have to walk in solitude. Those who claim to be allies are often in it for their own gain. Those who state they know your pain aren’t familiar with your struggle. Those who say they understand you and what you are feeling often do not.
Goodness knows Black America has endured adversity before, and we have always managed to survive. We can, and must, remain as tenacious as our forebears in our determination for fairness, equality, and freedom.
Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. Contact him at: