“It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times,” said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, on Donald Trump’s reentry to presidential office.
While it feels nearly impossible for many to accept that this is anything but the worst of times, Johnson’s sentiment holds a hidden truth.
On a day devoted to the legacy of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., where we could have seen the first Black woman enter presidential office, we instead saw a racist, misogynistic, white felon take his second term.
This is President Donald Trump, who once falsely claimed his “Stop the Seal” speech on January 6 had a larger crowd than King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Trump’s speech, in reality, was only about one-fifth of the audience of King’s famous speech. Trump, who was sued by the government in the ‘70s for discriminating against Black apartment seekers, who has baselessly embraced “birtherism,” and who has said that “laziness is a trait in Blacks,” even as he claims he is the “least racist person on Earth.”
Within his first week in office, which the university recognizes as MLK Jr. Human Rights Week, President Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders that contradict the very exigence of what King stood for.
Among some of his most alarming acts about civil rights include terminating DEI protections across the federal government, repealing several Biden-Era directives on racial and ethnic equality, and even going as far as revoking the 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity rule.
Indeed, it certainly feels like the worst of times.
Still, despite the juxtaposition of values and feelings of deflating hope, King’s family and civil rights leaders have called for Trump’s reentry to office to be a call to action, a rallying cry for change across the country rather than an acceptance of defeat.
“I’m glad it occurred on that day because it gives the United States of America and the world the contrast in pictures. Is this the way you want to go — or is this the way you want to go?” said Rev. Bernice King, the late King’s youngest daughter and CEO of the King Center.
She went on to encourage people to do more than just merely quoting or commemorating her father but to truly embrace what he stood for.
“I always ask people,” she said, “are you doing it in the spirit of Dr. King? You know, are you doing it from a compassionate place, from a love-centered place? Are you doing it in a way that respects the dignity and worth of all individuals?”
Fortunately, at the university, there are ample opportunities to learn about and incorporate the fight for civil equality into daily life. A student need only look at the plethora of clubs and courses offered to find the support, education, and activism they seek.
Some supportive clubs and organizations include the Afro House, the African American Center Cultural, the Association of Multicultural Scientists, the Black Student Union, the Cross-Cultural Student Coalition, the Honors DEI Council, and the Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice.
Further organizations at the university, as well as contact and meeting information, can be explored on the Division of Student Life Student Organizations page.
We can and will continue fighting for what is right, especially in the face of current events. We will do what we can, however we can.
The time has come to reenergize and restrengthen the fight for equal rights for all people.
In the words of King himself, “Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”