We are daughters of Detroit–Cass and Renaissance High School graduates and two Black women educated in the nation’s capital at Howard and Georgetown universities, respectively. We both returned to the city during the pandemic and have replanted our roots in the city we love. An eastsider and westsider connected organically on the love of our city, our passion for all things Black art and culture, health and fitness, love of self, family, and community, and most passionately, the nuisances of business and politics in Detroit.
By Aya M. Waller-Bey and Aminata B. Sow
Eight years ago, Donald Trump emphatically asked Black voters, “What the hell do you have to lose?” daring us to think critically about our next vote for president.
Fast-forward to 2024, and we dare to answer his question. We have lost and stand to lose plenty.
Consequently, we cannot afford another four years under a conservative administration.
Over the past several months, we’ve extensively discussed the consequences of the 2024 election with friends, social media followers, and family. We’ve read, looking toward the past and present, to critically examine the information fed to us by social media, television programs, talking heads, and entertainers who seem to believe that Black Detroiters – and Black people more broadly – are running to stand beside Donald Trump.
We looked at the data to evaluate this narrative that a conservative agenda helps Black people. It hasn’t.
According to a 2024 report by the Pew Research Center, 72% of Black voters believe Trump was a poor or terrible president. Nearly 80% of Black registered voters say they would prefer to vote for Biden over Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Yet, we should be concerned by the amplification of the small faction of Black Trump supporters posing to represent the masses of Black voters.
Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court Justices – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – during his first four-year term, ushering in a conservative majority bench for decades to come. While many people like to defend their abstinence from national elections with the expression, “politics is local,” the Supreme Court is not Vegas. What happens in the Supreme Court does not stay in Washington, DC; it impacts all of us, including Black people in Detroit.
The current court has overturned decades of precedent with its rulings on affirmative action, reproductive health, bump stocks and racial gerrymandering in South Carolina with consistent 6-3 decisions that fall squarely along partisan lines. There are concerns that if Trump wins the election in November, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito will retire, leaving both seats open for younger and potentially even more conservative replacements.
Beyond the more than 200 judges that Trump appointed to the federal bench, there has been a concerted effort by former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans to reshape the federal judiciary for decades, particularly in the appeals courts. Federal judges have a lifetime tenure and typically remain on the bench long after the presidents who nominated them have left office. According to the Pew Research Center, Trump appointed a smaller share of non-white federal judges than other recent presidents (about one in six of the judges appointed by Trump (16%) are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or another race or ethnicity) and less likely to appoint women to the federal judiciary than the last two Democratic presidents.
Federal courts have the power to interpret the law, determine the constitutionality of the law and apply it to individual cases. A lack of diversity within the federal court severely affects the people they govern. Federal judges have the power to influence every aspect of public policy; they make daily decisions about health care, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, voting rights, the environment, law enforcement and civil rights, to name a few. As Detroiters, we cannot afford less racial diversity and conservative ideology that challenges race-conscious policies that promote racial equity.
Last month, a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that an Atlanta-based VC firm, Fearless Fund, should be temporarily blocked from issuing grants reserved for Black women-owned businesses. The co-founder and CEO of the Fearless Fund, Arian Simone, is a Detroit native committed to investing in women of color-owned businesses, which already receive a small market share of venture capital funding. The judges in the majority, Kevin Newsom and Robert Luck, were appointed by Trump. The dissenting judge, Robin Rosenbaum, was appointed by President Barack Obama.
Trump’s judicial appointees and conservative anti-equity legislative campaigns can threaten the burgeoning Black tech and entrepreneurial ecosystems we’re creating locally. Again, Trump’s federal judges intervened and stalled the progress of one of the few Black-woman-led VC firms just after the conservative-majority Supreme Court stalled progress on racial equity in higher education with last year’s decision on race-conscious admissions or affirmative action.
Trump’s presidency also emboldens white supremacists. Before the historic Jan. 6 United States Capitol attack, there was a plot to kidnap our governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Nine men were convicted in state or federal court, yet the damage and discourse were sewn. Whitmer, who was vocal about the ordeal, said that Trump had given “comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division,” yet Trump called the kidnapping plan a “fake deal.” Groups like Moms for Liberty, a conservative political organization, advocate against school curricula that mention LGBT rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination. Another far-right, neo-fascist militant organization, The Proud Boys, promotes and engages in political violence. These two organizations represent just a couple of groups that Trump has outwardly supported. Anti-government extremist groups that sow discord tout misinformation and make a concerted effort to rewrite history should not be praised nor supported – which brings us to the crux of our position.
With the Heritage Foundation backed Project 2025, the plot thickens. In the 887-page Mandate for Leadership document compiled by conservative “thought leaders,” the authors outline an extremely detailed and comprehensive guide for authoritarianism if Trump gets elected in November. The plan calls for ending the FBI’s efforts to combat the spread of misinformation, abolishing the Department of Education, and placing the Department of Justice under direct presidential control. Project 2025 also proposes eliminating the nation’s free school meals and Head Start programs. When one in six kids in Michigan faces food insecurity, according to the nonprofit Feeding America, how do we think children and their families will fare in Detroit under Project 2025?
These are just a few reasons why Trump is not the answer.
His latest visit to 180 Church on Detroit’s west side on June 15 was performative yet strategic. The Trump campaign and his surrogates want to harness the power of the Black vote through exploitative tokens that they believe represent the essence of Black culture: musicians, entertainers, and preachers. Black celebrities should use their platforms to advocate for social justice and equity, but we, as regular folks, should remain vigilant in discerning well-intentioned surrogates from opportunists and grifters.
If we’ve learned anything from the past, our education, travel and community-building, it is the importance of collective action and truth-telling. We need less photo ops and more fact-finding to protect ourselves and our community. Donald Trump is ruled by power, control and greed, which is detrimental to progress. And we cannot afford another four years under his administration.
Aya M. Waller-Bey is a native Detroiter and westsider committed to racial equity and examining the commodification of racialized trauma. She’s earning her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan.
Aminata B. Sow is a native Detroiter and eastsider committed to mission-driven work. She’s the associate director of Culturally Inclusive and Relevant Marketing and Media Capability at Johnson & Johnson and Klickrr.
Excellent analysis!
I share your concerns and surviving another term under a Republican president is not something I would like to experience. The implications will be felt for generations, which is something that I do not believe is being taking seriously by voters in Detroit. We have to see the big picture and have a President that we can work with is our best option to keep progressing,