Black History Month

This year, I am clinically supervising Troi McKenzie, a young Black female Social Work intern from Stony Brook University. I asked her if she would like to write this month’s blog and share what is on top for her as a young Black social work student in the current climate. This is an amazing, vulnerable, and powerful piece of work. Please hear and FEEL what she has to say.

First Year of Grad School, Second Trump Administration, and a Commitment to Social Justice

“First, fear people of color. Then, hate the government (which coddles people of color). Finally, trust the market and 1 percent” - Ian Haney Lopez on dog whistle politics in Heather McGhee’s “The Sum of Us”.

What a time to be 23. During a time that should be filled with discovery of who I am and who I will be. During a time in which I should be focused on grad school and solidifying a career.  During a time when I should be moving out of my childhood home, maybe purchasing a new apartment or buying a car, I am instead racked with anxiety over where my life, my family's life, and my friend's lives are going to go over the next couple of years. 

The first time that I voted was in the 2020 election. I remember being 19, glued to my phone wondering what the results were going to be. I thought to myself, Trump can’t be president again. I remember being on TikTok watching the votes go in, watching states go blue, go red. Watching to see which direction the swing states would go. And then a “victory”, though you could hardly call it that looking back, Joe Biden is the next president of the United States, and by his side Kamala Harris. The first Black vice president. How wonderful, right? Many of those on the left sighed with relief, perhaps laughed at the reactions to the loss on the right. Those including myself lulled ourselves into a false sense of security in knowing that a democrat was in office. “We have plenty of time,” we told ourselves. During the Biden Administration, we’ll fight for what needs to be fought for and we’ll make sure to hold ourselves and our government accountable. Perhaps it was naivety, perhaps it was age, after all during the Biden presidency I was between the ages of 19-23, but never in a million years would I have thought that I would have Trump on the ballot for the second time in my life, let alone on the same ballot as a Black woman. Never would I have thought that I would live through the most anxiety-inducing first month of a presidency and the swiftest attempts to roll back civil rights that probably haven’t been witnessed since Black Codes and Jim Crow. 

In hindsight, the signs were all there. It started on January sixth. An insurrection. We watched on live television as people stormed the capitol building swearing the election was rigged and seeking “justice” for their President. Trump 2025. If you were on Social media, you could see the conservative pendulum swinging back as each year passed under Biden. As history has shown us, long periods of sexual liberation or leftist beliefs in general always serve as a breeding ground for conservativism to bloom. 

Did you notice the slut shaming of single mothers? The push for marriage before kids (and not in the family planning type of way)? The casual use of ableist slurs (r-word in particular)? Did you notice the rise in casual homophobia? The moral panics? Did you notice the rise of casual misogyny? Did you notice the misogynists getting younger and younger? Did you notice the casual racism? The antiblack racism? Did you notice the Islamophobia? Have you read the comment sections on Instagram or Twitter? Did you see it at the time or do you see it now? If you saw it, were you alarmed? Was the alarm brief? Did you just attribute it to some bad apples? Surely this is a small minority? Did you notice?...or were you in an echo chamber just like I was?

I chose Social Work and Public Health as a career path because I wanted to make a top-down difference in people's lives. I wanted to ensure that the basic needs of the people were met and that people of color received equitable resources. Sure it would be a hard road but I was willing to take it. But now in only my first year of Grad School. During what is supposed to be the start of my life I am feeling an impending doom. As a Black woman, I’m watching as the rights my people fought for are being challenged. I sit and wonder if I should take the activist organizations off of my resume as I apply for jobs. What will be the reaction when I walk in and I am Black? My name is not necessarily a “stereotypical black name” so what will happen when they see me? I wonder what the field of Social Work will look like, and how the field will balance an increasing need over the next four years but also an extreme lack of resources. I worry about my parents who have been working for years and are struggling to even buy groceries right now. I worry about my Grandparents who have been caregivers for my paralyzed uncle, and not only for him but for themselves depending on their social security and retirement funds. I can’t lie, I am very anxious, terrified even. I am angry in some ways, after all, history is a circle and we are truly retelling a tale as old as time. What a shame that I have to find out when I’m not the one that f*cked around. After all, I am Black and we are always one of the first on the chopping Block. Strangely this time period reminds me of the movie The Purge: Election Year. A movie where once a year all crime is legal for 24 hours in a so-called attempt to reduce crime rates, people come from all over the world to participate and in this particular movie we are shown how the purge disproportionately affects low-income and Black communities as they can’t afford the fancy security systems, property insurance, and private security guards those with money can. People of color always are the first to lose, especially in games we often didn’t even know we were playing. 

Now I know this has been a word vomit, my feelings are all across this page and I’m sure you’re wondering what the point of this rant is. I have become very steadfast in my decision to stay a Social Worker/Public Health worker and I hope that all my fellow social workers and public health workers whether you are in school or not decide to stay on this path. I have already begun to hear the heartbreaking sentiments of why should we continue to be social workers. What’s the point? With these budget cuts to assistance and attacks on the communities we serve, we will be trying to help people with little to no resources to do so. I can’t say that I don’t understand the sentiment because trust me I do, but that is what this administration wants people to do. The Shock Doctrine is working, and you can’t let it consume you. During this time those in power will use the stress and shock of war and strife to push through unfavorable policies. The point is to distract you and the point is to petrify you. Think of the clients that you serve or will serve one day and how much they are going to need an advocate. How many Spanish-speaking patients are going to need you? Your low-income clients? Your LGBTQ+ clients? Your adolescent clients? Your male clients and female clients? Your disabled clients? Your elderly clients? Without you who will speak for them, who will fight for them? There is a bystander effect in activism in which people wait for someone else to fight the good fight for them or they assume that someone else will. But what happens when everyone is thinking that? Nothing. 

One thing that has kept me going through this time is not only the knowledge that I am not the only one appalled but that there are ways to fight. Find your local mutual aid, you can look them up anywhere if you are in NYC/LI you can go to this link and find a mutual aid near you to get involved with. But remember activism isn’t always this large-scale movement as most people envision, it can be a butterfly effect. It can be as simple as helping a next-door neighbor, making food for your friends to eat, or helping someone carry something heavy. Division is a tool of the conquerors. Haven’t you noticed the fear and unwillingness of people to help their neighbors? Haven’t you noticed the amount of people talking about their struggle to make friends or how standoffish people are? Community is a threat to those who are empowered by the divide. That's why even for someone who is reserved and shy like myself, I am making the commitment to be kind and build community with those around me. Remember in order to take you must give, and it is impossible to build community in the way that so many people said they would after the election if you take more than you give. You cannot simply reap the benefits of a community without contributing to it yourself. I implore those reading to check yourself and others, to hold them accountable, and to practice what you preach. There are victories happening right now that are being drowned out by everything else. There are community organizations making a difference, speaking to legislators, and protesting across the country. Judges are blocking some of these executive orders. There is good. There will be good. Remember that times like this have happened before, for all history does repeat itself, and from those times came civil rights acts, voting acts, LGBTQ marriage equality, gender-affirming care, domestic violence protection, etc etc etc. Those conservative times during which those protections were born are upon us again. Please don’t get disillusioned. We are all family. Feel your feelings, cry, scream, be angry, but more than anything please love and cherish. Please protect and advocate for those who may not be able to advocate for themselves, join local community organizations, get familiar with local government officials both those currently in power and those who may be, join mutual aids, volunteer. Your trans family, black family, Latino family, queer family, Muslim family, disabled family, Jewish family, your mothers and daughters and sisters, and so many more need you. We need us because at the end of the day…….

WHO KEEPS US SAFE? WE KEEP US SAFE.

Blog Written By: Troi McKenzie

Resources:

Instagram accounts: 

@abolitionistsw

@so.informed

@aclu_nationwide

@nyclu

@blackliturgies

Additional Resources:

The People’s Institute of Survival and Beyond: Undoing Racism/Community Organizing Workshop:

Upcoming PISAB Workshops:

Center for the Study of White American Culture:

Robin Schlenger