Millennials Embrace Community Activism in the Trump Era

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Morelia Blanco grew up protesting. She remembers her mother bringing her to her first demonstration when she was just 4 years old. Blanco continued to occasionally participate in the immigration rights movement in Milwaukee as she grew older. She remembers marching along with her family through snowy winter streets with numb feet, and screaming with the crowd though she was too young to know exactly why.

While it was her parents who brought her to protests as a child, her own sense of civic engagement emerged in February 2016 while protesting the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287(g), which authorizes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions.”

Donald Trump’s election was a sort of breaking point for Blanco, then a senior at Nathan Hale High School and now a freshman at UW-Milwaukee. This was when she formally signed up to be a member of Youth Empowered in the Struggle, the student wing of Voces de la Frontera.

In this highly volatile political climate, many millennials are becoming more engaged in community activism according to the 2017 Millennial Impact Report, an annual report supported by the Case Foundation. “The cause-engagement actions of millennials in the first quarter of 2017 have increased and intensified as compared to their actions in 2016,” says phase one of the report. “Intensity is growing in new actions of demonstrating, protesting, petitioning and contacting representatives.”

“I like to poke fun at it and say that Trump is doing something good, which is making people a little more united,” Blanco said. “That’s not always the case, because you still have racist protests going on, but I do see more involvement from people.”

Combatting Racial Discrimination and Civil Rights Violations

The Millennial Impact Report cites civil rights and racial discrimination as the social issue most concerning to young people in America. Healthcare reform, climate change and immigration closely followed. This should come as no surprise, given President Trump’s divisive rhetoric on race relations, and the recent assault on healthcare, the environment and immigration rights.

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Jordan Roman got involved with the Milwaukee Urban League Young Professionals (MULYP) in January of this year. While he had been active in the community, attending MPS school board meetings and advocating for the Affordable Care Act for years, he said that Trump’s election and the culture of his candidacy made him more passionate about the political process. Joining MULYP was a way for him to make a difference in the community after finishing graduate school.

“I think that it’s important as an African American man from Milwaukee to be able to use my voice to advocate for those who can’t advocate for themselves,” Roman said. “If I’m not taking what I’ve learned and what I’ve done, and trying to take it back to other people so that they can do the same thing, then what’s the point of it all?”

Shortly after joining, he became the group’s political advocacy chair, and in August he became president.

Roman said he has seen a surge in engagement since the election. MULYP, in conjunction with the National Urban League, is in the midst of their Bounce Back Campaign, which is aimed at proactively getting prepared for the 2018 midterm elections. MULYP’s campaign is primarily focused on voter education, voter registration and voter participation.

In addition to the Bounce Back Campaign, MULYP has hosted events like DACA Demystified: What it Means for Milwaukee’s Urban Communities, and two forums on community policing and public safety, for which they partnered with the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention.

“In this last election cycle that we were in last year, a lot of people who haven’t necessarily been engaged in the process are starting to realize how important it is,” Roman said. “The only way to make any kind of change that’s going to last is to get involved and make your voice heard.”

A Wave of Activism on College Campuses

While organizations like the Milwaukee Urban League have been pillars of the community for decades, new organizations have emerged around college campuses and community centers with distinctively youthful approaches to activism.

Universities are “seeing a new wave in organizing, which has a lot to do with the current administration in Washington,” Angus Johnston, a history professor at the City University of New York who specializes in student activism, told USA Today in March. “They’re really concerned about white nationalism on campus, they’re really concerned about the rise of xenophobia—a long list of issues.”

The Young People’s Resistance Committee (YPRC) sprung up in September 2016 as an offshoot of Youth Empowered in the Struggle. It operates with two chapters, one on the UWM campus and one on the South Side.

Where MULYP is apt to working directly with the city to organize a forum, YPRC is more likely to take its protest directly to the streets. In September, shortly after President Trump announced he would not renew Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), YPRC organized a Legalization for All march that brought thousands of people to Cesar Chavez Drive and Greenfield Avenue.

Mina Ai always had an interest in helping marginalized people, but growing up in a predominantly white Milwaukee suburb never allotted her the network she needed to make the difference she wanted. Ai said she “didn’t know that there was this opportunity to organize,” until she found a group of like-minded people on UWM’s campus.

Ai’s arrival at UWM came at an opportune time. The resistance movement was building, and she became a regular at YPRC events. She eventually joined the group, becoming their minister of organization.

“I would say that the election pushed me to be more present in organizing,” Ai said. “The election encouraged people to create these spaces, which encouraged me to join them.”

Since joining, she has worked with YPRC on a number of community-based initiatives aimed at helping immigrants and other marginalized people. YPRC puts on legal clinics, administers “know your rights” training, helps people fill out legal documents, and gives information and funding to people navigating detention centers. Ai said that two people have been released from detention centers because of the group’s work.

For Ai, doing this work seems to be the only way of life she can imagine. “If I’m not doing it then what am I doing,” she said.

71% of millennials either think that the country is going in the wrong direction or aren’t sure, according to the Millennial Impact Report. Luckily, it seems that many are getting up and doing something about it.