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Many African Americans have expressed worry about a potentially perilous four years under President Donald Trump. To that point, nationally renowned attorney Ben Crump called for an often under-appreciated force to come to Black people’s rescue – the Black press.
“As we come upon this new year, now more than ever, we’re gonna need the leadership of the NNPA to lead our Black community,” said Crump, who viewed that leadership coming in the form of providing unfiltered, truthful hard news to combat potential dangers.
Crump’s NNPA call
“To all the [NNPA members] and executives across the country, I say, now is our time to stand up and be counted. History will ask the question, where were you when they tried to roll back our civil rights, when they tried to destroy Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and when they try to say to our children that Black history doesn’t matter? Where were you,” he stated.
Crump added that NNPA members must be ready to confront individuals, Black people, lawmakers and others who turn their backs on the needs of the Black community.
“This time in history, we must challenge [the] souls of Black people every opportunity we get. Because there will be some people who would take the path of least resistance, and we have to be ready to call them out,” he said.
Crump is not the only one sounding the alarm about Trump’s actions. Even before Crump’s charge to Black media, multiple Black media members have used their platforms to keep the general public, and Black people specifically, up to date on the barrage of Trump executive orders impacting Black people.
Trump-era challenges
New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator Keith Boykin, recently spotlighted the eight different goals of the federal DEI program Trump demonized and ended.
- Data collection, to give us a better understanding of who is and isn’t in the federal workforce
- Paid Internships, which provide valuable opportunities and experience for people from underserved communities
- Recruitment, so that the government doesn’t just hire the usual suspects but posts job announcements in places where other people can see them,
- Professional development, so that once people are hired they can continue to expand their skills and become better workers,
- Fair treatment of people with disabilities, so that they can get a job and find appropriate accommodations,
- LGBT fairness, so that spouses and families of LGBT employees get the same benefits as other families do,
- Pay equity, to review government policies, hiring, and salaries to make sure that women and people of color aren’t being paid less to do the same jobs, and
- Opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, to review barriers so that qualified job applicants who have served their time get a fair shot at getting a job.
“These are not radical, illegal, or immoral ideas,” said Boykin. “These are calls to the highest principles of America, with the stated goal that “all employees are treated with dignity and respect.”
Like Boykin, and true to Crump’s call, Word In Black reporter Jennifer Porter Gore has reported on Trump’s moves that carry with them potentially deadly ramifications for Black people.
“In a flurry of executive orders signed just hours after he took office, President Donald Trump rescinded a Biden administration order on prescription drugs — a move that could hike drug prices for millions of Medicare and Medicaid enrollees,” reported Gore. “At the same time, Trump also reversed Biden’s efforts to make it easier for people to enroll in Medicaid or to get insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.”
That Trump move could prove fatal on a large scale for the just over seven million Black people who have health coverage through Medicare.
Another Black press member, Roland Martin, recently discussed how many of the Project 2025 projections are already coming to pass, including Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship – an addition to the U.S. Constitution that granted citizenship to formerly enslaved Black people and their future kin born in the U.S.
A different kind of danger to Black people was alluded to via a social media post celebrating Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025 inauguration by the Proud Boys, an identified white domestic terrorist organization. The group known for threatening and engaging in violence against Black people posted: “There are no more safe spaces.”
Another Black media member, Lurie Daniel Favors, breaks down some of Trump’s week one executive orders here in the YouTube video below.
Black press needed
Crump told NNPA members during his address that Black people can’t rely on mainstream media to keep us informed about weighty issues like those mentioned.
“There’s a fourth branch of government. It is called the independent press. And I’m not counting on MSNBC. I’m not counting on CNN. I’m not counting on Fox News. Me and my house, we will count on the NNPA to be our fourth branch of government. To make sure that we get information that is hard-hitting facts and it’s not watered-down, it’s not orchestrated, it’s not manipulated. But it is the information to help us be unapologetic defenders of Black life, of Black liberty, of Black culture,” said Crump.
Crump added that the NNPA has the power to “well arm” Black youth with intellect, diplomacy and strategic thinking to protest the prison industrial complex, voter suppression, denial of access to quality healthcare and denial of access to capital.
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