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Professor Delivered Passionate Presentation

By Zane Harvey

Wayne State University

Com 2100, Feb. 12, 2018

Wayne State University alumnus and guest lecturer said disrupting the Trump era

political system is necessary.

Clarence Lusane, Ph.D., delivered a passionate presentation at the Spencer M. Partrich

Auditorium in the law school on Wayne State University’s main campus on February 8.

“The country has never been post racial. It has never been colorblind,” Lusane said. “In

2018, King’s words are being used to sell trucks.”

There wouldn’t be a commercial on television using Fidel Castro to sell a product,

Lusane said.

Lusane began his presentation 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. People were

trickling in up until that point. The name of the event was African American Politics in the

Trump Era, but the introduction slide read “Black Politics in the Obama-Trump Era.”

The Trump presidency cannot be understood without first understanding the reaction to

the Obama presidency, Lusane said. Whites are feeling like they are the victim of prejudice, he

said.

“This is important because this is exactly what Trump tapped into,” Lusane said. “At the

center of this white supremacist rebirth is Donald Trump.”

Included in this rebirth is Trump’s cabinet, conservative media, GOP leaders, and the

Republican base, he said.

 “Fox and Friends is basically Trump and friends,” Lusane said. The different sections of

the Republican base hold their beliefs to different extents, he said.

Part of the base doesn’t necessarily like Trump, but they believe that he is the best shot to

further their agenda, Lusane said.

“Q and A was a nice touch,” Jesse Bens, an audience member, said.

People who knew Lusane for over 30 years were able to get a chance to ask questions,

Bens said.

“My expectations were exceeded,” Dalia Ibrahim, an audience member, said. “My

question is how to balance passivity and disruption.”

Often times discussions covering this topic can be divisive, and that’s not at all how

Ibrahim interpreted it, she said.

Disruptive politics that make a society uncomfortable are what needs to be done, Lusane

said. Passivity doesn’t work and hasn’t worked, he said.

“So where does King stand?” Lusane said. “Injustice must be interrupted.”

Lusane would prefer civil disobedience over passive politics, he said.

“I expected it maybe to be more in depth,” Xavier Stallworth said.

He wanted the discussion to cover more about what could be done as a community to

help race relations as a whole and not focus purely on Trump, he said.

Although his expectations weren’t met, Stallworth enjoyed the presentation, he said. He

believes that the audience members will have more confidence in expressing their points of view

because of this presentation, he said.

Trump sees the media as being the enemy of the state, but really he sees it as the enemy

of himself, Lusane said.

“One of the things we are seeing is a rise in hate groups,” Lusane said.

Since 2015, the number of hate groups has steadily and significantly increased, he said.

“So how should the black community respond?” Lusane said. “Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt!”

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