Here is a powerful piece from C. Elaine Thomas, a poet, writer, vocalist, educator, and performer that has been very active both in the Hamburg and Northern Germany Chapter and the Black Caucus in Democrats Abroad. Let her words inspire you!
*From Hamburg, Watching America Attempt to Erase Us. *
As a Black woman activist living in Hamburg, Germany, I watch from this distance a nation move steadily away from its own promises.
Civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the ACLU, have declared a state of emergency for civil rights and Black America. This declaration reflects a growing recognition that recent policy changes are not isolated acts, but part of a broader dismantling of protections won through decades of struggle.
One of the most consequential shifts has been the rollback of the “disparate impact” standard, making it far harder to challenge policies that appear neutral yet produce racially discriminatory outcomes in housing, lending, and employment. At the same time, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has been redirected away from combating anti-Black discrimination and toward investigating diversity and equity initiatives, turning the tools of justice against the very efforts meant to ensure fairness.
Policies affecting homelessness and policing reveal similar patterns. New federal orders allow for the removal of unhoused encampments and threaten to withhold funds from cities that have eliminated cash bail. Black Americans, who make up over 40% of the unhoused population, are disproportionately harmed by these measures, as poverty is once again treated as a crime rather than a condition requiring care.
Education, long a cornerstone of Black advancement, is also under pressure. While public support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities has been signaled, proposed cuts to Pell Grants and work-study programs jeopardize institutions where more than 75% of students rely on that aid. Meanwhile, funding for museums and curricula that tell honest, race-centered histories, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has been targeted under claims that truth itself is “divisive.”
Black borrowers continue to carry a disproportionate share of student loan debt, even as income-based repayment and loan forgiveness options are paused or narrowed. New Medicaid and SNAP work requirements impose additional burdens on communities already facing structural barriers, despite Black Americans comprising roughly 20% of Medicaid enrollees. Voting rights, too, are under strain, with new identification requirements placing higher obstacles before Black voters, particularly elders and those without access to passports or consistent documentation.
Add to this the removal of Black Lives Matter Plaza, the erasing of Black historical figures from national websites, and the rollback of DEI initiatives, and the pattern becomes unmistakable. This is not accidental. It is erasure by design.
Let our resistance be gentle, but unwavering, ever persistent.
*Light a candle for the ancestors whose names are being removed, and speak those names aloud.
*Teach one child a truth that has been pushed aside.
*Give what you can, when you can, to organizations committed to justice.
*Write one letter. *Make one call. *Show up once more than convenience allows. *Vote.
*Practice compassion without surrendering clarity.
Dr. King taught us that hope is not a feeling; it is a discipline. It is the decision to act even when the outcome is uncertain.
Don’t forget: We are still here.
We have been here for centuries.
@Camille Elaine Thomas