Op-Ed: We’ve Been Here Before: What the Reagan Era Can Teach Us About the Trump Years

Joint Center President Dedrick Asante-Muhammad penned an op-ed published in the Washington Informer and URL Media on the parallels between the Reagan and Trump administrations and the necessity of an organization like the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies to help protect marginalized communities against extreme policy shifts.

From the op-ed: “Just as the Civil Rights Movement brought historic gains in the 1960s, the Reagan administration in the 1980s brought a backlash. And today, we are seeing that pattern repeat itself. After the 2020 murder of George Floyd sparked a national reckoning with racial injustice, it didn’t take long for the pendulum to swing again. The dismantling of diversity programs, the rise of misinformation, and the targeting of civil rights protections under Donald Trump echo strategies we’ve seen before.”

Click here to read the op-ed in the Washington Informer and URL Media. This essay was adapted into a long-form essay. Click here to read the full piece.