Taking just action against Trump

by UB Center for Urban Studies · 08/07/2025

My 2017 book, The Color of Law, showed that “de facto,” accidental, neighborhood segregation is a myth; in truth, government purposely enforced it, creating racial inequality in wealth, education, employment, health, and criminal justice. Readers asked, “What can we do about it now?” So in 2023, Leah Rothstein and I published a sequel, Just Action, that showed how community groups could remedy this unconstitutional system. Intended for normal times, its suggestions for direct action have become urgent when Trump’s unlawful policies in housing and other sectors call for resistance. Just Action and follow-up articles describe how to create diverse committees that can embrace all who seek to preserve democracy.

Trump has taken full control of federal power—executive, legislative, and judicial—to:

destroy our already inadequate safety net;
gut health and environmental protections;
promote racial and ethnic inequality;
threaten the security of immigrants and their citizen children;
prohibit schools from teaching historical truth.

He’s now moved to rig elections in 2026 and 2028, so will no longer depend on popular support. Marches, rallies, and media outrage remain necessary but insufficient. We are now called upon to do more than protest, but to act. What John Lewis called “good trouble, necessary trouble” becomes essential. As Trump “floods the zone” with so many illegal policies that we can’t keep up, so should resistance emerge in many sectors and communities to throw his authoritarianism off balance.

By: Richard Rothstein

August 5, 2025

Read the full story here: EPI Action