Equality and Diversity Issues in the Time of Trump (PDF)

During the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, Republican candidate (now President) Donald J. Trump made headlines around the world for vitriolic and inflammatory remarks against women, immigrants, Muslims, and other minority groups. Trump promised to build a wall along the Mexican border, ban Muslims from entering the U.S., tighten abortion laws, repeal the Affordable Care Act ("e;Obamacare"e;), and restrict press freedom (Bulman, 2016). His vision to "e;make America great again"e; appealed to many white, working class Americans who were angry at or resentful of immigrants, a lack of opportunities for themselves, ideological-based terrorist attacks, and political correctness (Boag, 2016). Many lesser-educated white voters also felt abandoned by Progressives (Vance, 2016). Indeed, a recent study has shown that sexism and racism predicted support for Trump much more than economic dissatisfaction (Schnaffer, MacWilliams, & Nteta, 2017).The election of a candidate that so blatantly used an 'us vs. them' approach to campaigning has generated fear and uncertainty among a majority of people in the U.S., but for women, racial, cultural, and religious minorities, as well as LGBTs, there is serious worry that their hard-fought rights and social respect will disintegrate (Filipovic, 2016). For example, an increase in the number of hate crimes across the U.S. followed Trump's victory (Yan, Sgueglia, & Walker, 2016), events in which the perpetrators clearly refer to the support offered by Trump and his rhetoric. Trump's election to the White House also seems to have energized the "e;alt-right"e; movement, which frequently uses unverified and completely fake news and "e;post truths"e; in social media outlets, sometimes highlighting racial, gender, religious and cultural differences in negative ways. We agree with Tourish (2017) and Ng's (2017) recognition that as academics, we have a responsibility to respond in a timely fashion about current events that affect our world. To that end, we have developed this special issue to reflect on the election of President Trump, as well as how his campaign and presidency relates to equality, diversity, and inclusion efforts in the U.S. and elsewhere.