In Durham, neighbors plan for an uncertain future together in a second Trump term

Local grassroots gather in solidarity as election results raise community concerns.

Bundled up in jackets, beanies, and sweaters, over a hundred people gathered on Sunday afternoon, sipping vegan hot chocolate and laying blankets on the leaf-covered grass at Durham’s Forest Hill Park. The scene marked the first community assembly of its kind, where neighbors, families, and friends were drawn not only by concern, but by the hope of building solidarity and resistance from “the looming threat of a second Trump era.” 

Trump campaigned on mass deportations, resentment toward immigrants, anti-LGBTQ policies, drastic cuts to federal education support, and questioned whether any election that he lost would be valid, spurring fears about what Americans can expect from a second Trump term.  

Grassroots and community organizers are working now to try to prepare for it. The Durham meet was organized by groups like Triangle Mutual Aid, Triangle Stop Cop City, the Black Rose Anarchist Federation, Durham Really Really Free Market, Durham Prison Letters, and more. The assembly focused on community building, and tackling misinformation and political targeting of people of color, LGBTQ+, and women.

“Of course we know there are many groups of people who are experiencing fear and feeling danger from the results of the election, and those feelings are real and valid,” David M. Ceartas, a community organizer with TMA, said. “But there’s also a lot of people who were already suffering, including those who have been hurt by policies of the current administration, or by recent court rulings. We’re just glad that we already know who has our back, that we have a circle of people to turn to in need.”

Ceartas stressed the importance of mutual aid in times of uncertainty. 

The gathering highlighted a range of initiatives: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, Stand Up for Trans Women at Duke (a group that created a petition opposing what they characterize as anti-trans views within Duke University faculty), Durham Community Fridges’ food-sharing projects, and Comrades in the Commons, a letter-writing campaign for incarcerated people. 

Members of the community also proposed new initiatives, including cosmetology program for affordable haircuts for trans individuals, a place to create space for Black and queer people, and a healthcare workers’ group to aid pro-Palestinian activists, as well as a rapid response network to prepare for possible mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, which Trump promised to fulfill on day one of his administration. 

The Latino vote

Members of the community assembly also focused on the Latino community, and its turnout in the 2024 elections.

According to the American Immigration Council, more than 46 million immigrants live in the nation, and the highest number of immigrants, 23.1%, come from Mexico. Nearly 14% of the nation’s residents are foreign-born, and more than half of them are naturalized citizens. Immigrants support the US economy in many ways as business owners, STEM workers, nurses, and more.

The Latino vote was considered critical to the Democratic Party’s chances in 2024, as it has been for decades. But this year’s exit polls in 10 key states reported that 55% of self-identified Latino men and 38% of Latino women voted Republican. In North Carolina, the percentage of Latino men voting for Republicans increased by 7%, while the number for Latino women didn’t change. 

For many on the left, working-class Latino support for Trump was surprising, considering Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. And just days before Election Day, Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian, Trump supporter, and speaker at a Trump rally in New York, angered many by calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.”

 

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Prior to the election in North Carolina, Cardinal & Pine spoke with some members of the Latino community in Charlotte to ask them what was influencing their vote. Many said women’s rights, inflation, the economy, and immigration policies.

But with a second Trump administration, working-class Latinos and other working-class individuals should be wary of potentially higher cost of consumer goods due to tariff increases, rollbacks of health care access through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, and heightened ICE activity.

 

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Quinny, a member of the Latino community who has been encouraging Latino voter turnout through her social media page @somosdurham, said during the assembly that she finds the Latino support for Trump troubling. She encouraged dialogue with the Latino community to understand it. 

Make America informed again

Another member of the Latino community, Mya Castillo-Marte, said she’s scared about the next four years, and what a Republican-dominated federal government will mean for her rights as a woman, and for its impact on how Latinos will be perceived and treated.

She said she’ll still speak out, though, because to her, “silence is violence.”

“It’s exactly why Trump won the elections—because a lot of people just stayed home,” Castillo-Marte said. “They stayed quiet. So I think as much fear as I can have, I think it’d be scarier to sit around, do nothing, and to let certain narratives and certain people who want certain things be in power.”

In terms of what she’s trying to organize, Castillo-Marte said she wants to “make America informed again” by finding common ground with one another despite widespread misinformation.

“We have a trust problem in America,” she said. “We don’t trust the sources that are even supposed to be credible. We’ve been pushed a certain agenda, a certain view on Latinos, and a certain view on how tariffs work.”

RELATED: Social media misinformation is breaking Americans. Here’s how to spot it and stamp it out.

Castillo-Marte said communication is key. 

“It’s why we need to at least make sure that the people who are the most vocal in terms of their beliefs, are especially informed, and coming together with people who they’re comfortable with, to hear other sides,” she said. “I don’t know if you’re going to change many minds, but good communication would be a start.” 

Castillo-Marte’s call for communication struck a chord with others who see solidarity as the antidote to fear and division

Minh-Thu, a volunteer at Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub, a Raleigh-based 501(c)(3) organization invited to the assembly, said her first reaction to the election was fear. 

“But then I remember that I continue to work with mutual aid efforts and direct action, and it empowered me to do more for the community,” Minh-Thu said. “Because electoral politics can go a certain way, but there are always things that you need in your local community in order to create something sustainable.”

At its core, the assembly served as a fresh call to action—a collective stand rooted in resilience, as the community prepared to protect their own amid an uncertain future political climate. 

“This assembly is not something that we have ever experienced in person before,” said Emily, a member of TMA. “So this was incredible to see a large group of people from all around the triangle come together in the same movement after experiencing something very disheartening in our country.”

Organizers said they’re planning a second community assembly Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. at the Wilson Park in Carrboro.