Anxiety in Academia: Trump Trauma Observed

Trump intent on destroying uncomfortable truths

Clare Wilderson

Since the Donald Trump election victory, I have spoken to hundreds of students in my UCLA identity community. Most have expressed severe distress, telling me of their anxieties about the future. Young women and men seeking to work for environmental change, for racial and gender justice, or to pursue creative careers in the arts have been disheartened by Trump's retrograde actions and appointments and his sexist, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric before and since his inauguration.

I share these reactions entirely. But these conversations have taken a far grimmer turn when I discuss Trump and his policies with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students, Muslim students, and others whose anxieties are more immediate and more intimately personal. Some examples are distressingly revealing about the state of anxiety at UCLA and probably hundreds of American college and university campuses.

Regularly, I hear about students, siblings, and parents who may soon lose healthcare coverage. This is potentially catastrophic: finances, health, even lives are at stake. I also have DACA students from Belize, Bolivia, and Mexico. Each is frightened about her future. Will DACA continue? Will her parents be deported and her family broken up? Will she herself be deported? Can she plan for her educational and professional future in the US? The specter of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps hover over their lives. Their anxiety is palpable.

My students from Trump's suspect nations fare even worse. One young Syrian woman has a boyfriend in detention seeking asylum. I see her anxiety as she worries about him while struggling with her personal academic responsibilities. Other students, from Iran, wonder what might happen to relatives there: can they even travel to America? Can the students themselves travel to see them in Tehran? Will they be harassed—or worse—at US airports by overzealous or racist Homeland Security officials?

These are real worries and they must not be trivialized. The Trump election has caused widespread emotional trauma on the nation's campuses. My best advice to my students is to resist, personally and politically.