Roosevelt Institute Fellow, MSNBC pundit, Columbia University professor, author (the upcoming The Three Faces of Unions) Dorian Warren is or has been all these things, along with chairing the Center for Community Change, and serving as Research Associate at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. Often called to television roundtables and policy conferences to speak about race, economic inequality and labor, Warren talked to Capital & Main last week on the coming Trump years.

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Capital & Main: So after this unprecedented presidential campaign, what can we all do now?

Dorian Warren: Number one: We need to build a defense around immigrants. We need to mobilize non-immigrant folks around this deportation issue, which is immediate. Making schools sanctuaries, et cetera. Two: We have to defend the social safety net Social Security, welfare, everything. Those are all in danger. Without them, people are going to suffer and people are going to die, without question. We have to raise up those stories of harm. Even if mainstream or legacy media dont do it, social media can do it, for younger folks especially. The media landscape has changed to the point where there are options.

And as we do these things we have to keep the long-term vision in mind. We need to be recruiting people to be engaged all the time, not just for the short term. Im hopeful that this Trump victory will mobilize everybody. Frankly I dont think we have a choice our backs are to the wall now. Republicans are going to be drunk on power, and theres a lack of compassion and a lack of apology about it.

How do we mobilize black people around immigration? Whats little discussed is that African Americans have complicated feelings about immigration and always have because of their struggles with employment and discrimination that cuts across color lines. Its one reason why some black folks voted for Trump.

Black people are immigrants, too even though we dont think of immigrants as black, especially in California. But what worries me is that if the new administration has a law-and-order posse rounding up immigrants, they could come for us. So we have to link our fates, protect groups that are as targeted as we have been, historically. But it wont be easy because [the] Latino leadership has ignored black crises. Were going to have to figure it out.

Black Lives Matter is related to the deportation questionRepublicans will deploy the same troops to quell our protests. Thats scary. Well all be targets. So what does pushback look like? I think in this period we have to be really local. Theres some silver lining there. In Chicago, where I live, we won a really important DA race, replacing a conservative Latina with a progressive black woman. It didnt get a lot of media attention but thats the kind of thing that could make a big difference. We could still offer transformative policy and reform on the local level. Its part of something else bigger that we have to do, which is developing a deeper benchtraining progressive people, running them for office and really holding them accountable. Im over electing Democrats and hoping theyll do the right thing, voting [while] keeping my fingers crossed.