I attended the Table Talk on the Women’s March on Monday, and it was cool to see many different points and opinions by the other Rose Scholars and GRFs. I think all the comments are valid and valuable, even if I didn’t agree with some of them. Here are just a few of my thoughts after the talk, and a thing that I wish had come up in conversation (but hadn’t–but I don’t really blame the conversation, it was something that’s harder to bring up).

So… the women’s march. I won’t deny its impact on a lot of women who went, and I won’t deny its impact on the fact that it is the largest organized march in history, but I will say that I am skeptical on the idea of ‘inclusive feminism” and intersectionality behind the women’s march. I’m definitely impressed with the turnout and the overall message (“we won’t back down/we stand together/solidarity/etc.”), and I’ll be the first to say that it was definitely very powerful… but I’m skeptical about the future. White feminism is pretty rooted in our history and there were definitely anecdotes from women of color/LGBTQ+ identifying women who felt that there were people at the march who invalidated their existence.

At the table talk, it was mentioned that everyone who went had different reasons for going, whether it was to celebrate an identity or to fight for a friend or a loved one who was affected by the insane executive orders or Trump’s damaging and alienating words. But, it’s actually not that big of a secret that some women went to the women’s march because it was “cool.” To them, it was a just something to do because they were bored, not because the march held any significance for them. There’s a particularly heartbreaking story circulating around on social media as an indigenous woman recounts her experience at the women’s march. She was approached by white feminists who asked if she was a real human, who took pictures of her and her group (they were wearing regalia), who casually (and insensitively) said, “Guess we’re Indians today!” while marching alongside the group (and then proceeded to get offended when the group of indigenous woman said “We don’t get to choose if we’re native or not. This is our reality & you are not Indian. You are disrespectful & need to go.“)

It’s not a particularly well known fact, but Susan B. Anthony, an activist who played a large role in the women’s suffrage movement, employed some strategic racism to achieve her goals. She was an opponent of the 15th amendment (which granted all black men the right to vote), and quite casually “climbed” on the backs of people of color to achieve her goals. Moving forward, what evidence is there for us to believe that something like that won’t happen again?

A lot of women of color have critiqued the women’s march, asking questions like why it took white women so long to rally together–where were they at black lives matter marches, and where are they in the fight against DAPL? Moreover… why were BLM marches considered “divisive” while the women’s march was considered more “virtuous”? People cited low arrest numbers–but were they that way because of the message behind the march, or a different method of policing entirely because of who went to the marches?

Moving forward… I just wonder if this is a one time thing. I just wonder if women of color are always going to be seen as “lesser,” their causes less virtuous and existence a burden. There is power in the march, sure, but will this be the one time that women from all walks of life come together? Or will women of color/people of color/minorities/LGBTQ+ identifying people continue to fight the hard fight alone? Remember that the majority of white women voted for Donald Trump. In the past, white women climbed on the backs of people of color in order to achieve their goals. Of course, I hope with every fiber of my being that this is a step towards a good direction and that we will all come together and work towards a better world. But, at the same time. I don’t think I’m wrong in being just a bit skeptical.