Dear John,
As a Senior Advisor to Women’s March, I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts with you, and to let you know about an opportunity to join us in action.
First, the attack on the Capitol that occurred last Wednesday and the lack of repercussions for this mob violence shouldn’t come as shocking news.
When I heard commentators characterize what happened as atypical, seditious, and un-American – I immediately thought about the record of lynchings in the United States.
From 1877 to 1950, 4,075 Black men, women, and children were lynched. Not only were the perpetrators not prosecuted, but their murderous rampages were also applauded by the majority in their white communities.
The U.S. Congress never passed an anti-lynching law. The legacy of allowing white domestic terror-inducing violence to go unpunished started long before that with the genocide of nearly 55 million Indigenous people. It is an American tradition, and it is alive and well.
As appalling as the current occupant of the White House is, at the end of the day, he is a symptom and not the cause. He has played upon and manipulated the fault lines of bigotry, inequality, and injustice that thrived in this country long before he was born.
We really need to ask ourselves what exactly is going on here that made conditions so ripe for 45’s ascendancy. From my perspective, a major driver is unacknowledged white supremacy.
By white supremacy, I do not merely mean organized hate group activity, but the systemic racial injustice that infects every aspect of U.S. political, economic, social, and cultural life. Unless we figure out how to challenge it we will see these tragedies happen again and again.
While we reel from the horrors that we witnessed, what can we do next? Women’s March is proud to be part of The Frontline, a coalition including groups like the Movement for Black Lives, that will host a mass organizing meeting this Saturday, January 16.
On the call, I’ll be joined by incredible speakers to process the last four years and to envision the future we want to build. Rinku Sen, Women’s March Board Co-President, and I will be in conversation around gender justice.
I believe that Women’s Marchers are particularly equipped to find some answers to the question that I just raised about what is going on in our country and in our local communities that got us to this point. These are the topics we will dig into on Saturday.
Please RSVP now to reserve your spot and we’ll be in touch soon with more details.
Our work is still far from over and our movements for justice need to be stronger than ever.
I hope you’ll continue rising up with us in this fight,
Barbara Smith
Senior Advisor
Women’s March
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