Hear My Voice and Count My Vote: In Support of the Cincinnati Women’s March
“A black woman’s survival depends on her ability to use all the economic, social, and cultural resources available to her from both the larger society and within her community.” Deborah K. King, Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of A Black Feminist Ideology
January 20th, the 2nd annual Women’s March Cincinnati, will be held at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The march will feature a diverse panel of women speaking on a wide range of issues impacting women today with the theme, “Hear Our Vote”. Full disclosure — I am one of those women. As a board member of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, I will be addressing reproductive rights and the impact that the myriad attacks of late have had on everyday women. To say we are under attack would be an understatement.
On January 7, 2018, Black Lives Matter Cincinnati issued a statement denouncing the Women’s March primarily because of its focus on electoral politics and also because of criticisms of both the national and local marches by women of color. The statement challenged the feminism of the Women’s March and called for supporters to join BLMC in denouncing the rally by standing with them at a women’s liberation event they plan to hold on the same day as the Women’s March.
Full disclosure — I am a radical black feminist and a founding member of BLMC and though I left the group several years ago, I still support many of their stances on black liberation. With that said, I disagree with their stance on electoral politics generally and their take on the Women’s March specifically. Here’s why.
In the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, I lamented over whether or not I should participate in the vote and should I, for whom I would vote. Like BLMC, I am under no illusion that the American political system offers freedom for working class, people of color like me. I know that our liberation will not come from voting or from any politician offering empty promises at election time. But what I also know is that liberation is not easy nor is it quick. And in the meantime and in between time while we’re fighting and waiting for change to come, we’re suffering from decisions made in Washington and Columbus and struggling to survive. I decided to vote and I cast my ballot for Hillary Rodham Clinton. My glasses are clear not rose-colored, and I was under no illusion that Clinton was radical or particularly progressive. This was simply a vote for the lesser of two evils.
And I stand by that vote. Beyond crudeness, Trump’s presidency has proven dangerous to black people, specifically black women. This administration has made it clear that we can’t wait for a tomorrow that isn’t promised. We have to act today.
While we wait for revolution, black women’s rights to affordable healthcare, abortion, and birth control are threatened. While we wait for revolution, black women are being paid less than both black men, white women, and of course white men. Additionally, while we wait for revolution, black women workers are impacted by the loss of protections for overtime compensation. While we wait for revolution, black trans women are being killed and losing what little protections they already had and black trans women in the military, already vulnerable because of their race and gender, are all the more vulnerable because of this administration’s intent to ban them from service. While we wait for revolution, working class black families are set to bear the brunt of a tax plan that will devastate this country’s working and middle classes.
It is not feminist to ignore these issues.
All of these issues can be addressed through legislative action and electoral politics. Will they solve all of the problems facing black women and other marginalized groups? Of course not. But what they will do is create a somewhat more favorable meantime.
Black feminism is a politic that arose out of working class Black women’s struggle for survival and recognition in a time when black men and white women routinely denied space for black women in mainstream liberation movements. Black women learned to navigate spaces where their issues weren’t prioritized and create platforms for their voices to be heard. The critiques by black women and other women of color of the Women’s March are not new. However, black women have always used various platforms to make their priorities clear. Black women are survivors who, as the aforementioned quote describes, learned to use what they had today to create a better tomorrow.
If we want true liberation for black women and all women, all marginalized peoples, then we have to learn to use the resources at our fingertips to survive. That means getting out the vote and participating in mass action. That means shouting our priorities from whatever platform is available to us and demanding a seat at the table. That means understanding that true liberation won’t come without a fight and that that fight will be multifaceted. I have every confidence that black women, who’ve been surviving for centuries, can handle both and anything else that comes our way.
