ATLANTA (AP) Teja Smith laughed at the prospect of participating in another Women’s March on Washington as she checked into a recent flight to Mexico for a vacation.
She simply could not envision herself as a Black woman contributing to the biggest demonstration against then-President Donald Trump’s first term in January 2017. Trump didn’t merely win a second term this year, despite his questioning of his opponent’s race, racist remarks at rallies, and unfounded claims that Black immigrants in Ohio were consuming local pets. He narrowly won the popular vote, making him the first Republican to do so in 20 years.
Smith, the creator of the advocacy social media company Get Social, based in Los Angeles, said, “It’s like the people have spoken and this is what America looks like.” Furthermore, you will not be able to battle much longer without losing your own sanity.
Many politically active Black women expressed their dismay at the results, saying they were reevaluating but not entirely giving up on their passion for electoral politics and movement organizing after Trump was proclaimed the victor over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
In their communities, black women frequently do the majority of the work to increase voter turnout. They had fervently backed Harris’ historic campaign, which would have made her the first South Asian and Black woman to win the president.
Olivia Gordon is photographed at a park in Yonkers, N.Y., Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Pictured by Stefan Jeremiah/Associated Press
Harris’ passing sparked a social media movement among Black women who decided to put themselves first before giving so much to a nation that repeatedly demonstrated its disregard for their issues.
Six out of ten Black women, more than any other demographic group, cited the survival of American democracy as the most significant consideration when casting their ballots this year, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of over 120,000 voters. With Trump returning to office in two months, however, some Black women are reiterating demands to prioritize rest, pay attention to mental health, and be more cautious about which causes they use their organizational skills for.
LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of the national voting rights organization Black Voters Matter, stated that America will have to save herself.
She likened Black women’s involvement in social justice movements as key organizers and strategists to the North Star, which is regarded as the galaxy’s most reliable and steady star due to its seeming fixed location in the sky. Brown stated that although Black women may be trusted to spearhead change, the course of the next four years will be different.
That is not a difficult assignment for us. That title is not what we desire. “I don’t want to be a martyr for a country that doesn’t care about me,” she stated.
Black women’s worries are clearly depicted by AP VoteCast.
In contrast to other factors like abortion or high costs, black female voters were more likely to cite democracy as the primary reason for their vote. While just over two out of ten Black female voters expressed this anxiety about Harris, almost seven out of ten indicated they were extremely worried that voting Trump would push the country closer to tyranny.
According to AP VoteCast, about 90% of Black women voters favored Harris in 2024, which is comparable to the percentage that favored Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. In both years, the vast majority of Trump’s coalition was composed of white people, of whom more than half supported him.
About one-third of Black women, like all voters, said that the economy and jobs were the most significant issues confronting the nation. However, they were significantly less likely than other groups to say that immigration was the most important issue, and more likely than many other groups to state that racism and abortion were the most important issues.
Despite these worries, which Black women raised throughout the campaign, Trump’s advantage grew and his victory was assured thanks to growing support from white women and young men of color.
Black women who are politically active stated that they had no intention of remaining a part of the spine of American democracy. Black women have historically been present and at the vanguard of political and social change, therefore the growing movement that is forcing them to retreat is a departure from that.
The women’s suffrage movement, which resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, granting women the right to vote, is among the first examples. However, Jim Crow laws that prohibited the grandchildren of slaves from voting, literacy tests, and poll taxes kept black women from exercising their right to vote for decades after the Civil War. Prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the majority of Black women were unable to vote.
The historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, which predates federal legislation, including black women as organizers and marchers who were brutalized on Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. Following the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and vigilantes, Black women played a significant role in organizing the Black Lives Matter movement decades later.
Trump demanded throughout his 2024 campaign that federal funds be used to stop government programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as classroom conversations about sexual orientation, gender, and ethnicity. Support for his intention to deport millions of people was fueled by his rhetoric on immigration, which included unfounded allegations that Black Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were consuming cats and dogs.
Tenita Taylor, a Black Atlanta resident who voted for Trump this year, claimed that she was first thrilled about Harris’s campaign. However, she believes that voting for Trump in the hopes of eventually receiving reduced prices was a type of self-prioritization after considering how high her shopping expenses have been.
People remark, “Well, that’s selfish,” but she answered, “it was going to be better for the greater good.” I have five children. Both the rich and the poor are impacted by the actions of Democrats.
Olivia Gordon found it difficult to support the Black women’s rest movement because some of Trump’s policies have an impact on her immediate community. Gordon, a lawyer from New York who supports Claudia de la Cruz, the presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is concerned about who may be left behind if the 92% of Black women voters who supported Harris suddenly quit supporting him.
Millions of Black women are at issue here. “It definitely leaves holes if millions of Black women take a step back, but for other Black women,” she added. I believe that we occasionally live in a bubble where things may not apply to us if they are not in our close social group. And I sincerely hope people realize that it does.
According to Nicole Lewis, a therapist in Alabama who focuses on helping Black women deal with stress, she is aware that Black women who stop participating in social impact movements may face consequences. She does, however, hope that it pushes the country to face the implications of failing to stand with Black women.
Because there isn’t that voice from the most sympathetic group, it could have a detrimental effect, she added. Additionally, I believe it will provide other groups with a chance to take the lead. For themselves and everyone else, I hope they do show up.
According to Brown, a reckoning may be just what the nation needs, but it’s also a reckoning for everyone. She claimed that Black women fulfilled their duty when they flocked to Harris’s help in the hopes of blocking the significant reforms that Trump had planned.
She answered, “This isn’t our reckoning.” I have no sense of guilt.
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This report was written by Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington and AP polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux.
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