Black woman in viral Women’s March photo has message to white women
Angela Peoples, the director of LGBTQ empowerment organization GetEQUAL, was the woman in a now-viral picture from the Woman’s March this past weekend in which she can be seen wearing a hat that says “Stop killing black people” and holding a sign that says “White women voted for Trump” while three white women are taking pictures just behind her.
In an interview with The Root, Peoples said that many white women who saw the sign got defensive, saying, “Not this white woman” and “No one I know!”
But she replied, “[Fifty-three percent] of white women voted for Trump. That means someone you know, someone who is in close community with you, voted for Trump. You need to organize your people.”
— Millions worldwide join anti-Trump women’s marches —
During the interview, she went on to address why the picture resonated with so many people, saying, “It tells the story of white women in this moment wanting to just show up in a very superficial way and not wanting to do the hard work of making change, of challenging their own privilege. You’re here protesting, but don’t forget: The folks that you live with every single day ― and probably some of the women that decided to come to the march ― voted for Trump, made the decision to vote against self-interests to maintain their white supremacist way of life.”
She then spoke to white women directly:
“I would actually say to white women, if you want to be a part of a powerful movement that’s going to get something done, you need to get behind and trust black women, trust black femmes, trust black trans women. Because we are making this way out of no way,” she said. “If you’re a white woman thinking, ‘What’s next? Everything seems insurmountable,’ welcome to the f***ing party. Listen to a black woman.”
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