Angela Peoples (1986- ) is a US activist fighting for equal rights for Black and queer (LGBTQ) people, currently the co-director of GetEQUAL. She is best known for a picture of her holding a sign that says:
“Don’t forget: White Women Voted for Trump.”
– while sucking on a lollipop. Right behind her are three White women, one of them taking a picture of herself, the other two looking at their phones. They are at the women’s march in Washington, DC the day after Donald Trump became president. Her hat says, “Stop Killing Black People”.
In 2016, 53% of White women voted for Donald Trump while 94% of Black women voted for Hillary Clinton.
She says the march “definitely felt very white.”
What she would say to the White women behind her:
“I would say 53% of white women voted for him. Someone in your family voted for him. Someone you are friends with voted for him, and that put my life and my family’s life in greater danger. So go talk to your family and talk to your friends and move them away from that ideology. It’s less about showing up and standing in solidarity with folks of color or immigrants, and more about actually doing the work in your communities to change some hearts and minds. If someone says a racial slur or says something and you’re like, ‘I can’t believe they said that,’ actually say that outloud to them. Do not normalize xenophobia, do not normalize anti-blackness, do not normalize transphobia. Take a step back and analyze why it’s there.”
Quite a few Black women wondered where all these White women were during Black Lives Matter protests and so on. Peoples:
“When black women expressed those feelings, I saw white women and gay men [saying it’s divisive] – some of the same shit that people are saying to me about the poster. That also hurts because we’re only being seen when we’re coming together behind you. When we’re speaking about our pain, when we’re asking you to show up, then it’s divisive, then it’s somehow detrimental to the broader cause. That’s simply not true.”
This was hardly her first protest, even of those that have made the news:
- In May 2015 she took part in the Baltimore protests after the death of Freddie Gray.
- In June 2015 she was the one who got Jennicet Gutiérrez, an undocumented transgender woman, into a White House event where Gutiérrez said, “President Obama, stop the torture and abuse of trans women in detention centers!” – which Obama played off with a joke. Ha ha.
- In July 2015 she was one of the Black Lives Matter protesters at NetRoots Nation where they asked Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley what they were going to do about structural racism.
She also protested against Hillary Clinton for taking money from the private prison industry. Clinton said, “I’ll talk to you about this later,” and security threw them out. Clinton never talked to them later. It never made the news.
– Abagond, 2017.
Sources: mainly The Root, Democracy Now, truthout and USA Today.
See also:
- Angela Peoples: @MsPeoples, GetEQUAL
- Bernie Sanders and Black voters
- Hillary Clinton 2016
- Donald Trump
- Obama retrospective
- Freddie Gray
- trans women
- mass incarceration
- calling out racism
- protesters
- Mercutio Southall
- Marissa Johnson
- #NoDAPL
- Black Lives Matter
556
Reblogged this on League of Bloggers For a Better World.
LikeLike
The minute I read this post, I thought about Sister Ijeoma Oluo’s great piece over at The Establishment:
https://theestablishment.co/white-people-i-dont-want-you-to-understand-me-better-i-want-you-to-understand-yourselves-a6fbedd42ddf#.hjlx9itux
Very good read…
LikeLike
@ Deb
Not just a very good read, an excellent read! Her words made me think of the thousands of time me and every Black person I know has had to twist and contort ourselves into “acceptable Blackness” or face dire consequences. These passages really spoke to me:
Deb, sometimes I think the reason drive-by trolls become so unnerved when they encounter this blog and other majority Black online spaces is that they don’t have to listen to Black people 99.8 percent of the time. When they read our true thoughts and perspectives, they have no point of reference for what they are reading. Many of them project their emotions onto Black people, instead of reading and asking questions. Reasoned debate is rarely considered because they feel they have nothing to learn from Black folk. Such mental poverty.
I like how Oluo, drills down to the heart of Trump’s appeal——the naked fear of losing a White majority in the USA and with it, White supremacy.
Deb, thanks for sharing that article. It is a great companion piece to this post and Angela Peoples sharp analysis.
LikeLiked by 4 people
THANKS for your thanks, Sister! And I’m oh, so grateful that you FELT that piece just like I did!!!
“Reasoned debate is rarely considered because they feel they have nothing to learn from Black folk. Such mental poverty.”
I couldn’t have said it any better!
Peace, Sister…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am loving her level of giving no damns and that lollipop is everything.
LikeLiked by 2 people
@Mary Burrell
Well said!
LikeLike
does lollipop symbolize something in this context?
LikeLike
@Deb: Hey Sister 😀
LikeLike
@Shirinalr: How are you?🦋
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Afrofem: Still dropping knowledge 🎓
LikeLike
‘does lollipop symbolize something in this context?’
hard to say. but where theres a lollipop theres usually a sucker
LikeLike
@Mary
Pretty good. What have you been up to?
LikeLike
@Mary…Hey Young One, how you doin’? Hope all’s well.
LikeLike
The lollipop puts the final stamp on her all-in-a-day’s-work stance. It’s impressive. For the white women this is a once in a lifetime event that requires selfies.
For the sistah, it’s another day in the trenches. She’s holding that lollipop in the same mundane way I do when I’m working on a data entry project and grab a sweet from the candy jar on my desk.
It’s the stance of a superhero. It’s one moment to enjoy life in the midst of protest.
LikeLiked by 1 person
white women so crazy. voting for trump one day. protesting him the next.
LikeLiked by 3 people
White feminism without intersectionality is still white supremacy.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Abagond said:
I’ve read a couple of statements like that and am wondering if it’s a rhetorical question that implies that everyone has a duty to be engaged in all moral matters, independent if they are affected or not.
If it isn’t a rhetorical question, the answer is obviously “why should they be at a Black Lives Matter protest?”.
Peoles said:
While I think it is completly reasonable and legitimate to protest against White women, it seems strange to expect them to be happy about it.
LikeLike
“Quite a few Black women wondered where all these White women were during Black Lives Matter protests and so on.”
Good question.
C2vnSjdUkAAd9zU.jpg
Where are White LGBTQ activists when Black Trans women are murdered?
Where are White mothers when Black women’s children are gunned down in the street by police? Assaulted by cops in school? Snatched by social workers and placed in the family destroying foster care system?
Answer: At home, blaming Black victims for their own murders, assaults and family fractures. I believe most of those marchers don’t think of Black women and their families at all.
In contrast, Dr. Keneshia Grant wrote about how gender vs. race played out in 2007 with White female voters:
http://www.keneshiagrant.com/single-post/2016/12/03/Dear-White-Women-A-Letter-from-a-Black-Woman-with-Questions-about-White-Women%E2%80%99s-Politics
In The Root interview, Angela Peoples expressed hope and determination about the future:
http://www.theroot.com/woman-in-viral-photo-from-women-s-march-to-white-female-1791524613
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 3 people
[…] Angela Peoples […]
LikeLike