Pre-Inauguration events reveal this resistance movement is nothing like 2017
This weekend’s Women’s March and the 92 Percent Brunch underscore just how much work remains to develop a cohesive response to a second Trump term.
Massive anti-Trump protest marches like this 2017 one in Seattle are no sure thing given the disparate approaches seen thus far. Karen Ducey/Getty Images
In 2017, after Donald J. Trump was first elected president, Chardaé Jones joined legions of Western Pennsylvanians to protest at the Pittsburgh Women’s March. But this weekend, while many of those who marched eight years ago take to the streets once again for the retitled People's March, Jones will instead be co-hosting a local brunch for 60 fellow Black women.
Like the marches, the 92 Percent Brunch – a reference to the percentage of Black women who voted for Kamala Harris, the highest proportion of any demographic group – is taking place simultaneously in cities across the commonwealth and the nation. Exhausted by what they describe as the lonely effort of carrying the mantle for liberal causes, many Black women are opting out of marches, taking a beat to recharge while others galvanize progressive activism.
“We’ve tried marching before,” said Jones, a Braddock Borough councilmember and former mayor. “And it was amazing. It felt like everyone was on the same page. But people are not voting the way we thought they were voting when we were all out there together.”
So when Jones heard about the 92 Percent Brunch on social media and saw nobody was hosting it in Pittsburgh, she contacted her friend Briana L. White, the food blogger behind “Breelicious Bites.” White is also the Western Pennsylvania civic engagement manager for Pennsylvania Voice, a nonpartisan organization that promotes democratic involvement.
As of Wednesday, the co-hosts expected 60 guests for mimosas and omelettes at Proof Sports Bar – a venue chosen, as for most 92 Percent brunches, because it is Black- and woman-owned.
“When I saw that it was all about self-care as an alternative to marching, that really resonated with me,” said White, who put together “swag bags” and lined up Ta’lor Pinkston, a local social worker, to speak about self-love. “I thought it would be a great way to celebrate Black women, to come together and share our stories.”
Meanwhile, this weekend’s renamed People’s March is set to have a very different tenor than its predecessor, the 2017 Women’s March, when women’s righteous anger at what they viewed as a misogynistic and dangerously authoritarian candidate erupted globally in a sea of pink pussy hats.
“A lot of people have a bit of weariness from outrage,” observed Miriam Oppenheimer, an organizer of the Philadelphia People’s March, which she expects to draw thousands. “But bad things are going to happen in the foreseeable future … It’s our constitutional right to protest – use it or lose it.”
In Harrisburg, People’s March organizer Jaelin Palmer views the enthusiasm gap as partly generational. “My younger sister and her wife are Gen Z,” said Palmer, who is 30. “They feel how we felt in 2017: ‘We’ve got to do something, right now.’”
Those old enough to have marched eight years ago “already did our loud and passionate speeches last time,” added Palmer, a longtime feminist and LGBTQ activist who recently moved from her native Southern California to work for Gov. Josh Shapiro. “And half the nation still didn’t respond to that. So now we just need to put our nose to the grindstone and get to work.”
Told about the 92 Percent Brunch movement, Palmer said she could sympathize. “Just as a woman, as a member of the LGBTQ community, as a disabled person, constantly working on this for years, I’m tired,” she said. “I can’t imagine how Black women feel, all the work they put in. They one hundred percent deserve that.”
Indeed, Jones said she is excited to see the 92 Percent Brunch evolve – envisioning a blossoming network of mimosa-sippers focused on Black female solidarity and on less bombastic, but no less powerful, outlets for social progress.
Like many of her peers, Jones has no plans to return to marching, but she wishes the People’s Marchers all the best. “Black women have been standing on the front lines. We’ve been the most vulnerable, more likely to get arrested or assaulted by the police,” she reflected. “I think it’s time to see our counterparts do some of that standing on the front line, making the groundwork for everyone. Let them see what we’ve been doing – and what we’ve been going through."