Yesterday Tucson Weekly published an article about the upcoming Tucson Women’s March on Jan. 20. The story did not include information about the communities that have felt mistreated during the creation of this event.
Summer Aguilera, a member of the Chukson Tucson Water Protectors, went to the first public organizers meeting for the Tucson Women’s March almost a year ago. From the beginning, she began to notice problematic behaviors from within the organization’s leadership.
She said the leaders, many of whom are white, gave titles but no real decision-making power to some of the groups they claim to represent. They wouldn’t allow Spanish-speaking women to give speeches at the march, claiming their accents were too thick. She said they tokenized women of color and LGBTQ+ groups by believing they had done their part just by scheduling people of those identities to speak at the event.
In response to these actions, a community statement was released in opposition of the march. The community members who drafted the statement made it clear they are not speaking for everyone, since there are women of color and LGBTQ+ folks who will participate in the event and have had different experiences with the leadership.
In December, Aguilera brought her concerns to the leaders of the Tucson Women’s March, but was told she was being “uncivil.” She was accompanied by white allies who repeated her exact concerns, to which the leaders welcomingly acknowledged. Aguilera said she and organizers like her were told they are the cause of the divide in the women’s march, and that they were creating the problem.
The national women’s march movement has struggled with inclusivity since the beginning. The public fallout of the Women’s March, Inc. organization over accusations of keeping organizers of color powerless and anti-Semitism beliefs echo similar rifts happening in women’s march organizations across the country. In some of the most liberal cities, women of color and LGBTQ+ folks have experienced pushback from the very organizations that claim to champion their daily struggles.
Here in Tucson, Aguilera believes the women’s march is not really for marginalized people, it’s for those with privilege to feel good about themselves. She said organizing an event makes them feel like they’re being allies, but by maintaining control of it they are only taking resources away from those who actually need it. She said they don’t talk about their own complicity and actions that perpetuate oppression or attend community events organized by the marginalized groups themselves, they only focus on putting together this symbolic march.
Local groups in support of this position include Black Lives Matter Tucson, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, Chukson Water Protectors, Border Patrol Victims Network, Sustainable Nations, TYLO (Tierra Y Libertad Organization), Free the Children Coalition, Flowers and Bullets, Sex Workers Outreach Project, Bruv Luv, Pan Left, Split Seeds Production, O’odham Anti Border Collective, Alliance for Global Justice, Take Back the Night, Borderlinks, Tucson Lobaz, GLOO Factory, Green Party of Pima County Chair Sara Mae Williams (Tohono O’odham) and Tucson Brown Berets – Citlamina Xochitlquetzalli along with numerous local activists. Aguilera said the list has grown longer since they released it.
Cynthia Bistrain, the chair of the Tucson Women’s March, said she was very saddened to see their statement. She said this is a difficult space to be in and everyone is plagued by making their own assumptions, but she and the other leaders, many of whom are older women, are still willing to have those difficult conversations.
Marla Pacheco, a representative of the Coalición de Derechos Humanos, said they have received support from across the country since they released the statement. Groups in other cities have had the same problems with women’s marches in their cities that claim inclusivity but don’t support it.
Their opposition to the women’s march has actually united communities that have equally been sidelined from the mainstream liberal movement, according to Aguilera.
She and others are planning their own demonstration for International Women’s Day in early March. She said they will give a genuine platform for marginalized groups to speak and will be a safe space for all. More details will be available in the near future.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2019.
Thanks for the update. I saw the statement opposing the march but didn’t know the details. This is very sad to hear, that some women were not allowed to speak because of their accents, and that many people were tokenized, marginalized, and ignored. I don’t get out much as I’m disabled, so I didn’t see these incidents but I’ve seen enough to know that complaints like these are valid and must be addressed. On behalf of other white women like myself I apologize and resolve to uphold the voices of all marginalized peoples.
This is precisely how the 1970s fell apart and became the 1980s.
Great. So I just won’t go – that’s way easier anyway, and who wants to listen to speeches? And Trump gets to be comfortable, believing that he has no popular opposition. This is the history of homo sapiens writ small. Very very small.
I’ve missed Tucson so much since I moved away 8 years ago, it’s hard for me to believe this kind of discriminatory nonsense is happening in the city I love.
Just want to note that here in Tucson, the antisemitism issue was dealt with by the local organizers dealt with the issue in a very appropriate manner. The concern was brought to the in November, and they issued a statement condemning anti semitic remarks by Farrakhan, and noting they are completely separate from the National March.
Working in small and large groups is the challenge of our times. I am saddened to read of this conflict. I also have quite a wondering about the accusation that women with strong accents were not allowed to speak. I know Cynthia Bistrain personally–she is actually Mexican herself. There must have been more to all this. . .I hope that more dialogue is still possible.
The national group called for placing the President’s children in cages. It may be time to rethink your efforts. You have run off the rails.
Lisa O, there’s a bit of difference between caging innocent small children and the President’s adult children. Who, if are found in a court of law guilty of felonies, certainly deserve to caged in one of our penal institutions.
But I was at the march today. And there were women delivering speeches in Spanish. Several women, in fact. And I saw such a wealth of diverse groups represented, including LGBTQ+, Jewish, and indigenous communities. No movement is perfect. And we are stronger TOGETHER.
You can’t make this stuff up – no one would believe it.
I WAS at the meetings where the complaint was made. The 2 women who made this accusation never allowed anyone to speak to the women or get their names of the women that this was supposed to have happened to.
All they did was scream at the women who were there, women of all types, women who did all the work, who always do all the work and never get the credit. Women who do the foot work for the campaigns, the movements, the organizations.
Now we want to work for Women’s Rights: Not be the coffee getters for organizations that ignore our lives as women. We want the ERA, we want Deaths of Young Women that are not being investigated, be they whatever skin tone or age, to be investigated, we are willing to work for equal pay for all women, healthcare, education, mother’s children in cages and the end and awareness of the violence against all women to be recognized and stopped.
The whole program, completely, was in English, Spanish, sign language and some in Tohono.
If you subscribe to gossip, then I’m sorry , for the ones that denighed themselves the richness of the day.
Nobody is perfect, no group or action is perfect.
We do what we can, and if I may quote the great philosopher, ” I am what I yam and that’s all that I yam.”
What would happen if women worked for their OWN rights instead being the worker bees for other organizations?
All that free labor, working other own forty acres, that’s gota hurt.