5 Reasons Why a Presidential Forum for Women of Color is Vital
By: Re Power
Tags: Feminism, Presidential Election, Progressive Politics, Intersectionality, Elections

On April 24, re:power staff will represent at She The People’s historic Presidential Forum, focused exclusively on women of color.

We believe that women of color are crucial in our electoral process — and for the first time ever, a candidates’ forum will be dedicated to intersectional issues like climate change, police brutality and criminal justice, education, immigration, and more.

#SheThePeople2020 aligns with our vision of inclusive politics — a framework that makes space and creates structures for the leadership, needs, and victories of who we’ve identified to be the communities we lead with: primarily people of color, and specifically, women of color.

Women of color organizing and defying the status quo to gain political power is part of our nation’s history.

In 1971, women organized and sent a record number of women as delegates to the Democratic National Convention and won, for the the first-time ever, the creation of a women’s rights platform. It included pledges to eliminate discrimination against women in the workforce; promotion and higher wages; maternity benefits for working women and higher access for women to positions of power in all branches of government.

In 1977, more than 20,000 women took part in the National Women’s Conference in Houston. At the conference, a group of black women introduced the Black Women’s agenda in response to the lack of representation of the specific issues they faced. When they did, other women of color followed their lead and asked to be included in the agenda. The result was the creation of the political identity of women of color.

Photo via Tia Oso.

In 2015 (almost 40 years later) a group of Black women activists ( Patrisse Cullors, Angela Peoples, and Tia Oso, to name a few) from the Black Lives Matter Movement led an action directed at then presidential candidates at Netroots Nation, a national progressive conference. They demanded that candidates speak directly to issues impacting the black community like police brutality, anti-blackness and racial inequality. They spoke on the recent death of Sandra Bland at the hands of the police. This action forced the candidates to acknowledge the calls of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2016 and beyond.

The Freshman Class of 2018.

And three years later, the 2018 midterms ushered in the most diverse Congress in history. The women of color of this class of representatives are making waves and turning the political establishment on its head. Reps. Sharice Davids, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Deb Haaland, Ayanna Pressley, Veronica Escobar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are showing America what political hope can look like. Their governance is driven by organizing everyday people to demand their rights, to assert their vision, and to accept nothing less.

There are countless historical examples of women of color and indigenous women forcing their views, issues and leadership into mainstream politics and the political consciousness.

Jennicet Gutiérrez

There’s Jennicet Gutiérrez, an undocumented, Latinx immigrant trans woman, who challenged then President Obama at a White House PRIDE event, by repeating over and over again, “President Obama, release all L.G.B.T.Q. immigrants from detention and stop all deportations!” Jennicet raised her voice to shine light on the devastating ways L.G.B.T.Q. and transgender immigrants are treated in this country.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard

There’s also LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a Lakota historian and activist, whose establishment of Sacred Stone Camp helped set the stage for Standing Rock. LaDonna was there when the very first tipis went up at Standing Rock — and when they came down. She did so to protect our planet and to fight for environmental justice and indigenous rights. I’ll stop there, but I encourage you to revisit the the progress we’ve made as a country towards becoming a more just society — chances are, you’ll find women of color showing up and showing out for change.

Each of these examples — of women of color organizing and defying the status quo— is what makes She The People’s Presidential Forum powerful. It’s another moment in history where women of color are creating their own platforms to be seen, heard and respected — all in the city where “women of color” became a community term in 1977.