After the Women’s March on Washington, it is obvious that women will be the saviors of American democracy. I, an African-American woman, have heard arguments made by Black Lives Matter women that white feminists disregard black women’s concern. However, white middle/working-class lives have not mattered since the 1980s — and African Americans as Americans are a subset of this neglect. This means that white feminists and black feminists have something in common, even more so now in the age of Trump. We had better “hang together or hang separately.”The history of women leading to victory is historically and racially based. In the Old Testament, we find Deborah, who when Barak was afraid, told him, “I’ll go with you.” When all the men denied Christ, the women (Mary Magdalene in the lead) never deserted Jesus, while Peter denied him. Joan of Arc led the French to victory, but a cowardly king denied her. Sojourner Truth said, “Ain’t I a woman,” and went South to free her people.  And in January, women marched South in a mixed crowd, in spite of differences, to tell Trump, “Let the American people go,” because we understand that he and his “evil coalition” have stolen our democracy.

So instead of crying foul against white feminists, Black Lives Matter must “straighten up the hand that stands enfeebled” and get on with freeing the American people (and ourselves) from the greatest challenge to the American Republic since the Cold War.

— Mary Gravitt