By: Serena Edwards
Protests have occurred for decades, but the impact has differed depending on tactics. Since Trump’s second presidency, there has been an increase in the amount of protesting. In November 2024, Trump won the presidential election via both the Electoral College and the popular vote. With the white vote being predominantly for Trump and the majority of Black votes going towards Harris, Black people have taken a backseat in trying to help and are letting white people do the work since they “know best”. Black people are no longer fixing a system they didn’t build or break.
Activism is not limited to protesting; you can make an impact at the polls and in other ways.
This is the second No Kings Protest, and what was the impact without Black voices there?
Black people have protested for years and have made an impact through activism. From the Montgomery Bus boycott and the Selma to Montgomery march, Black people have been showing up and using their power to make change in the world, no matter what it takes. When Black people got the right to vote, they used that as a form of activism when protesting wasn’t enough.
In the 2020 election, the republican led state, Georgia, turned blue. This was due to a higher turnout among Black voters.
In the recent presidential election between Harris and Trump, 86 percent of Black people voted for Harris, whereas only 42 percent of white people voted for Harris, according to NBC. When it really matters, white people rarely show up. If white people matched he black communities’ energies at the pool, we would be in a different political situation.
“Black women are still the backbone of the Democratic Party. Harris won them by 85 points – a bigger lead than any other gendered and racial group measured by CNN,” according to the Guardian.
Truth is, Black people knew the damage President Trump would cause once in office because we felt the damage before he was in office. But now that there is universal damage, there is more of a concern about the damage affecting white people. The White population only cares two times: when it’s convenient and when they are the ones being affected.
During the lockdown in 2020, we witnessed police brutality at an all-time high. Not because people weren’t brutalized by the police before, but because of the pandemic’s isolation, people have never been more attached to their screens; We had no other option but to face what we’ve been suppressing. Thousands of people across the United States (U.S.) took to the streets to protest the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Though it was an impactful and monumental movement, the media found a way to portray the protest as violent and destructive. BLM protests were one of the most impactful and influential movements of this generation’s lifetime.
The No Kings Protest press coverage differed from the coverage we saw for BLM in 2020. The media portrayed the No Kings protest as unity, whereas the BLM protest was portrayed negatively by the media. The New York Times (NYT) published an article entitled, “‘No More Trump!’: Protesters Denouncing the President Unite Across the Country,” whereas Fox News published a piece entitled, “BLM has left Black Americans worse off since the movement began, experts say”. The movement that made a change by having charges against those in power received negative press, whereas No Kings had no productivity after two attempts and still received praise for bringing “unity” across the nation.
During the No Kings Protest, there were few to no Black people in the crowd. The main demographic in attendance was white women. The reason for the lack of Black voices at the marches is that Black people are tired of being the only ones doing the work. We are tired of doing all the work and being vilified by mainstream media for using our First Amendment rights. When Trump won, it wasn’t our demographics’ fault. There are Black Trump supporters; 13 percent of the Black population voted for Trump in the last election. However, they are outnumbered by the number of people who voted for Harris. If we even look back in history, the Women’s Suffrage Act was led on the backs of Black women, even though Black people didn’t receive voting equality until 1965. Doing the work for hundreds of years only to finish last every time gets tiring. We are constantly cleaning up messes we did not make and receiving consequences for actions we did not commit.
Like the Presidential Democratic Nominee Kamala Harris. After losing the election, Harris coped in a different way; she put her frustrations all in a book. In the book titled “107 Days,” from there she went on a book tour to discuss some of the topics within the book. During these talks, “protestors” would disturb her and start calling her names. Though she is not in office and has no power to fix the situations going on in the world, she is still receiving the anger that should be placed on Trump. Once again, people are placing the blame on Black people for white people’s mistakes.
There is no denying that there is a division in this country, but the division didn’t start with Black people. When white people asked for help, the Black community came ready to fight for them; however, when the Black community asked for the same in return, they left them to fend for themselves.