Tonight, Starkville resident Karin Lee will get on a plane bound for Washington, D.C., with nothing but her purse, a change of underwear and a pair of socks.
When she gets off the plane in the nation’s capital Saturday morning, she’ll head straight to the National Mall to join what’s expected to be more than 200,000 marchers protesting the inauguration of President Donald Trump at the Women’s March on Washington.
“The day after the election, I was on Facebook and I heard about this,” Lee said. “My friend said, ‘Let’s get a hotel room’ and she did.”
The movement, which began on Facebook and has inspired similar marches in every state, protests what many in the country feel is an administration hostile to women and other marginalized groups.
“The sheer numbers of it should send a message, and I want to be part of that,” Lee said. “I want to be part of history.
“The Trump administration aside, I’m also going just for women’s rights in general,” she added. “This is 2017, and we’re still talking about reproductive rights, we’re still talking about birth control and whether insurance should pay for that. We’re still not getting equal pay.”
More than 217,000 people have indicated on Facebook they will attend the Washington march, with countless more planning to march at other protests around the country — including one at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson at noon Saturday.
Starkville resident and historian Alix Hui initially planned on going to the march in Washington, but now plans to attend the Jackson event instead.
“I think (the Washington) demonstration will be large and important and get lots of coverage,” she said. “It actually seemed more important for local and regional politics for people to see that other people (in Mississippi) have serious reservations (about) this new administration.”
Many issues being protested
At her Starkville home, artist and graphic designer Jamie Mixon made signs she plans to take to the Jackson protest Saturday. One depicts the Statue of Liberty and says “GRAB ME BY THE WHAT?” — referencing a leaked video of Trump bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. Another sign in red, white and blue letters declares “FAKE NEWS AND PUTIN TRUMPED THE USA.”
“As a designer, I feel called by my conscience to create art that makes people think,” Mixon said in an email to The Dispatch. “That is (art)’s role in society — to challenge and provoke thought. So I will walk side-by-side with men, women and children who are marching in order to have their diverse voices heard.”
Like Lee and many of the other marchers around the country, Mixon is concerned about Trump’s attitude toward women — another of her signs says “MISOGYNY IS NOT OK!” — but she talked more about Trump’s apparent friendliness with Russian president Vladimir Putin and the role fake news circulating through social media during the election may have played in getting Trump elected.
“I was really disappointed about the role that fake news seemed to play in the election of our new president,” she said. “Granted, fake news is a worldwide issue, but if we, as a human race, want to survive, we have to be diligent about this powerful force. “… Fake news preaches to the choir and reinforces a destructive tribalism in our society,” she added.
That “tribalism” is something plenty of protesters are worried about. Columbus resident and historian Mona Vance-Ali, who is attending the Washington march, sees historical parallels to the Trump administration and social movements that divide people based on race, religion or ethnicity. She referred to Trump’s claim that he will “build a wall” to keep Mexican immigrants out of the country, along with his statements about excluding Muslim and Syrian refugees from entering the United States.
“All these things are based on fear,” she said. “I understand where that comes from, but it never has taken us, as a collective nation, to a good place. It just causes us to draw inward and push people out. And that’s not what America stands for.”
She pointed to Japanese internment camps during World War II and the United States turning away European refugees during the Holocaust.
“Any time you point at a community and hold them up as an example of the problems, that’s never beneficial or productive,” she said.
Hui, who has a Ph.D. in history and has traveled in Europe, sees similarities between the Trump administration and social movements that propelled European dictators into power all through the 20th century.
She pointed to nations whose nationalist movements got Europe into World War I, as well as Eastern European states that were taken over by dictators or collapsed after the fall of the Soviet Union when people lost faith in their government and democracy. The biggest example of a totalitarian regime coming to power in the 20th century thanks to ethnic or racial divisions is Nazi Germany, she said.
“I don’t even know what to tell (my friends in other countries), especially the ones in Germany who are like, ‘This looks familiar,'” she said.
Not just for women
Women aren’t the only Golden Triangle residents planning to march for women’s rights, either.
“Women are still fighting for rights,” Columbus resident and therapist John Hawkins said. “Workplace rights, freedom from sexual harassment. …I’m here with them fighting.”
Hawkins is driving to Jackson Saturday to attend the march with friends. Like Mixon, he specifically brought up Trump’s reference to grabbing women by the genitals. He is angry that that type of man is now running the country.
“This isn’t just a women’s movement,” he said. “And I want to stand with my sisters.”
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