Last Saturday, I joined 30,000 people in Chicago’s Loop and 5 million across the country protesting the Trump administration’s policies and actions. We decried the administration’s deportation of immigrants, targeting of students for their free speech, gutting of federal programs including education and health, persecution of transgender youth, and so many other harms. It was beautiful to come together with so many people from the Chicago area in expressing our life-affirming values.

And yet I have heard some valid concerns about these protests that I want to air. 

First, it was very evident that the protest here in Chicago was overwhelmingly white, and I have heard the same about the protests around the country. Some prominent Black activists announced that they were not participating for a variety of reasons – that Black voters overwhelmingly voted for Harris, that white people did not, that as a nation we refused to elect a qualified Black woman and instead voted for an unqualified white man. These concerns are completely reasonable, and I would not push any Black person or any person of color to protest if they either felt endangered by doing so or if they felt like they have already done enough. And simultaneously, I know that we will never create the society we need without coming together across race. And so we face a quandary – Black people and other people of color don’t owe America their labor, yet at the same time we will never break the hold of the oligarchy on our country’s power structure unless Black people, Latine people, white people, men, women, trans people, cis people – all groups of people – come together against the oligarchs.

I have also heard fair-minded concerns that these protests were the easy part. We showed up, we held up signs, we chanted. What did it do? Did it serve only to signal our virtue, or is there something more? And will we do that something more if it costs us more? Will we protest when police are out suppressing that protest? Will we do the daily work of boycotts? Will we agree to strike when it may cost us money or, even harder, our jobs? What are we willing to do to push this movement forward?

And finally, I have heard the righteous concerns that these protests didn’t emphasize justice for Palestine. This issue is divisive through many parts of the political spectrum. There are many people who identify as liberal or even left who are either equivocal in their support for Palestine or even supportive of Israel. And so the 50501 and Indivisible groups who were major drivers of last weekend’s protests did not include an end to our country’s funding of genocide among their demands.

For me, these concerns don’t invalidate what happened on Saturday. But they do start to define the limits of what that day meant. It must be only a small piece and a starting place. If that day is where our action ends, it will in fact have meant very little. If we continue to limit our view of who deserves justice, our cause will not triumph. But if that one day’s actions can be a springboard to connection and further action, that can retroactively give that day meaning. Too much of our opposition has been to Trump as a person rather than the cause that he represents. His brand of reactionary corporate oligarchy is widespread, and too often we have criticized him because of his vulgar behaviors rather than his policies that undermine the safety and thriving of working people across the globe. When we broaden our concerns to the policy rather than the person, we see that many – maybe most – Democrats don’t do enough for working people either. We see that Job Biden, though much better than Trump, stood in the way of the policies we need through his lack of effort in pushing through a $15 minimum wage, progressive labor reform, and voting protections. And he was instrumental in giving cover to and support for Israel’s shameful attacks on Gaza. Democrats are generally better on policy than Republicans, but they are not our saviors. Working people have no saviors. Our saving grace will be the bond we develop and hold among ourselves. Let last weekend be one link in that bond. And let us forge many more in the days and months to come.

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