Inclusivity of Women’s March put into question

Written By Roxanne Singhisen

White feminism is the issue at the top of the list for those concerned with the lack of inclusivity in the Women’s March on Washington.

Since the march’s inception, attendees have been raising questions about inclusivity in the planning process and compensation for Women of Color (WOC) for the emotional effort it takes to educate others on their misgivings of white feminism. The planning committee has since been updated and a four-page intersectional policy platform was released.

Pittsburgh’s march is being coordinated by Anna Marie Petrarca Gire, owner of Women’s Independent Press, and roughly 15 others including WOC.

The event’s Facebook page, originally operated by Jess Kimbell, quickly succumbed to feminist infighting. Comments were deleted, individuals were blocked and “troll” accounts were created.

Tensions rose over discussions of white feminism, censorship, falsely listing other organizers as sponsors and partners, funding for WOC, the scheduling conflict with the long-standing Summit Against Racism and the lack of intersectionality until Kimbell, having previously stepped down as organizer, was doxxed – which means  the publishing of an individual’s private information, usually with malicious intent.

The doxxer, Sueño del Mar, a community organizer, published Kimbell’s name and address.

“It was put with the clarification that this is not a threat,” del Mar said.

Del Mar also said it was necessary to “out” Kimbell due to Gire’s and the other organizer’s refusal to publicly denounce her for transgressions that included posting from a fake account.

“Values the feelings of one white woman over the damage that [Kimbell] caused to multiple women of color,” activist and organizer Murphy-Green said.

Soon after the doxx was published, the entire event page was deleted.

This prompted del Mar and others to coordinate a counter-event in the absence of the Women’s March on Pittsburgh.

The message of the alternative event, Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional Rally/March, is to promote the voices and leadership of WOC and acknowledge where their varying identities intersect. Intersections include gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental illness, physical illness, et al.

Del Mar, Murphy-Green and Caitlyn Christensen, writer, attended a March on Pittsburgh meeting Friday evening to discuss their grievances.

Having been denied administrative access to the Facebook event page and having shared responsibility for the event, they felt as though their standards were not met and therefore did not join forces.

Del Mar, Murphy-Green and a few others have refocused their efforts on planning the new march with fundraising for volunteers, speakers and inclusivity.

Christensen and other white volunteers are leading discussions on the event page on white feminism.

The page administrators have since employed their own methods of censorship by deleting, turning off the ability to comment and moderating posts.

The organizers of March on Pittsburgh have created a new Facebook event page where discussions can take place while admonishing that posts and comments they find problematic will be deleted.

“[My goal is to] make sure that we are inclusive of women of color and LGBTQIA,” Gire said. “It’s really challenging to do that when you have such a short amount of time, but we could still do better.”

Gire sees the march as a “symbolic gesture” but considers the persistence in the fight for liberation the most important outcome.

Both events are taking place on Saturday, Jan. 21st from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For those wishing to attend the Women’s March on Pittsburgh, visit womensmarch.com or the new Facebook event page.

Readers can find the Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional Rally/March event on Facebook. In addition, the 19th Annual Summit Against Racism is the same day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. To register, visit summitagainstracism.wordpress.com.