In the wake of Trump’s victory, Black women are rethinking their roles as credible political organizers in America

ATLANTA (AP) – Teja Smith, as she checked right into a recent flight to Mexico for the holidays, chuckled at the thought of joining one other Women’s March on Washington.

As a black woman, she simply didn’t see herself helping to recreate the best act of resistance against then-President Donald Trump first term in January 2017. Even in this yr’s election, in which Trump he questioned his opponent’s racethere have been rallies with participation racist slurs and falsely claimed that black migrants in Ohio were eating the locals animalshe didn’t just win a second term. He became the first Republican in twenty years to win the popular vote, albeit by a narrow margin.

“It feels like the people have spoken and this is what America looks like,” said Smith, founder of the Los Angeles-based social media agency Get Social. “And there’s not much of a fight you can fight anymore without losing your sanity.”

After Trump was declared the winner Democratic Vice President Kamala Harrismany politically engaged Black women said they were so dismayed by the end result that they reassessed—though didn’t completely abandon—their enthusiasm for electoral politics and movement organizing.

Black women often do most of the work of getting out the vote in their communities. They strongly supported the historic candidacy of Harris, who could be the first woman of Black and South Asian descent to turn out to be president.

Harris’ loss sparked a wave of black women on social media who decided to prioritize themselves after which give a lot to a rustic that has consistently shown indifference to their concerns.

Voting for APthe survey, which surveyed greater than 120,000 voters, found that 6 in 10 black women said the future of democracy in the United States was the most significant factor influencing their votes this yr, a better percentage than other demographic groups. But now, with Trump set to return to office in two months, some Black women are renewing calls to emphasise rest, give attention to mental health and be more selective about the fights in which they leverage their organizing power.

“America is going to have to save itself,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the national voting rights group Black Voters Matter.

She compared the presence of Black women in social justice movements as “primary strategists and primary organizers” to the North Star, known as the most consistent and reliable star in the galaxy as a consequence of its seemingly constant position in the sky. Brown said people can depend on Black women to guide change, but the next 4 years will look different.

“This is just not a Herculean task for us. We don’t need this title. (…) I even have no intention of being a martyr to a nation that doesn’t care about me,” she said.

AP VoteCast paints a transparent picture of the concerns of Black women.

Black women voters were probably to say that democracy was the most significant factor influencing their vote, in comparison with other motivating aspects such as high prices or abortion. More than 7 in 10 Black women voters said they were “very concerned” that Trump’s election would lead the nation toward authoritarianism, while only about 2 in 10 said this about Harris.

According to AP VoteCast, about 9 in 10 Black female voters backed Harris in 2024, just like the percentage who backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Trump received support from greater than half of white voters, who made up the overwhelming majority of his coalition in each years.

Like voters overall, Black women were probably to say the economy and jobs were the most significant issues facing the country, with about one-third of women saying this. However, they were more likely than many other groups to say that abortion and racism were the most significant issues, and far less likely than other groups to say that immigration was the most significant issue.

Despite these concerns, which were well expressed by Black women throughout the campaign, support from the party grew young men of color and white women helped increase Trump’s advantage and ensured his victory.

Politically engaged black women have said they don’t plan to proceed to occupy a spot in the “backbone” of American democracy. The growing movement for Black women to step back is a departure from a history in which they are often present and at the forefront of political and social change.

One of the earliest examples was the women’s suffrage movement, which led to ratification in 1920. nineteenth Amendment to the Constitutionwhich gave women the right to vote. However, black women weren’t allowed to vote for many years later as a consequence of literacy tests administered during the Jim Crow era, poll taxes, and laws that prevented the grandchildren of slaves from voting. Most black women couldn’t vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Black women were amongst the organizers and were amongst the marchers brutalized on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama during historic march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, which predated federal laws. Decades later, Black women were outstanding organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and vigilantes.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump called for using federal money to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government programs and discussions about race, gender or sexual orientation in schools. His rhetoric on immigration, including: false claims the undeniable fact that Black Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, ate cats and dogs aroused support for his plan deport hundreds of thousands of people.

Tenita Taylor, a Black Atlanta resident who supported Trump this yr, said she was initially enthusiastic about Harris’ candidacy. However, after considering how high her grocery bill is, she appears like she’s voting for Trump in hopes that he’ll eventually achieve this obtaining lower prices it was a form of setting priorities for yourself.

“People say, ‘Well, that’s selfish, it’s better for the greater good,’” she said. “I am a mother of five children. (…)What (Democrats) do affects either the rich or the poor.”

Some of Trump’s plans affect people near Olivia Gordon, which is why she tried to get behind the wave of “black women’s rest.” Gordon, a New York lawyer who supported Socialism and Liberation Party presidential candidate Claudia de la Cruz, worries who could be left behind if the 92% of black women who supported Harris simply stopped advocating for her.

“We’re talking about millions of Black women here. If millions of Black women take a step back, it will absolutely leave holes, but for other Black women,” she said. “I think sometimes we live in a bubble where if something isn’t in your immediate circle, maybe it doesn’t concern you. And I really implore people to understand that this is the case.”

Nicole Lewis, an Alabama therapist who specializes in treating stress in black women, said she recognizes that black women withdrawing from socially influential movements can have consequences. But she also hopes it’ll force the nation to reckon with and understand the consequences of its lack of solidarity with black women.

“It can have a negative impact because the most empathetic group doesn’t have a voice,” she said. “I also think it will give other groups a chance to step up. (…) I hope they will actually show up for themselves and everyone else.”

Brown said a settlement could also be exactly what the country needs, but it surely’s a settlement for everybody else. She said black women have done their part by supporting Harris en masse in hopes of thwarting the sweeping changes expected under Trump.

“This is not our calculation,” she said. “I don’t feel guilty.”