Mercy Morganfield, the former head of the Women’s March’s D.C. chapter, is in the media spotlight for piling on the March’s leadership for its ties to anti-Semitism, but in a lengthy Facebook post published on the day of the third annual anti-Trump event last weekend, she blamed the white majority protesters for bad branding.
The World Israel News reported:
On Saturday, Sarsour had used an address to thousands of demonstrators in Washington, DC, to advocate on behalf of the BDS movement against the Jewish state. She called on protesters to stand up for “free speech and our constitutional right to boycott, divestment and sanctions in these United States of America.”
Fellow Women’s March co-leader Tamika Mallory — who just a few days earlier declined to affirm that the Jewish people were native to the Middle East — stood next to Sarsour and nodded as the pro-BDS remark was made.
Morganfield had previously called out the leaders of the Women’s March for their insensitivity to the Jewish community. In November 2018, Morganfield accused Mallory in a lengthy Facebook post of deploying “antisemitic rhetoric,” adding, “Tamika and Linda have betrayed all women by their subservience to radical religious beliefs that do not believe in equal rights for women…All six [Women’s March leaders] should step down. It is a board of six friends and zero accountability.”
Morganfield’s latest post, however, said that the anti-Semitism is a “symptom” rather than a “disease.”
Why Is Everyone Blaming Tamika?
In the midst of all of the hot mess, the Women’s March has now become, stands one woman, Tamika Mallory, the black woman. Everyone wants Tamika to resign. Because Tamika, the black woman, is the problem. Deep sigh. Deep, deep, fucking sigh.
Tamika is not the problem. Tamika is the symptom. Tamika symbolizes everything wrong and deeply problematic about second-wave feminism. A white woman’s movement. Just like the first wave feminism was a white woman’s movement in the sixties. “March with one of them. But March,” was Gloria Steinem’s advice just yesterday. This rhetoric by a 1st Wave Feminist is indicative of the mentality of the March itself. Let me translate: “March because optics are more important than inclusivity.”
“Tamika is a black band aide on a white woman’s boo boo,” Morganfield wrote, adding that the other high-profile leaders of the march — Linda Sarsour, Bob Bland, Carmen Perez, and Breanne Butler — are throwing Mallory under the bus.
White people in the Women’s March are using Mallory, Morganfield wrote, a phenomenon she calls “liberal white supremacy.”
“They don’t like Tamika. They don’t like Tamika’s message. They like Tamika’s optics. She legitimizes a predominantly white movement. And she gives them a cover for their inherent antisemitism, homophobia, and lack of inclusiveness. She serves a purpose. In Putin’s words, she is a useful idiot.”
There are “woke white women,” Morganfield wrote, but it is “white feet” that are trampling the people they claim to be championing, including people of color, indigenous people, LGBT people, and even murdered trans people.
“So they throw Tamika out front and she is talking about black women and how she is marching for black women, BUT—she is surrounded by a sea of white faces in pink pussy hats when she is saying that,” Morganfield wrote.
The only people who are worse than white liberals, Morganfield wrote, “are the black elite who serve up their own version of white supremacy by looking down their noses at their own people. They are also using Tamika.”
Morganfield also blamed Mallory for ignoring reality and, thus, becoming “the face of antisemitism.”
All of the march leadership must go, Morganfield wrote, even if it is white people who are ultimately to blame for the movement’s troubles.
“Tamika Mallory shouldn’t be the only one with her head on the chopping block, the entire board should resign,” Morganfield wrote. “And white women marching and telling any dissenters to shut the fuck up about inclusion and march for the sake of solidarity is not the solution–it’s the goddamn disease.”
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