Faye Wilson Kennedy: We Must Resist Regress With All Our Might

By Faye Wilson Kennedy | Special to The OBSERVER

Still celebrating my 70th birthday, I spent election night having a quiet dinner with my husband, and comrade brother, reflecting on the 2024 presidential election. A big “thank you” to everybody who voted, who volunteered on campaigns, who gave money, who phone banked, donated food and posted campaign signs in yards and walked precincts.

A late scholar-activist friend always would tell me the following when discussing elections: “Remember our country’s history and treatment of people of color, women and the role of capitalism, which perpetuate racism, sexism, classism; fear and hate of others.” With the 2024 election, we witnessed firsthand all those behaviors and actions of 45 and his supporters.

Many of us are heartbroken. With results being called for 45, there’s no denying this is a devastating blow. For years, millions of everyday people have engaged each other, organized, mobilized, and come together to do all we can to stop MAGA’s dangerous and hateful Project 2025 agenda, the attacks on the poor, people of color, our LGBTQ+ sisters and brothers, the environment, unions and the continued fight for a democracy that includes and works for all of us. Today, we hold the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities deeply in our hearts. “Forward Together – Not One Step Back.”

Why can’t we elect a woman as president? We must remember our country’s long history. This country was founded and built for white, wealthy Christian men. This country was built by taking land and other resources from our Indigenous sisters and brothers. The country enslaved Africans for decades, engaged in genocidal actions against Indigenous peoples, and then we burned women for alleged witchcraft. And the country mistreated our Latino, Japanese, and Chinese comrades.

Many of this country’s white citizens participated in raping and hanging men, women, and children without any legal consequences. This country even imprisoned our Japanese American citizens. This country passed and implemented harsh, racist Jim Crow laws and local ordinances to control and prevent self-determination and the humanity of Black, brown and other people of color, and our LGBTQ+ comrades.

This country was founded on white supremacy and capitalist principles, which perpetuate racism, sexism, classism, fear, and hate for the other.

Yes, women can govern. Women govern our homes, communities, and workplaces, and elected officers govern elected bodies and institutions at the local, state, federal, and international levels. Women leaders are not necessarily the problem; it is our racist, sexist, and classist ideas and beliefs about women, persons of African descent, and people of color. As a nation, we continue not to understand the role of our country’s history where race and gender are concerned.

Yes, it’s incomprehensible to believe in 2024 that women seeking elected office still have a harder time raising money, especially women of color, and are not viewed as equal to men.

Yes, all the past and current women (such as Sister Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun, Lenora Fulani, Patsy Mink, Jill Stein, Gloria La Riva, Carly Fiorina, Elizabeth Dole, Geraldine A. Ferraro, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Claudia de la Cruz, and Vice President Kamala Harris) who ran for president were more than qualified. They understood the issues, and many had amazing platforms.

Sister Chisholm paved the way for Vice President Harris to become the second woman, first Black woman, and first South Asian person to be a major party’s presidential nominee. Sister Claudia de la Cruz was this year’s U.S. presidential candidate with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She is a mother, popular educator, community organizer, and theologian. All three are women of African descent and outspoken on critical issues.

Please stop being astonished. We must organize and engage the poor, people of color, college students, union members, and our neighbors. But we must understand when candidates use hate, bigotry, and fear as tactics, it is more difficult and, at times, even feels impossible to break through.

We must organize by centering the poor, people of color, the unhoused, and other marginalized communities in our organizing efforts. We must work in coalitions and engage in shared leadership to develop new leaders and learn from each other, and work with other cultural groups, community, and gender-based groups at the local, regional, and national levels.

I must always remember my parents’ generation who organized with no social media, no computers, and limited financial resources. Many died for social justice. We can’t stop – “Forward Together – Not One Step Back.”