This article was originally published by The Emancipator.
What happens during a revolution’s delicate infancy?
In order to thrive, a fledgling rebellion must be nourished with a careful diet of organic passion, fortified revolt, and well-measured organization. But whose passion and from what source? And what type of resistance will best help the revolution thrive?
In the Wednesday morning quarterbacking following President Donald Trump’s farcical and falsehood-packed address before Congress the night prior, those most eager to see his authoritarian regime toppled are considering the most important angles on how to best revolt.
To be sure, the revolution was televised.
It unfolded in a 24-hour livestream called “State of the People,” a historic effort in which The Emancipator joined dozens of Black political activists, politicians, pastors, and journalists to counterprogram Trump’s gaslighting.
Mainstream news cameras were trained on Trump’s grotesque, trope-filled circus, which included an ill Black child waved around like a vaudevillian prop to Republican applause. Special access favors to attendees were tossed out like Mardi Gras beads. The sheer volume of policy lies spewed is sure to keep fact-checkers busy for months.
Meanwhile, the North Stars of the Black and independent press were fixed elsewhere.
During our panel discussion on “State of the People,” titled “How Trump is Resegregating America,” our co-founder, Ibram X. Kendi, and our publisher, Amber Payne, led a critical discussion with contributors Victor Ray and Nicole Carr centered around how the Trump administration is reverse engineering civil rights, Black empowerment, LGBTQ, and women’s rights gains with its attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The panel excoriated the mainstream media’s squeamishness over calling out racists. We also traced the throughlines of Moms for Liberty’s grassroots bullying of local school districts and their targeting of the Department of Education to further unravel equity protections for students.
You can watch the full conversation below or on our YouTube channel.
And then there is the matter of protests …
As journalists, albeit rebellious ones, we are compelled to witness the first draft of history as it unfolds. Trump spun a dense web of lies from the congressional podium, and most Democratic lawmakers sat in stony silence – a stoic tactic borrowed from the rich legacy of civil rights protests. Some taunted Trump with signs shaped like auction paddles, reading things like [Elon] “Musk Steals.” Others wore T-shirts with slogans in defiance of tyrannical rule. Many women were clad in pink to protest regressive reproductive policies. A few lawmakers refused to attend, while others made a point of sitting front and center and then simply walking out mid-speech.
In the end, only one man, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, stood, railed against Trump’s autocratic aims, and was forcibly removed.
Social media spaces were ablaze with criticism over what many deemed an overly passive Democratic protest. The lawmakers, in response, took to the airwaves and social media and explained what protest means to them and why they chose their forms of resistance.
“I come from direct action and movement-based politics,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, said during the State of the People broadcast shortly after he left the congressional floor. “And for me, it’s all about space. How are you taking up space? When are you leaving a space? And making sure you’re doing that on your own accord.”
The Emancipator is powered by passionate journalists who quit White, patriarchal-dominated mainstream media spaces to support the nation’s only news organization solely dedicated to covering race and racism’s impact on politics, policy, culture, and society. We are dedicated to holding space for the kinds of urgent conversations our publisher and general manager will hold this Sunday from 2:30-3:30 p.m. at SXSW with Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts on the state of reproductive justice.
This framing is both our mission and our own form of protest.
Whether you choose to sit in resolute silence in the face of insulting racist taunts designed to trigger, stand and yell in defiance, boycott a craven corporation, sit out shopping on a planned Friday, or simply turn your back and walk out on the artifice of procedure and status quo, rebellion is a profoundly personal choice.
The resistance is a river fed by many tributaries.
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