Across social media, those with high followings have activism mapped onto them.
Now, a little more than three years since the initial Women’s March, only Perez is still associated with the national organization. As allegations of antisemitism rammed the sparkly surfaces of the march’s legacy, Teresa Shook, one of the march’s original founders, called for the cochairs to step down. “Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez of Women’s March, Inc. have steered the Movement away from its true course,” Shook wrote on Facebook in November 2018. “In opposition to our Unity Principles, they have allowed antisemitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs.”
Each of the cochairs were asked to step down because of their individual feminist beliefs as well as the activities they participated in outside of the Women’s March. They faced criticism for the events they attended, what they posted on social media, and what they said (or didn’t say) in interviews. Mallory’s tweets, in particular, were picked apart for allegedly suggesting her alliance with antisemitic figures, most notably the Nation of Islam’s leader Louis Farrakhan, who, Rewire News notes, Mallory was asked to “condemn.” As the controversy swirled, it became nearly impossible for the cochairs to escape wild and fiery conversations about them: Are they icons worthy of honor and respect? Are they good women? Are they legitimate feminists? Are their beliefs inclusive enough? Do they have the values necessary to lead a movement? Ultimately, they weren’t deemed credible enough to lead this movement; in fact, it seems, no one is.
There came a point when it became difficult to distinguish the work and online presence of the cochairs from the work and presence of the march itself. What would the Women’s March be without them, given that their names and faces were so interwoven into the messaging of the Women’s March movement?
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