City Council votes to rename controversial Taney Street after Philadelphia educator and civil rights advocate Caroline LeCount
Activists have for years pushed the city to rename the street, which honors former Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who is best known for authoring the opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott case. Taney wrote in the courtβs majority opinion that Black people βhad no rights which the white man was bound to respect,β denying them citizenship.
Whatβs more, authors of color β particularly women of color β were far more likely to be banned compared with white authors. Authors of color wrote 39% of the banned books in our study. Women of color alone penned almost a quarter of them. Thatβs even though authors of color make up just 10% of U.S. authors and write less than 5% of the most popular books in the U.S.
Letβs be real β many white women are not friends or allies to Black women. They never have been. Thatβs the truth, plain and simple. And as Maya Angelou once said: βWhen someone tells you who they are, believe them.β
Black women, we must believe what white women keep showing us.
On November 5, 53% of white women did what theyβve always done: voted for whiteness. I thought, foolishly, that the majority of white women might support Kamala Harrisβs bid for the presidency. But no β they once again reminded us who they truly are.
So now Black women are being asked to show up on January 18 for another Womenβs March to protest Donald Trumpβs presidency. Weβre supposed to stand shoulder to shoulder with white women and chant that we wonβt go back.
I struggle with this one. Data agrees with the statement, and also does not:
Although women as a whole have historically voted for Democrats, white women have not. Instead, over the last 72 years, a plurality of white women have voted for the Democratic candidate only twice, in 1964 and 1996. On Tuesday, they once again went for Trump β just as they did in 2016 and 2020. But Harris made inroads with the group; she lost them by only 5 points, according to CNN. (In 2020, they broke for Trump by 11.) More surprisingly, Trumpβs lead among white men also shrank, from 23 points in 2020 to 20 in 2024.
The Trump campaign leaned into targeting young men, as the former president publicly palled around with male YouTubers and podcasters, such as Joe Rogan, who make little space for women. This effort paid off: exit polling indicates that there was a canyon-wide 16-point gender gap between young men and women, which is an increase from 2020. While women between the ages of 18 and 29 preferred Harris 58% to 40%, their male peers chose Trump 56% to 42%. However, compared to his last run, Trump did better with both young men (41% of them voted for him four years ago) and young women (33% in 2020).
So, Il Douche actually lost some of his white woman vote (winning by 5% in '24 vs. 11% in '20), while gaining in the key younger women demographic (40% in '24 vs. 33% in '20.) I donβt know what to make of this pattern, other than racism sucks. But I also hate seeing a wedge driven between white women (47% of whom did, in fact, vote for Harris) and Black women. That can only benefit the fascists. Having said that, I also am a white guy, and fully understand that I have no say in this issue. I have seen us turn on each other rather than deal with the fascists after the '16 election, and would love to not see that again. But there is very real anger and betrayal to work through as well. Women who vote for Gilead puzzle me every bit as much as trans and gay folks who vote for their own extermination. I have no answers, folks, just desperately looking for hope.
Ultimately, who voted for whom isnβt really relevant this last election. Thatβs just scapegoating ( and probably distorted as well due to changes is the absolute numbers of votes). Talking about percentages misses the real story. What mattered this last election was who didnβt vote. That was the difference.