WE DEMAND EQUAL RIGHTS,
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM,
AND AN END TO GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Many are confused at the choice of the color red. Red is used in an act of reclaiming and the amplifying of Indigenous voices. The United States was founded on genocide and white supremacy, and it is our duty to decolonize the narrative. Republicans can’t control our bodies, they can’t control us, they can’t control the color red. This is in a sense, stripping them of their presumed power. Red delineates passion, love, resilience, power, strength, anger, and humanity. This color represents our passion for equality and women’s rights, our love for each other and all those who have suffered at the hands of the patriarchy, our resilience in the face of terror, as many of us live in fear due to gender-based violence, our anger at the injustice of gender oppression and apartheid in society, government policy, and policing practices. MAGA doesn’t own red, MAGA doesn’t own us. We need to take back our rights, our freedoms, and we need to not give the far right conservatives so much power. For those who’ve asked us to change the color, I would feel that we are giving them that power over us, and they can’t have it. 

 

I believe that the left is in part, responsible for Trump’s popularity. Instead of highlighting genocide, unjust laws, movements to create a progressive and equitable nation, the struggle of survival with inflation rates and corporate greed, the Trump trials are given the most attention on news and media outlets like CNN. Rather than continuing to focus on an ignorant and inhumane man that should be behind bars, we need to switch the narrative to focus on all those affected by his bigotry, as well as centuries of systemic oppression that has left men like Trump entitled to governmental, economical, and social power. The attention Trump is given perpetuates his own ego, as well as idolization by conservatives. I will not allow Donald Trump to have any impact on my life, except to fuel my determination to change this nation, the world, and all patriarchal power rooted in violence, oppression, genocide, settler colonialism, imperialism, misogyny, and racism.

 

There are so many other powerful meanings behind the color red that do not have any relation to MAGA, and instead have helped marginalized communities, such as Indigenous Peoples. Allowing Donald Trump to overpower the voices of Native people only hurts the fight for equality and decolonization.

 

The Red Power movement in the 60’s and 70’s was responsible for bills and laws enacted in support of American Indians.

Red is used by Indigenous movements such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and No More Stolen Sisters.

This is essential to the fight for women’s rights, as Indigenous women and girls, along with Two-Spirit people, are disproportionately impacted by gender-based violence, as they make up the highest demographic of victims of sexual violence, assault, and abduction. Native women are subjected to psychological, physical, sexual, and verbal violence and abuse at alarming rates, for American Indian and Alaskan Indian women are 2.5x more likely to be sexually assaulted or raped than any other demographic in the United States.

Furthermore, according to the National Crime Information Center, there were 5,712 reports of missing Indigenous women and girls, but the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing person database, NamUs, only reported 116 cases in 2016. The government has a responsibility to treat all victims equally, and they have continuously failed BIPOC communities. 

 

Amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, such as BIPOC, is integral to the cause of women’s rights and liberation, for no one is free until we are all free. 

 

Red is also highly valued in other countries, as in India, China, and Armenia, this color is used in weddings. Forced and child marriage is still prevalent across the globe, and all people should have the right to choose, whether that be in marriage, childbirth, career, education, etc. 

 

If we allow Trump such power that this color is only associated with him, instead of the litany of other benevolent affiliations, we are silencing the voices of those who have stood up against injustice and enacted important change. 

 

Ending racial disparities in women’s rights, health, and freedom is at the heart of this mission, and my life’s purpose. Uplifting and amplifying BIPOC voices is vital to ending all weapons of oppression and creating a fair and equitable society. As a citizen benefitting from white privilege in a colonial settler state born through genocide, it is my responsibility and obligation to advocate and support Indigenous rights, freedoms, respect, dignity, reparations, and help strengthen sovereignty.