Once we consider history-making occasions, we frequently assume progress, that every milestone strikes us ahead. However historical past just isn’t all the time written in triumph. Generally, it deconstructs decades of hard-fought rights and protections.
As inauguration weekend approached, I’d been requested repeatedly why, as a Black girl, I wished to cowl it. I can “sit this one out,” some insisted, as a result of Black ladies have carried out their job.
However to witness historical past unfold in actual time is each an honor and a accountability. This inauguration was not nearly Donald Trump taking workplace—however about what sort of future my youngsters will inherit. It marked a possibility to doc a pivotal chapter in world historical past by the lens of a mom, a journalist, and a Black girl in a nation that’s combating its previous and current.
On January twentieth, America swore into workplace its first-ever convicted felon as President, a stark reflection of the nation’s political and ethical reckoning. As the brand new administration settles in, rallying behind the slogan, “Make America Nice Once more,” marginalized communities ask: nice for whom?
On the airplane, I sat subsequent to a girl of Asian descent. We had a short dialogue in regards to the inauguration, which she stated she was “skipping” to go to household as a substitute. With a glance of defeat, she whispered, “Whether or not we prefer it or not, Donald Trump is about to turn into the forty seventh President.”
In D.C., I realized that press entry to the inauguration—moved contained in the Capitol Rotunda given the blistery circumstances exterior—could be restricted. Beneath an administration that has brazenly romanticized the pre-Civil Rights period as a time when America was “nice,” why would I count on the Black Media to be prioritized as one of many retailers granted entry?
In the meantime, I used to be receiving emails confirming my attendance on the sixteenth Annual 2025 Peace Ball, a recurring occasion across the U.S. presidential inauguration meant to energise and encourage artists and activists decided to strengthen America’s democracy.
I’d be attending the “Infinite Hope”–themed ball, which opened with a efficiency of “Ella’s Song” by the acapella ensemble Candy Honey within the Rock. From Democratic Congress members like Rashida Tlaib to native activists throughout the nation to revolutionary icon and professor, Angela Davis, nothing about this crowd appeared defeated.
“The one people who find themselves going to battle for us the best way we’d like are us!,” Congresswoman Cori Bush remarked once I requested her what she would say to those that did in reality really feel defeated.
She went on to debate the explanations for optimism, notably how battle provides beginning to activism. “The change that’s wanted is current… the following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is on the market, rising from the ashes.”
The subsequent day, I stood exterior Capital One Area watching Trump’s speech unfold, how in the identical breath, the president spoke of unity and of constructing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s dream come true whereas promising to signal “a collection of historic government orders,” one in every of which dismantles federal Variety, Fairness and Inclusion (DEI) packages.
He then painted an image of lawlessness pushed by immigrants, a story designed to stoke concern and that ignores the place some of the greatest threats to democracy have in reality most not too long ago come from.
Whereas some Latinos, Asians, and others I spoke with feared what the approaching hours would deliver for immigrants, others spoke of the optimism they felt in regards to the financial system, believing that Trump’s insurance policies would enhance job alternatives and scale back inflation.
Most Black women and men I spoke with— there have been few Black Individuals within the crowd—selected as a substitute to deal with celebrating the lifetime of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “We—the 92% of Black ladies who voted for Kamala—did our half.”
Not one white particular person let me interview them, even after exhibiting them my press badge.
I ultimately determined to look at the remainder of the day’s occasions from the consolation of my resort. As I climbed into my Uber, my arms practically frozen from the chilly, a deep disappointment settled over me.
Whilst some greet Trump’s promise of prosperity and his expansionist imaginative and prescient of the nation with unbridled optimism, many others are girding themselves for the battle to come back over primary rights and freedoms, and their place on this society.
As a Black girl residing within the pink state of Texas, it’s exhausting for me to see this transition as something however a step again. It’s troublesome to really feel hopeful once I know that in the future, I must sit down with my two little Black youngsters—whom I’m elevating with morals and values that stand in stark distinction to the nation they dwell in—and clarify why “liberty and justice” isn’t for all.
