Women's March Chicago wrestles with confusion over a national group's identity
Organizers of Women's March Chicago want you to know that, contrary to reports by me and other media sources, they are not cancelling a planned march in January.
"That's because we never planned to have one," Harlene Ellis, an organizer and spokesperson for Women's March Chicago, explained in a telephone interview.
After drawing thousands to Grant Park in two years, the Chicago group decided last spring to hold a march in October this time in order to fire up participation in the midterm elections.
Since that left little time or resources for another January march, organizers decided to have a day of service on Jan. 19 called "Operation Activation."
And while the Chicago group stands firmly behind its denunciation last spring of hate speech in any form, members also insist that their march decision had nothing to do with the anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ statements by Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has been linked to some of the New York-based national Women's March leaders.
Yet, as much as Women's March Chicago is an entirely separate organization from the national Women's March Inc., the group shares names and agendas that are similar enough for them to often be confused for one another -- and that's a big headache.
"We've received questions almost every day," said Ellis, "from people asking, 'Will there be another march?' and 'Are you anti-Semitic?' "
No, but the confusion is understandable and it spreads quickly, causing a national uproar that threatens to divide the women's march movement.
National co-chair Tamika Mallory sparked the an uproar in February when the Anti-Defamation League reported her attendance at the Nation of Islam's annual Saviour's Day program in Chicago's Wintrust Arena.
There Farrakhan slandered "the powerful Jews" as "my enemy" and "the mother and father of apartheid," saying, among other paranoid myths, that they supposedly are doctoring marijuana to turn black men gay by blocking their testosterone.
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