{"id":74816,"date":"2024-10-24T13:10:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T17:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=74816"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:55:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T14:55:43","slug":"fellow-white-women-please-do-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/fellow-white-women-please-do-the-right-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellow White Women \u2013 Please Do the Right Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Me and my protest sign from the 2017 Women\u2019s March \u2013 in which I urged white women to get active in all forms of civic engagement, especially as voters. Today, I\u2019m making the same ask. (Credit: Candice Helfand-Rogers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ahead of Election Day, I\u2019d like to share two stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first<\/a> is a heartbreaking tale amplified this week by Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 presidential campaign. It centers on a married couple, Ondrea and Ceasar. \u201cMore than anything, I\u2019ve always wanted to be a mother,\u201d Ondrea says in the campaign\u2019s video. When she got pregnant<\/a>, the couple was elated \u2013 until she was 16 weeks along, and her water broke far too early. She then got the news no expecting mother ever wants to hear: Her child had no chance of survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ondrea lives in Texas, which has especially stringent abortion restrictions<\/a> following the 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade<\/a> \u2013 a landmark decision by a U.S. Supreme Court turned ultra-conservative as a result of former President Donald Trump\u2019s judge appointments. Ondrea was denied abortive care, despite her daughter\u2019s prognosis, which resulted in an infection so severe that it nearly took her life. And now, she might never again get pregnant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She dreamed of having a baby. Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cpro-life\u201d policies directly destroyed that dream. \u201cHe did this to me,\u201d Ondrea says plainly, pain and weariness punctuating her words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the America Trump created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second story involves my 6-year-old son and I sharing a cheeseburger. A Quarter Pounder from McDonald\u2019s, specifically \u2013 a dinner we indulged in to celebrate some recent great behavior on his part. \u201cThis is actually amazing,\u201d he said to me while digging in. The next day, news broke about an E. coli outbreak<\/a> linked to that sandwich, which has sickened nearly 50 people so far, and taken one life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This uptick in <\/a>contaminated food \u2013 other recent cases involved Boar\u2019s Head deli meat and frozen waffles \u2013 is largely attributed to the Trump administration’s rollback of federal food-safety regulations<\/a>, which has allowed corporations to cut corners on product inspections in service of profits. I\u2019ve spent the past week monitoring my son and myself, wondering all the while if I\u2019d accidentally poisoned us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the America Trump created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to be plain, we white women helped with construction. No, not just helped \u2013 47% of us, or nearly half<\/a>, voted for Trump in 2016, choosing him over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (45%). In 2020, that number increased to a 53% majority<\/a> of us. This isn\u2019t some new trend \u2013 white women<\/a> habitually skew Republican when they vote. The explanations vary<\/a>, with some experts pointing to white women\u2019s proximity to (and sometimes, fears of) conservative white men, and others citing less informed, more selfish reasoning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fellow white women: We can\u2019t do this again. Not to this nation, not to its people, and not to ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n No, Women Should Not Shut Up Just Because Their Opinions Challenge Your Own\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

What\u2019s At Risk<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re in that voting booth, you have a chance to do something that could stave off a nationwide backslide into a dystopian hellscape, and you should take advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that sounds hyperbolic \u2013 overly dramatic, even. But let\u2019s be clear, the two scenarios I detailed above are mere panels in a broad, noxious, smothering quilt that Trump\u2019s administration laid over the American populace through a deluge of hateful, harmful policies<\/a> and rhetoric<\/a> that has kept us collectively buried in desperation and confusion and division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policies and rhetoric that, it\u2019s worth noting, have undoubtedly harmed women \u2013 yes, including those who have voted for him in the past. In addition to stripping away our reproductive rights, Trump has shown himself, countless times over, to be an abuser<\/a> and user<\/a> of women, one who feels that his fame entitles him<\/a> to whatever and whomever he desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump does all of this while he and his kin in privilege reap the benefits of our subjugation \u2013 turning profits<\/a> and otherwise reveling in the unique autonomy that comes with having wealth, power and social elevation, with no regard to the many backs stepped upon in pursuit of ill-gotten treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if he\u2019s allowed back in office, things are only going to get worse. By now you\u2019ve surely heard about Project 2025<\/a>, a collection of nightmarish policy proposals and more crafted by the Heritage Foundation \u2013 the right-wing political research center largely staffed by Trump administration alumni that has maintained significant influence over conservative politics since the 1980s. Should Trump win re-election, he\u2019s likely to enact much of it \u2013 which would not only see women’s rights further eroded, but also, the very structure and functioning of our democracy. (More so, that is, as Trump has already incited a failed coup<\/a> after refuting official election results<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Election Day, we white women have the chance to wield our social status and comparative freedom to do something that could tangibly help others \u2013 the youngest among us are already leading the way<\/a>, and we should follow their progressive example. White women can use our  strength in numbers as just over 30%<\/a> of the U.S. population to set America on a better path, one led by a better candidate who might possibly listen, who might actually care, when we tell her what\u2019s wrong and what needs fixing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yes \u2013 you can cast your vote in secret, as many anti-Trump Republican women are expected to do, especially if you are fearful. You can also use your voice, and the additional weight your whiteness lets your voice carry, to speak up about what ails us as a collective. But either way, we need to vote \u2013 specifically to elect Harris, the candidate who is far more likely to hear us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fearful, ailing, chaotic nation is the America Trump created, or at the very least enabled \u2013 and he did so with white women\u2019s help. Now, we must fight back. ◼️<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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