Name: Sylvie Malamet
Social Justice Group: Trans Rights: Gender Affirming Care (B)
Date of Fieldwork: January 18, 2025
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):The People’s March
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:
Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I went to the People’s March on January 18th. This march was a march for the rights of all people. It was created by the same people who made the Women’s March, on January 21st, 2017, and it had the same purpose; protest for the rights that will be taken over by Donald Trump.
When we first got there, I could see the “stage” where the speeches would take place, and I could see a crowd slowly start to form. We were within the first 100 or so people to arrive at first, but as soon as the speeches started, many people came and watched. All of the speeches came from a “representative” of most minorities, and they would talk about their experience being who they are. Many of them also talked about their worries and fears about what Trump will do, but if they spoke their fears, they also spoke their hopes and dreams. Some speeches were more “kid friendly” then others, but each one made it’s own impact on the crowd. As a viewer, I felt especially empowered from hearing how all of the people who went up on the stage were just regular people who had opinions that they wanted to share. I had a dream, that I would be able to be up on that stage, talking about my own life, and how fucked up this world is, but what each individual person can do to make it just a little bit better; how each person who showed up for that march put just a little bit of hope into the air.
When we started walking, everyone was super cold and motivated, so it moved at a quick, steady pace. We walked and walked, and it felt like it was going on for so long, but it felt incredible and powerful. People started chants and we just kept on walking. A big part of the march for me was when we got to the intersection of 6th avenue and West Broadway, and we stopped. Me and my dad were sure that we’d go right, down West Broadway, because of how busy 6th avenue is, but nope, instead, we kept on marching, straight down 6th avenue. The cars honked their horns and the people yelled, but we kept walking. It felt so good to be acknowledged, even if it was negative, and I loved how we got to create traffic. I wasn’t worried that the cars would keep driving, because we were all united, but if we got split up, or there weren’t as many people, it would’ve been much less safe. This speaks to the fact that we’re always safer if we stick together. That was one of the main points of the march; even though all of the minorities don’t have much in common, we are all being targeted by one common enemy; Donald Trump. So we all have to stand united, together, to fight back.
