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The Wall of Moms in Portland joins a long history of women activists using their maternal identities to shame and goad authoritarians. We can compare to #latinamerica. 1/5 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/20/portland-protests-federal-agents-unmarked-cars-and-walls-moms/5470780002/
In #Argentina, for ex, authoritarian dictators claimed to defend the trad order, incl the family. When men security forces attacked women protesters, the activists revealed the regime's hypocrisy: they had attacked that which they claimed to defend. @labaldez @sufranceschet 2/5
In U.S. context, where white supremacy pretends to protect white women from men of color, the moms' Whiteness matters too. They wield both their gender and their race to contradict those who presume white women should be aligned against, not with, BLM, BIPOC, & Latinx. 3/5
So much more to unpack here; I've offered a quick take. The history of race in Portland, and white complicity in upholding white supremacy, is of course deeply complex and not fixed overnight by protesting moms:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/racist-history-portland/492035/ 4/5
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/racist-history-portland/492035/ 4/5
But if you want to know more about gender, maternal identities, and human rights activism, here's more scholars to follow: @kangalicej @ailitripp @marieeberry @MilliLake @ejayfriedman @JZulver @janicegallagher.
