Dear Tomi Lahren, You Totally Missed The Point Of The Women’s March

I attended the Women’s March on Washington in D.C. and after reading and listening to your tweets and final thoughts, I felt compelled to write this.

This was a march, not a protest. We were not protesting Trump’s presidency. As you said, he won in a ‘fair’ and free election. Let me say it again, this was a march. It was a march for equality, a march to protect human rights, a march to give a voice to the vibrant and diverse communities of our country.

I, personally, marched for many reasons. I marched because I believe that no person is better than another, that love is love, that climate change is real, that women’s rights are human rights, that immigrants and all religions are valued, and that we need to be kind to one another. I marched because when the march was over, a 50 year-old man approached me, a 25 year-old woman, and said, “Protesting is fine, but money pays the bills. You marchers should stop being sore losers and fuck off.”

Hi, sir? Yes, I went to a top 20 University and am now an attorney. I have a job since you were insinuating that I don’t.

I truly wonder how he felt telling a 25 year-old woman to fuck off. I digress. This wasn’t a demonstration of sore losers. We were not marching because we lost. We marched because Donald Trump is now our President and we have to demonstrate our demand for accountability of his administration that has already said and done so much to degrade us.

(And Tomi, before you very loudly tell me that you saw signs in direct protest of Trump — those were people within the march. That was not the march’s platform. Though after watching your interview with Trevor Noah, I do acknowledge this is a difficult concept for you to understand.)

More importantly, we are NOT playing the victim card. We are not victims of a sad election that didn’t go our way. We are human beings that are in imminent danger of being stripped of our human rights.

As a Cuban American who does not look traditionally Hispanic and has a job with health insurance that won’t be taken away any time soon, I am aware that I am not nearly amongst those most marginalized. And I am not victimizing myself. I marched to stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters because we are all, in some form, hurt and afraid.

Some are told they are less of a person because of who they love.

Some are told to go back to where they came from.

Some are scared just to walk along the street without being an instant fatality to racism.

And as a woman, we are all under attack. We cannot and will not sit back and watch the war break out.

To say that we are pulling the victim card is a slap in the face to the Susans, Rosas, Eleanors, Michelles and Hillarys of the world that made it possible for you to feel empowered today to speak your mind.

I wish you could experience what it feels like to be a part of a movement of people so hopeful, so inclusive, so loving and so kind. Saturday was one of the most incredible days of my life as men and women from every age, race, ethnicity, religion and orientation came together to show their support for one another. To show that we will not sit idly as this administration has its way with us.

So, do NOT say that we should “learn the art of the deal with it.” Because guess what? We are dealing with it.

We are dealing with a fascist President and organizing ourselves to keep progress moving forward, not backwards. Do NOT say that we don’t know why we are even marching. Just because you chose not to educate yourself on the movement, doesn’t mean we didn’t. Do NOT say a march is just a march, where’s the action? Because that was just day one, Tomi.

And for the love of God, STOP calling us snowflakes. You’re a millennial, remember? You know we don’t like labels.