Amid continued frustration and disillusionment with the Trump administration’s policies, many protesters made their presence known in Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital
On Saturday, October 18, hundreds of thousands of people marched through the streets of the nation’s capital to protest against the Trump administration’s policies ranging from immigration and foreign policy to affordable housing and the continued gutting of federal departments.
Racism and Immigration
Tony Guard is a 51-year-old construction worker based in D.C. His main motivation for protesting is that “due process is not being respected” when it comes to the administration’s treatment of immigrants. The administration is telling people that “immigrants are the enemy,” according to Guard.
“Undocumented people pay billions of dollars in taxes and Medicaid, and now what they are doing, taking people, kidnapping people from the streets, snatching people without due process,” Guard said. “Now they are sent to these death camps, as we call it now, because they are dying little by little, and all these children, all these families, torn apart.”
Guard said his own coworker was detained and taken away from his wife who had just given birth. It was a Friday when his coworker applied for a green card and he was told to come back on Monday to “sign some papers.”
“He went home on Sunday, his wife gave birth to a baby. He saw the baby that day,” Guard said. “The next morning, he went to that place where the officer told him to go. Surprise was that he couldn’t even get into the building. They were waiting for him at the entrance. They kidnapped him right there. They detained him.”
Guard said his coworker appealed his case and the government said he would have to wait in jail for eight months. He is currently in Guatemala while his family is in the U.S. He hasn’t seen his newborn for “almost like a month.”
“That’s a sad story of someone who’s a good person, hard working person, that is trying to do things the legal way,” Guard said. “But they are not letting people do things the legal way.”
Antonio was born and raised in D.C. and works in IT. He hasn’t really protested since he was a child, when he fought to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday.
“I feel that the undergirding of the entire Trump policy is racism, and it’s been defined by racism,” Antonio said.
62-year-old Chris Flint protested during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. He thinks that America is experiencing a regression, particularly in Civil Rights.
“When I was protesting, the Civil Rights Act had already passed, and now one by one, they’re just dismantling the entire thing,” Flint said.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act made it illegal for politicians to racially discriminate against voters in attempts to dilute Black voting power. For example, states would make Black people complete literacy tests. Black people risked getting harassed at voting polls and even endured physical violence.
Now, these protections that were granted 60 years ago are on the verge of facing a “near-death experience,” according to Jan Wolfe at Reuters. The Supreme Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority. In a couple of months, they are set to rule a case on “a map delineating U.S. House of Representatives districts in Louisiana.”
“The conservative justices signaled they could undercut the law’s Section 2, which bars voting maps that would result in diluting the voting power of minorities, even without direct proof of racist intent,” Wolfe wrote.
Inflatable Suits
In Washington, peaceful protesters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, creating an array of colorful protest picket signs, costumes and inflatable suits.
The trend of wearing inflatable suits as a form of anonymity at protests began in Portland, Oregon, during ICE immigration raids protests this year. It became so popular, Portland residents created an organization entitled “Operation Inflation,” which began raising funds to distribute free costumes at protests.
This trend found its way at many of the nationwide No Kings Day protests, including D.C.
A protester couple who gave the names of “Coral” and “Reef” wore seahorse costumes to honor anonymity while embracing the safeness of mobility.
“I chose the seahorse costumes because I work with a company that trains people going into dangerous areas — so I’ve learned about being in big crowds,” said Coral. “Our arms are free and our legs are free, so we have mobility.”
Age
Many individuals nationwide from older generations have shown up and shown out at the No Kings protest.
Shane Maguire, a 19-year-old philosophy pre-law student at the University of Mary Washington, observed this trend.
“Looking around, you’ll notice that the mean age seems to be a little on the higher end here, but I think that’s kind of par for the course for a lot of these protests. They tend to bring out the older, white liberals,” said Maguire.
Maguire credits the current Gen Z participation of protests to broken economic promises.
“I think around the world, we’re seeing kind of the end result of our economic system starting to break a lot of these promises, and people aren’t able to afford housing, they aren’t able to afford healthcare,” said Maguire. “I do wish that in the U.S., Gen Z and young people will get up and think about where they want the country to go.”
Ursula Nadolny, 75, said she also feels that “the youth population is underrepresented.”
“I can see that even in my kids,” Nadolny said. “They’re concerned, but not enough to take action.”
However, 24-year-old Neeka Samimi showed up at the protest with a group of her friends.
“I think most people that I interact with, I think are pretty sensible and understand both the scope and veracity of what’s happening,” Samimi said.
55-year-old Antonio thinks young people in their teens and 20s grew up under the current administration, as Trump first got elected in 2016, so “this is what they know.”
“They [Trump administration] have enough young people not understanding the value that diversity brings,” Antonio said. “They’re kind of stuck. They don’t understand the stakes that are in place.”
Proximity to Political Power in D.C.
The image of a street crowded by peaceful protesters marching towards the Capitol, a building where important federal decisions are made daily, echoes a direct political statement to the Trump Administration.
“There’s a conception across the country that, like, D.C. is just where the federal government is and synonymous with whatever administration it is,” said Mia.
Flint was born and raised in D.C. Because of his upbringing, he feels that people in D.C. see “very closely what the abuse of power can do to real people,” and so D.C. natives like him take action when necessary.
“It’s just in your blood,” Flint said. “If it’s important to you, you take to the streets.”
79-year-old John Bedell is a retired veteran who served in the Eighth Special Forces Group (Airborne) from 1965 to 1969. He’s not the type of person to protest regularly, but he and his friend (also retired veteran) Tom came from Alberquerque, N.M., specifically for the protest.
“I love my country, and during the Vietnam epic, we, Tom and I here,” Bedell gestures, “were commissioned to defend our country, and we feel that our participation in [the] No Kings march is a furtherance of the defense of our country.”
Proximity to the capital and the federal government buildings was also important to Bedell, as he wanted to make his stance clear.
“I mean, there’s no better place to make your voice heard or express an opinion about the political direction of the country than here.”
Header photo by Dani Snedeker
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