On April 24, 2025 Gwen McKinney published an article titled: Mass protests in Black and white — Are we showing up? in The Bay State Banner.
“From the podium at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, Kadida Kenner, executive director of the New Pennsylvania Project, scanned the vast human landscape at the April 5 “Hands Off!” protest. Among the estimated 30,000 assembled, she made a stark observation: Black protesters were missing.
Making a collective statement by their absence, social media memes depicted Black folks stepping to line dances and waving hand fans as an answer to multiracial protests, or what Kenner, a speaker at the Philly rally, describes as ‘taking a break and leaning into our joy.’
‘Demonstrations are events, not movements,’ Kenner said. ‘They proclaim to the world your beliefs, joining with people who share your values and say we are not alone.’ Recalling Mississippi Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer: Nobody’s free until everybody’s free, Kenner stressed, ‘If we’re erased, the aim is to also deny the generational horrors that have been visited upon Black people. But our oppression impacts the nation.’”