On her Thursday show, MSNBC’s Alex Wagner decried the fact that when women get married, their support for Republicans goes up. Not only that, Wagner claimed that such voting patterns show a disregard for “their black and brown sisters,” whose lives are supposedly threatened by the GOP.
Wagner lamented to CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Maya Wiley, “I want for a moment to, like, just, for a moment, talk about this loss of allyship in a very desperate time, that not only were white non-college educated women voting for Trump and against Harris, they were voting against the interest of their black and brown sisters in parts of the country where their lives are in danger, but, whether because of healthcare deserts, abortion deserts, or any other factors, and it’s a phenomenon that happens increasingly as women get married, and I wonder, you know, the plight of black and brown women in this country extends well past the fortunes of Kamala Harris.”
She then turned to a recent piece in the New York Times and quoted Wiley, “Not only have black women always been on the menu, but they have been eating us, and it has been happening for generations, and what this represents for black women right now is it has deepened and been given significantly more permission.”
Before anyone could ask what on earth “Eating us” means, Wagner continued, “How should people of color, women of color, women, how should we think about this moment and what lessons should be drawn from it, given how, I think, demoralizing it is in the cause of equity and equality and just justice?”
An exasperated Wiley replied, “You know, the thing about black women,” before pausing for an equally exasperated Wagner to plead, “Yes, please tell me, Maya.”
Wiley then got around to answering, “Black women show up all the time for what is right for people, for families, for communities, black women showed up for women's suffrage when we knew we would still have to fight for our own, if white women won that suffrage, we still showed up. This is, it is a pattern of history and we’re going to keep showing up, but I think this is the point, we keep trying to model that we're all in this together.”
She continued, “That, you know, if we going to bleed out in a parking lot, you're going to bleed out in a parking lot, if we can't take care of our children, you can't take care of your children. If we have to leave our—accept we’re more often in the category of worrying about whether our children are actually going to survive, worrying if we are going to survive pregnancy, but no matter what our differences, at the end of the day, we are constantly working on coalition.”
What greatly annoys MSNBC is that marriage and having a family could change a woman's political priorities or perspective on certain things and lead her to conclude she doesn't need the Democratic Party to protect her.
Here is a transcript for the November 7 show:
MSNBC Alex Wagner Tonight
11/7/2024
9:46 PM ET
ALEX WAGNER: I want for a moment to, like, just, for a moment, talk about this loss of allyship in a very desperate time, that not only were white non-college educated women voting for Trump and against Harris, they were voting against the interest of their black and brown sisters in parts of the country where their lives are in danger, but, whether because of healthcare deserts, abortion deserts, or any other factors, and it’s a phenomenon that happens increasingly as women get married, and I wonder, you know, the plight of black and brown women in this country extends well past the fortunes of Kamala Harris.
And you’re quoted in a really important piece in the New York Times and I’ll read you your quote back, not that you need me to, “Not only have black women always been on the menu, but they have been eating us, and it has been happening for generations, and what this represents for black women right now is it has deepened and been given significantly more permission.”
How should people of color, women of color, women, how should we think about this moment and what lessons should be drawn from it, given how, I think, demoralizing it is in the cause of equity and equality and just justice?
MAYA WILEY: You know, the thing about black women.
WAGNER: Yes, please tell me, Maya.
WILEY: And Shannon knows this well too and is an incredible ally. Black women show up all the time for what is right for people, for families, for communities, black women showed up for women's suffrage when we knew we would still have to fight for our own, if white women won that suffrage, we still showed up.
This is, it is a pattern of history and we’re going to keep showing up, but I think this is the point, we keep trying to model that we're all in this together.
WAGNER: Yeah.
WILEY: That, you know, if we going to bleed out in a parking lot, you're going to bleed out in a parking lot, if we can't take care of our children, you can't take care of your children. If we have to leave our—accept we’re more often in the category of worrying about whether our children are actually going to survive, worrying if we are going to survive pregnancy, but no matter what our differences, at the end of the day, we are constantly working on coalition.
