On Saturday, January 21 thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Washington, DC, in opposition to the newly inaugurated president, Donald Trump. In the meantime, sister demonstrations were conducted by millions of Americans in each of the country's fifty states. In addition to these demonstrations, millions of additional people took part in the global solidarity march in 60 other countries across all continents, where men, women, and children joined in the Women's March. In response to some disparaging comments that Trump had made about women, the demonstrators carried banners with messages like "special relationships, just say no" and "nasty women unite." The motivation behind the protests were the remarks made by the republican president throughout his 2016 campaigns, including disregarding women, sexual harassment, threats to his opponent Hillary Clinton, threats to the rights of groups such as the homosexuals, immigrants and Muslims, xenophobia towards the Blacks and the threat to repeal health bills (Vlessing n.p). In the US, millions of Americans marched in solidarity with the women, the gays and the immigrants. In other nations, protesters cited their support of the American people, while others used the opportunity to air several other issues including female genital mutilation, oppression of women and poor leaders.
Participation rate and impact
The protests took place in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Rome, Berlin, Sidney, Tokyo, Lima in Peru and Nairobi Kenya. Analysts referred to this as the most peaceful and largest protest in the history of protests in the US. At least five million people were among the protesters in the streets of America, among them prominent musicians and actors. Other cities included London, where 100,000 people participated while other marches took place in 14 cities of the UK. In Australia Sidney, at least 3,000 people took part in the protests, while 2,000 people took part across four cities in New Zealand. In Nairobi Kenya, hundreds of participants marched around the Karura forest in solidarity with the American people. According to polls, Trump was the least favored president since 1970 (Malone n.p).
Social Issues Identified
According to the protesters, they were afraid that if trump fulfilled his campaign vows, health bills like the Affordable Care Act and the Obama Care were going to be revoked, thus raising the cost of healthcare provision in America, for even the poor citizens. The protesters were also against the hateful remarks by Trump during his campaign. They demanded that Trump refrains from trampling on the rights of minority groups (Malone n.p). Furthermore, most cited that they were against the xenophobic remarks made by Trump throughout his campaign against the Black community. Other issues pointed out included the disrespect of women, religious discrimination against minority religious groups.
Targeted Accomplishments
The protesters wanted Trump brought to book or held responsible for the sexual harassment claims from various women against the former businessman throughout the better part of his life. They were also against Trump for insulting his opponent Hillary Clinton in various interview sessions. The protesters further aimed at Trump, into answering to a previously released video of the Republican saying that he was capable of sexually harassing women without questions asked (Malone n.p). In addition to the sexual claims, the protesters were pressuring Trump to cease disobeying the constitution by disregarding the rights of women, gays and immigrant rights. The protests hoped to accomplish a new face of America where the president was not allowed to abuse women and other minority groups and make xenophobic remarks.
Besides the issues raised about hate speech some protesters wanted Trump to put some regard to environmental affairs in the wake of the global realization of the need to protect the environment. Most of the protesters wanted Trump to keep the health bills that covered birth control insurance for women in order to continue improving the reproductive health of the American people (Khomami n.p).
Recommendations to the President
Regarding the situation of the world-wide march against his policies, the president should consider revising his policies and methods of approach to issues affecting the American people. He should consider keeping the bills because millions of Americans benefit from these bills and revoking them will only make life harder. In regard to the derogatory remarks against women, the president should consider a press conference apologizing to the women of America. Furthermore, the policies that are trampling on the rights of the minority groups such as the gays need to be revised because the American president clearly stipulates that every American has rights. Finally, the president should take a serious stand about global issues such as the environment because only through cooperation will America grow.
Works Cited
Khomami, Nadia. "Protests around world show solidarity with Women's March on Washington." The Guardian 20 January 2017: n.p. Web. 03 May 2017. .
Malone, Scott. "In challenge to Trump, women protesters swarm streets across U.S." Reuters 22 January 2017: n.p. Web. 03 May 2017. .
Vlessing, Etan. "Women's March: Overseas Demonstrations Occur in Conjunction With D.C., Sundance Protests." The Hollywood Reporter 21 January 2017: n.p. Web. 03 May @017. .
