Viola Davis Speaks For Women Of Color At The Women’s March

Our love affair with Viola Davis continues to blossom because she continues to blossom, as both as an actress and as an activist. She was one of the many celebrities who spoke at the Women’s March on Saturday. The march brought hundreds of thousands of women across the country, including women of color.

The Women’s March this year has been fueled by the #MeToo movement. But the march, and the movement in general, has also been dogged down by allegations that women of color have not been given equal attention. Some have called it just “white feminism.”

Viola spoke eloquently and passionately on this matter, without calling it out by name.  The theme for her speech? Sacrifice, aka cost.

“…and like the originators of me toos, the Fannie Lou Hamers, the Recy Taylors, who in 1944 was ganged raped by 6 white men and she spoke up, Rosa Parks fought for  her rights. She was silenced. To the Tarana Burkes, to the originators, the first women to speak out, it cost them something. Nothing and no one can be great without a cost.”

The powerful speech feels deliberately black, as if to school anybody who might not be aware of the contribution of black women to the me too movement and to women’s equality fight in general.

We highly encourage you to watch the whole speech and get your inspiration to face the cost that comes with progress.