Mrinalini Chakraborty doesn’t know when she became an activist. The 26-year-old University of Illinois at Chicago graduate student from India said it just complements her opinionated personality. In March 2016 she was at the front lines of student-led protests against a Donald Trump rally to be held on campus, which the then-Republican presidential candidate canceled. At her small liberal arts college in western Illinois, she was a member of Students Against Sexism in Society and other clubs that promoted cultural diversity. Still, she wonders how you know you’re an activist.
“Is it when you have a demonstration in college, or you’re speaking about issues of race and sexism?” she said. “Or is it when you lead a mass mobilization to [Washington,] D.C., is that when you become an activist?”
Chakraborty is a state co-coordinator on the national committee for the Women’s March on Washington, where more than 200,000 people are expected to show up the day after Trump is inaugurated. She handles everything state organizers need to know to get people there. What started with simply asking herself “What am I going to do?” the day after the election grew into a full-time job figuring out how to mobilize in 10 weeks thousands of people across the nation for a grassroots phenomenon that’s possibly the largest inauguration demonstration in history.
An immigrant from Kolkata, India, Chakraborty came to the U.S. in 2008 on an academic scholarship. But she didn’t come with grand illusions that many of her friends had about living a life of luxury in the U.S. and had to work to pay for her biology and art history education at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. In her search for an education that would allow her to think for herself, college offered her opportunities to get politically involved.
Chakraborty does most of the planning for the march from the Gold Coast studio apartment that she shares with her husband, Deepanjan Datta. They aren’t U.S. citizens, but they’ve been waiting for green card approval since 2008. As an immigrant helping to spearhead the Women’s March, Chakraborty said she isn’t afraid that this could affect her citizenship. “My parents are freaking out that I’m a part of something like this,” she said.
While her parents fear she could be blacklisted, Chakraborty said she’s more afraid of the new administration and what the consequences of this presidency could be, not just for her, but also for those immigrants who don’t have a home country to return to. But she said she doesn’t let that fear dictate how she lives.
“What’s the cost of living in that sort of fear all of the time?” she said. “That turns me into a person that’s almost begging the government to have mercy on us, and I am too proud to do that. I love my life here, we are being patient with the [immigration] process and doing everything legally, but at the end of it … if this country doesn’t want me, then I’m not gonna beg for it.”
Immigrants of all statuses are just one of the social groups the march raises up, along with LGBT people, Muslims, Native Americans, black and brown people, sexual assault survivors and people with disabilities—groups that have been “insulted, demonized and threatened” in the recent election, according to the mission statement at womensmarch.com. While some characterize the march as an anti-Trump rally, Chakraborty is specific in saying it’s a solidarity march that highlights global issues.
For her, it’s about embracing fear to create change. “You have to turn that fear or that sense of desolation into something else, some sort of action,” she said. “I’ve been so afraid of so many things in my life, and what does that do really? If [I] can turn that into something that makes an impact, I just felt like it would give me a greater sense of achievement to not just wallow in all of the frustration that I was feeling.”
Among the thousands expected to march tomorrow are celebrity faces including America Ferrera, Zendaya and Katy Perry. Chakraborty said there are an estimated 4,000 people going from Illinois; the state has more than 60 buses confirmed, around 35 of those from Chicago, according to Amanda Drenth, logistics coordinator for the Illinois Chapter of the Women’s March on Washington. Part of Chakraborty’s job on the national committee is to get a sense of how many people are coming to the march from every state. She set up a form asking marchers to register to attend on WomensMarch.com, which got airtime on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Jan. 4.
Unsurprisingly, there’s no guidebook for planning a mass mobilization for thousands of people in 10 weeks. Chakraborty, a self-proclaimed foodie, said she hardly eats and sleeps only about three hours a night. But the night of the election, she barely slept at all.
“We ran probably one of the most qualified candidates against the most unqualified that we’ve ever seen and still the latter won,” she said. “I can’t wrap my head around it. I came from a country where sexism and misogyny is an even bigger problem than it is here. I just cannot believe that misogyny didn’t have a role to play in this.”
Feeling afraid, angry and hopeless, she felt she had to do something. On Nov. 9, a friend shared a Facebook event for a women’s march in D.C. on Inauguration Day. Chakraborty joined immediately and reached out to the initial organizers to see how she could help. She volunteered to lead coordination in Illinois and by that weekend had assembled a team of five other women to help her mobilize the state.
With her work already cut out for her, Chakraborty said she didn’t intend to be on the march’s national committee. However, when she realized not much was getting done in terms of synchronizing the states, she made some noise about it and the national organizers asked her to come on board to handle it. “When you complain about something, you better be prepared to do the job,” she said.
About 1,800 buses have registered nationwide, Chakraborty said. Most far-away states are busing participants in the morning of the march and leaving that evening. Illinois marchers are doing the round trip in about 36 hours. A rally before the march begins at 10 a.m. Eastern time at Independence Avenue and Third Street near Capitol Hill. The program features advocates, artists and entertainers, including Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, Michael Moore and the Indigo Girls. The march follows, stepping off at 1:15 p.m. Eastern.
While the masses head to Washington, more than a thousand sister marches are planned in every state in the U.S. and in cities around the world, including London, Berlin, Mexico City, Seoul and more, according to the Washington march’s website. The Chicago rally starts at 10 a.m. Central on Columbus Drive just north of Jackson Drive, and more than 50,000 people are expected to march on Jackson through the Loop starting at 11:30 a.m. Central, according to the Tribune and womens121marchonchicago.org.
The globalization of the movement points to the inclusivity of the march, Chakraborty said, focusing on issues that apply to people of all genders. But some are hung up on the name and think the march excludes men, she said.
“This is a women-led movement, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a movement for everyone, because it is,” said Chakraborty, who’s marching with her husband tomorrow. “If you consider yourself an ally to women’s rights and women in general, which is more than half the population, then you should come.”
She said she believes feminism is one of the more misunderstood movements in recent history, but being a feminist isn’t determined by gender. At the forefront of the march are women with jobs and families who aren’t getting cut a paycheck for the planning. “None of us have the time to do it, but we are still doing it because it’s important,” Chakraborty said. While she encourages people of all genders to get involved, she wants to remind women that the women’s rights and feminist movements were only the beginning of something larger.
“From time to time, we become complacent. … We thought that we had fought for these rights and won them, but look at it now, women’s healthcare [issues are] back on the table to be debated once more,” she said. “So it’s not like this is done and dusted and women are completely emancipated, no, that’s not true. If you think our battles are won, you’re wrong. We still need to scream and shout about it.”
Getting involved is seemingly easier than ever, and social media is at the helm of the Women’s March. But it’s important that any political action doesn’t start and die there, Chakraborty said. Political activism online, such as signing petitions and engaging in difficult conversations with peers, can be beneficial in raising awareness, but there must be a balance of ground action, including showing up in person. She said her team printed flyers and worked with churches and other organizations to reach those who don’t use Facebook and Twitter.
Chakraborty said that she isn’t sure what will happen after the march, but that “this has to be the beginning. This cannot be a one-day event.” She hopes marchers go home inspired to connect with nonprofits or start their own organizations. She and her team are talking about hosting a fair where marchers can get more info on where to get involved.
Chakraborty said she’s moved by the outpouring of help she’s had in planning and the number of people mobilizing. But the potential reality that the movement will lose mass momentum after the march doesn’t dishearten her.
“When you come back, maybe 30 people will want to be part of the next step, but a lot of times those people make a difference in the system,” Chakraborty said. “They are the activists of the next generation. They are going to be the people who found organizations. They are going to be the people who run for office. It’s the fact that we gave rise to a new generation of activists. If that’s all we do, then that’s fine by me. We lit the fire in some more people.”
@OhItsHeather | hschroering@redeyechicago.com
