Angela Davis, Ayanna Pressley lead rally in support of Ilhan Omar

By Zack Budryk - 04/30/19 03:09 PM EDT
 
Angela Davis, Ayanna Pressley lead rally in support of Ilhan Omar

Activist Angela Davis and Rep. Ayanna PressleyAyanna PressleyPelosi calls for investments in child care, early education A workplace safety solution Anita Hill would be proud of Poll: Americans overwhelmingly reject lowering voting age to 16 MORE (D-Mass.) joined numerous other black women activists and members of Congress in a rally Tuesday to support Rep. Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarAs partisans bicker in the US, Venezuelans continue to suffer Meghan McCain's husband unleashes on Seth Meyers in profanity-laced tweetstorm Seth Meyers interview with Meghan McCain gets heated over Ilhan Omar MORE (D-Minn.).

Davis and Barbara Ransby, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and adviser to the Movement for Black Lives, told Democracy Now they planned the event, called Black Women in Defense of Ilhan Omar, in response to escalating attacks against the freshman Democrat, who said death threats against her spiked after conservatives accused her of minimizing the 9/11 attacks and President TrumpDonald John TrumpMcMaster accuses some in White House of being a 'danger to the Constitution' Trump predicts Dem investigation will drive him to 2020 win Trump hits O'Rourke: 'Boy has he fallen like a rock' MORE tweeted a video interspersing her words with images from the attacks.

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Trump, Davis said, “uses this bizarre logic of fungibility, where one Muslim represents the worst—or all Muslims, rather, represent the worst deeds that any Muslim has ever conducted,” a logical process she said was “at the heart of racism.”

“Trump has been vitriolic toward so many groups, but I think there’s a particular venom when it comes to black women,” Ransby added, citing both his attacks on Omar and his frequent taunts of Rep. Maxine WatersMaxine Moore WatersTrump lawyers: House Dems to share 'substantial portions' of subpoenas Export-Import Bank back to full strength after Senate confirmations On The Money: Stocks sink on Trump tariff threat | GOP caught off guard by new trade turmoil | Federal deficit grew 38 percent this fiscal year | Banks avoid taking position in Trump, Dem subpoena fight MORE (D-Calif.) and his 2017 feud with Rep. Frederica WilsonFrederica Patricia WilsonLGBT lawmakers say nation is ready for gay president Angela Davis, Ayanna Pressley lead rally in support of Ilhan Omar Biden makes hard push for African American vote MORE (D-Fla.), who accused him of making a Gold Star widow cry by telling her that her late husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, “knew what he signed up for.”

“I am changing the things I can no longer accept, and from R. Kelly to Donald Trump, what we can no longer accept is the silencing of black women,” Pressley, who, like Omar, was elected to Congress in 2018, said at the event. “We are reclaiming our rightful place.” 

Omar and Pressley’s fellow freshman lawmaker Rep. Rashida TlaibRashida Harbi TlaibDem candidates complicate Pelosi's handling of impeachment The Memo: Pelosi's 'tone-deaf' remarks raise ire of Team Trump Conservatives slam Omar over tweet on Gaza violence MORE (D-Mich.) also attended the event. Tlaib and Omar are the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.

Multiple people have been arrested for allegedly threatening to assault and kill Omar, including a Florida man who accused her of being a member of the Taliban and a New York man who allegedly threatened to “put a bullet in her f---ing skull.” Before the 9/11 remarks, she was also the target of critics who accused her of invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes in her criticisms of pro-Israel lobbying groups.

Tags Frederica Wilson Ayanna Pressley Maxine Waters Rashida Tlaib Donald Trump Ilhan Omar