Jerry Emmett’s story, and vote was all over Facebook yesterday. And just like Hillary wearing white when she accepted the Democratic Party nomination for president, noticed by many that she also wore white when she cast her vote. In fact she still remembers when women voted for the first time.
A number of women are going to wear white Tuesday, November 8, 2016 whether they’ve already cast their vote early, voted by mail, had to wait because their state doesn’t have early voting, or even if their state does have early voting are waiting until election day to cast that vote.
I will be wearing white. I had made that decision months ago but only managed to figure out that I had nothing white to wear two weeks ago. Because I’m busy with school I quickly perused web catalogs and placed my order — my pants and shirt have arrived and I (will gladly) risk looking like a giant marshmallow next Tuesday to pay tribute to the women who came before me, who won us the right to vote, who worked in hostile environments whether in employment/sports/etc., dealt with sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape and shattered glass ceilings to get us here.
But something began to trouble me about my decision . . . what if someone misinterprets why I am wearing white? What if they think I support the KKK and white nationalism? It wouldn’t be a stretch, I’m so white I glow in the dark. Well, not glow exactly, I reflect light, like the moon.
Pondering this I thought that I could go to the fabric store and get a strip of blue to wear as an arm band or a sash, another ode to the suffragists. (Frankly I wish the Hillary Clinton for POTUS campaign had made commemorative sashes. I would have bought several and worn one).
I will outside of the polling place, in school, wear one of my Hillary buttons too.
But I’m not the only one who has been troubled by the thought that someone could misinterpret the reason a woman is wearing white. A friend of mine on Facebook and I discussed it this morning and I told her my ideas. She liked them and will at least one of them also.
If you look up at the picture of Jerry Emmett you’ll notice that under her white suit jacket she is wearing a royal blue blouse. This isn’t the first time she’s worn this ensemble. She wore it to the DNC Convention where she was an honorary delegate. (I don’t have any royal blue shirts or blouses either)
That slash of blue makes an important distinction.
Just like in the 20s when women gained the right to vote we are also seeing a raise in white nationalism. Both movements identify with the color white. But their secondary color is red. It is Trump’s hat(e) color, AND the color of the shirts his supporters will supposedly wear on Tuesday (I can’t help thinking of the colonials calling the British Red Coats, “Lobster Backs”) . With White Nationalists/alt right saying that they will disrupt on election day, even a white robe seen on the side walk across the street from a polling station could be intimidating.
This is why a bit of blue in our suffragists white is important and absolutely needed; to show who we are with, and not to be confused with who we are not.
I hope you’ll be wearing white and blue too.
Neither my arm band or my sash will have neat edges unfrayed edges (unless I ask a friend of mine to make it), because I don’t have the time. For the arm band it will just be knotted in place (like a bandanna- though come to think of it I could just fold in the the edges and no one would know). For the sash, both ends will be tied together.
But if you want to make a “proper” sash, here are some pages to help you out:
Wikihow — How to make a sash
How to make a homecoming sash without sewing
There are many youtube videos on how to make a sash.