KOJO NNAMDIYou're tuned in to The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5. Welcome. Later in the broadcast it seems everyone wants to build the Red Skins a new stadium except perhaps local tax payers. We look at how D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are vying to land the team. Plus playoffs are underway and the Super Bowl is coming up. We check in with sports writer, John Feinstein, about his new book "Quarterback," which features several from this region and close by.

KOJO NNAMDIBut first, the third annual Women's March is coming to D.C. and cities everywhere on Saturday, but the run up to this year's event has been marked by sharp divisions and debate among national organizers. So what does a fracturing at the national level mean for those organizing locally to participate here in D.C.

KOJO NNAMDIIf you've like to join the conversation, give us a call 800-433-8850. Do you plan to attend this weekend's Women's March? Did you attend in past years? Joining me in studio is Rachel Faulkner. She's organizer with Jewish Women of Color. Thank you for joining us.

RACHEL FAULKNERGlad to be here.

NNAMDIAlso in studio is April Goggans. She is an organizer with the local Black Lives Matter movement. April, thank you for joining us.

APRIL GOGGANSThank you.

NNAMDIWell, first of all, we were wondering how our government shutdown is affecting this year's big events on the Mall including the March for Life taking place tomorrow and the Women's March on Saturday given that all are permitted by the National Park Service, which is not operating right now. We asked the park service about this, but, of course, they couldn't join us because of the aforementioned shutdown.

NNAMDIThey did provide a statement indicating that permits will be issued for 1st Amendment events on the National Mall. As with all events, the National Park Service and U.S. Park Police will ensure public safety and the protection of park resources during the events. That's just a part of the statement. The D.C. Police responsible for security and safety at these events also assures us that they are prepared to handle the weekend's activity.

NNAMDISo moving on to the event itself, April, you're an organizer with the local Black Lives Matter chapter. What does it mean for you and the community you work with to have a large national movement land here every year?

GOGGANSYeah, so this is something that we find ourselves locked in every time there's a national movement and that is that people forget that D.C. is a city of 700,000 people. That there are people who live here and so when you come to do a large movement like this you've got to remember that most times the issues that you're talking about are also issues that D.C. residents are grappling with and not uplift those things is kind of irresponsible.

NNAMDIYou feel that it is possible for a large national movement to organize and leave local communities stronger.

GOGGANSAbsolutely.

NNAMDIHow would that look?

GOGGANSIt looks like -- before you get here it looks like going and finding out the local organizations -- the organizations that are run by native Washingtonians and find out the work that they're doing, uplift their campaigns. Make sure that they're at the table when you're deciding. D.C. organizers have been doing this for generations. We also can help. Like I think that there's a lot of things and that's what the Women's March had to learn, is that you have got to come. You can't come and then forget that your presence makes more police in the city. You can't forget that it changes the way people can get to work in the morning or in the afternoon because of metro.

NNAMDIRachel, you're bringing groups of Jewish Women of Color into D.C. to participate in Saturday's Women's March. What's the idea?

FAULKNERI think the idea is to show unity, to amplify the voices of Jewish women specifically, who have been left out of the conversation traditionally. I think it's to show support for the Women's March unity principles. We believe strongly as a group that our voices matter and that we live at an intersection that is not traditionally heard. And so it's a great opportunity to get our voices out there and to support a movement that is bringing intersection into the conversation in a new way. In a new way that is allowing our voices to be heard in a way that they haven't been amplified in the past.

NNAMDIHow many people are you expecting and what's the plan for the weekend?

FAULKNERYeah, we have a Friday night Shabbat dinner for Jews of Color that we're excited to use as a launch point for our weekend activities. And then we are hosting about 100 Jews from the wider Jewish community for the actual march on Saturday morning. We'll be marching together with the support of non-Jews of color and Jews of Color and getting excited for the Women's March in general.

NNAMDIRachel, you wrote recently about divisions among national organizers. And you seem frustrated by this debate. I must admit that just about everybody I've read, who has written about this debate seems frustrated by this debate.

FAULKNERYeah.

NNAMDIBut what is your take on it?

FAULKNERMy take on it is that we are women and we have different experiences as women and we need to stay at the table so that we can be free. And I think a lot of these conversations and accusations are distracting from the message and are distracting from our ultimate liberation. We have work to do and I want to get to that work.

NNAMDIYou see this fracturing a movement that for all its flaws has managed to bring together so many across all kinds, all sorts of lines. You call the Women's Movement quoting here, "One of the most intersectional movements of our time." For those who might not know what that means, for my generation, can you explain it?

FAULKNERI think it means bringing everyone to the table in our varying identities. None of us only have one identity. I identify as a women. I identify as Jewish. I identify as black. I identify as queer. And my life lives at the intersection of all of those identities and I can't just bring one to the table. And neither can anybody else that's here for that conversation.

NNAMDIYou're take, April Goggans.

GOGGANSYeah, I think it's an age old discussion. It's an age old -- it's like a play out of a old playbook. I think that it's -- to call people in on things that they also aren't actually willing to sit down and have nuanced conversations about is just -- to me, it's kind of a waste of time, because it means that you're not being genuine in your concern about justice. What you're doing is taking an opportunity to make an attack that you've wanted to make, regardless of who it was going to be.

GOGGANSI think also looking at and we talked about the shutdown. I'm also a president of a federal employee's union chapter. And so I look around and I say there's just far too many other things going on for people to get lost in this like never-ending circular argument if they're not even actually willing to sit down. Talk about the complexities and the nuances on both sides. Then it's just completely self-serving.

NNAMDIHere's Maggie in Washington D.C. Maggie, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MAGGIEThank you so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it. I live and work in Washington D.C. and I have lived here for not as many years as I hope to in the long term. But I am at a Mizrahi Jew, which means someone whose family is from Iran or the Arab world and very much pass as white.

MAGGIEAnd I personally have really been struggling with what to do when the Women's March is here this weekend, because I felt very isolated and unwelcomed by the national movement. And also by, you know, friends and family who were visibly identify as a Jew of Color. And I'm curious with what the guests on the show might suggest for people like me especially women like me, who don't fit the bill necessarily of like a white Jew.

NNAMDII'm sure that both of our guests have gazillions of suggestions. So allow me to start with Rachel.

FAULKNERYeah, I mean, I welcome you to join us. I am excited to have a conversation with you and your family. I am excited to continue building coalition between Jews of Color and so that our voices are uplifted in the greater Jewish community and in the Women's March in general. You may or may not know that two Jews of color were just nominated to the Women's March steering committee. So I think they're really looking to hear our voices. Both of them will be here on Friday. So I think it's a really great opportunity. So definitely come out and engage in conversation with us.

GOGGANSRight. Yeah. I would say, you know, remember that feminism, the women's movement doesn't belong to like white women. That we would assume or we escribe to that that it is a movement of women in all of the ways that they show up. So there is no -- I think we have to take our power back and our agency and say like, "We belong to be where we want to be because of who we are." There's not a -- there shouldn't be a fight to stand at a table that we created and that we build every day.

GOGGANSI think the time is to just take that power back and say like, "As a black women, I deserve to be there, because black women have been leading the Women's March -- that has been leading the women's movement in the United States since we hit the shores."

NNAMDIWell, thank you very much for your call, Maggie. We had some conservative women on this show last year who said that they didn't feel that the Women's March spoke for them. Can and should the Women's March speak for all women?

GOGGANSThe Women's March is what you make it, right? Like I still believe that, you know, there is nobody on Earth that is going to speak for all us. That is going to, you know -- that we're all going to feel accepted and we didn't and in some ways still don't. But the fact of the matter is it may not be that if you don't believe in your political views that all women, trans women, queer women, black women, belong and are just as able to and should sit at that table, then it's not you. It's not the Women's March that's keeping you out. It's not the women's movement that's keeping you out. It's you because you're not actually there for all women.

NNAMDIHere's Norma in Fairfax, Virginia. Norma, your turn.

NORMAThank you for the opportunity. I am a great admirer of your show, Kojo. Kojo, I am Hispanic. I'm attorney. I am a success Hispanic woman, dark skinned. I joined women's soccer. So the Association of Women's Soccer association here in Fairfax and I'm hoping to find a community. And to my surprise there was bully, harass, discriminated against and I was not welcome.

NNAMDIFrom the synapsis of what you told our screener, you said, "It seems to me that this Women's March is a white feminist product." Well, Norma, I happen to be sitting here looking at two women of color sitting in front of me. So I'd like to know how they respond to that.

FAULKNERI would just say that the Women's March has definitely taken a journey. The Women's March in the beginning didn't have an outlying mission. It didn't have unity principles. And I would encourage anyone who's interested in joining the movement now to take a look at that language. And it is almost exclusively led by women of color at this point. And I think that that needs to be uplifted and we need to recognize the diversity and intersection that that's being represented at the Women's March.

NNAMDIPresident Trump was at the center of this march in past years. Is his presidency still one of the focal points of this movement would you say, April?

GOGGANSI think so too. But I also think that folks are realizing the -- like how hyperlocal all of this stuff really is. I mean, it affects people on the ground every day, people who live, people who work in these areas. So I think -- I mean, he's president, Pence is not much better. So I think people are realizing if we want to affect the everyday person, if we really want to build power as women fems, trans women, queer women, then we're going to have to be willing to do the boots on the ground work.

NNAMDIThere seems to be some unity among local organizers on this issue. What can local organizers, who as you point out are already doing the hard work on many of these issues every day, what can local organizers do to shape the bigger national conversation around these issues?

GOGGANSYeah. So I would say, you know, Black Lives Matter D.C., we've had -- and a lot of people probably already know from some of our social media posts is that we've had some very very hard years of being very vocal against the Women's March and for good reason. And I think that that's an opportunity for people to take that at a local level. As to say, Like if you come here, here are the things that we expect of you.

GOGGANSAnd I would say that in changing -- there's been some changes at the top that have allowed the Women's March especially the folks at the top to really come to us in a way that is open, transformational, and that can serve as maybe a model for this. But I think that the challenges is also -- and I'm going to keep putting it on that is the challenge is also to the white women who will come -- and I say white women, because it is a privilege to be able to come and travel to D.C. for a march to say that you have got to also reevaluate what you think solidarity is.

GOGGANSAnd I think, that is something that the Women's March in general would have to, you know, always is going to have to look at. And I think that folks at the top are starting to look at that and some of the harm that's been caused and being open to repairing the harm that's is -- but we got to keep people accountable.

NNAMDIApril Goggans is an organizer with the local Black Lives Matter movement. Rachel Faulkner is an organizer with Jewish Women of Color. Thank you both for joining us.

FAULKNERThank you.

NNAMDIGot an email from Linda, who said, "I've attended all the marches, but not this year. It's time for all the marches to register and vote. I feel I did more by canvasing this past year than all the past marches combined." Well, I'm sure our guests would say, "Linda, you can walk and chew gum at the same time." You can show up for this year's march too. We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we look at how D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are trying to land the Washington football team. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.