Why We Didn’t Show Up: The Unseen Layers of Black Absence at the No Kings Protest

No Kings Protest - October 18, 2025"Why didn’t the Black community show up en masse?”This question itself reveals a gap in understanding — not of protest logistics, but of protest lineage. For many Black people, the act of protest is not spontaneous but generationally weighted. We have shown up for centuries — from civil rights marches to Ferguson, from George Floyd to Juneteenth resurgence. When a movement like No Kings emerges, its message may resonate intellectually but not necessarily spiritually or experientially with a community that has lived under “kingship” in the form of systemic white supremacy.