On Saturday millions gathered in more 300 cities around the world to stand in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump. In Madison the crowd was estimated to be upwards of 100,000, but among all the pink “pussy hats” and signage telling Trump where he won’t be able to put his “tiny hands” there was something clearly missing—where were the people of color?

Since its inception the Women’s March on Washington has been criticized for its failure to be as inclusive as it claims. The march was originally called the “Million Woman March,” but the name was changed after organizers heard backlash for appropriating the historic context of the Million Man March and failing to acknowledge the Million Women March of 1997 that was, ironically, created in response to Black women feeling excluded from mainstream feminist movements.

After the change, the almost exclusively white organizers of the march on Washington brought three women of color on as National Co-chairs, writing “these women are not tokens,” in a statement released in November. Organizers of “sister marches” in other cities then also began to urgently invite women of color to the table, Madison included.

Sabrina “HeyMiss Progress” Madison recalls being called upon to participate and choosing to decline.

“I was just taken aback, because I wondered where was the urgency when Tony Robinson was shot, where was the urgency when Trayvon happened, where’s the urgency when I share stories about my son walking down Fish Hatchery (Road) and the police follow him,” said Madison. “There’s never this sense of urgency when my Black body, my son’s Black body, or Black folks’ bodies are concerned.”

Many women of color all over the country chose to forgo the march due to concerns for their safety and sanity. The exhausting effort to protect your peace and fight for your liberation is a struggle women of color are too familiar with and after a campaign that at best forgot about them and at worst blamed them for our own oppressions, attacking them at every intersection of their identity, many women of color simply could not entertain the idea of occupying one more space that was only for them in theory

Moreover the 96 percent of Black women and 75 percent of Latina women who did not vote for Trump are still giving a collective side-eye to the 53 percent of white women who did.

Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, who also made it clear she would not participate in the women’s march, said, “Black women in particular did their part on Tuesday, Nov 8, 2016 and 53 percent of white women left us hanging.”

Still, despite the numbers, women of color have been blamed for causing division within the march and slowing its overall progress.

And those who did choose to participate took to social media afterwards, sharing experiences of being microaggressed and angered.

Even on the day of the inauguration as much smaller crowds turned out to protest, the attendance of people of color was visibly low despite the local march being co-sponsored by organizations and groups dedicated to and led by people of color.

The low turnout was in large part due to the sentiment that the election of Donald Trump is more or less a same old, same old scenario for many people of color.

“I’m going to wake up Black tomorrow, I was Black today, I was Black on election day, I was Black last year and everything they’re experiencing and afraid of I’ve already been experiencing, so I don’t feel any urgency to wake up and come out here to the Capitol,” said Madison.

During the Women’s March on Washington, National Co-Chair Tameka Mallory stated, “for those of you who for the first time felt the pain that my people have felt since they were bought here with chains shackled on our legs today I say to you: welcome to my world, welcome to our world.”

Still, despite the hesitancy to get completely behind the Women’s March on Washington movement, women of color both locally and nationally are continuing their efforts to fight injustice as they have been doing for generations.