Check Out Carrie Feit’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrie Feit.

Carrie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started in Brooklyn and life brought me to Miami, with a few stops in between. Growing up, I was told by a lot of people that I should be a lawyer on account of my impassioned and frequent opinions, but I loved logic and math and even created space for statistics (in which I have a B.A.) in law school where I received a J.D./M.P.H at George Washington University. I engaged in activism growing up, but of the white feminism variety, mainly around abortion rights, never really thinking about my race or privileges. Fast forward to 2016, I was in my early 40’s and had two beautiful children as well as two nieces. When I learned who our country elected as their 45th President on that horrific morning, I, along with millions of others, woke up. I woke up to unapologetic racism, ableism, xenophobia and unspeakable misogyny that was protected by the majority of white women. I woke up to the knowledge that my daughter and nieces would have a President that celebrates violently humiliating women and that our country was cool with that. I woke up to this country telling people of color and folks with disabilities that they were not valued. Within hours I was part of a growing team mobilizing folks from Florida to Washington D.C. on inauguration weekend, in my mind, to show those dehumanized by the election result our dissent. Our Florida lead, Emma Collum, was part of the national Women’s March planning team, and by association, so were we. When we came back from DC, we started Women’s March Florida and our regional chapters.

The most valuable part of that work was being brought into the struggle for collective liberation guided by Black queer feminist theory which was most palpable on the local level, and for that I owe the labor of many South Florida activists and organizers who guided me with love and held me accountable: Jasmen Rogers who was the Gender Justice Organizer at Miami Workers Center at the time and now leads Folding Chair Consulting, Tify Burks of Southern Birth Justice Network, Kellie Tigertail of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Social Justice Doula Lutze Segu. I was also greatly enriched by South Florida People of Color led by Executive Director Roni Bennett and Dr. Tameka Bradley Hobbs, historian and professor of African American history, ReEnvision Harmony, Lead Visionaries Alex Louis and Maria Victoria Ramirez, who led transformative workshops and trainings about empathy, unconscious bias and allyship, and my Women’s March Miami and Florida leadership sisters Cortés Marià Lewis, who guides and informs our work and meaningfully connects us to the communities to which we pledge allyship, and Greisy Perera who selflessly and unwaveringly supports the movement. My learning and unlearning of course continues and deepens, as does my organizing on behalf of Women’s March Florida alongside communities most impacted by systems of oppression, rooted in the understanding that none of are free until all of us are free.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think a smooth road takes you to a higher place. I now understand that discomfort and failure (as we traditionally think of it) are necessary for growth and progress, and I am not as shook when I hit those bumps in the road. I try to divest from aspects of white supremacy culture like perfectionism and binary ways of thinking and urgency to make space for uncertainty and give value to the journey and the process.  That said, the challenges of the Women’s March movement were seemingly on display for all who were paying attention. The movement started when millions of white women were shocked when this country proved to be unapologetically racist and misogynistic and that over 50% of white women subscribed to those oppressions and their hold on the status quo (power) due to their proximity to white men. There was great and justified backlash from Black and Brown women and gender non-conforming folks that had been in the struggle for generations and who had seen their people passed over many times in the feminist struggle where the impact of power over their intersectional identities was not addressed under the umbrella of women’s rights. This played out differently across the country, but here in South Florida, we were met with tough love and a great amount of emotional labor on the part of Black and Brown women and femmes who taught us about white feminism and the necessity of centering the most impacted people and addressing the root (system) of the oppression in order to get free. So yes, that was a beautiful necessary bump in the road.  Of course even since then, doing this work, working towards liberation as a white women with privileges, has been and will always be uncomfortable. The practices of decentering and allyship and letting go of ego while leaning into privileges/skills/capacity where they can be used for the collective good is messy work, and I am almost in a perpetual state of discomfort. The key that has allowed me to stay in movement work, aside from my humanity and my beloved sisterhood that both holds me accountable and affirms me, is being at peace with the discomfort, in the understanding that it signifies growth and a practice of good allyship.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

My Law Practice: I have a niche law practice for over 20 years now – disability insurance claims – which are the claims folks make to their disability insurance carriers, most commonly through their employer, when a sickness prevents them from continuing to work. The terms most people know in that regard are Short Term Disability and Long Term Disability. I help claimants through the application process but more commonly get involved when there is a denial via an appeal of the decision or litigation against the disability insurer. As this is my life’s work, I have great credibility and relationships with my opposing counsel, and I’m proud of my knowledge and skill in navigating my clients’ cases. As a solo practitioner, I also pride myself on my relationships with my clients which are meaningful. From my involvement in movement work, I come somewhat from a community lawyering perspective where my clients’ needs and ideas are uplifted and centered when working with them towards resolution of their cases.

My Role in Grassroots Organizing: I am proud to be a Founding Board Member and Past President of Women’s March Florida and currently serve as the Digital Communications Organizer. I also founded Women’s March Miami, a chapter thereof. Our recent visible work in South Florida includes the Miami March for Reproductive Justice where I led a team made up of a coalition of South Florida organizations who planned the March and Rally on October 2, 2021 in line with the national day of action rolled out by the Rally for Abortion Justice Coalition. As guided by our planning team member Kelli Ann Thomas who is a South Dade Council Board Member as well as the Lead Organizer for Florida Rising Miami-Dade, we held our Miami March intentionally in South Dade which typically gets left out of the activism that takes place further up north but where there is incredible advocacy and organizing especially around gun violence which speaks to the heart of reproductive justice. It was greatly successful – a tremendous turnout given the last minute location change due to Palmetto Bay Parks Department’s cancellation of our event at Coral Reef Park, and it was a great day for South Dade folks who proved that they can certainly show up and show out! More recently, in response to the Supreme Court draft leak overturning Roe v. Wade, Women’s March Miami hosted an event on May 14^th where we honored and fundraised for four incredible South Florida grassroots organizations doing the daily work of reproductive justice, specifically around housing justice, birth justice, dignity for incarcerated pregnant people and support for Black girls and gender diverse youth: Miami Workers Center, Southern Birth Justice Network, Dignity Power and S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective, respectively.

From a statewide perspective with regard to visible projects, Women’s March Florida was one of the organizational partners for the February 22nd mobilization to Tallahassee – the Florida Fight for Reproductive Freedom  – where hundreds of us converged on the Capitol to demand that our reproductive freedom and state constitutional right to privacy remained intact, and fight back against HB 5, a 15-week abortion ban without exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, which will become effective on July 1^st and is now even a greater concern with the imminent overturning of Roe v Wade.

Since that time, with our right to choose at its near end, Women’s March Florida has gained thousands of followers from all over the state, the engagement and energy of which we plan to harness and put to work towards midterms to increase voter participation and change the landscape of our state legislature, which as a lawmaking body is completely detached from the needs and lives of Floridians.

My personal role in grassroots organizing is a journey as I am in the process of becoming certified in Equitable Community Change in which I am learning from community informed and led campaigns that have successfully shifted power, changed policy and afforded sustainable and healthy/affirming living to working class/housing insecure neighborhoods or otherwise marginalized communities. 

My Activism: As far as my activism more generally and what sets me apart, I’m told often that I am there for “all the things.” I think that comes from focusing on systems versus single issues. My empathy and sense of allyship run wide and deep and my obligation to work towards equity where all communities can thrive is strong within me. Folks tend to talk about my passion (in admiration as well as in criticism), and my answer to that has been, “It’s not my passion, it’s my humanity.™”

My Photography: I started doing photography on the “prosumer” level when my kids were toddlers and eventually began doing it professionally. My specialty is portraiture and my portfolio consists of glamour, maternity, boudoir and business portraits (my version of a head shot which I owe to the highly revered Australian photographer Sue Bryce) as well as family photography.  My passion in this work is around making women and people feel beautiful from the inside out and capturing those moments, usually hearing that they never realized how beautiful they were. The key for me is getting that connection with my subject, which I think, aside from good light of course, is what makes my images so special. I also often times volunteer my photography during actions to document the resistance.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My humanity, empathy, passion; sense of privilege, allyship, sisterhood and collectivism; and generally pride and integrity in my work.

Contact Info:

• Emails: carrie@womensmarchfl.org; carriefeit@fldisabilityattorney.com
• Websites

• • Volunteer/Organizational: womensmarchfl.org; womensmarchmiami.org
  • Professional: fldisabilityattorney.com

• Instagram

• • Volunteer/Organizational: @womensmarchflorida, @womensmarchmiami
  • Professional: @carriefeitportraits

• Facebook:

• • Volunteer/Organizational: facebook.com/wmfl (Women’s March Florida public page); facebook.com/ groups/womensmarchfl (Women’s March Florida closed group);  facebook.com/womensmarchmiamidade (Women’s March Miami public page); www.facebook.com/groups/womensmarchmiami (Women’s March Miami closed group)
  • Professional: facebook.com/CarrieFeitPortraits; facebook.com/carriefeitpa

• Twitter: twitter.com/wmw_florida; twitter.com/WomensMarchMia

 

Image Credits
The black and white image where I’m at the podium is by Amanda Ballard (Women’s March Florida, the south Florida regional event, 2018) The camo shirt is in my studio, a self portrait (Carrie Feit Portraits). The black and white image of me at the Women’s March in DC (in 2017) is by Jennifer Auletta Lumm Any pictures from the Miami March for Reproductive Justice (2021) are by Rod Deal