EUREKA, CALIFORNIA (KAEF/CNN) – A women's march in California has been postponed and the reason why is getting mixed reactions nationwide.
Organizers of the march said they had concerns the event would not be diverse enough.
"The media attention that we received after using the phrase 'overwhelmingly white' was not surprising to me because it's a catch phrase that people often feel uncomfortable when they hear," said Beth Wylie.
Wylie is doubling-down on why the decision was made to postpone the Eureka women's march.
"Not because we were worried about white people just showing up and attending, but we were worried that the leadership was not going to be diverse. And so this event was going to be from the perspective of solely white people," said Kelsey Reedy.
"Saying that it was overwhelmingly white is just ridiculous," said former Eureka City Council Candidate Hailey Lamb.
Reedy, one of the march organizers, says they feel it's important to reach out to underrepresented groups.
"Their stories are very often unheard. And so we wanted to make sure that their stories were amplified," said Reedy.
"Taking away women's voices is a huge deal," said Lamb.
"The biggest portion of backlash has been from white women. Feeling like they are not allowed a voice, like we're taking this away from them," said Reedy.
Census data shows white people make up about 74 percent of Humboldt County's population.
"That's a fact. But it does mean that having an all-white organizing team leaves out this other percentage of people in Humboldt County; we're not the only people here," said Allison Edrington.
"You just can't change the demographics, they're silencing everyone's voice," said Hailey Lamb.
"Without having the voice of non-gender binary women or women of color, then we don't have the voice of women. We're just postponing it to allow it to be done in the 'right' way, and not just the 'white' way," said Reedy.
The organizers say they are still doing a march in March for International Women's Day.
But first, they're working on building a more diverse leadership.
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