Blog Wars and the Silencing of Women of Color

I'm really late to the party with this news! I discovered today, while reading Black Looks, that Brownfemipower, that truly inspirational and poetic voice of Women of Color Blog, has shut down her blog. There's no telling when or if she will be returning to the blogosphere.

Before I get into the back story, let me first direct you "to the left, to the left," as Beyonce would say, and check out my sidebar, which details that this blog is licensed through Creative Commons. This means that, as long as you link to and cite from my blog while giving me full credit for any ideas expressed here, we're good. And, if you plan to use said ideas in an article, book, or even student paper, then this is the proper citation for listing this blog in your references:

Anxious Black Woman. "Title of Individual Post" (Date of Entry). Diary of an Anxious Black Woman. Blogger Pages. http://diaryofananxiousblackwoman.blogspot.com. Date Accessed.

In the context of this blog, I am writing as an alias, and "Anxious Black Woman" is my licensed pseudonym, until I choose to write under a different name or even under my real name.

Now that we've clarified this important issue (since too many people on the web think that what we write and upload is a free for all - let's be clear: blogs, websites, You Tube videos, etc., are all PUBLISHED materials), it's time to talk about what seems to be the reason for BFP's flight from the blogosphere.

Good old-fashioned plagiarism. I had to follow a variety of links, since this story has developed over the week. After reading Black Looks, which then led me to Devious Diva, who expressed a great deal of outrage and who also hinted that this plagiarism may have coupled with other drama involving Seal Press representatives making offensive remarks about women of color over on Blackamazon to break the camel's back, while providing a link to Problem Chylde, who gave a blow-by-blow comparison between BFP's posts (which, sadly, are no longer available and therefore could not be used to provide the solid evidence needed) and the accused, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog, who wrote an article for Alternet on "Sexual Abuse Fueled by Abusive Immigration Language," it now appears that Amanda has stolen her ideas for this article from BFP's own posts about immigrant women's struggles with sexual violence. While I haven't been a reader of Pandagon, I did take some time today to look it over, and since I am a reader of BFP's blog (except this week, which is why I had to find out about her shut down today), and if this issue came before a court of law (hint, hint, BFP, wherever you are: please hold onto your blogging evidence), I as a juror would have reasonable doubt about the Alternet author's innocence (she has rarely blogged on the subject - which should make everyone healthily skeptical about why Alternet had chosen Ms. Marcotte to write on this topic in the first place, or why the author would sell herself as an expert on the subject, especially looking through Pandagon and not finding any sound evidence that she is capable of doing the intersectional analysis bloggers like BFP bring to their own writing). There are some other interesting posts by other outraged bloggers, who have been supportive of BFP's work (see High on Rebellion and Belledame222) and who have addressed the problem of racism, white privilege, and the continuous problem of white women using "this bridge called my back" of women of color to cross over into "progressive" and "feminist" credibility.

To me, the other part of this white privilege is the simple fact of mainstream media choosing to render our knowledge meaningless, marginal, "too angry," as others have said, and a host of other "problems," while our white counterparts receive the welcome mat and easier access to journals, newspapers, and publishers. For example, why is Stuff White People Like, which I believe just started this year, already getting a book deal (I got this news from Professor Black Woman - can't find the direct link) when the rest of us, who have offered the same critiques of whiteness (although I'll admit that blog is hilarious and could see the mainstream appeal) keep getting editors at publishing houses who say they don't want to "regurgitate" what we've already written on our blog, so any book deal we get had better be "original" and "not yet published"? I do think the publishers have a point, but I'm wondering if the author of SWPL received the same criticism, or is it just the very appeal and "marketability" of white people that gives the author access to publishing? Not to mention that, although the blog critiques whiteness, it is still by its very nature a promotion of said white culture and is therefore more palatable for the white supremacist society that chooses who to promote and who to ignore.

I'm using that one example to suggest that the same sentiment perhaps guided Alternet to publish Amanda Marcotte while ignoring BFP, who not only has kept the issue of immigrant women's rights at the forefront of her blog but has also provided the groundwork for such so-called "progressive whites" to sift through and downright steal from. The very politics of her access to publishing in a mainstream site is problematic, but to then fail to cite and LINK back to BFP is just the worst forms of silencing.

And, as Blackamazon illustrated in her battling with Seal Press (who had the audacity to say on her blog as they display their splendid ignorance: "We WANT more WOC. Not a whole lotta proposals come our way, interestingly. Seems to me it would be more effective to inform us about what you'd like to see rather than hating." I happen to know of at least two WOC writers who submitted book proposals, and both were denied, so I find this statement a little hard to swallow, especially in light of their new offerings of late), even publishers are not exactly scrambling to put out books that highlight our concerns, our lives, and our knowledge.

All this is to say: I can see why the impulse of BFP is to immediately protect her work and to deny the rest of us access; I just started blogging only last year, so who knows how long I can go before burning out. But I find that this shutdown plays right into the hands of our enemies, who would rather we all shut up and go away, or at least shut up and roll over as they screw us while appropriating and stealing our ideas. Will colonialism ever end?

Still, I'm here and enjoying what I see as more "teaching" than "writing." Blogging gives you an immediate audience and in some instances a definable community of like-minded individuals. So long as we always maintain RESPECT for each other (which means giving credit when credit is due), it can be a powerful thing. Part of that power is finding, fine-tuning, and sharing your voice. Let's hope that Brownfemipower (if we all have correctly identified the real reasons for her exit) will not permanently deprive us all of her voice.