Wrap Up: My 500th Post

Just some quick headlines:

• Chris Brown avoids jail time with a 5-month probation, including light work and domestic violence counseling, after entering a guilty plea for assaulting girlfriend and pop R&B singer Rihanna.  Just to place this in a larger context, consider this: back in 2005, rapper Lil' Kim was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, plus three years probation and a $50,000 fine for committing perjury.  Whatever you think of this case, just compare what Lil' Kim received to Chris Brown, after he beat Rihanna to a bloody pulp, threatened to kill her, and abandoned her in the street - all while a bystander called the police after witnessing this violent display.  And we wonder why no one takes domestic violence seriously!
• Neda Soltani has now become the face of Iranian protest, once she was killed last Saturday in the midst of the people's protests against what is believed to be voter fraud in Iran.  Her death was captured on a cell phone, and the image has made its way in the global circuit across the Internet.  On the one hand, her death, now treated as martyrdom, has raised the specter of women's protest in the wake of this unrest.  In case you hadn't noticed, there are numerous women out on the streets.  Interesting, then, that it took Neda's death for the news pundits to start discussing women's rights in Iran, noting that women in Iran have a much higher rate of college graduation than we do here in the U.S.  Neda was a 27-year-old philosophy student.  On the other hand, news pundits are also talking about how digital technology - cell phones, twitter, and You Tube - is fueling this "revolution" and subverting the state, which has sought to cut off all information concerning this uprising.  

Naturally, once news networks like CNN start talking about telecommunications and revolution in the same breath, I start distrusting the whole system.  As Gil Scott Heron once rapped, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised/ The Revolution Will Be Live."  And as I once blogged, The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized.  Oh, these latest tools of technology may give us the illusion that they hold this power for social change, but really, what are they but tools of consumption? And, like any tool of consumption, it's what you do with them that matters.  Some use these digital communication technologies for porn and verbal violence, others use them to document uprisings and protest.  Whatever these tools are used for, let us always remember: "The master's tools [insert corporate media or Big Brother or Google] will never dismantle the master's house."

I started this blog in 2007, seeking a new space and a new tool to channel my thoughts and hone my writing skills.  In the process, I've been exposed to different new media and new conversations.  Over time, I've even built and participated in a close-knit community that was equally concerned with the ideas and actions that made me "anxious" or curious or angry or excited.  Now that I've reached my 500th post, I have come to a decision that it's time for me to take a pause and move forward.  

I'm getting the research bug, and I'm increasingly growing nostalgic for pen and paper and writing in book form.  Which means the ideas that I've presented here since 2007 I would now like to transfer to the printed page and leave off blogging as an "anxious black woman" for a while.  As much as I've been energized by a community of bloggers, commenters, readers, lurkers, and followers, I'm also now craving to keep thoughts to myself, rather than let the world in on it.  This new mood of mine also comes from an acknowledgment that the Internet is not the same character it was when I started back in 2007.  It is increasingly becoming more and more corporate - which isn't to say it hasn't always been, but seriously, when blogs start looking more and more indistinguishable from corporate websites, replete with advertisements, it's time for me to reassess this new environment.

The revolution will not be digitized

                                        will not be digitized

will not be digitized

The revolution will be live...

The more Big Media proclaims the "death" of the printed form (newspapers, books, magazines, etc.) and the inevitable reign of digital culture (even our TV sets have become digitized), the more I feel our print culture needs saving.  I'm the first to embrace digital culture, I'm the first to teach new media to my students, but there's keeping up with new technology and then letting it take over our lives and our cultures.  

So, with this 500th post, I just want to announce that I won't be blogging as Anxious Black Woman anymore, or at least not for some time.  Who knows if some big dramatic event or issue emerges a month from now or a year, which compels me to come back here and revive this site?  But, I didn't want to just stop posting and have others wonder what happened to me.  I've seen those sudden disruptions - bloggers like Professor Black Woman shutting down her blog, or Shecodes over at Black Women Vote! not updating since Election Day last year.  And who knows whatever became of Riverbend at Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog in Iraq?  

The truth is, I want to debrief and rethink my blogging experience, which requires that I take a break.  This doesn't mean that I won't be lurking or even participating in the blogosphere elsewhere.  But, I'm just quietly closing this digital diary for now.  I won't be shutting down this blog.  I believe in history (you all know that) and in keeping a record of things.  I'll keep comments on moderation and allow my 500 posts to be accessed (and I respectfully request that any citing you do from my writings is provided with a link or that you use my citation guidelines, included in my side bar).  When you think about it, 500 posts is the equivalent of a hardcover book, maybe even two volumes.  This is very much a publication, and I leave my work here for your perusal.  

Thank you all for reading, for following, and for dialoging! :)

Peace and blessings,

ABW

"Where is My Vote" poster by Harrystaab.