Bust-ups that happened while I was away

Well, one in particular. Renee @ Womanist Musings has pointed out that there is racism inherent in the decision by some bloggers to follow FWD's lead and declare yesterday "Helen Keller Mythbusting Day". As a UKian with not a great deal of connection to race issues in the US, I was unaware that in the USA, yesterday was "Juneteenth", which commemorates the end of slavery in USA. Nanette, in comments on Renee's first post about this issue, explains that it commemorates the date on which slaves in Texas were freed by US troops.

I admit that I was concerned about the US-centric thinking of protesting this, but then Renee (whom I consider a trustworthy blogger and therefore do not suspect of misquoting) reports that the originator of the Helen Keller blogswarm @ FWD admits to having being aware of the Juneteenth commemoration before the event took place and yet doing nothing about this clash. The internet/web/blogosphere/whatever you call it, is pretty leaky. I can understand a non-USAian not knowing about Juneteenth (although again, Renee notes that there is a Nova Scotia connection, which even calls that into question). But to know about it and say "well, we'll use that date anyway" is unforgivable. Because whether or not one allows "there is space for both" (Helen Keller blogswarm and Juneteenth), on the internet things (especially things like a blogswarm) tend to leak into other things' spaces and steal it from them. Indeed, that's sometimes the whole point of a blogswarm, as I understand it.

Renee took it on herself to point out all the blogs that participated in the Helen Keller thing; it appears that very few of these even acknowledged the existence of Juneteenth. Several of these are US-based bloggers. Thus, the Helen Keller thing leaked over and took over space that really should be available to the Juneteenth celebration (whether or not those bloggers paid any attention to it at all). Regardless of the intent, this amounts to exactly what Renee calls it: erasure, appropriation, and racist actions.

The purpose of writing this post is just to call more people's attention to Renee's points. Even those who are on the periphery of this particular point can learn from it, because I think many people are prone to the kind of behaviour shown by FWD over this. But most of all I want to draw attention to it because Renee has a right to be cross and to be heard.

I hope I'm using my space to amplify her voice. I've added some of my own thoughts in this post but her posts are where it's at, and everything I've written used her posts as their basis.