So now, Blackamazon has decided to shut it down as well.

Yet another voice of passion and reason…gone.

You’d think that some people would have learned their lesson when Brownfemipower left the stage….but no.

When the hell will some feminists get the point that you can’t call yourself a “feminist” claiming to represent all women, while ignoring and devaluing the valid criticisms of half the women’s population???

I may have had plenty of disagreements with BfP and BA, but they represent, in my view, the absolute BEST of progressive activism; they were willing to stare the enemy right in their faces and call them out on their nonsense.  And they were equally strong on holding their friends and allies accountable as well.

And yet, they ask for and get no special compensation, no A-list blog, no royalty fee from major newspapers…just the chance to see their issues heard and discussed with respect.

But, sad to say, it will be the Amanda Marcottes, the Sam Bergs, the Gloria Steinems — the supposed “superstars” of the liberal feminist Blogtopia — who will get all the publicity, all the glory, all the press copy.

This is what you call “silencing”, folks.

It’s not just the GenderBorg smacking down Ren Ev and threatening to “out” her if she doesn’t shut up about them.

It’s not just the right wing protesting a mouthy feminist getting a column for a Presidential candidate’s website.

And  it sure as all hell isn’t about moaning about a freakin’ book cover of a White woman’s torso, or Photoshopping a woman with a burqa.

It’s simply about shutting your eyes, your ears, and your heart from what WoC are saying, experiencing, and writing about..because they don’t make the A-list of liberal feminist (or radical feminst, or whatever elitist feminist) Blogtopia.

And it’s one of the main reasons I call myself a Libertarian Leftist rather than a liberal.

Because in my view, liberals who attempt to play themselves as the sole vanguard against The Right while adapting the same hierarchial rules to govern those who they claim to represent are as much the problem as the actual right-wingers themselves.

And if feminists can’t handle the criticique of folks like BfP and BA (and Ren Ev, and Nina Hartley, and Jill Brenneman, and other outlaw feminists who really do attempt to represent the non-privileged majority of womankind), then how in the hell can they expect to face off against the full force of the Right??

I may be a man, but I consider myself a supporter of feminism as a movement for women’s equality and justice. But a feminism that only reflects the privileged White few and projects their myopias and fantasies on the rest of humanity is as bad, in my opinion, as the Religious Right, or any MRA creep.

When we as progressives and radicals forget where we came from, and deviate one bit from the basic principle that ALL people are human and entitled to basic fundamental rights and responsibilities and resources to help them live their own lives; then we might as well give ourselves away to the reactionaries.

If a freakin’ right-leaning Libertarian can get that, why can’t you, Seal Press??  Amanda?? Hugo?? Bueller??  Bueller??

Well….it’s early Sunday morning, and Brownfemipower’s blog is now officially passed (Goddess’ speed and much love, mujer)….but I do bring good news.

I had seen that mosts of the posts throughout the blogosphere is referencing my reposting of the excerpts of BfP’s final essay documenting her reaction to Amanda/”X” and her perfidity (is that the correct word???). I was so sorry that I could not have captured a screen shot of either the entire blog entry there or the previous one where she gives the context of her WAM! speech.

However….what I can’t do, Google can, through their Cache feature….and I just so happened to find the cached version of BfP’s final post in its entirity. Just click on the following link to read it:

Brownfemipower (La Chola/Women of Color Blog): Intellectual Integrity (via Google Cache)

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a cache of the blog post with BfP’s original speech; that must have not been cached in time.

Also; here’s a mass linkage to the many comments now running on the entire controversy; both pro and con:

Xicano Power
Natalia Antonova
Belledame
Ren Ev
Daisy’s Dead Air
Kevin Andre Elliot
Plain(s)feminist
High on Rebellion
Sudy (here, here, and here)
Blackamazon
Sylvia/M (here and ESPECIALLY HERE)
Feministe (which also includes a long comments thread where Amanda attempts to defend herself, and brings some of her allies)

In fairness, I should include as well:
Hugo Schwyzer (who strongly defends Amanda)

Also, the usual drive-by shots at feminism and “victimization” from Soulhuntre. (Quick memo: Butt out of what you know not a damn thing about, fool.)

Any other blogs heavy on the current issue that you find, just let me know.

UPDATE: Turns out that Amanda WAS in attendance at the WAM! conference, and even attended the very same speech that BfP made….which makes the theft so much WORSE. Thanks to Rebecca at Burning Words for the updated info.

UPDATE #2: Some bloggers who have been aformentioned in their responses to Amanda have taken to referring her as “X”, in deference to her wishes to maintain anonymity and out of respect for BfP, who, in an attempted response to a comment by Amanda at BfP’s blog said this in return:

1. 1. brownfemipower Says:
      April 9th, 2008 at 10:30 am X,your comment is up and I addressed it. you are labeled as X because i did not name you in the post and I will not allow this to become a fight between big powerful popular cute blogger and jealous mousy evil ugly blogger.

      and there is no “we” here. there is you and there is me.

While other bloggers have respected that label, I do not and will not, and will retain Amanda’s real name in both the title and body of this post….unless BfP specifically asks me to comply.

My reasoning is simple and basic: I believe in a person taking responsibility for their actions and words….and since Amanda Marcotte did lend her name to the original article which took so much from BfP’s work without giving her even the slightest bit of credit or reference, I believe that giving her anonymity simply covers up and justifies her actions….which I simply will NOT do. I speak not for BfP or anyone else, but only for myself; but I simply feel that Amanda has to own up to her actions.

She may not have named you outright, Amanda, but I have, and I will continue to call you out directly when you do actions I consider to be wrongheaded. Just as I will give you full credit when you do the proper and moral actions or when you are under attack from idiots of the Right (as in the case with your stint with the Edwards campaign).

If you or any of your colleagues have any problems with that, Amanda, then take it up with me directly. I’m not going anywhere.

UPDATE #3: Well…it seems that someone decided to hack into BfP’s blog tonight and delete her original blog entry to the WAM speech she did, as well as the resulting essay she did in response to discovering Amanda’s expropriation of her words. It’s unknown whether BfP did this by herself or whether some hacker supporting Amanda did this crime to her benefit…but the results are simply shocking and horrific…and an exact testimonial of how WoC bloggers are treated, abused, expolited, and censored. From theft to outright pixellated murder…..how low can some people go for their vanity???

And no, I’m still not changing Amanda’s name here to “X”….especially after this crap she may have pulled.

Update #3a: According to Renegade Evolution, who just posted a moving tribute to BfP at her own blog, it was indeed BfP who decided to close down her blog. So sad and unfortunate….and still doesn’t absolve Amanda one damn bit.

ORIGINAL POST:

Here’s the background for all this:

Brownfemipower, who has been addressing the issues of women of color and the phony war against immigrants of color (i.e., “illegal aliens”) for her lifetime, does a speech for the Women, Action and Media (WAM!) conference on how feminism and US policy has failed to adequately defend the rights of immigrant women.

Meanwhile, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon (who was conspicuously absent from did manage to attend the same WAM! conference, BTW) decides to post a long essay over at AlterNet concerning her views on how anti-immigrant language leads to violence — especially sexual violence — against immigrant women…..which sounds suspiciously like and basically copies word for word BfP’s speech….but somehow fails to give one iota of credit or even a simple hat tip to BfP or other WoC activist for raising these issues long before Amanda was even born.

Bfp, righteously outraged at the use of HER words by Amanda merely to secure another mighty meta byline, cranks out this long essay where she finally declares herself (and other women of color activists) to be freed of such exploitiation and theft of their ideas and efforts by White, supposedly liberal feminists.

[Excerpts follow]

I am not now, nor will I ever be a mainstream type publishable author. I started my blog because I knew this. Although people seem to think that many of us women of color bloggers are doing nothing but complaining when we mention the fact that we are not mainstream type publishable–I would argue that indeed, we are doing far more than “complaining”. We are self-publishing authors on the internet.

I have made peace with the fact that I will never be mainstream-y publishable–but I have NOT made peace with the fact that the words and theories of women of color are stolen and not attributed or cited. I will never make a living off of blogging, I will never get a book deal off of blogging, I will never be on CNN or invited to be a part of a political campaign or have articles written calling me the new leader of the feminist movement–and I am ok with that. I am NOT ok with people who ARE posting on big blogs, getting book deals, doing interviews on CNN, being invited to work political campaigns, being called new leaders of the feminist movement etc–taking my ideas and using my ideas to continue the unexamined and unchallenged goal of getting book deals, doing interviews….

There’s a lot of women of color (and men of color!) who have talked about immigration. There’s a lot of women of color and men of color who have examined how sexualized violence has been the foremost result of the “strengthening” of borders. There’s been a lot of us who have insisted for a long time now that immigration is a feminist issue, goddamn it, get your head out of your ass.

I even wrote a whole speech about it.

Which is why it was startling to read a recent article about how sexualized violence against immigrant women is directly linked to using dehumanizing terminology like “illegal alien” without one attribute to any blogger of color, male or female, in the entire essay. There is even an earnest declaration about how paperwork is the true problem of immigration (bureaucracy of paperwork anybody?) coupled with a declaration that immigration is a feminist issue.

I do not accept that the author of this article made a mistake in not publishing any links to the work already being done by pro-immigration bloggers, nor do I accept that the author came up with these ideas all on her own.

[...]

What I *DO* believe is that I made a massive and horrible mistake in emphasizing that immigration is a feminist issue. In comments, a Chicano blogger said very politely, thank you for talking about this Ms. Feminist, but this has been going on for a long time.

I don’t give a shit about being published, I don’t give a shit about the interviews or the jobs or the fame–I DO give a shit that a Chicano is reading a white feminist talking about immigration and politely distancing himself from a gendered analysis of immigration because the author exhibits no historical or contextual awareness of women of color led feminist interventions into immigration.

I give a shit about that because not only does this erase the work that women of color are doing within racist white dominant structures, but it erases the work we are doing within our own communities. It makes it ok for men of color to dismiss the need for feminist interventions into our communities–AND it makes it ok for white women to continue beating up women of color with the idea that showing any concern for what happens to men in our communities is ridiculous, because, see, they don’t approve of feminism!

Poof! Just like that, feminists of color are made invisible even as we are the ones laying our bodies down for the foundation of the communication between men of color and white women.

I had thought at one time that feminism was about justice for women. I had thought it was about centering the needs of women, and creating action in the name of, by and for women. I had thought that feminism has its problems but it’s worth fighting for, worth sacrificing and sweating and crying and breaking down for.

It was all worth it to me, because it meant that I existed and my daughter existed and the women I love existed and we had the right to demand the violence committed against us ends.

I see now that feminism is nothing more than erasure. A conversation between white women and men. A commitment to the safety and well being of people who are never women of color.

But….it sure got Amanda a nice byline in AlterNet, didn’t it??

Now, my beef with Amanda is not about the article itself, which actually makes some absolutly brilliant debunking of classical arguments against protecting “illegals” (and which brought out the usual xenophobic and racist smears in the comments. It is the fact that she simply brushes off and expropriates the writings and issues of immigrant women of color and passes it as if only White middle-class liberal feminists invented the issue of immigrant rights. Not giving adequate credit to those who preceded you is not only bad Netiquette (and one small step below actual plagarism); but, in the context of the issues involved, it is essentially racist silencing of immigrant people thinly veiled in the motive of “empowering” them.

And what does it say for AlterNet, which has never seen fit to allow more radical activists of color to impugne their pages, but frequently allows established A-list liberal feminist bloggers like Amanda Marcotte (and antiporn “leftists” like Bob Jensen and Gail Dines, too, BTW) to claim to represent the entire “progressive” diaspora unopposed and unburdened by actual debate and discussion???

And you wonder why I have a “Love Me, I’m a Liberal…NOT!!!” category here???

BTW: If you want some real proof of the depth of the theft, go over to Sylvia’s place and get the complete breakdown of BfP’s…errrrrrrrrrrrr. Amanda’s article. And check out Belledame, Sudy (here, too), and Natalia for more 4-1-1.