A double feature!
Feminists With Disabilities tried to hold a blogswarm (some kind of internet party?) about Helen Keller on June 19, 2010. Renee didn't like that, as June 19 happens to be Juneteenth.
1:59: Did it even occur to you celebrants that today is Juneteenth and what this erasure does to Black PWD? There are 365 days in the year to chose from and so I fail to see why it is okay to just slot this in on an important Black holiday. Oh I get it Black PWD don’t matter. The fact that we face other oppressions is meaningless, so why not just erase Juneteenth and fill it in with something else. I mean really? I am absolutely steaming mad. I am disabled and I am Black and this holiday completely erases a part of my identity.
2:13: Oh and as for you S.E. shame on you for putting that up on Feminist CLOSING COMMENTS and not acknowledging that today is Juneteenth. Not only do you erase Black people but you deny us the right to openly complain about what you did.
3:36: Are you planning on not approving any my comments because I called out the racism and erasure in this celebration? Is that how it works? You get to decide that POC with disabilities should just shut the hell up so you can get on with erasing us?
Well isn’t it a wonderful thing that we have our own blogs so that we can say our peace. Why I AM Not Celerbrating Helen Keller Mythbusting Blogswarm Day!”
5:14: What’s the matter do you not have the spoons to deal with your fucking racism. I am NOT going to stop. I am going to keep e-mail the editors here, tweeting, and commenting on every single one of these posts until someone has the fucking guts to acknowledge how racist this it. BTW continuing to silence me is also RACIST but then that is what you seem to want to promote.
7:18: I have now lost count of the amount of comments that I have left on this post without even a response from an editor here. As I said, I am not going away and I will continue to e-mail the editors until this racism is acknowledged. It’s funny how the editors constantly talk about how draining it can be for PWD to struggle and advocate for justice but you have no problem forcing me to work and advocate on what should be a day of celebration because your privilege matters more than being a decent human being.
Later on it was revealed that the blogger had been away from her computer all afternoon and the other mods didn't want to take action on her post.
Sandglass wrote it up for UFB, not really taking sides but implying that FWD should have said more about Juneteenth. Lots of talk in the comments about people around the world and in the US not knowing about Juneteenth. Dana noted the US-centrism, but unfortunately our UFB brethren are less inclined to discuss that topic than we are, and Ariadne484 reacted poorly and declared that this was saying Juneteenth didn't matter. Kylenne also joined in, saying that the reason people don't know about Juneteenth is racism so if you say you don't know it you're racist. This turned the tide against FWD and pro-Renee … until Amadi pointed out that, hey, if you look at the timestamps Renee was seriously posting every hour or so and acting as though not answering her RIGHT NOW was the same as silencing her. The wank died down after that, probably out of sheer embarrassment.
Can be found here.