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This year, I've been on a creative kick. The crocheting I learned at age 14, but was doing so poorly with over the years, finally stuck. I've wanted to paint and draw and, yes, sometimes write, which is supposedly my first love. But this year, other senses chimed in and I found myself drawn to Etsy where I could bask in beautiful handmade soaps and body products and candles. And I didn't just want to buy everything I saw, although there was certainly an unhealthy leaning in that direction. I wanted to make. To produce. To create.
So when I discovered BlogHer Handmade, I thought, wow! This is so up my alley! This looks...awesome!
And I checked out the speakers.
And I checked out the homepage.
And found myself wondering...where are the women of color?
I know BlogHer cannot control the attendees, so who knows, perhaps there's a veritable army of Asian, Latina and Black women that will be attending en masse to lend their particular perspectives and creativity to this event.
But if not? Well, let's just say I wouldn't be surprised. There aren't any faces of color amongst the noted speakers, and even the page of images of happy cheerful attendees doesn't show one person of color.
NOT
ONE.
Really? I mean...really?
Afya Ibomu, who has brought a distinctively urban feel to crochet designs and has actually published books and dressed artists like Erykah Badu?
Twinkie Chan, the amazingly talented young Asian crochet designer? Also published?
I troll through Etsy on the regular and I choose my favorites based on whether or not I like the products, not on who is creating them. Still, I've always been pleased to come across a person of color that I can support - and producing things that can be appreciated by anyone. It's not all afro picks and ghetto jewelry, people - you too, can use and love the soaps made by Patrice of The Soap Seduction, or countless other folks on Etsy who are showing some creative flair.
This reminds me of a discussion - I think it was over at MochaMomma - about the women of color on panels at BlogHer, and how they seemed to trot out the same people over and over and over. These women deserved all the respect and adoration they were getting as divas of the blogosphere, without a doubt, but the fact that we were seeing them over and over again seemed to suggest that the conference arrangers thought they had dug as deep as they could possibly go. Does the mainstream seriously think that there are only 3 or 4 women of color in the entire blogosphere that have anything of value to say?
BlogHer Handmade, as a concept, is fascinating and wonderful and feeds right into the creative flow I'm experiencing. And saying I feel excluded isn't exactly the right thing: I know I would be welcome to spend my $500+ and attend. But the diversity I embrace in my personal life seems woefully absent here. I want to learn many things from many people, and many peoples, and this conference, at least as it is being represented in its own marketing material, doesn't represent that. At all.
This is precisely why Blogging While Brown and Blogalicious and other conferences specifically for and about people of color can and do exist. It's not that we seek to segregate ourselves and create our own thing all the time. It's that when we try to get involved in the mainstream, we're always having to assimilate, or even disappear. We don't see ourselves represented, so we end up creating something at which more of us can be seen, heard, recognized, noticed, and appreciated.
I won't be at BlogHer Handmade, unfortunately. I'm sure all of the women there are incredibly talented, and I'm sure I could learn a thing or three from everyone there. But there's clearly a lot of work to be done to get out of the prevailing mindset that what's "normal" or what comprises the "majority" is White. Finding people of color should not be a part of some "diversity initiative"; it should be a normal action that reflects the true composition of this country. When you folks at BlogHer get there, let me know. I'm there already - I'll be on the lookout for you.
