When Rashawn’s case was rejected by traditional media channels, it was picked up by blogs and broadcast far and wide. In a number of concrete ways, blogging represents a new media technology that enables people from marginalized groups to communicate with each other, share information, and form powerful networks of belonging that can function both within and outside of cyberspace. Furthermore, the act of blogging serves to refocus the lens and add depth to the few available images of queer experiences in the United States.
Now in its second year of existence, The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund awards an annual $1,500 scholarship to students of color who reside in New York City. (For more info, see www.rashawnbrazell.com/scholarships) In addition, the community-building that became so evident in cyberspace sparked the creation of a series of fundraising parties in Rashawn’s honor throughout various queer-friendly spaces in New York City. Appropriately titled, “Brighter Days,” these parties help to distinguish the vibrant legacy of Rashawn’s life from the bleak shadow cast by his death. These significant accomplishments would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of bloggers who have a history of writing about race and sexuality. These bloggers are personally affected by the daily instances of homophobic, racist, and sexist violence against queer communities of color.
Trailblazing black lesbian poet Audre Lorde once wrote, “My response to racism is anger . . . once I did it in silence, afraid of the weight . . . women responding to racism means women responding to anger, the anger of exclusion, of unquestioned privilege, of racial distortions, of silence.” Indeed, Lorde instructs us to tap into our own “arsenal of anger” to inform our activism and refine our practice. Her words resound in the hearts of queer activists of color even today, as she recognizes that “my anger has meant pain to me, but it has also meant survival, and before I give it up, I’m going to be sure that there is something at least as powerful to replace it on the road to clarity . . . I am not free as long as one person of color remains chained. Nor is any one of you.”1
For those of us who have been profoundly moved by Rashawn’s inspiring life and tragic death, we will not be satisfied with a 30-second sound bite for Black History Month. The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund, whose operation relies almost entirely on the Internet, is committed to proactive and sustainable activism that takes seriously the challenges and concerns of our youth. Whereas more traditional types of organizing might require surveys and other cumbersome types of person-to-person outreach to assess the needs of the community, cyberactivism, and blogging in particular, has enabled us to connect more directly to the communities we aim to serve. Keeping our finger on the pulse of the community’s needs in this way has been and will always be a central organizing principle for the Memorial Fund. We will continue to heed Audre Lorde’s legacy and address the glaring gaps of injustice with our words, our stories and our activism—in hopes that we might be able to channel our anger and rage into meaningful social change.
- Audre Lorde, “On the Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” Sister Outsider, (Freedom, California: Crossing Press, 1984). [↩]
