Mothers of Dissension: A Case Study of How Internet-Fueled Moms Are Changing Things

January 3, 2009 Written by Families and Caregiving , Politics and Public Policy , Women

The recent Washington Post article, “Pr. William’s Mothers of Dissension,”  is an excellent example of how women are using the Internet for local activism. Here’s a synopsis:

 

Prince William County, Virginia, was cracking down on illegal immigration, giving rise to racist rhetoric and dividing neighborhoods as residents lined up on either side of the issue.

Alanna Almeda’s husband had gained permanent residency in 1996. She didn’t like the implication that it was a mistake to have allowed him to gain legal status, or that “he wasn’t making a contribution or worthy of being here." Katherine M. Gotthardt didn’t like hearing her daughters singing a rhyme they had heard on the playground: "I don’t want to go to Mexico no more. . . . There’s a big, fat guy at the door. . . . If you open it up, he’ll [urinate] on the floor. . . . I don’t want to go to Mexico no more." She didn’t like hearing that immigrant parents were afraid to send their children to school for fear they would be deported.

Alanna, Katherine, Elena Schlossberg and several other stay-at-home moms banded together to battle the county’s hard-line immigration policy. With kids in tow, they began attending board meetings and trying to influence votes.

Things really took off when they took their fight to the blogosphere, starting an "open dialogue" website called Anti-Black Velvet Bruce Li in response to a longer-running anti-immigration conservative blog, Black Velvet Bruce Li. Anti-BVBL has a robust and committed audience, with each post well-commented, and some getting up to 100 comments.

"They’ve gotten engaged, that’s for sure," Black Velvet Bruce Li’s blogger Greg Letiecq said. "They loudly complain about people they don’t agree with. Outside of that, they haven’t presented a positive solution that will help preserve the community." The women say that when emotions on illegal immigration ran hot, they provided a tempered, alternative voice.

In early 2008, the Anti-BVBL moms persuaded moderate supervisors to adjust the county’s immigration policy. Police officers were told they could question criminal suspects about their immigration status only after they have been arrested.

In September, the Anti-BVBL moms rallied residents against the appointment of Robert L. Duecaster, a provocative critic of illegal immigration, to the human-services panel, forcing supervisors to explain their votes publicly.

Today, several of the Anti-BVBL moms are serving on county advisory boards and commissions, and as a group they are diving into other debates on topics that interest them, such as preserving more land in the face of development.
 

I learned about the Anti-BVBL women with great interest, more for what the WashPo article doesn’t say than for what it does. While the Anti-BVBL blog has been very successful, it is by no means the only digital tool the moms are using. Would they be as effective if they didn’t have the convenience of the Internet to do their research on county board members or look up board meeting schedules? And you can bet that they have a heavy dependence on simple email just to communicate and strategize among themselves, as well as to protest board decisions and reach out to potential allies.

What Anti-BVBD’s experience illustrates is passion, commitment, and the simple digital channels already intricately woven into the fabric of our daily lives are enough for any of us to begin to change the world.
 

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  • http://www.theturnerreport.com Suzanne

    Go go go Moms with mouses!!!

  • TriRes

    BVBL is hardly “anti-immigrant”. There is a BIG difference between “anti-immigrant” and “anti-ILLEGAL immigrant.” If you want to see “anti-immigrant” sentiments, go to France. Trust me, what we talk about here is NOTHING compared to how the immigration debate goes. I am sick and tired of how my community is looking because of gang activity, drugs, and graffiti. BVBL actually goes out to clean up the mess the ILLEGAL ALIENS leave behind. Not once do I read a post on anti-bvbl that reads “graffiti clean up in neighborhood X tomorrow. Meet us at X intersection.” I am a Latina myself, and I am thoroughly disgusted with the way the folks at anti-bvbl handle readers who have views that are different from their own. “Open dialogue”? You gotta be kidding me! As soon as you post “anchor baby,” you are blocked from posting further comments, yet they allow their readers to say things such as “make the white man pay” and “help save our white a**es” and merely receive a slap on the wrist. Where is your story about the elderly woman in D.C. who was defrauded thousands of dollars by a bunch of illegal aliens, and then BURNED ALIVE IN HER OWN HOME… If the media gave any thought to this victim, and actually called the illegal aliens criminals, it’s considered “racist”. Bullcrap.

  • Elena

    Thanks for posting this very important article in the Wash Post. What Alanna and I saw was a virulent hate that was growing against our immigrant community. If you looked latino, you were instantly seen as “illegal”. As a matter of act, one our our Supervisors is married to a woman from Peru. A citizen, during the most contentious time in PWC, actually accused him of being an “illegal alien and abetter” because he his “inlaws” must be illegal. It was chilling. There needs to be a discussion about immgration, that is true. Historically speaking, immigration, has, and will remain, a very hot button issue. Interesting considering that we are a nation of immigrants. BTW, the person who posts on anti, Mackie, is the only poster we have who has been called out on his “anti white” rants. Overall, our conversations are fact based and respectful, even when we disagree. As a matter of fact, the Anti Defamation League has not called Anti-Bvbl or its blog owners “extremists”, however, they have labeled Greg Letique and HSM in such terms.

  • John

    The postings on antibvbl are factual and not argumentative? Give me a break. Anyone who disagrees with them is automatically labeled “anti-immigrant”, “racist”, or some other things. They engage in name calling and call our supervisors names. They have labeled Corey Stewart a Nazi and a racist more times than I can remember. They don’t want reasonable discussion on their blog – if they did they wouldn’t label everyone who comes on there that disagrees with them as “anti-immigrant”, or attempt to lump them in with the bvbl gang. What a bunch of phonies.

  • http://pwcpa.blogspot.com/ Belle Hertanez

    RE: “Elena”

    You lament of the hatred you see in Prince William County; let me ask you this: Do YOU not see what Katherine Gotthardt writes 24/7 on anti-bvbl, says to the press, and tells other people? Is that not “hate speech” in it of iteslf? Did Gotthardt TRULY and HONESTLY exptect the BoCS to vote “Yes” to her appointment to the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, while somehow ignoring her ongoing contempt and disdain about PWC, its policies, and its leaders? The only thing this kind of activity landed her was a 5-3 failed motion and a foot in the rear end :)

  • Elena

    “belle”,

    The tone of Greg’s blog has always and will remain a tool to scapegoat and villify “illegals” or better known as Hispanics. His most recent thread on an outbreak of swine flu blames the illness on illegals crossing the border. His tone is the worst kind of scapegoating, riddled with misinformation. There is no credible comparison between the two blogs. Futhermore, while Katherine Gothhardt may have used terminology that was very emotional, she never called children parasites or suggested they were animals who had “breeding” season like Mr. Duecaster, who was subsequently approved for his nomination. Interesting that John Stirrup and Corey Stewart had not problem supporting Robert Duecasters “freedom of speech” but not Katherine’s. I believe we call that hyprocrisy.

  • Anna

    Elena, I am a 100% naturalized LEGAL Hispanic woman living in Prince William County, and I am utterly SICK, DISGUSTED, and TIRED of your associated groups (Anti-BVBL, Casa de Maryland, Mexicans without Borders, Zapatista, etc.) lumping us Hispanics together with illegals!!! Illegals can be other races/ethnicities, too! As soon as somebody mentions illegal aliens, it is YOUR crowd that screams “OMG! Hispanics!” I am TIRED of being called “European Wetback” because I look fair-skinned. Guess who calls me that horrid name? Certainly NOT the members of BVBL, HSM, FAIR, or the “anti-immigrant”/”hate” groups as you like to call them. Corey, John, HSM, BVBL, and those who support them and those groups have done far more in just a couple years’ time for U.S. citizens such as myself than the so-called “leaders” I left when I immigrated here. I daresay, Anti-BVBL, Casa de Maryland, Mexicans without Borders, Zapatista, whatever have done absolutely NOTHING for legal citizens living in Prince William County in the same amount of time. My community looks clean without the graffiti and trash. Who cleaned it up? It was HSM. How come when there is an immigration protest, I never see European flags being waved?

    Elena, when you point the finger at someone, three more are pointing at you.