Washington Post writes up Color of Change and other activism-oriented African-American blogs. Much as with white activist bloggers, some of the dramatic rhetoric and transformational aspirations seems overblown, but I think the impact is very real and fundamentally positive.
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The Black Blogosphere
04 May 2008 03:24 pm
Comments (21)
FWIW, the NC NAACP filed suit against the Women's Voices Women's Vote group which did the robo-calls about registering in NC.
From Facing South of the Institute for Southern Studies, posted by Sue Sturgis of The Independent:
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N.C. NAACP files formal vote-suppression complaint against Women's Voices, alerts U.S. DOJ of concerns
The North Carolina NAACP has filed a formal complaint of possible voter suppression against Women's Voices Women Vote, the D.C. nonprofit that as we revealed earlier this week was behind the deceptive and illegal robo-calls made to state residents.
The N.C. NAACP hand-delivered its complaint today to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett. It's also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice that it's collecting more information from its national network and is contemplating filing a formal complaint with that agency.
N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (center in photo) announced the filing of the complaint at a press conference held this afternoon outside the N.C. Department of Justice. He was joined by his group's attorney, Al McSurely (left), and Bob Hall (right) of Democracy North Carolina. The state Attorney General's office is already investigating Women's Voices, but the N.C. NAACP and Democracy North Carolina want to be parties to that investigation.
"When you mess with the right to vote, you're messing with everything that is fundamental in our democracy," Barber said.
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/05/nc-naacp-files-formal-vote-suppression.asp
Follow link for full text of article & complaint.
By 'you', I mean most of the a-list bloggers. Not just 'You', Matt Yglesias. To be honest, you're the first blog I've read on this that wasn't basically going 'How dare these people divide our party.'.
This F-list blogger must confess to having some sort of unconscious bias when it comes to blog linking: my blog-roll could stand some diversity and I've not done a very good job in linking to all that is out there.
But I must question some of your examples: not everyone blogging at Pandagon and/or Feministe are white.
I realize it's been a year, but Gilliard was a rock star in the lib sphere.
"It really is an embarrasment that the white blogosphere can fully integrate primarily white, feminist blogosphere..."
Welcome to the real world, where white liberals hang out pretty much with other white liberals. They tolerate the feminists because they fear that if they don't, they won't be able to get dates.
Fred,
This white liberal moonbat tends to hang out with White/Asian moderate liberals at work, fellow white moonbat liberals at my house of worship (which is pretty much 100% white, moonbat liberal) and hangs out with his neighbors (most of whom are African-American, as is his wife) at home.
I dunno how typical my experience is, though.
Sadly, Fred is right.
As noted above, almost half the posts at Pandagon are from Pam Spaulding, who is black. Oliver Willis has been a mainstay of the lefty 'sphere longer than I've been in the game.
When we get to minorities generally, the most famous lefty blogger is half-Salvadorean. We're scattered all over the top blogs, too -- Samhita at Feministing is an Indian-American like me. (And there's me.) So Fred's idea that this is some kind of, um, weisswurst party is really overblown.
weisswurst party is really overblown. - Neil
Puns intended?
I feel like that also has gotta be part of the worst pick-up line ever: "weisswurst party at my place, 12 AM, if ya know what I mean" ;)
The only embarrassing thing is assuming that anyone who doesn't announce their race or sex is a white male.
But, personally, I'll take digby over (post-jesse & ezra) pandagon any day.
Besides Jack and Jill Politics and Color of Change there are also the following:
Prometheus 6
Skeptical Brotha
Field Negro
Angry Black Bitch
Racialicious(this blog is mult-racial)
Too Sense
Black Blogosphere
Gah. "Blackosphere" is much snappier.
"It really is an embarrasment that the white blogosphere can fully integrate primarily white, feminist blogosphere, but can't seem to integrate the black blogosphere at all."
Good. I'm not trying to be flip. It's better if the black blogosphere is not "integrated", I think. Ideas and strategies can be developed without too many people who have to stake in the matter looking on.
"It really is an embarrasment that the white blogosphere can fully integrate primarily white, feminist blogosphere, but can't seem to integrate the black blogosphere at all."
Good. I'm not trying to be flip. It's better if the black blogosphere is not "integrated", I think. Ideas and strategies can be developed without too many people who have no stake in the matter looking on.
Only women hating misanthropes like soullite think feminist blogs are "fairly radical white voices."
Fred is stuck thinking older people are the paradigm by which we all live. While many professional liberal organizations, like most political organizations in general that aren't specifically geared towards the concerns of a particular minority group, tend to be rather white in membership, it is rather odd and rare for an educated liberal my age to be hanging out in a group of people where at least 15-25% of the group is some type of ethnic minority (and that's not even counting Ashkenazim Jews as an ethnic minority). Sometimes I'm the token, but oftentimes I would put the number of minorities around 40%. For my generation, both liberals and conservatives, having a lot of your friends happen to be minorities is the norm. We are at the point now in America where 40% of Americans have dated someone of a different race. That number only goes up with younger people.
"Good. I'm not trying to be flip. It's better if the black blogosphere is not "integrated", I think. Ideas and strategies can be developed without too many people who have no stake in the matter looking on."
Yeah, because black people and other persons of color have no stake in the direction that our country is moving, right?
You wouldn't happen to have been a member of W's foreign policy inner circle circa 2002-03, would you?
"Yeah, because black people and other persons of color have no stake in the direction that our country is moving, right?".
No, because so many whites have no stake in the direction in which Black America moves. Well, not a stake that compels them to want to see us move in a positive direction, anyway.
Reality Man,
40% of your circle is ethnic minorities?
Let's be honest here. America is a segregated society. In particular the great urban centers in the Northeast seaboard and the Great Lakes region that are where most of us 'educated liberals' tend to live, are unfortunately among the country's most segregated. Boston, Hartford, DC, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, are all virtually synonymous with black people and white people living in largely separate parts of town, separate churches, separate social circles, etc.
This isn't the fault of liberals (and I'm definitely more of a "liberal" than "conservative") but I do think that we often make the mistake of forgetting how much segregation there is and how we are either actively part of the solution or else part of he problem. If we act as if America is a post-racial society and don't make an active effort to broaden your circle of friends and associates across class and racial lines then we are effectively part of the problem.
Hector, if you look at many urban/metropolitan top-tier schools (where the next generation of "liberal elites" are being cultivated), having at least 20% or above of the student population as a minority is that uncommon and is becoming more common. That does represent a difference from our parent's generation. My suburban New England prep school probably had a higher percentage of African-American students than my local high school. People my age generally do date people of other races. Things are far from perfect, but there is a difference between my parents' generation and my generation.
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Heads in the Sand
It really is an embarrasment that the white blogosphere can fully integrate primarily white, feminist blogosphere, but can't seem to integrate the black blogosphere at all. A couple of sites have links to colorofchange or Jack and Jill politics. But almost every site links to Feministe, sister Shakes, pandagon, Echidne and alas, A blog.
It seems like you're willing to listen to some fairly radical white voices, but completely unwilling to listen to black voices even when they are relatively moderate.
Posted by Soullite | May 4, 2008 4:01 PM