Yes, I said it. Come on folks, stop beating around the bush. Stop sugar coating it. Let's stop playing Games. Let's stop intellectualizing white blogger racism. Let's call it the way it is, The Democratic Presidential candidates just went before the Yearlykos a 21st century White Citizens YearlyKouncil. An exclusive club of middle aged whites guys, who sit around playing the "liberal card" with all but a few black and Latinos who attended the YearlyKos event.
I recently blogged about the YearlyKos event as a guess blogger on Rude Pundit. In my post I talked about how Hillary and Obama would be at the Lilly white, YearlyKos forum. Little did I know that the Washington Post would view the Yearly Kos Bloggers' Convention, a Sea of Middle-Aged White Males. But I go a little further. I see them like the members of the United States Senate, as a group of white men who could care less about issues impacting the poor, working class, and African American communities across
STOP
OK, thats what I was thinking a moment ago, but let's be real. I could have blogged about that, but I didn't. Act like you didn't even read what I just wrote.
The reality is, The DalyKos, YearlyKos, WhiteKos, really didn’t outreach to the African American blogger community to get Black Bloggers to participate. The AfroSphere/AfroSpear group to my knowledge was not outreached to or contacted, Black bloggers were not really encouraged to attend, so therefore it is what it is. As it turned out to be, a white group talking to each other about issues important to them. White folks. White Citizens (with a few black folks for good measure).
But hey, that is a snap shot of my opinion today, my opinion could change tomorrow. Here are other opinions on the same topic.
Mirror on America, Jack and Jill Politics are blogging about the subject, as is Francis L. Holland , a blogger who blogs regularly about The Truth About Kos (DailyKos) in a recent post he notes, The Hot Air Blog calls YearlyKos, "whiter than an NHL game at the North Pole during a snowstorm." Hot Air points our attention to a Washington Post article of August 6, by Jose Antonio Vargas, that calls YearlyKos 2007 "a Sea of Middle-Aged White Males."Maybe Francis L. Holand knows more than he is sharing when he writes about Markos Moulitsas and the annual meeting of the whitosphere sponsored by DailyKos.
What do you think? Am I wrong?
PS, It may not be a White Citizens Council, but it sure looks like one - Infact, it mirrored, guess what - The Republican Party. Think About It!
![](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl="http://my.barackobama.com/page/-/politico%2520logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://as.barackobama.com/page/community/members%3fpage%3d15793&usg=__--8gzkqzq6sawnrxytkhrourczm=&h=49&w=246&sz=32&hl=en&start=3&sig2=6gqsd7u0vcfvfpdyi-zjdw&um=1&tbnid=342u5uzgw5fnpm:&tbnh=22&tbnw=110&ei=fdovsyxln82n-gbhhp2icq&prev=/images%3fq%3dpolitico%2blogo%26um%3d1%26hl%3den%26rlz%3d1b3ggic_enus304us304%26sa%3dg"){kind=small}
8 comments:
I think the way to oppose white supremacy is for each of us Black people to pick a prominent white supremacist and make a hobby out of making that person's life hell. I have chosen Markos Alberto C. [esar(?)] Moulitsas Zúñiga, and each day I expose a bit more of his hatred for Blacks, his homophobic hatred of gays, his misogynistic hatred of women's leadership, and his oligarch Salvadoran family's destruction of the Jaltepeque Estuary.
Just to show you how objective and conservative I am in my reporting, please note that I have NEVER suggested that there was a connection between the fact that Markos Moulitsas' family owns an international five-continent salt distributorship in Central America, trafficking in bags of white powder, actually literal shiploads of white powder that they ship around the world with impunity.
I'm sure it's nothing, but have a look at this photograph anyway. OOOPS I'm going to make another Chauncey Bailey of myself if I'm not careful.
Let me emphasize that there is NO EVIDENCE to connect the shipping of white powered salt in the Jaltepeque Estuary to the shipments of white powdered cocaine through the Jaltepeque Estuary.
Oh well. Everybody has to go sometime.
DailyKos is just a little too inside the Beltway for me; and too costly, to boot.
I volunteered for Paul Hackett's campaign in Ohio and remember his campaign aide was a sweet young "thang" and his GOTV guy was this burly man of color who ruled the roost and took no bullsit from no one.
As for the hot issues Kossites don't stress, even if they do post a few sentences here and there, if only to assuage their guilt. Like teh dreadful bankruptcy bill written by the banking industry.
Why are the Dems not pushing to rescind that evil inspired bill?!?
And why are they not "doing" something about the health care system that costs so much that no one can afford it.
And why don't they address the insane criminal justice system; and no, I'm not just talking about the differences betweeen cocaine and crack, I'm talking about blatant racism that keeps blacks from getting jobs that pay decent wages and to survive,they do; a litle hustle here and a little hustle there.
And sure enough, they eventually get popped and there goes any opportunity to enter a trade where a license is required -- even if they could find such a job, which chances are they probably could not have. But hell at least, they'd have the dream. A felony conviction takes away the dream.
Now I know all these things because I see my 25-year old son and the friends that he grew up with.
I gave him the hook-up with a body shop. And they were the biggest racist with "nigger this, "nigger that."
My son hated it; especially since all his ladies are black and he thought it was total disrespect.
My point is, that if he had not been white, he would not have been hired by that gang of racist pigs and he wouldn't have learned enough to eventually quit and land a job making $750 @ week, which I pray and hope is enough to keep him from hustling.
I also notice how people look at us when we enter a lilly-white restaurant. I guess they're just not used to some white middle-aged woman showing up with a crew of black young men. And interestingly, I put on my must-see white persona as if to let them know, don't worry, we're not trouble.
But God bless Manassas. Back when my son was a young boy, it's was the most racial free place. Everyone just got along with everyone. The mothers usually had high-ranking government jobs -- even if the dads were less successul.
Anyway...I'm rambling. But even if a majority of the bloggers where white...don't sell them short.
I have no idea where their spirit lies, but I would be willing to bet many come from the same mold as me.
When I lived in Houston in the early '70s and housing was beginning to be integrated, this poor sweet black girl had some red-neck trailer park trash blondie telling her as she stared into the air with a wounded wide-eyed hurtful lookfilled with violated innocence: "'Cause my mom says you is a nigger."
Well, I had just moved from DC and was all into black power and all that stuff -- even if I am not black but Latina.
I told that little bitch, "Hey, I don't know what your mom told you to call her, but up North, where I'm from, we call them people. And if we refer to their color, we refer to them as "black."
Again, this is around the time James Brown was singing, "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud."
Or "Momma come here quick and give me a licking stick."
Black power was all the rage; and it was the best civil right meme. Hell, even white hippies adopted it by raising their fist and saying, "Right on."
Anyhow...I hope you enjoyed my trek down Memory Lane.
I enjoy talking and writing about it because I really believe the era was the golden era of race relations. And yes, I think our generation, the Yuppies sold out to corporate-land for a computer, an I-pod and three mules of bullshit that made us forget what we were supposed to do and who we really were.
You know, I don't know what the answer is, but I do admit that not even inviting the Black bloggers that we both read frequently is the beginning of the problem. These Black bloggers didn't even have the opportunity to say that they COULDN'T go to YearlyKos...they weren't invited.
I do have to wonder why it seems so hard for them to reach out to the Black bloggers.
Goes back to that ludicrous photo of Bill Clinton, IN HARLEM, surrounded by nothing but WHITE FOLK.
You know, one year it happens, and you could say it was an ' accident'.
But, this keeps on happening, YEAR AFTER YEAR.
I guess someone doesn't want true diversity at their convention.
I've written this a few other places so I'll say it here as well (I found this through an RSS feed on YearlyKos items).
Help us change it.
I'd say that significant progress was made towards increasing diversity at the convention this year through panels, attendees, and speakers. And not just diversity for the sake of meeting some quota, but because the diversity of views only makes the movement strong.
More things like this need to be organized and maybe more people can help with that this year.
If you've got ideas, or want to help with some introductions or building some relationships then stop on by the site and shoot us an email: http://www.yearlykosconvention.org/contact
I think the Kossacks should take a good look at the "AfroSpear" vis a vis what they (the Afrospearians) are willing to give a pass to before they invite them anywhere.
RE: Blog Apartheid:
This comment is about the ongoing fight between Black and white progressive bloggers over the issue of blog apartheid at whitosphere blogs.
I love to write and I love to share my thoughts with others. But, I'm sick and tired of the constant grumblings about banning me at the whitosphere MyLeftWing blog, for criticizing the blog apartheid practiced at DailyKos. For example, in response to my essay of yesterday, Gottlieb said in comments:
"My interpretation of MSOC's remarks was she has tried to gently guide the 'editorial' direction of this board, and part of that direction is not to become known as a 'kos bashing' site. Simple. What's not so simple is where to draw the editorial line between 'free speech' and 'bashing'. Assuming, the journalism is sound.If the journalism isn't sound and you're making wild accusations on the slimmest of evidence, then you should be banned forthwith."
Our of sheer self-defense, we Blacks have learned over the years to know just what whites say and how they behave when a lynch mob is forming.
Let's see: If I "cross the line" into "bashing" America's foremost blog apartheid site, which was "bashed" in the Washington Post this week about this very issue, then I should be banned?!
That's like saying, "It's alright to blog about Apartheid, but you MAY NOT bash P.W. Botha." And don't be a Nelson Mandela "shill" either! I's like saying, "Write about the Klan, but don't 'bash' the Klan!"
This is what happens to white people's minds under the influence of color-aroused emotions, ideation and behavior.
And if we're not careful, they make US responsible for making sense out of all of this crap.
Blacks subjected to these mental games are at risk for color- aroused emotional, ideational and behavioral disorder, unless we stick together and refuse to play along.
There are constant suggestions that "if this and that were to happen" then that would constitute a valid reason to ban Francis L. Holland, and this discussion is, in and of itself, a kind of constant oppression that warns ALL Black that we MUST NOT aggressively argue for our own liberation in the context of the whitosphere. At whitosphere blogs, we're "always outnumbered and always out-gunned."
But, maybe if we stick up for each other through the AfroSpear Black bloggers movement when this grumbling begins, then we can impress upon white bloggers that, in addition to the handful of whites demanding Black bloggers' expulsion and our heads on a platter, there are at least five dozen Black blogger opinion-makers, with significant Democratic-leaning voter audiences, and these Black bloggers are organized, angry and tired of the bullshit!
This is the e-mail address of Maryscott O'Connor, the owner of the MyLeftWing whitosphere blog who has publicly threatened to ban me for "bashing" the blog apartheid practiced at DailyKos. Please write her a e-mail and tell her that bashing apartheid is precisely what we should be doing at progressive blogs.
myleftwing@gmail.com
"Mary,
Is it true that Francis Holland may get banned from your site MyLeftWing?
If so, why?
Regards,
Adrianne George
Black Women in Europe Blog"
Francis
OK, OK, OK.
I call bullshit on Francis' attack on Maryscott O'Connor and her decision to clean house of any and all folks clogging up her traffic and bandwidth with lies and misrepresentations about Markos Moulitsas, a subject about which Francis writes constantly. All I ask of any member of the Afrospear is that you actually *go read for yourself* the dialogues that have occurred there BEFORE taking a position about what Francis has written about Maryscott and My Left Wing, or presuming what is, and what is not, the truth about what is occurring there. We would want the same fairness and objectivity for ourselves.
None of this has anything to do Markos, or DailyKOS, btw.
Thanks for listening.
Oh my God, Shanikka! You've come to the AfroSpear to defend Markos Moulitsas contacts to the CIA and is 96% white blog site? Why would you spend your time defending such a thing, aside from the fact that you blog contentedly at DailyKos while most self-respecting Black people would never go there?
I only went to the site because when I call someone an "exquisite little crank," I like to say that right to the man's face! People who spend six months at the CIA while starting a "progressive blog" should be PLEASED to be called "exquisite little crank" instead of dirty little murderer! (Note that I didn't call him a dirty little murderer. I said he should be pleased that no one has called him a dirty little murderer.)
What was Markos Alberto C. Moulitsas Zúñiga doing at the CIA for six months in 2001, Shanikka?
Ironic that you've ignored the AfroSpear for four months and now you only come here to defend 96% white DailyKos! What is your agenda?
And why did Markos A.C.Moulitsas write an essay in 1993 vehemently opposing ALL gays in the military?
He sounds like a REPUBLICAN infiltrator of the Left to me, and I don't trust ANYONE who defends him.
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