The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
With its power-to-the-individual approach, the new media world promises anyone with a laptop the possibility of a publishing empire. But, as some black bloggers are finding out, the new media world is a lot like the old one: racially segregated, with many prominent black voices still fighting to be heard.
Some bloggers felt insulted this month when the Democratic National Committee selected 55 state-oriented blogs to cover its convention in Denver; critics said few featured African American voices. The DNC said race wasn’t considered in its selection from 400 applicants. Officials were more interested in the sites’ audience size and how much chatter about local issues appeared on them. The DNC answered critics Thursday by adding several sites led by African Americans to its general blogger pool.
One of those added was Gina McCauley:
Essence magazine named McCauley one of its 25 most influential people last year alongside Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and filmmaker Tyler Perry. “Black bloggers link to other black bloggers, and progressive white bloggers link to other white progressive bloggers,” she said.
At the moment, a Technorati search suggests that is largely true of McCauley’s blog, What About Our Daughters?
In contrast, it appears that more conservative, individualistic bloggers like La Shawn Barber, Sister Toldjah and Baldilocks draw a diverse array of blog reactions.
Perhaps the lesson is that the proggosphere is so enmeshed in identity politics that black bloggers get taken for granted — much the way the Democratic party takes black voters for granted. Given the Democrats’ support for racial preferences, it is odd that the DNC blew the call in credentialing black bloggers to the convention planning to nominate Barack Obama as its standard bearer.
Update: HotAir-lanche!
Update x2: Insta-lanche!
Correction: As marcus and another pw reader correctly note, Sister Toldjah is white, which was a complete brain lapse on my part. The nom de blog is a play on the infamous Sister Souljah, which causes what psychologists might call proactive interference with my memory.  It is a doubly egregious error, given that Sister Toldjah is hawt, whereas Sister Souljah is not so much. The main point of the post remains the same. As does the part about Sister Toldjah being hawt, afaik.
Clearly, what is needed is federal passage of an Affirmative Linking Action bill requiring a percentage of all blog cross references to minority blogs. That will at least prevent some bloggers from being forced into the realization that they don’t get traffic because no one wants to read what they’re pushing. For the self esteem preservation.
We got a glimpse of this during Amandaquiddick.
It sure would be nice to squish this Russkie trackbacking plagiarism bot.
Howard Dean was just trying to keep catering costs down by excluding Oliver Willis.
Black blog. White blog. Green blog. Yellow blog.
Who gives a shit? Besides the proggs, that is. If your blog sucks, nobody’s gonna read it.
End of story.
Not true. I have readers.
I thought blogs were about ideas, not race. I’ll be chillin’ a forty for the DNC in August.
your cats don’t count.
I should know. : (
I was under the impression that one of the strengths of blogs was that there was no color or gender unless the blogger wanted it to be.
I’m not so sure. There was once just a Blogosphere, and then some black bloggers wanted it segregated, i.e. into an area now called the Afrosphere and/or Black-o-sphere and/or Black Blogosphere. “White Blogs”…”Black Blogs”!?
If you do read the “BLACK” blogs, you’ll find that they are rather tiresome and painful. While progressives are by nature masochistic, malevolent forces of evil, there’s only so much self inflicted pain that they can endure, and they get more than enough from their own writing and that of the general progressives. Reading yet another post about how horrible white people are and how Oliver Willis was once again discriminated against by the KKK members that make Dunkin Donuts so tasty and the racist scale manufacturers that know to increase the weigh of black users by 50 lbs just isn’t appealing to anyone. Reading the Womanist (because progressive feminists are evil, evil racists, doubly so because they refuse to admit it to anyone or engage in anything like discrimination except for not engaging in an orgiastic bout of self denunciation or just asking Alice Walker for the opinions they should have) blogs is even worse: tiresome, radical anti-capitalist, bigoted gender segregation feminism layered with tiresome, radical anti-capitalist, racist black nationalism.
Somehow no one wants to read the unadulterated works of staggering genius put up on the internet by these people. I’m shocked! IT MUST BE A RACIST PLOT! Then they go and find some way to have a good People’s Front of Judaea vs Judaean People’s Front splittist controversy.
The major crime of George H W Bush is to not have taken advantage of the fall of communism to prosecute every single leftist for treason and crimes against humanity by their aiding and abetting mass murder from 1915 onward and adhering to the enemies of the US. So these evil, despicable people are still with us, and do whatever they can to destroy the country and the human species.
Sister Toldja is actually white.
Other than Jeff, I do not really know the race of anyone who posts or comments here – other than what they say – nor do I care.* What a strange world the Democrats have constructed.
*Some exceptions, such as Baldilocks, applies.
I was under the impression that one of the strengths of blogs was that there was no color or gender unless the blogger wanted it to be.
It was… until black progressives realized that no one wanted to read their nonsense. Then it became a social justice concern!
[…] empire. But, as some black bloggers are finding out, the new media world is a lot like the old one: racially segregated, with many prominent black voices still fighting to be […]
I think there are circumstances in which race preferences and race quotas make sense.
For example, when it comes to media outlets, the DNC should want outlets that serve each major (and many minor) constituencies.
It was a stupid mistake for the DNC to go race-blind the one place where it doesn’t make sense.
“…much the way the Democratic party takes black voters for granted.”
More than that.
They treat black like political lawn jockeys.
On the internet nobody knows you’re a black dog.
Funny, they sure know how many hours since they were last fed.
[…] ON SEGREGATION AMONG THE NETROOTS: “Perhaps the lesson is that the proggosphere is so enmeshed in identity politics that black […]
It’s really hard to believe that they missed O Dub. I thought he was so big he had satellites orbiting him.
“Not true. I have readers.” And we’re both tired. That Popo Agie trail is a bitch. We always pronounce it like it’s written (popo aggie). If we have the breath for it.
Thanks for reading.
I put my photo “under the fold” for this very reason.
The Democratic Party needs racial tension. Without 90% of the black vote, the Democrats can not compete. Keeping African-Americans, Latino, Women and other identity politics “victims” angry is the only hope to maintain a competitive Democratic Party. Democrats continue to make promises they can’t keep to their clients and when it doesn’t work out, as it cannot, they blame “racist” society (or “sexist” or other -ist ).
There will be no progress toward a society where tensions are minimum so long as one major party needs hate and fear to attract its following.
My theory is they judge by the light. Carlos gets confused on rainy days and I can wait a bit longer to feed them.
Try hiking it after a poorly chosen breakfast. I ended up with low blood sugar and needing to borrow a granola bar from a passing family. If not for that, I don’t know for sure that I would have made it back, let alone as far up the trail as we got.
Eh. I have just grown so tired of demographics = destiny and the unrelenting leftists who perpetuate it.
Interesting that the eeeevil “right-wingers” are behaviorally more inclusive than the morally superior progressives. What was it that MLK said? Something about content of character rather than color of skin? Evidently some people have embraced that message more enthusiastically than others.
As I understand it, “Popo Agie” is a French rendering of an Indian word, not sure which language but possibly Shoshone. Even so, all the people who’ve told me how to pronounce it are palefaces like me, so…