UPDATE: The cat’s out of the bag - DNC State Blog List not kind to Black Bloggers
Categories: African-American, Politics and Elections
Written By: Shawn Williams
For the last week or so, there has been a discussion going on in the Black Blogosphere regarding bloggers who have received credentials for the Democratic National Convention. This far, those who have been granted passes will sit on the convention floor with delegations from each state and U.S. Territory.
Since the list was published black bloggers have combed through the it trying to see if any African-American run sites are listed. There are none.
See a complete list of State Bloggers at the DNC convention here.
My brothers in blog African American Political Pundit and Francis Holland have been hitting this subject hard over the last week. I have been slow to jump in the fray because I’m still not sure just how many black bloggers applied for credentials in the state section. I applied, as did Mike D. from Dallas Progress and Eddie Griffin (Ft. Worth) for his blog. Fellow Afro
Spear blogger Yobachi Boswell also applied for a credential in Tennessee. Burnt Orange Report was the Texas selection.
Karen Brooks of the Dallas Morning News wrote an article that will appear in Wednesdays paper discussion the situation. Here are some highlights from her article.
- Last week, the national Democratic Party announced that 55 online writers had been chosen for the “State Blogger Corps,” to cover the convention in Denver in September. But some members of the self-titled “afrosphere” — blogs written or published by African Americans — are angry that the “State Blogger Corps” appears to be mostly white, particularly since the party appears poise to nominate a black candidate, Barack Obama, for president. “OK, folks, black bloggers to the back of the bus,” read the headline on the African American Political Pundit blog.
- But the blogs don’t appear to be self-identified as written or owned by African Americans, as opposed to blogs like the African American Political Pundit or attorney Francis L. Holland’s numerous blogs, which feature his picture.He called the list “tremendously embarrassing and harmful to the Democratic Party.” The delay in announcing the minority blogs, he said, is hurting their ability to raise money for travel expenses and get vacation time.
- The issues prompted Shawn Williams, who writes the DallasSouth.com blog, to write to U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, to complain about the lack of diversity among the chosen bloggers. Pam Spaulding, an African-American blogger in North Carolina who has applied to the general pool, suggested on her blog — Pam’s House Blend — that minorities don’t blog about state and local politics as much as white people do, narrowing the pool.
See my letter to Congresswoman Johnson here.
I don’t think this was an intentional act on behalf of the DNC, but the consequences are real. Actually, word is there was at least one blog who was intentionally left off -Cotton Mouth out of Mississippi. I think it’s a black run blog but I’m not 100% sure about that. Anyway, here’s Cotton Mouth’s story:
- We at Cotton Mouth must disagree with the selection of The Natchez Blog to represent Mississippi’s blogging community in Denver. We like and respect Casey Ann who in addition to writing there has posted on Cotton Mouth, but her blog should not have been selected over Cotton Mouth.
- We’ve had 33 posts so far THIS WEEK. The Natchez blog has had 24 posts so far THIS YEAR.
Apparently state officials in Mississippi poo-pooed on Cotton Mouth’s chances and chose a lesser known, less active blog. Go figure.
Back to the consequences. We all live and die by the traffic to our website. Whoever provides the most compelling content gets the most traffic. So while I hope to get a general blogging credential for Denver, I still will not be able to provide the same type of access as those who are on the floor. What’s a brother to do?
Anyway, I don’t feel as slighted personally as I do from a wholistic standpoint. Despite the way black bloggers have covered this presidential race and all of the talk of building new coalitions, it seems like business as usual (that’s twice I’ve used that line this week,). I wish I had the luxury of just posting about politics, but there’s just to much more than needs to be done. If Mike D. blogged politics all day who would be working on getting those drug houses torn down.
I think my frustration comes from a different place than AAPP and Francis, but in the end it’s all the same. This list is unacceptable. Period.
UPDATE:
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has picked up on this issue. See there story by clicking here. Make sure to read the comments section which shows a lot about what we are dealing with here.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Hey, Shawn, thanks for the shout-out. Just got an email from the MS blog that was chosen over Cotton Mouth (the littler one from Natchez).
Of their three writers, one is black and happens to the be County Democratic Chairman there in Natchez.
The publisher says they’re all going, though I wasn’t aware that they could send more than one. She says she was as shocked as anyone that they chose her. I’ll put more info up on that blog, but thought you might find that just an interesting side note.
Great post, btw. Thanks.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Political parties live and die by votes. If the Democrats are going to get 90% of the black vote no matter how badly they treat black people (which seems to be the case, especially if Obama is nominated) then they have no reason to spend limited resources courting black votes.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
This issue is in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today, and I expect to see it in quite a few more newspapers, until the DNC admits a number of Black bloggers equal to 20% of the overall bloggers corps at the Convention. It only makes sense that the more Black bloggers are at the Convention, the more we can carry information to our constituencies and help to increase Black voter participation in November for Obama and candidates down-ticket in states across the country.
Shawn, many Black bloggers did not apply for the state bloggers corps because it was obvious to them that they would not be the top-ranked political blog in their state, and only one blog per state would be selected. We Black bloggers are not so obtuse that we will spend our time applying for a position when our exclusion has been pre-ordained by the selection criteria.
Should we have challenged the selection criteria earlier? Well, would anyone have listened to us before it was obvious that the selection criteria had produced Jim Crow results?
And why in the world would the DNC invite all of the white bloggers before inviting more than one of the Black bloggers? Why was six months enough to select the white bloggers, but insufficient to select the diverse ones? Certainly, this extra time should result in a VERY diverse general pool, right? If it doesn’t, then we’ll know they needed extra time to EXCLUDE people, not to include them.
Although my primary concern is with Blacks’ access to the political process, yet the AfroSpear’s mission includes improving the economic condition of Blacks as well. So, we are very sensitive to procedures and criteria that illogically and irrationally exclude Blacks from opportunities to reach the public and share in the economic bounty of America. And so, I strongly support your right to an equal opportunity to get information at the Convention that will be prized by your readership, just as the white bloggers are obviously very eager to do.
Many people insisted that segregation and redlining of the whitosphere (refusal to link to Black blogs) did not matter, but I think we can see in this Jim Crow floor blogger issue that the segregation of the whitosphere has infected the Democratic Party processes in a way that threatens to leave Blacks out in the cold.
Because the same refusal to link to Black blogs contributes to the higher ratings for white blogs that then makes them the only ones THEY deem eligible to report from the Convention floor, based on THEIR selection criteria. Segregation at white Democratic Party blogs will inevitably result in segregation of other aspects of Democratic Party processes, and that’s what we seeing here, graphically, in the virtually all-white floor bloggers corps.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Although I am white, my blog often takes the point of view of African-Americans. I suppose it is a process of osmosis from time spent with friends. I am unapologetic with other whites when I take the side of blacks because of the canary in the mine phenomenon: If we let something bad happen to blacks, then sooner or later it will happen to others. For example, society did nothing when the black community was begging for help with bad schools, drug peddlers in their community, and teen pregnancy. Now, drugs are in suburbia and in rural areas with zero black population. A vice-presidential candidate has a daughter pregnant out of wedlock. Reverend Wright was right. The chickens have come home to roost.