Race in the blogosphere: Our own "don't ask, don't tell" policy
I haven't blogged about the Clinton-White Blogger dust up, in part because there's some history there and don't think I could even attempt an unbiased commentary. However, I have been reading (and sometimes commenting) at other sites, and today found this comment at Alas, A Blog which I think is simply spot on, on so many levels:
Charles S Writes: September 20th, 2006 at 12:05 pmRadfem,
Are you aware who the "token" invitees were? Are you aware that one of them runs the most powerful and most heavily traffic'd poli-blogs in existence? And Oliver Willis is a huge big name blogger as well. I don't think either of them got invites out of "Oh, we should have a black blogger and a hispanic blogger."
What is noticeable about both of them is that they are non-white bloggers who have huge white audiences and who basically never talk about race (and who mostly talk about race from a specifically anti-identity politics position when they do). That isn't why they got the invites, but it is how they got to be where they are. There are people of color amongst the top tier poli-bloggers, but I don't think there are any people of color who talk much about race among the top poli-bloggers. The overwhelmingly white readership and fellow bloggers determine who becomes the top blogger, and the overwhelmingly white readership and fellow bloggers overwhelmingly don't want to talk about race.
Notably, Kos is both one of the two people of color invited, and one of the gatekeepers of the Don't-talk-about-race-poli-blogosphere (whose response to this dustup was to delinked CultureKitchen).
I recognized long ago that if I wanted to increase my readership, I should just stop talking about all that Injun stuff. Once I accepted that, I became a lot more comfortable with the few links we get from the A-listers (outside of the Koufax Awards.) I think the link that made me happiest was the one on Indianz.com's In The Hoop blog. It was then that I felt I really made it.
(Ugh...I just want to apologise to anyone who tried to read this post today - I made a bunch of sloppy mistakes, mostly because I was trying to couch too much what I wanted to say. Moral of the story. Just do it.)
Comments
Gilliard is black, right? I go to his site precisely because unlike many, he will heap the appropriate levels of opprobrium on racism wherever he finds it, with a bonus of deliciously pungent language.
Me, I get my comments deleted from Brad DeLong's blog when I call out the racebaiters. Guess that means I'll never be bigtime, either. That, and the fact that I mostly put up odd little econometric charts.
Posted by: wcw | September 20, 2006 07:48 PM
Yes, Gilliard is black, but although his blog is well-read (and I like most of what he writes), it still isn't in the stratosphere of A-listers (at least, I don't think it is.) Actually, I don't know if I'd include even Willis in that group anymore - but perhaps that's just because I can't read a blog where the R-word is tossed about without so much as a thought. (And yes, I did call Oliver on it, ages ago.)
Posted by: MB Williams | September 20, 2006 08:17 PM
Well, if makes you feel any better, they don't talk about class, either.
Posted by: Susie from Philly | September 20, 2006 09:45 PM
Steve picked up my counter gif by accident once when he linked something of mine. Believe me, he's up there.
Hey, send me an e-mail? The address I have for you doesn't work, and I wanted to touch base.
Posted by: julia | September 20, 2006 11:29 PM
I, for one, like the "Injun stuff." I'm a busy man with only so much time to read blogs and books and magazines and newspapers, etc., etc. I would never have seen or heard of the connections between Abramoff, the Interior Dept., and Native America if not here. Or the Cobell v. Norton case. I could have dug it up myself, but time, money, time.
Race, class, all crucial to the discussion, but I'm having a hard time focusing on them in the midst of our Constitutional crisis. I used to think about what to do, how to help, with race relations, income inequality? But with George W. Bush, I'm forced to deal with base level issues such as liberty, trial by jury, right to vote, stuff I thought was taken care of long ago.
Keep up the good work...and the good fight.
Posted by: Todd | September 21, 2006 12:16 PM
I second Todd. I read Wampum because of all that Injun stuff. Please continue.
Posted by: Gary | September 21, 2006 06:56 PM