African-Americans
Posted at 8:22am on Jun. 3, 2008 Does the Democratic Party *have* to worry about losing African-American voters?
I might as well get this one out now.
By Moe Lane
One of the most common arguments for ratifying Barack Obama's nomination is pretty much a nakedly racial one: he's African-American, and if he doesn't get the job African-American voters (who are overwhelmingly both Democrats and Obama supporters) are going to be infuriated at the Democratic Party. That means that they will stay home on Election Day, and hand off the Presidency to the Republicans. Let us for the moment assume that this is in fact true: although it's interesting that so many people apparently seem to think that white women are collectively more capable than African-Americans at getting past personal disappointments to vote what they perceive to be their long-term interests. But that's another post. Anyway, again, let's say that this is true.
Does it actually matter?
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | African-Americans | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (35)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:49am on Jun. 1, 2008 How do African-American bloggers make themselves heard in the current environment?
This is mostly discussing *progressive* AA bloggers, of course.
By Moe Lane
Via Instapundit:
Black bloggers fight to make voices heard
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.
The answer is: they can't, of course. It's not particularly because of racism, though. It's because most African-American bloggers are progressives, and the only way any progressive blogger can truly advance is to find some way to ingratiate him- or herself to one of the big progressive blogs. The left side of the 'sphere is dominated by four or five early adopters, and they have no intention of going anywhere. Right below them are about twenty or so second-tier sites, which mostly subsist on what links get thrown their way by the big blogs. And below them is everybody else, who are starved for traffic to the extent that trying to provoke right-wing sites starts to look attractive. And the Democratic Party's leadership pretty much prefers it this way: top-down infrastructures are easier to influence and/or derive revenue from.
And that's pretty much that.
Posted in African-Americans | Blogging | Blogosphere — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:40pm on Apr. 8, 2008 Arizona apathy? John McCain and African-Americans
Is it McCain's apathy... or Obama-inspired animus?
By Mark Kilmer
John McCain is anti-black? That's not exactly what Politico.com's Jonathan Martin reports, but he makes a bit much of the Senator's imaginary apathy towards his State's African-American population. You see, he hasn't attended their events, and they have taken notes.
"I don’t recall him ever attending any function with the NAACP,” [Phoenix NAACAP boss Oscar] Tillman added. “Each year we send them an invitation [to an annual banquet], and each year they say no.”
Same says Greater Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce President Ron Busby, though Martin does point out that "[i]nterviews with black civic and business leaders in Arizona found no one who suggested that McCain holds racial animus."
Martin suggests that McCain doesn't care:
McCain’s discomfort with this kind of touchstone politics underscores a central part of his political persona: He has great difficulty feigning interest in subjects in which he lacks genuine personal interest.
Why doesn't he care? Martin tells us:
McCain spent most of his formative years removed from the racial conflicts that played such a central role in the lives of many people in his generation.
Prisoner. Of. War.
From 1967 through to 1973.
Raising a family, flying jets, trying to stay alive and then crafting a post-POW naval career with grievous war wounds, he simply was not immersed in the great themes of the civil rights era.
And when John McCain was finally released from the Hanoi Hilton on March 14, 1973, Barack Obama was aged 11 and living in Honolulu with his maternal grandparents.
Please Read On…
Posted in 2008 | African-Americans | John McCain — Comments (46)/ Email this page » / Read More »
