As a Jewish woman living in a 96 percent white state, I don't feel like an expert on how race impacts American politics, or an expert on what we should do about it. I do feel that it is stupid for any person, white or black, to say who black people "should" vote for. I gave money to Ned Lamont and was insulted by people who told me Jews should be for Lieberman.

There are so many threads to untangle. Such as race and class. Health care, education, employment ... all issues of class as well as race. I expect that one of the most common responses this sort of post gets is the 'declining significance of race' thing, and a discussion about the sort of racism that automatically conflates 'black' with 'poor'.

This is a more comfortable discussion for white progressives, I imagine, than one that remains focused more heavily on race. (Which isn't to say it's a discussion without a great deal of value.)

There's terminology, too. I guess it's one of the successes of a hightened awareness of racism that we recoil at being called 'racist.' Such an ugly word, and such an ugly label, and people (whites, usually) deeply resist and resent being called 'racist' ... which makes a discussion and a bridge difficult.

I dunno how many whites here at mydd would say that they're racist. I am. I don't think it's really something that the vast majority of whites (or, I expect, a surprisingly large number of blacks) can avoid. But the word gets in the way. If instead, in inter-progressive discussion, we used something closer to 'inclined to prejudge' or similar (preferably less horribly clunky!), we could talk more openly. I don't think admitting that we've internalized--that all of us have internalized--some unfortunate attitudes is an opportunity for beating our breasts, or pleading for forgiveness, or doing some weird white guilt thing. Screw that. I think we need a more muscular discussion that starts with the expectation that we're all in this spot, and that frankly we might be stuck with these attitudes for a long long time ... so okay. Fine. Sometimes we have unfortunate feeling and reflexes: but what are we going to do?

The fact is, we love to identify others as racist, that's why you get a lot of responses to 'look at the racist rightwingers' comments. It's fun, and makes us feel superior. At least we're not that racist! And oftentimes is helpful, too, because the first step is to try to shame racists and challenge the most overt racism (which is the stuff we usually notice first, especially whites).

I guess what I'm saying is this: other than an acknowledgement that we live with a fairly constant hum of racism (as well as all sort of other nasty shit) radiating in the background, I'm not sure there's much to be done about it. Let's pick the low-hanging fruit, first. Just saying, 'there's a racist element in this or that,' yes, certainly, it's almost always the case. But does making that explicit help move us toward a solution? Maybe fractionally, though I'm not sure even that's true, all the time.

Instead: what specific items of policy could the progressive blogosphere unite around that would benefit blacks? This isn't just pandering. This is taking care of one of our core constituencies, which is vital to our continued strength. So again, I'm not talking about initiatives which emerge from white guilt, but from justice (how to fix a problem) and politics (how to serve and strenthen a vital part of the coalition).

I suppose I'm looking for the African-American equivalent of the Employee Free Choice Act. Not an initiative that 'also' serves blacks, but one that is intended specifically to address some issue of the black community. Not an increase in the minimum wage, but ... what?

And how far would this go to bridge the divide, and to nudge the progressive blogosphere into that blacks-only political conversation?

for understanding and talking about race and its role in society is the one found here:

http://www.unlearningracism.org/writings .htm

I had a number of friends who were black, Asian, Indian (that means from India people), Filipino, poor, rich, middle class, etc.  I come from an area of WA that was pretty much white when I grew up.  The reason I had these friends was because I went to a state college where people of many different backgrounds and ethnicities mingle together and share their life experiences.  It is a real education when you talk to a person from India who says how proud they are that their country now has nuclear weapons because it shows they are an advanced country.  It is a real education when two of your friends are getting married and one of them is disowned from her family because her new spouse is black.  Everyone needs the kind of exposure that comes from a college town where people come from all over the country and the world and from every different background.  I am sure there are other types of experiences, such as military service, where this kind of exposure happens but it sure needs to happen more.  The more we get people out of their enclaves and into a diverse population the better off our country will be.

When the internet was young and gay, I was inclined promiscuously to offer my opinions on all sorts of things - in a way I'd never had done IRL, as they say. Because it was all throwaway.

Now, we've got places of permanent value to build upon and succour (like this one), it matters to me that I speak only on matters in which I believe I have some particular expertise. (Whether I actually have is for others to judge!)

That lets out most of what you wrote about, I'm afraid.

Then there's the sensitivity point. I note that even some (what I perceive as) white commenters here find it hard not to see racism in any criticism of black pols or institutions.

Thus, criticisms I made of the CBC over their actions on Jefferson and Hastings resulted in several playing the race card.

That was fine: this was in my bailiwick, and the stuff needed to be said. Barracking, I can deal with.

But it just reinforced the wisdom of not straying from that bailiwick, particularly where race issues were concerned.

(Around the same time, as I recall, Matt wrote a piece on the CBC, saying that Dems are reluctant to criticize it for fear of drawing abuse for being racist.

Obviously, that sanction has bite when the Dem in question is out and in a political career.)

But - don't let that dissuade you from cross-posting here. As others on the thread have said (rather more succinctly than I!), lack of comments doesn't mean lack of interest.

The idea that I would limit myself to read stuff on which I'm competent to comment - it would be virtual mental imprisonment!

Jill, Your post is on point as usual. Your weekly summary  "Racial Politics This Week -- A Roundup" is great. I look forward to reading it each weekend. I'm glad you have been able to increase discussion about how race impacts American politics in the progressive blogosphere. Your post have truly introduced MyDD readers and bloggers to new perspectives. Keep on doing what your doing with MyDD. Your doing a great service to the blogger community through your post. MyDD and Jack and Jill Politics, keep up the good work!

As I said in a comment to BingoL, above, one thing that MyDD could do this very day is to add a link here to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, America's largest and oldest Black think tank.  Link to comment above:  http://francislholland.mydd.com/comments /2007/2/18/121417/095/8#8

Another thing that MyDD could do this very week without inordinate effort is to put up page on the MyDD site that is a list of Blackosphere blogs and put a link to this page on the primary external links list at MyDD.  

The link would be to "Blackosphere Blogs".  When a reader opens that link, a whole list of Blackosphere blog links will appear, in alphabetical order, from which the reader can choose.  For the sake of speed and simplicity, this list could start as simply a list of the blogs that you, Jill Tubman, regularly read now or know of and believe to be valuable.  

The list could evolve later with more elaborate approaches, but the important thing now is to immediately have a way for people at MyDD to begin to access the great variety of Black thought and action that is currently going on.  This link will also be an act of good will toward the Blackosphere while showing newcomers and oldtimers alike that Blacks are indeed valued  - as voters and as site participants - by decision-makers here at MyDD.

By providing one link here that leads to a page of links to Black blogs, it avoids a long and arduous (an inevitably somehow unfair) process of deciding which two or three Blackosphere blogs deserves to be listed.  Better to post a link to a long list that serves as a resource for people who want to learn about the Blackosphere.

on Hague Avenue in St. Paul Minnesota.

The block I grew up on was multi-racial.  The older families being, for the most part, white and working class.  The younger families mostly black and, uh, working class.

I'm white. I'm a white, middle class American with a good college degree. But my earliest experiences as a white American were of living in a multi-income, multi-racial community of blacks and whites, of being a "white kid" amidst many African American friends and elders.

When I tell folks about my background it elicits all sorts of unusual, unexpected sets of expectations and insights as if there would or could be one generic experience of growing up white on a multi-racial block.

In my experience, however, especially after having conversed with friends who grew up as "minorities" in one way or another all over the country, it's pretty clear to me that there IS NO set lesson or experience one can draw. Each of our histories is just that, specific.

That being said.  For myself, I think I've been shaped by a couple things.

First, I've come to understand race and racism as "Always On" facets of American life. I'm always shocked to hear people talk as if race can somehow be banished from the table...as if there can be a situation where our ongoing racial history will just evaporate.  In particular, it always strikes me when my fellow white Americans imply that "racism" only comes into play when "other people" or "other races" are around.  

In my experience, race is ALWAYS on, racism is a part of our day to day lives...we're Americans, it's a part of our lives.  In particular I feel the need to mention that race is always on especially when one is a whites only setting.

I don't claim not to be racist.  I don't claim to know or have examined all the assumptions that go into my "whiteness".  Hell, living in the East Bay of California creates a myriad of experiences of race and ethnicity that leave no room for easy answers or pat assumptions. One of the beauties of Oakland is that none of us here can get away from dealing with these intertwined realities and histories.  They are a part of our day to day lives. There so many new arrivals..that we don't have time to hash the past much either.

One thing I do wish that people did more was just talk frankly about race and racism.  Personally, I wish that whites, in particular, would just open up about their experience of race, especially those aspects that involved an all white setting.

There's a lot to be learned on all sides.  A good starting point, of course, is to remember that we are all just people.  Living our lives in our little corner of history.

To think we can escape from or are exempt from our history and racism seems to me to be one of the hallmarks of white privilege.  And I say that as a white, middle class American.

None of us are really observers in the racial drama of the United States, are they? It's an infection we all suffer from. At least that seemed to be the attitude of the abolitionists and of white activists during the Civil Rights Era. How do we recapture that spirit of working together towards common goals?

I would like to thank you for this post. I hope that this is the beginning of an open dialogue between the blogospheres.

Race is the third rail, times 10, in America, but the only way to help is to talk sincerely about it, with respect.

Most whites in the U.S. do not conceive of whiteness as an identity with much specific content.  They/we conceive of white/dominant culture (or their niche in it) as "the norm" without much self-consciousness about doing so.  While white Americans certainly did not invent ethnocentrism, we are among the planet's most faithful practitioners of it.

Trivial example.  A Black law school colleague of mine and I grabbed a bite on a Thursday night 13 years ago.  I was getting ready to depart to go watch "Seinfeld", and commented that I was following the overwhelming majority of the country in doing so.  He correctly informed me that while that show was popular among eastern educated whites, its ratings among Black Americans were pretty weak, and that "Living Single" was the dominant show among black viewers of our approximate age.  I never looked at the bizarrely all-white universe of Seinfeld the same again.  Much the same could be said of Woody Allen's movies, in which the persistent and obnoxious absence of any meaningful black characters - in New York, of all places, not Burlington, Vermont or Reykjavik - in movie after movie after movie speaks volumes.

America's secular left is overwhelming white.  According to polls, less than 1% of African-Americans are atheists; probably 17-20% of whites are explicitly non-religious, atheist or humanist in outlook and, according to one poll that I recall on Daily Kos, more like 40% of Kossacks report an avowedly secular or atheist outlook (what in French is would be term "laique.")  As clumsy as secular whites might be in engaging Black culture life as a whole, their/our cultural incompetence probably hits its Chevy Chase-like zenith in engaging Black spirituality, religious practice and lexicon.  One major exception to this sad rule of general incompetence was the nation's "first Black president."  

It would not surprise me if that cultural difference were part of the digital divide at DKos and, frankly, here.  It would not surprise me either if a great deal of the divide in progressive media and culture extended from religion and especially religious metaphors, lexicon, proverbs (small p and big P) and other references.  If you understand African-American religious culture, Tavis Smiley and Tom Joyner are likely to make a whole lot more sense to you in their monologues, interviews and writings, since both major media figures and authors make liberal use of such cultural references which white people largely miss.

Sadly, many white Americans who come closest to understanding such cultural references are going to be campaigning for Sam Brownback or Mike Huckabee.

What were the costly missteps in the 2004 election cycle?

In this respect, that is. I could keep typing till Thursday on various 2004 missteps and downright blunders, but off the top of my head I can't think of any with specifically racial aspects.

Just want to say how grateful I am to you and MyDD for opening this discussion. In the southern states, Democratic victory comes from driving up the black vote and as many white votes as you can peel away from Republicans until you get to 50.01%. The vast majority of votes for Democratic candidates come from black voters and that has been the case since 1965 and will not change for the foreseeable future.

I don't think netroots understands that. We almost lost the senate race here in Virginia because there were too many "progressives" who were willing to throw blacks and older women under the bus. So I am really grateful for this open discussion.

Folks at myDD who are in the New York City area might be interesed in Facing Race, a conference in late March. The outfit putting in on has a history of trying to help people of color of different races understand the different racisms that condition their lives -- and being welcoming to white folks of good will. (Full disclosure, I worked for these folks in the 90s.)

In California in the 90s as the state passed the demographic tipping point at which whites ceased to be the majority, Republicans capitalized on white anxiety to pass a series of measures designed to create structural barriers to the majority taking hold as full citizens. We outlawed affirmative action, bilingual education, took a swing at immigrants with Prop. 187 (invalidated but now mostly federal law) and passed a 3 strikes incarceration measure that has filled the prisons with permanent, mostly black and brown, inmates.

White Americans can't hold back the demographic tide, but they can get very nasty trying to slow it down -- or all of us together can take over the Democratic party and make it the party that manages onrushing racial diversity successfully so as to preserve democracy. We have a choice.