Update [2008-12-18 20:23:17 by Manic Lawyer]: I've reread paragraph (4) and I have no idea what readers are complaining about there. But, as I suspected, no support has been expressed in comments for Black self-determination, the afrosphere, the AfroSpear or Black bloggers, except support for self-expression in general. I didn't expect any support, but the response makes it clear to Black people why the afrosphere is NOT the Black part of the blogosphere.

I hadn't intended to write anything more at my blog, but something I heard urged me to write again.

I personally hate the term "black blogosphere". "Blogosphere" is a word invented by white people, and "black blogosphere" implies that we Blacks are merely a (minute) part of their white world.

In reality, we have our own world with our own definition of our political reality, and out of that self-definition comes our political action. In the afrosphere, we are not the "black table" in a room full of white people. We are an autonomous black conference, independent of white people, which assures our self-determination (until we are infiltrated by the FBI or the Defense Department).

If we were the "black blogosphere", then every time a decision was to be made about the nature of the blogosphere overall, we Blacks would be out-voted, out-gunned, and therefore could safely be ignored.

That's what was happening until the AfroSpear and the afrosphere came along.  Now, we are independent, with our own unique voices and self-definitions. We are not now marginalized as we were and often continue to be at white blogs, where we usually constitute no more than 3% of participants. Instead, we are at the very center of the afrosphere, aspiring to be the vanguard of the Black online world.  In the afrosphere instead of being numerically marginalized and politically ignored, we Blacks are at the CENTER.  We ARE the afrosphere.

There's more...

Eddie, Shawn, AAPP, Francis & Pam in Dallas Morning News

Karen Brooks, staff writer for the Dallas Morning News, has published an article there about the lack of diversity in the Democratic National Convention's state blogging corps.  She quotes the AfroSpear's Francis L. Holland, Esq., African American Political Pundit, Shawn Williams of Dallas South, and the afrosphere's Pam Spauling of the PamsHouseBlend blog.

By now, most afrosphere and whitosphere readers know the contours of this controversy:  The DNC drafted and implemented selection criteria for its Denver Convention state bloggers corps which criteria  foreseeably and predictably produced a virtually all-white state blogger group to cover the floor of the Denver Convention.

But this roundup comes courtesy of Kenneth Quinnell, Florida Progressive Coalition Blog.

The Francis L. Holland Blog— Jim Crow Blogging at the Democratic National Convention

African American Political Pundit— Black bloggers to the back of the bus!

Pam's House Blend— Democratic National Convention state blog selection dustup.

Cotton Mouth— Cotton Mouth Is Not Going To The Democratic Convention (And Why).

Open Left: Clamping Down on Blog Dissent: More Evidence of State Blogger Problems.

Open Left— State Parties Nixing State Blogs from the Convention?

There's more...

Cross-posted at Pam's House Blend.

According to a search of Washington Post archives, the Washington Post has never once mentioned MyDD by name.  By comparison, that same newspaper carried two articles this weekend about the political efforts of the afrosphere and the AfroSpear bloggers, here and here.   This might give readers some sense of where the action is right now.  And some of those efforts began in opposition to the policies of MyDD.

It is raging online.

A growing cadre of young black activists is using the Internet in an attempt to eclipse traditional civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and hit the refresh button on the civil rights movement. Bloggers with names such as the Cruel Secretary, and blogs called What About Our Daughters? and the African American Political Pundit, have railed against groups in the "black-o-sphere," saying they do not understand young black Americans, are behind the times and react too slowly to incidents involving the younger generation.

The leaders of the fledgling movement -- Van Jones and James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org -- may not be familiar to many, but their work is. They circulated a letter and a petition last week promising that the Democrats will pay a "political price" if they overturn the will of black and young voters and choose Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y) as the party's nominee over Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).  Washington Post, May 4, 2008

Even though Black people constitute twenty percent of Democratic Party voters and twenty percent of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, still color-aroused ideation tells white bloggers that Black voters' real opinions, beliefs and desires are not worth researching or discussing.  In truth, most white-skinned bloggers couldn't care less about what goes on at afrosphere blogs (most whites bloggers don't read or link to Black blogs), and so white bloggers have no idea what Black bloggers are thinking.  

Most white bloggers are as likely to be found at a Black blog as they are to visit a Black church on Sunday morning.  White bloggers get most of their information about Black people from the same MSM white-news media for which the blogosphere was meant to be an alternative.

There's more...

Cross-posted at http://francislholland.blogspot.com.

I am very pleased to see this discussion continuing about the need to make strides for gender and color justice in 2008.  So much so, that I have excerpted heavily from your diary and cited you at my Francis L. Holland Blog, where Blacks who feel excluded from the "whitosphere" go for information about the ongoing debate within the whitosphere over equality.  http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007
/03/no-we-cannot-stop-talking-about-colo
r.html

Silence always favors the status quo.  I am certain that the time has come to name and end 43-consecutive term white male monopoly of the American Presidency.  

There's more...

I watched the promotional video from last year, and I saw six Black people among 1,500 participants.

Cross-posted at Culture Kitchen and the Francis L. Holland Blog.

Today, I came across a link to a publicity video for YearlyKos and I watched the entire video to confirm a suspicion:  That YearlyKos is an overwhelmingly white gathering -disproportionately white considering the number of Blacks in the Democratic Party.  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid= -1234580617661540850&q=Mark+Bowllan Watch the film for yourselves and tell me if my perceptions are in error.

Here's what I saw:  Watching a thirty-nine minute video of "1,500""progressive" Democratic Party bloggers at a hotel in Las Vegas, in all of the shots where the camera panned the crowds, the hallways, the hotel rooms, and speakers diases, I saw two Black women and four Black men among 1,500 people.  If accurate, this would mean that YearlyKos was about .03% Black in a Democratic Party that has 20% elected and appointed Black delegates at the Democratic National Convention.  What is it about DailyKos and Yearly Kos that makes it so white in a Party with so much Black participation?

There's more...