Commentary by Deoliver47, Black Kos Editor
By now most of you have had a chance to read the diary posted by Meteor Blades, Rules, Moderation, Civility. If not, and if you missed out on it, suggest you give it a thorough read.
Rule number 5 is what I'd like to discuss today and to get some serious feedback on how members of not only the BlackKos community, but those readers who also are members of other community series here can move forward.
Rule 5 states:
• This is a site for adults and language is not generally policed here, in terms of "shit," "fuck," "asshole," or any of those other family-unfriendly words. Avoid "fuck" in headlines to avoid triggering browser filters of users who log on at their workplace. Anti-semitic, anti-Arab, racist, sexist, ableist and heterosexist language, however, is unwelcome. Admin Moderation: Warning, suspension, banning.
I'd like to speak to the second part: "Anti-semitic, anti-Arab, racist, sexist, ableist and heterosexist language, however, is unwelcome"
I replied to MB:
MB question? Anti-semitic, anti-Arab, racist, sexist, ableist and heterosexist language, however, is unwelcome".
You've placed this in rule 5, with "Warning, suspension, banning." as the penalty,
As a person who posts regularly about topics that address most of these issues, my only question is who makes that determination?
Have been involved in quite a few long discussions here about why such and such remark is either sexist or racist or phobic, and usually try to point out the "why" but have found that this often leads to defensive retorts, and lots of acrimony.
I have Hr'ed certain diary comments in the past, and given an explanation of the HR, and have seen that you have noted that, but I hope that you will address this in more depth.
We have several communities here that deal with these issues weekly. Would it be possible to have a joint diary with members of those communities to discuss this?
I realize that there are gray areas that are hard to define, and I also know that some people unwittingly don't even recognize that certain things are hurtful to others, but there should be a way for this to be discussed without those who challenge a specific remark in turn being HR'ed or being accused of "playing a card".
I'd like to throw this open for discussion on the porch here today. We've had lots of discussion here in the past, about racism, and racist remarks, as well as those that are sexist and homophobic. We've also discussed privilege, and many porch sitters have done individual diaries on all the above. Many of us are Trusted User's (TU's)and have Hide Rate privileges. Many members of the Black Kos community are also participants in other community, weekly diary series.
How do we continue to vigilantly root out the "isms" that pop up here at DKos, in a way that does not inflame but informs? What can we do as a community, to clearly define these occurrences? MB cannot be the community cop on the block, and everywhere at once. We have many members here who have had long experience in recognizing, dealing and coping with, and actively organizing against bigotry. We hear "dog whistles" quite well thank you. Granted, there seems to always be push-back from some quarters when we address this. I personally am tired of being told that any pointing out of these statements is playing "a card".
My life is not a card game. Neither are the lives of millions affected by systemic inequities. Too often that "card" word is thrown around here, and we have unwittingly adopted a Republican meme that came into play during the debates against affirmative action, to shut down discussion, and stifle critics of reactionary views. In other words, the victim gets blamed for fighting against victimization and oppression.
To make a bigoted statement does not make a person a racist, sexist bigot or homophobe for life, necessarily. Speaking for myself, I know I've been guilty of prejudicial remarks throughout my life, and have struggled to listen, and accept criticism and to grow. I also know that that struggle to change, and the development of empathy for others has sprung from my own experiences of dealing with discrimination for 62 years. I may not be able to walk in someone else's shoes, but I sure know how stones feel under my feet.
The question then becomes, how to alert someone else, educate someone else about how what they have said harms, hurts or affects me, and mine? And that is not always an easy task. Defenses go up. Immediate responses range from "You are calling me a _______(fill in the blank)" to "but...but...some of my best friends are (fill in the blank). I try to respond "No, you may not be a _______, but that remark you just made was, and here's why. I've been thinking about this since the discussion here Tuesday, about the remarks made in the diary written by a parent whose child had been given "Little Black Sambo" to read. The diarist got support from many readers, but there were too many commentors who just didn't "get it". They couldn't see why this image was racist.
I am tired of being told "you people are over-reacting". I'm tired of hearing that if a woman is strong, assertive and assured "she's got balls". I don't like men being called "sissies or pansies, or drama queens (and worse)".
But I also know that I have a responsibility to state clearly why something posted pricks up my ears, alerts my antennae, and sets off my built in dog-whistle detector.
Maybe I'll just start posting this photo :)
(posted this once during a discussion of dog whistles in Morning Feature, but I think I'll continue to use it)
In all seriousness, not every remark here merits a Hide-Rate. They do however merit a reasoned response. My job I think, is not to "devolve" into flaming.
There are those who read and lurk here, but rarely or never post, who may learn from a response, even if the individual being spoken to doesn't. Will I drop a "chocolate donut" on obvious trolls - hell yes. But even those will be accompanied by an explanation.
So how do we move forward? What are the best ways to educate? We have immigration reform facing us in the future, we have rising racism and violence on the right, and we still have lots of work to do in our own house right here at Daily Kos.
What, and how to do this is my question. What have you found to be most effective, and why?
Should only people of color confront racism? Should only women confront sexism? Should only GLBTQ folks confront heterosexism? Should only a disabled person deal with ableism?
Or is it our collective responsibility as progressive people to address bigotry and inequity across the board?
Look forward to reading your responses.
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But what do these new race-related productions mean for Stepin Fetchit, skin color and the N-word? The Root: More Black Faces on the Great White Way
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Two new plays with black characters as central figures opened on Sunday. It will probably add more fuel to the ongoing debate about whether having a black family in the White House has prompted artistic directors and commercial producers to invite more African-American actors, writers and directors into their house.
At least 20 shows in which race plays a role have opened in New York since September. The two new shows are smaller, off-Broadway efforts, but the lack of diversity has been pretty much the same there, too. I haven't had a chance to see A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick, Kia Corthron's play at Playwrights Horizons that, according to what I've read, mixes theology and ecology in a story about an African student who moves in with a troubled African-American family in a drought-stricken rural community.
But I did catch the Godlight Theatre Company's production of In the Heat of the Night, a stage version of the iconic 1967 movie that starred Sidney Poitier as black police detective Virgil Tibbs who is drawn into solving a murder case in the still-segregated South. It's playing in the tiny black box theater at the 59E59 Theaters, and its young 10-member cast, several of them doubling and tripling up on roles, is so hardworking and sincere that I wish I could say that I liked the show. But, despite Joe Tantalo's arty staging and a strong performance by Sean Phillips as Tibbs, I couldn't figure out why they'd decided to make a play out of this story--which, as my husband noted when he refused to see it with me, has already enjoyed success as a novel, a movie and a TV series--if they didn't have anything new to say.
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David Remnick's exhaustive -- and exhausting -- biography of the President is a textbook for the ages. The Root: Everything You Wanted to Know About Barack Obama
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On the day he had officially proclaimed United States Census Day 2010, President Barack Obama ticked off a box marked "Black, African American or Negro." Though the form provided space for him to write in the story we know so well by now--Kenya, Kansas, Hawaii, Hyde Park--he chose the simpler, less divisive route.
David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker since 1998, has thoughtfully animated Obama's journey toward that single checkmark in The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, a sprawling and densely reported new biography of the man who has made history at every turn of his brief life.
That The Bridge is compulsively about race is not surprising; the first public iteration of this book came in the days after Obama fulfilled the racial dreams of generations of Americans, black, white, and other. "From Harlem to Harvard, from Maine to Hawaii--and even Alaska--from ‘the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire ... [to] Stone Mountain of Georgia,' as Dr. King put it, each of us will always remember this moment, as will our children, whom we woke up to watch history being made," wrote Henry Louis Gates Jr., in an essay for The Root on Obama's election. Remnick, a Washington Post alumnus who has written books on Russia and Muhammad Ali, and whose magazine covered the 2008 race with its characteristic mix of gentility and obsession, had been studiously silent throughout the epic campaign season. Suddenly, two weeks after Obama's historic victory, a 7,000 word treatise on "The Joshua Generation: Race and the Campaign of Barack Obama" sprang, as from the head of Zeus, into an issue whose cover featured a brightly burning Lincoln Memorial.
In the essay, Remnick narrates how Obama "explicitly inserted himself in the time line of American racial politics." He focuses less on the raw political science of electing a black president, and more on "the nature of his quest for identity." According to Remnick, "to be black was, for him, as much a matter of aspiration as of inheritance. It was an identity he had to seek out and master. When Obama shared his adolescent reading with some African-American friends, one told him, "I don't need no books to tell me how to be black.'"
The Bridge picks up the thread begun in that essay, chronicling Obama's life in the post-civil rights "Joshua Generation," explaining to the average reader what Obama discovered that he could not find in books: How one "becomes" black in America.
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Unfortunately the spark for this article was that buffoon Michael Steele, but it does raise some valid points. America has long struggled with accepting blacks in leadership roles. The Root: Does Obama Have Less Room for Error?
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Steele was accused of playing the race card after he agreed with ABC interviewer George Stephanopoulos' suggestion that being African American gave him a "slimmer margin of error" than a white chairman might have in dealing with the RNC's spending scandal. "The honest answer is yes," Steele agreed. "It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. We all--a lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play, and that's just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it." Of course, the White House, which never hesitates to distance the president from racial issues, was quick to dismiss Steele's suggestion. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs quipped: "I think Michael Steele's problem isn't the race card. It's the credit card."
Too bad Stephanopoulos raised the issue through a buffoon like Steele, whose insensitive past remarks on race hardly qualify him for a substantive discussion about such issues. With anyone else, the question could have morphed into a serious discussion of how race affects leadership, which wouldn't be a bad thing around now. A lot of African Americans are convinced that Obama is treated differently by the media, the opposition, and of course, the far-right Tea Partiers. Few blacks believe that a member of Congress would have yelled, "You lie!" at a white president of the United States during a joint session of Congress--and that Republican leaders would not have waffled about condemning Rep. Joe Wilson's rudeness.
Many African Americans also worry about challenges to the president's legitimacy. They are expressed in exaggerated fashion by the Tea Partiers and birthers, but many of us suspect that far more people doubt Obama's right to be president than is generally conceded.
But parsing the nuances of race, racism and racial resistance can be a fruitless exercise. Better to examine past history when it comes to understanding the process of acceptance that led Obama to the White House and the challenges he faces. And it isn't the civil rights movement that offers the best lessons. Civil rights were about gaining equal rights for all Americans. Issues of leadership and race can best be examined in arenas like sports and corporate life when blacks are making decisions that affect whites, or when blacks have authority over whites. The kinds of problems Obama--and Steele--are facing have plagued blacks in those areas for many years.
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This is a question very much in the zeitgeist these days... Race Talk: How do you Define Racism?
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Every couple of months the media is gripped by a remark, outburst or quote from some starlet, politician, or athlete. The question is always: Is so-and-so racist? The most recent iteration of this phenomenon was John Mayer’s Playboy interview, which I recently blogged about. Before that was Rep. Joe Wilson’s comments during President Obama’s health care speech, which I also blogged about. And each time, the debate devolves into intractable disagreement because each side talks past the other. Each side is defining racism differently.
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It's probably too much to hope that this starts a trend. Businessweek: VH1 changing tone with black reality shows.
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On her new VH1 reality dating show, Rozonda Thomas -- better known as Chilli from the groundbreaking hip-hop group TLC -- doesn't lounge in bubble baths or hand out fake bling to her suitors. Instead, the 39-year-old singer and mother meets bachelors at black-tie affairs and confers with a dating expert, as well as her 12-year-old son.
The cable network synonymous with "Flavor of Love" and its sleazy spin-offs is trading trampiness for fabulousness with a new slate of series starring seemingly well-adjusted rich and famous black Americans. VH1 executive vice president Jeff Olde admits that the shift from oh-no-they-didn't fare to more mature material is totally intentional.
"We constantly have to evolve and tell our audience different stories," he says. "I love that we've been able to get more diverse with our audience by -- in large part -- attracting African-American women to the network. We got them in the door with some shows, and now I'm excited about where we're going and how we're telling them different kinds of stories."
With an April 11 debut, "What Chilli Wants" will be partnered on Sundays with "Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business," focusing on sibling R&B singers Ray J and Brandy Norwood as they attempt to relaunch their music careers, and "Basketball Wives," starring Shaquille O'Neal's ex-wife, Shaunie O'Neal, and five other women with romantic links to basketball players.
For the notoriously trashy VH1, it's not reality as usual. While cat fights will flare up with the "Basketball Wives" and Chilli promises a tiff with her sassy matchmaker on "What Chilli Wants," these new shows certainly aren't selling buzzworthy moments akin to "Flavor of Love"
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Race Talk: Race-ing the gap between good health care coverage and great health.
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The recently passed health care reform bill, formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will do much to support the health of people of color, not least through its expansion of Medicaid coverage to the near-poor and to childless adults mostly excluded from coverage previously.
Businesses with more than 50 employees will have to provide insurance to them all and private insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions. As psychiatrist Flavio Casoy notes in his excellent overview of the law, such measures "will be a lifeline for millions of people of color who are now blocked from getting health care services they desperately need."
Bravo! But let’s not mistake the milestone for our destination.
The new health-reform law is but one cornerstone in the edifice we must build to support long, healthy lives for all our people. For one thing, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by 2019, years after all the law’s provisions will have gone into effect, an estimated 23 million people will remain uninsured. Undocumented immigrants, nine in ten of them people of color, will comprise roughly one-third of that number. Nonwhites will also be prominent among those who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford even a subsidized insurance plan. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a major step in the right direction, but it is not universal health care.
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Welcome to the Mexico that you don't know. The slaveship express made stops all over the Americas—including the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The Root: Mexico's Hidden Black History
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There's a part of the African Diaspora here on Mexico's southern Pacific coast in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca that many African Americans--and even other Mexicans--don't know exists.
Along the 300-mile, narrow coastal plain from Acapulco in Guerrero east-by-southeast to the beach town of Huatulco in Oaxaca known as the Costa Chica, there are more than 200 communities where many people have black African ancestry, with varying degrees of obviousness and self-recognition.
Consider the case of dark-skinned Idilo Evitélio Domínguez, 74, who posed proudly in front of a gallery of family photos in his living room in Santo Domingo Armenta, east of here. In an enlarged photo, his mother looks quite African, his father more indigenous. The studio photo of a whiter-looking couple to one side in fact is of Domínguez and his medium-brown-skinned wife as a young married couple. Such retouching once was common.
Even today, the sense of racial pride is not always easily understood by outsiders. Domínguez said he tried living in Acapulco and Mexico City, but always came home. There, he was black, he said. Here, he was just a man.
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Martha St Jean writes some commentary. Huffington Post: Letter to a Young Haitian-American
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My dear young friend,
I am compelled to write to you now because I do not think you fully comprehend the vastness of being Haitian. Do you grasp our history? The present and the future are based on gleaning knowledge of our past - no matter the elements, which pollute it.
Today is the day for you to approach your parents and ask for their truth - not the media's, not the truth of the countless NGOs, not the international government's "truths," but a view from the lens of those who knew Haiti before the earthquake.
The young generation currently living in Haiti will inevitably view the country through an earthquake-tinted lens. Put aside all politics and try to get at the truth that underlies the oppression and depression in this nation.
You ask me, "Why did we allow this?" "Allow what," is my response. "All of it - the decimation of a nation. Why are we not stronger as a nation, when we are so strong of a people?" These questions are the epicenter of dinner and desert conversations. As of late, your questions have intensified; the answers do not easily rise.
Challenge yourselves to ask even harder questions about poverty, inequality and discrimination. Think about the country in economic terms.
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[] Is this 2010? UPDATE-My son's pre-school read "The Story of Little Black Sambo." by regmoe
[] A little bit of a logical leap but an interesting take No blacks, No Jews, No homos, No dems! by SemDem
[] Great Snark! 2nd Amendment Foundation And Black Community Agree To Joint Gun March, Rally by fake consultant
[] Bob McDonnell Blows the Racist Dog Whistle Really Really Loud by leonceg
[] These two writers have been doing a yeomen's job of keeping the Haitian story alive. Bev Bell and alli123