Before I explain this, let me say that I really, really overall like DailyKos. I had been participating in other so called progressive forums for years before I moved most of my participation to here and I was thrilled with the level of discourse here.
I think what I liked about it most was that people really try to be reasonable and reasoned. It would be elitist to say DK members are smarter than elsewhere. I don't think that's true or fair. I would say that they try to behave and interact and write more intelligently -- if you consider that intelligence is a conscious decision to think before acting, rather than any innate ability.
But that quality had been declining drastically, and it has been declining most precipitously on the issue of race, and racial characterizations of the first black president of the United States.
In a way I'm disappointed that the boycott is happening now. I've been thinking and writing drafts of a diary about how this diary showed how black people and white people see things differently:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Now I have to put off publishing this for a week. Okey dokey, I can deal, and maybe it'll be a better diary as a result.
One of the biggest problems right now, is that Markos has declared that "false" accusations of racism are now a bannable offense. But what is or isn't racist is inherently subjective. If he bans people on this basis, and won't rely on black folks perceptions of what is or isn't racist, but goes on the basis of his gut instinct, or majority rule, he's going to ban far more black people than the general population. Who, after all, calls out racist diaries and comments? And if those called out disagree, well, then people are going to be banned because of disagreement.
I think it would be theraputic for the management of this forum to spend a week answering questions from the likes of Fox News as to why this supposedly liberal Democratic website has gone from 93% white to 99% white and has a boycott against it. I don't want to see that permanently hurt the forum, but I think hard questioning from people who look at the stats and the recent bannings and compare it to the Democratic Party might induce a certain amount of soul searching. Or maybe not. Maybe it will induce more self righteousness and defensiveness. Anyway, it's an experiment.
See you all next week. And to BlackKos and related members, hope to be able to communicate with y'all in the meantime.
PS, Oh yeah, starting midnight tonight I suppose, and not before.