I'm adding my name to the list of those taking a week off from Daily Kos in protest of Markos' actions accelerating the whitening of this site, as proposed by the wise and wonderful Robinswing here.
I initially supported the purge as the pro/anti Obama pie fights had been getting out of hand. But underlying and accelerated by said pie fights was a far more pernicious problem that I will not trivialize by calling it a "pie fight": the hostility of a subset of white liberals to black voices that differed from theirs. And make no mistake: The result of the 'purge' was a victory for those white liberals.
Many black voices, strong ones, good ones, have departed Daily Kos voluntarily since 2008, due to the increasingly bold hostility of these white liberals toward blacks. They rode along with the PUMAs (and I have not forgotten the occasionally race-baiting tactics of the Hillary Clinton campaign against Obama either), and they have ridden along with the ideological purists since. They aggressively attack those who speak out about race issues, they accuse without evidence of race being used to shut down any criticism of the President, they wade into Black Kos, Sistahspeak and other diaries with no apparent agenda other than to put down the diarist, over and over and over again, and when black Kossacks and their supporters get ticked off enough to tell these provocateurs off, well, they take the hit. This has made more Kossacks of color and their supporters leave this site, or never join, than we can ever know.
But the purge has made things worse. Far as I can tell, only one of these provocateurs has been shown the door. More remain.
I truly believe Markos means well and was trying to quell the pie fight. I truly believe Markos had no idea how many of the people he's banned or sanctioned are black Kossacks. But Markos has no excuse not to know now. And he needs to look at what's happened, listen to those pointing out the situation, and if he wants to have a site that is racially diverse (and I believe he does), he needs to make amends.
I've said in a couple comments that in politics there are few things more odious than a group of white liberals isolated from minorities preaching about liberal ideals. Even groups of white conservatives are less obnoxious because they don't pretend to care about the minority voices they're shutting out.
We cannot let Daily Kos continue its descent to this destination.
While the dozens of us who are participating in the boycott are gone, take a look at those who find the site a better place for the absence of the Kossacks of color and their supporters -- and consider why. Consider whether or not it's simply because some people don't like having their preconceptions about race challenged by those who have lived what we beneficiaries of white privilege never even had to notice.
See you a week from tomorrow.
UPDATE: In case you think the stink of racism and its enablers isn't permeating this site, here's a real good example, and getting several recs.