I'm going to start by making two observations:
1. I don't see very much racism on Daily Kos.
2. The fact that I don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
In other words, I'm not going to say that any perception of racism must be mistaken, because for all I know, it may not be. It may be absolutely dead-on. It's probably going on in diaries and comments that I haven't read. DKos is a big place, and I don't read everything that gets posted, not by a long shot.
However, the fact that I don't see the persistent daily racism that other folks see does mean that I'm looking at the mass ban/rating revocation through a different perceptual filter. The boycotters see it as an attack on their community. I see it as something that needed to be done.
To put it bluntly: A lot of folks needed to be straightened out.
This is the Internet. Most of the time I have no idea whether a poster is black or white or Latino or Native or Asian or even male or female, unless he/she either posts under a real name or goes out of his/her way to fly those flags. I don't judge other Kossacks by what they are, or by what I think they are. I judge them by what they say and do.
The meta wars have attracted a lot of users whom, without reservation, I call bullies and militant conformists. I could list names; I choose not to. But most of these users fall into the category that has been characterized as "cheerleaders," "Obamabots" or "Obama rox" types. These particular users have been arrogant and abusive in their language, have routinely ganged up on those who've engaged them in argument, and uprate one another's comments as a clique, even when those comments are nothing but unprovoked ad hominems, insults or smack talk.
This is not OK, whoever you are.
And don't give me the false-equivalency spiel. I think the people who claim that President Obama is a right-wing stalking horse are idiots. Obama was my senator before he was your president. He had the 11th most liberal voting record in the Senate, tied with Joe Biden, according to Keith Poole's Voteview. I think his political strategy is terrible, but I have no reason to doubt his motives -- and even if I did, it's not as though I have the power to read his mind, as the "Obama sux" crowd claim to be able to do. I think they're obnoxious and their comments are unproductive. But I'll tell you what else: They don't gang up on the people they disagree with. No, it's the other side that does that, the "How dare you doubt him?" side. Who, if they weren't all boycotting, would surely be hide-rating my tip jar right now.
So, as I said, I have no idea what anybody here is, except if he/she says so. But what it's sounding like is that the Black Kos community got disproportionately hit by the bojo. On the surface, that sucks. And yet . . . as I learn, in trickles, who got the bojo, or who is upset that his/her friends got the bojo, I keep noticing the names of these exact same people who have routinely behaved in ways that I consider reprehensible. That does not suck. That's justice. I'm sorry, but if you come here and act like a Tea Party thug, ganging up on and shouting down and imprecating against anyone whose worldview rubs you wrong, you are not being a good and responsible member of this community, whatever other identity flag(s) you fly. I had no idea what ethnicity or sex these users were; now I'm learning. But you know what? It's not relevant. If you're white, you shouldn't be a jerk, and if you're black, you shouldn't be a jerk, and if you're a woman, you shouldn't be a jerk, and if you're a man, you shouldn't be a jerk.
Fighting racism is right. Fighting dissent is wrong.
I am not going to boycott this site because justice and prevention of harm were given precedence over group identity and deference to an authority figure. On the contrary, that's exactly what, as progressives, we should all wish for.