dopper0189 aka "Chief"
The Color of Netroots
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Deoliver47
Glad to be back home and safe on our front porch. I'm still jet-lagged and feel drained from lack of water due to the well over 100 degree temperature in Las Vegas, so this won't be a very long commentary today, but wanted to recap a bit of what happened at NN10 and some thoughts and suggestions for next year in Minneapolis.
Thanks to Sis Navajo for permission to re-post some of her pics of our panel. You can see/hear the full stream here:
Promoting People of Color in the Progressive Blogosphere
dopper, navajo, shanikka, texmex, deoliver47
Dopper opened the panel discussing the selection of news stories in the traditional news media and the blogosphere. Since blogging is usually about opinions - what stories are selected drives the opinions that get formed.
Navajo gave a history of the complete absence of "Indin's" in the Netroots, and how Native American Netroots was formed in response to that. She also detailed the successful effort to get heat to the reservations affected by last winters terrible icestorms.
Shanikka discussed controversial diaries she wrote here at Daily Kos; on the failure of John Kerry and Edwards to keep their promises to the African American community...and her diary debunking the meme that "blacks were responsible for Prop 8", and the inherent racism among "good people" on the left who fail to listen to a unique black perspective on the news, using the example of her diary on ACORN.
TexMex spoke of growing up as a Mexican-American in Texas, her career as a teacher of science and how she took on the challenge of raising money for Haiti via the Shelter Box diary series on DKos, which has now been continued by carolina stargazer and is still raising funds (134 K and counting).
I spoke about how I got dragged into blogging, about building coalitions, about challenging racism in the "left" and the importance of realizing that revolutionary change will be made by organizing door to door and won't happen online.
A question came from the audience about intersectionality, and panelists stressed the necessity for blogs and bloggers to take the responsibility to be more inclusive of people of color perspectives. Another audience member asked about how we can address racism and it was stressed by panelists that it cannot be solely the responsibility of people of color alone to deal with it. Progressive white folks must step up to the plate and begin to combat it.
One of the interesting parts of Netroots Nation for me, are the caucuses of people of color, which this year were scheduled back to back in the same meeting room. They give us the opportunity to meet, network and share concerns.
As I did last year, I attended all three: the Native American, Latino/a, and African American caucus.
The NA caucus was chaired by Sis Navajo and the special speaker was Meteor Blades who discussed his participation as an activist in AIM. Sadly, there were not many Native Americans, and supporters in attendance and this is an issue that needs to be dealt with - across the board, for people of color.
The cost of attending is prohibitive. Airfare, registration, hotel, high priced food (unless you could survive on the free box lunches) make it extremely difficult for there to be a real presence of grass-roots folks.
The Latino caucus was larger than last year. Fueled by the latest outrages in Arizona, much of the discussion dealt with immigration reform and education.
The African-American caucus was well attended, though imho too much time was spent discussing "Twitter", and that fact that 25% of the folks who tweet are black, and not enough time was spent discussing ways to engage and involve our real life communities using the internet as a vehicle to enhance on the ground organizing.
Moderator Cheryl Contee raised a question about whether or not the NAACP is still relevant (in reference to the Sherrod issue) and there was a fairly intense discussion of that incident. There was also heated discussion around whether or not the Obama Administration should be more vocal in its support of black community issues and concerns.
I was happy to see some brothers and sisters in attendance who were from the local LV community, just as there were some local black folks from Pittsburgh at NN9, but I hope that as we look towards future NN's that we can find creative ways to engage local communities of color and highlight and showcase work that they are doing in the hood.
There were more panels this year that did address p.o.c. issues, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. What seems clear is that this entire problem is one of social class, and the intersection of race, ethnicity and class. How do we create a venue for progressive bloggers to gather but at the same time bring them into contact with those communities that need to be blogged about?
I hope that by next year we can figure out some strategies to change that.
Here are the ethnic/racial demographics for Minneapolis:
As of the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the racial composition was as follows:
* White: 70.2% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 64.2%)
* Black or African American: 17.4%
* American Indian: 1.7%
* Asian: 4.9%
* Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.0%
* Some other race: 2.8%
* Two or more races: 3.0%
In addition, Hispanic or Latino people, who may be of any race, were estimated to comprise 9.2% of the population.
In a discussion about this with Meteor Blades, he suggested that we draw from people in the local community.
It should not be difficult to identify groups in the Minneapolis area who are struggling to address the issues affecting their communities and who are fighting for change. It is important that they be made aware of the advent of a bloggers convo, and be included in the planning, and given the opportunity to attend, participate, teach and also learn how those of us with certain internet proficiency can aid and assist them in their grassroots struggles.
Other than panels, workshops and caucuses Netroots Nation has several major speaker events, which get coverage in the traditional media as well as the blogosphere.
It was a pleasure to see Van Jones back this year, and if you haven't listened to his speech - be sure to do so.
Sister Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx was a featured speaker at the opening event.
Tim Wise was a featured speaker as well. James Rucker, co-founder of ColorofChange.org. was a panalist.
The main problem is not with speakers, or even panels and workshops. The problem I had and have is with attendees; who goes and has gone and how we begin to connect our efforts, as bloggers with those of community activists; many of whom may never have heard of Daily Kos, or Netroots.
We got work to do. Let's get it done.
Hasta la victoria siempre - looking forward to more diversity at Netroots Nation in 2011!
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News by dopper0189
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It was a priviledge to talk to this man at NN10! Red Room: FAUX-PRESSION: RACISM AND THE CULT OF WHITE VICTIMHOOD
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To hear conservatives tell it, there's a one-sided race war going on in America, and white folks are the targets. From President Obama's secret plan to use health care reform as a way to procure backdoor "reparations" for slavery, to his equally secret plan to wreck the economy as a way to pay white people back for centuries of racial oppression, to his personal responsibility for a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois, in which two black kids beat up a white kid, it's open season on white America. And of course, in case you weren't convinced, surely that tax on tanning bed customers that was part of the health care bill should suffice to make the case: after all, it's a clear slap at white folks and the result of the President's deep antipathy towards those of us lacking sufficient melanin.
Into the breach of white hysteria--heightened by Rush Limbaugh's claim that Colin Powell only endorsed Obama as an act of racial bonding, and that the President only appoints people to high office or the Supreme Court who hate whites--now come two stories, spun for maximum effect by the right and its media mouthpieces at FOX News. To wit, the so-called scandal surrounding the Justice Department's handling of voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), and the recent allegation that a black official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Shirley Sherrod, admits to having mistreated a white farmer who was seeking government help, at least in part because of his race.
Since the Panther story broke, and today in the wake of the white farmer incident, I've been inundated by angry e-mails, demanding to know when I was going to join the fight against "black racism," and speak out as forcefully about bigotry aimed at whites as I do about bigotry aimed at people of color. One e-mail suggested that I needed to issue an apology for previous columns I'd penned, in which I had argued that reverse racism was a myth, since people of color are generally powerless to turn their biases into concrete action that truly injures white people. Obviously, the author said, things have changed. Now a black-led Justice Department in a black-led administration does have the power to collaborate with anti-white racism, "as in the case of the Black Panthers," and a black official in the Ag Department has the power to "deliberately mistreat" a white farmer and then brag about it.
But as it turns out, new evidence has surfaced indicating that the uproar about Shirley Sherrod has no merit. Right-wing blogger Andrew Brietbart posted edited video of a speech in which Sherrod ostensibly made fun of a white farmer and joked about not doing all she could to help him. But in fact, the rest of her story as told during the speech (which Brietbart conveniently did not post, and which FOX News has also ignored) details how she learned from her interactions with the farmer that her initial cavalier attitude about his situation was unfair, and how once she realized that, she went all out to help him save his farm. According to the family itself, she did just that, and they consider her a friend. In other words, the story was about not making assumptions on the basis of race and not discriminating. But in the hands of the right, Sherrod is a bitter racist out to hurt salt-of-the-Earth white farm folks, evidence be damned.
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The Examiner: The overrepresentation of African American students in special education
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Since the inception of special education in 1975, advocates have been fighting for the fair and equal treatment of students with disabilities. While some wanted these students to receive an educational experience that was comparable to their non-disabled peers, others, such as Lloyd Dunn, wanted to ensure that all students with disabilities: were treated equitably; received disability labels that were non-discriminatory; and were educated in general education versus special education classrooms- a placement where the curriculum was often described as substandard and incapable prepping students for any creditable post-secondary opportunity.
Dunn advocated for these three initiatives because they were all at the foundation of a silent epidemic that was festering in special education programs all across the county- African American students, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, were being disproportionately labeled as having emotional and behavior disorders and mental retardation. The rate at which these students were placed in these two categories outnumbered all other racial groups. In addition to being mislabeled, once placed in special education, many of these students were more likely to receive their instruction in special education classes away from their non-disabled peers. Dunn advocated for the fair treatment of minorities in special education a few years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "separate was inherently unequal" in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education (1954)- the landmark case that ended segregation in the nation’s public schools.
Since that time, the disproportionate number of African American students being labeled with emotional and behavior disorders and intellectual disabilities has remained unchanged. According to data from the 2009-2010 annual special education report compiled by the Georgia Department of Education, African American students continue to outnumber other subgroups of students in the categories of Emotional Behavioral Disorders (EBD) and Intellectual Disabilities. Additionally, African American students are more likely to be served in special education classes and residential placements more than their peers. A variety of reasons have been given for why over-identification of some students occurs— the most prevalent ones being (CEC, 2002):
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Why the indefatigable Al Sharpton still has work to do. And what his evolution tells us about race and politics in Obama’s America. NewsWeek: The Reinvention of the Reverend.
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If the Rev. Al Sharpton didn’t exist, he would have had to be invented. In fact, the novelist Tom Wolfe has claimed he did invent him, in the character of the Reverend Bacon, a supporting figure in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Each generation of black America gives birth to its own incarnation of the charismatic preacher-activist who confronts the white power structure in the streets and talks circles around it on Meet the Press. Just a few months after the fictional Bacon made his appearance in 1987, the real Sharpton burst onto the national stage as the fiery advocate for Tawana Brawley, a New York teenager who claimed to have been raped by a gang of white men, including a policeman. In that incarnation he still haunts the popular imagination: a bulky, bullhorn-toting figure in a neon-hued tracksuit, topped by a preposterously high, wavy pompadour. About all that remains today is a bare suggestion of the pompadour and roughly two thirds of the 300-pound 1980s-vintage Sharpton himself, now typically clad in an impeccable custom-tailored suit. His erstwhile ally, rival, and adversary, former New York City mayor David Dinkins, maintains that of course Sharpton has "grown up and matured, as most people do if they live long enough."
But the interesting question is whether his role is still needed in an era when the man atop the national power structure himself is black, and Sharpton now regularly meets with him—issuing not just demands but advice. If you asked Sharpton himself, he’d undoubtedly reply, are you serious? Blacks still have twice the unemployment rate of Americans overall, and young black men are still being shot by cops under circumstances that range from tragic to suspicious. The election of Barack Obama has provoked an almost hysterical reaction from the far-right media, which last week claimed as its latest victim an obscure African-American official in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Relaxing with a thick Ashton Churchill in a plush midtown cigar lounge, the once-and-still Reverend Al scoffs at the idea that there is, or ever has been, a new Sharpton. "My mission, my message, and everything else about me is the same as always," he says. "The country may have changed, but I haven’t."
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Good data maybe some of the Criminal Injustice Kos alumni can explore them further? Race-Talk: Fourteen examples of systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system.
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The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people.
Saying the US criminal system is racist may be politically controversial in some circles. But the facts are overwhelming. No real debate about that. Below I set out numerous examples of these facts.
The question is – are these facts the mistakes of an otherwise good system, or are they evidence that the racist criminal justice system is working exactly as intended? Is the US criminal justice system operated to marginalize and control millions of African Americans?
Information on race is available for each step of the criminal justice system – from the use of drugs, police stops, arrests, getting out on bail, legal representation, jury selection, trial, sentencing, prison, parole and freedom. Look what these facts show.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Tuesday's Chile, Poetry Editor
When Khrushchev spoke at the UN, back during the height of the Cold War, he famously banged his shoe on the lectern he spoke from; it made all the news at the time. People were either aghast and appalled, or humored by yet again, another Kruschevian, dramatic masterpiece. Regardless, the world couldn't stop speaking about it. What was less reported was an off hand answer to an off hand question as Khrushchev moved about on his escorted tour of the US. He was asked how he was so sure that the Soviets would prevail over the West.
"When I come to grind the West under the iron heel of my iron boot," I like to embellish his response, "rest assured, the Capitalist will sell me the rope I hang him from first."
That last part is all Khrushchev; and though the Soviets have gone the way of the Velociraptor, Khrushchev's truism about the Capitalist cannot be refuted. How else to explain the oil blow out in the Gulf? How else to explain contaminated foodstuffs, acid rain, polluted aquifers and mountaintop removal? How else to explain what it means to live...
Under Corporate Skies
Dawn, you miserable slow-cooker
of goat meat, why do you park
yourself at my window to snooker
me into imagining the smoky night
will never come again? Sometimes
when you turn up so impeccably
disguised as a new day with wines
of forgetfulness, I respectfully
give in. Life clouds the very trail
life spins: a spidering website.
How long can we put truth in jail?
How long can politicians stab
biology and physics in the heart
and gut the world before there is
no world left? Where profit ignites,
where dividends burn up, lives go out.
-- Al Young
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The front porch is now open. Pull up a chair, put your feet up and let your hair down. Peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream is today's dessert and there's a big jug of fresh squeezed limeade for the hot and thirsty.