BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Democratic Convention Floor Discrimination: New Day, Same Ol Sh-t
May 23rd, 2008
White State Corps Blogger trodding out the lazy niggers excuse:
Discriminators, from the moment they kidnapped the first Africans to take to Europe, and then across the Atlantic to America; have always had an excuse for why discriminating against Black folks is legitimate.
None of them ever say “we’re discriminating against them with no cause”; nope, there’s always a justification. And almost always that justification is the deficiency of Black people, making them deserving of the discrimination.
It was okay to enslave Black people, because we were savages anyway. Further, it was sanctioned by god, due to having brought a curse upon ourselves through our moral deficiency, as compared to the white man; and it was their duty to Christianize us through brute force.
After slavery we had to be discriminated against again because during reconstruction the government had given too much to Black folk; and Blacks receiving equality was just unfair to the former slave owners/overseers/slave catchers etc. Plus again, do to our moral deficiency; our pea brains full of wanton sexual desire would lead us to rampant rape of white women (ala Birth of A Nation) if not kept in check.
Our moral deficiency is so thick, that we are not even worthy to pray to God in the same space as pure white folk, so Absalom Jones and William White had to get off their knees and go to the back of the church.
When in the early century a movement started to expose abject poverty of many Blacks, how they were ripped off in sharecropping schemes and the many ways they were economically oppressed; we were informed that it was not because of Black Codes, oppression through lynching and intimidation, or the courts being stacked against us; it’s because those lazy-ass Black lay-abouts just wouldn’t work hard enough.
In the 1950s and 60’s the same yet still. A Black man does the same work as a white man; but some how his work is not as valuable, so he gets only 60 to 75 cents on the dollar for pay. The lazy-ass Blacks just don’t work as hard as the All American White Boys.
Separate but equal was finally dismantled, ostensibly, and in the 70s and 80s we heard new ingenious excuses. When white’s don’t want to hire Blacks, they can’t find any qualified Black people. But of course, being as lazy as we are, we are not qualified to do anything. Then, they found an excuse even better; say no Black folks applied.
Sure, never mind that you only advertised openings in publications that are predominately white read, recruit only at majority white schools, and used white word of mouth communications networks to exclude the likelihood that you would have any Blacks apply that you might have to consider hiring; but that’s not important. The Blacks simply didn’t “take advantage of opportunities”.
When we want bank loans, of course we’re given much hirer interest rates on our loans because Blacks default and slow pay more often than whites. Except for when wide ranging studies come out showing that even when Black have the same income and same credit history as whites, they are still routinely charged higher interest rates; then what? Even when we work hard and do the right thing - do the same thing as “good All American White folk” we still get punished.
The Alaska State Cops representative Celtic Diva wants you lazy Black Bloggers to know that if you work hard in America, that everything is fair and even: Discrimination, whether intentional or not, does not exist:
“I know you don’t have any intention of trying to “replace” some of the state bloggers. I also understand your underlying complaint. However, what offends me is that I put a lot of work in to meet the criteria of a state blog…but it was also work that anyone of any color could do.”
Part of her hard work that we didn’t do was calling the DNCC and asking question. Oh wait a minute, I myself and other Black bloggers I know did do that. You know what was the main thing I asked about; what the difference was between the State Pool and the General Pool. You know what they didn’t tell me was different? That State Pool bloggers would have a special privilege (automatic access to the floor) that general bloggers wouldn’t have.
It’s amazing that some people in 2008 still get “offended” that Black people would dare demand to be treated with equity, and to have the same representation in politics (and other arenas) that are being afforded to the majority group.
Some how the fact that there’s a State bloggers pool is supposed to make it okay to excluded Black representation from the floor of the convention. I’m still trying to figure this logic out.
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posted in Racial Injustice | | | View blog reactions | Print This Post
Related Posts:
- Letter to The DNCC About Access To The Convention Floor
- Jim Crow Democratic Convention
- Fight For Equal Access at Democratic Convention Continues
- While Obama Is At the Convention Podium, There Will Be Almost No Blacks On The Floor To Document History
- BlackPerspective.net In Black Enterprise Magazine (Dem Convention Discrimination)
7 Responses to “Democratic Convention Floor Discrimination: New Day, Same Ol Sh-t”
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Wow…when I saw the title of your post and the response to my comment, I knew I’d be taken out of context but that’s pretty balsy to just use one line.
First off, I did not in any way, shape or form say anything close to “lazy black bloggers.” You know I didn’t say it or you would have quoted me.
Secondly, you need to read everything that I posted on my blog and have responded to on AAPP and on Pam’s House Blend about this issue. Then compare it to everything Mr. Francis Holland has said on his blogs or on others. There is a history here for my comment that you have ignored.
The comment was also written BEFORE I read the post with your letter to the DNC which outlined the specific suggestions you were making. I found those to be more reasonable than what had been proposed previously. Since your post, I haven’t been blogging about this because of that.
One thing that I should have clarified…when I said “some folks” or “certain members of the AfroSpear,” I just should have said “Francis Holland.” From this point on, make that mental correction to any of the comments related to “certain AfroSpear blogs”. He’s the one I was thinking of when I wrote it.
Finally, I was aware that my post was bitchy…I mentioned that it was bitchy. I’m 46, I’m menopausal and I don’t really care too much who I piss off anymore especially when I’m commenting on my own blog.
I do understand your underlying issue and the more I’ve read about it, thought about it and written about it, the more I realize that…and this is no offense intended…to some degree you are bullshitting yourself.
First off, when I heard about the State Blogger Corps, I was determined to be a part of it. Here were the steps I took to try and achieve that:
1) I did everything I could to try and increase my audience
2) I focused more on state politics. It wasn’t something that didn’t already come naturally, I just increased the number of posts on state issues and decreased the number on national issues.
3) I contacted folks from the DNC, asked questions and made connections.
If I had not done those things, no matter what my color, I would not have been selected…period.
Part of my comment referred to Francis and any others who believe the DNC criteria shouldn’t apply to them.
I know you don’t have any intention of trying to “replace” some of the state bloggers. I also understand your underlying complaint. However, what offends me is that I put a lot of work in to meet the criteria of a state blog…but it was also work that anyone of any color could do. The folks who think that “blogging while brown” should entitle them to be a state blog…even though some have rarely if ever written about state politics or have barely even discussed what state they live in…is also a slap in the face to the folks who have dedicated their blogs to their state.
Remember…insert “Francis” here.
And the other thing that irritates me is the Afrospear seems to be the sole issue. What about the Native American bloggers or the Asian bloggers or the Latino bloggers or the Gay bloggers? Or do you feel that the Afrospear should get the props because you made the most noise?
See above.
In many ways, this isn’t an issue of color. In many ways, this is an issue of wanting something bad enough that you are willing to make changes to get it. I get the feeling that there were some Afrospear bloggers who specifically applied, even though they knew their blogs in no way met the criteria and they were unwilling to do anything to meet that criteria, just so they could make a huge stink when they weren’t selected.
Again, insert “Francis.”
Yeah, I’ve come full circle now and this whole thing is starting to make me bitchy again.
I’m the proud mom of a straight-A 10-year-old daughter-of-color who, when I told her some folks were inferring that I’m a “racist” said, “but mom, don’t they know you have me?” I’m also disabled and have been through the lovely EEO process when a boss tried to use my disability to get me fired. (They settled.) While the rest of the blogs are keeping mum, I’m not because my perspective is a little different. Taking my specific comments and portraying them as a sweeping condemnation of black people is an attempt at demonizing me. You’re playing the old-school “politics of division” as well as any member of the Clinton campaign or the Republican party…Congratulations!
The formatting did not come out on the above comment. I am replying to sections of my other comment that I have cut and pasted there. I hope that it is not too confusing. If so, I’ll have it printed with formatting on Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis.
“You know I didn’t say it or you would have quoted me.”
Exactly, and I didn’t say you said those words. Further, I linked to your post for anyone to go see for themselves what you did say - completely within academic standards.
What I did was point out your implication.
AAPP is pissed because he started talking to DNCC officials about this back in December. He started calling them as soon as the process opened up and address issue of representation ahead of time. He feels that his concerns were disregarded anyway. So do others who made contact with the DNCC. So I’ll forgive that he hasn’t felt so diplomatic.
And Francis in the last couple of days has specifically signed on to my proposal and promoted it. AAPP will go along with it too. Francis has been, for the better part of a year, talking about the growing separation and lack of inclusion in the bloggosphere, so he sees this as paragon moment in what he’s been pointing out.
Look, I’m sure you do not sit around thinking about how you can discriminate against Black people, or anything; but I’m also quite sure you neither spend a lot of time thinking about how humans by their nature tend to cling to their own and those things most like them most often, and in a society where white is the majority; by nature, if thought isn’t given to inclusion, exclusion of the rest of us quite often automatically happens, even when not actively intended.
When this is a constant experience of your life, your not always up to just grin and be nice about it; because no matter how much we bringing it up we so often have our purview disregarded, belittled as “playing the race card”, or implications that the only issue involved is our lack of hard work. The issue largely is the disregard.
I don’t deny your hard work; but as another Afrospear member said (Exodus Mentality) “…the truth is far less divisive. We want you to have your piece of the pie. Do you mind if we ask for ours too?”
It’s pretty obvious that you are not a parent because as the mother of a black daughter, I think about inclusion and exclusion all the time. It’s obvious that you aren’t disabled because then you’d know that we experience our own form of exclusion as well.
Hon, you really don’t know who you’re talking to and you do not have the age or experience to infer ANYTHING that I may mean from my writing.
You talk at my site about a “survey” you did. Please post this survey - which, I assume includes the State Blogs and the blog ID/gender/ethnicity of the blog owner(s)and contributors.
Not having that information would mean that you are basing your entire argument on assumptions, which would be a valid reason for the DNC to ignore your request..
As I can’t imagine that you would make these accusations without solid proof for backup.
I originally got involved in this argument because our friend stated that “all of the blogs were owned by white males.” He obviously had not done the most basic of research (log into my blog) to see my family’s pictures all over it and that I was a female.
You have yet, to my knowledge, provided the information to back up your initial argument.
If you have posted this detailed information and I missed it, I apologize
Survey
VERB:
sur�veyed , sur�vey�ing , sur�veys
VERB:
tr.
1. To examine or look at comprehensively.
2. To inspect carefully; scrutinize: “Two women were surveying the other people on the platform” (Thomas Wolfe).
education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/survey
That’s what I did, I surveyed the blogs, I did not say that I conduct a survey of the bloggers.
But anyway, I’m through with you. You are intent on being unreasonable and advocating for the discrimination against and prevention of Black blogs on the convention floor. You are usually (which is highly) dismissive of the Black perspective as are many condescending white liberals.
And save the Black daughter try, that’s about as good as ‘I have a Black friend, therefore I could not possibly be racist”. Having a Black daughter doesn’t prove you’ve thought about anything.
And people come at me and other folks and tell us we should lower our rhetoric and so that “we can talk to White folk and understand each other”. This is the good that comes out of talking to most white folk about race.
I find it interesting that you don’t decide that you’re done with me until I ask you to provide some very basic information to support your initial claim.
How can you do a survey of the blogs without talking to the bloggers? But OK, I’ll go with that, post the survey of the blogs - post specifically which blogs are “white” so that the blog-owners have the opportunity to support or refute your information.
Look, I’m asking the most basic of questions…the very first step in problem solving…show me the data from which we can see the scope of the problem.
I’ve said from the beginning that I KNOW there is an issue with integration within the blogosphere, just as there is a class divide regarding internet access. I have also stated that I have actively been attempting to integrate my blog with POC perspective(s) as have other bloggers who have stated such when this issue initially came up. The blogosphere needs to work together on this issue to resolve it because it’s not something that ANY DNC criteria requirements will EVER fix.
I have no problem with black bloggers on the floor. I want EVERY BLOGGER to be on the floor and according to the recent letter from the DNC, that’s exactly what will happen. So why is this still a problem for the short term? Why are we not focusing on long-term solutions of working towards internet access for all regardless of class status, de-mystifying blogging for everyone - especially POCs, encouraging national POC blogs to do more state and local focus - which would be much more effective in making long-term change, add POC voices to already established blogs. These are the issues that will make a difference, not any new criteria from the DNC.
*****DNC Letter*****
Thanks for writing.
The blog list that you’re speaking about is the Convention’s initial list of state-focused blogs. These blogs report on politics in their home states. The Convention plans to provide credentials to an additional larger list of blogs by the end of the month (next week). Those additional blogs will also have access to the Convention floor — contrary to some of what has been said online. Like any other members of the media, bloggers with timed “floor passes” will be able to walk around on the floor and conduct interviews with delegates. Floor passes will be available to all of the “General Pool” bloggers.
In the application process, most minority-focused and issue-based blogs did not apply for “State Blog Corps” credentials. They applied for the “General Pool.” When the additional list of blogs is announced in a few days, I think you’ll be very pleased with the blogs selected. Our goal is to reach the entire Democratic audience. This next group of blogs will be very representative of the entire Democratic family.
-aaron