BrownFemiPower and BlackAmazon

I know you don’t know me. I’ve visited BFP regularly, and recently discovered BA’s site. I’ve been in awe of WoC bloggers since this game phenomenon started.

I try to blog, and I do, for a while. I might even get a really good essay out. Then life takes over, or I get depressed, or just disgruntled with my output.

I love reading WoC who can evoke what I feel every day of my life. Sometimes angrier, sometimes not as angry, but I love it. I feel like I can join them in this great, 24-hour klatsch. But I don’t feel I can do it regularly.

Then Amanda Marcotte happens. And people take breaks from the internets. And I don’t want them to.

I’m going to wish them health and happiness. And I’m going to have to write more. Maybe if people realize women of color aren’t fading back into Black Voices or BlackPlanet, they’ll actually do some work on their privilege, at least to shut us uppity/attitudinal/loud cuhlud guls up.

Possible Carnival Coming Soon!

I’d love to do this, in my own little corner of the world…

I love thinking at work

And there was a lot in here. I’m so glad there is critical discourse around these sites. I thought it was just me.

Sometimes I feel alone in CenCal.

Stuff Educated Black People Like

Is puerile. And since I’m the target, I can say that.

Way Late, But Never Late

http://www.ebogjonson.com/archives/specials/should_i_use_blackface.htm

I just have to keep this, because I’m going to need it sooner rather than later…

Don Imus, why aren’t you all getting it?

It seems like almost no one really gets it. This isn’t about the Rutgers women’s b-ball team. This is about a straw on the back of the “it’s comedy, so just change the channel” camel. I complained about Imus years ago, he’s been profiled so often by either neutral or public media outlets, but now he’s a lightning rod? PUHLEEZ!

And using “hip hop” as his excuse?Don Imus is not recalcitrant. He doesn’t care. MSNBC doesn’t care. CBS truly doesn’t care, that hostile workplace that just doesn’t want to reach out to any shape or form of diversity whatsoever (unless it’s on a crime show).

Read, I’ll comment more later.

CBCI and Fox and CNN

James Rucker, on the Huffington Post site, writes about the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s negotiations for presidential debates aqui. In a nutshell, Mr. Rucker is upset that the CBCI is even negotiating with such a “skewed” entity as Fox.

I can never read too many comments, because everyone gets so strident, and then there’s the white-person-masquerading-as-black or hetero-woman-masquerading-as-queer-male (insert iteration here) to add unnecessary spice to the “debate.”

As someone who likes to research political issues, I couldn’t rely on just one angry Black voice. I learned, in college, that the loudest voices could lead you to a suspension or expulsion over some mixed-up politics and gender issues. So, I trundled over to theCBCI website and read their press release. Being me, I continued clicking through the site, to see who exactly the CBCI was made up of. That’s another topic for another day, but it was pretty much made up of Beltway insiders. And who really trusts insiders, anyway?

The question, for me, at the heart of all of this, is why? Why is the CBCI going to sponsor such debates? Who are they for? Black people? Really? Well, that’s what CNN US prez Jon Klein said

These debates are a meaningful addition to our comprehensive coverage of the 2008 election, particularly as they give us an opportunity to explore more closely a range of issues that will impact the pivotal African-American vote. (CBCI 2007)

When was our vote pivotal? I forgot. Being on grad school hiatus will do that for you. I seem to recall something around 30 years ago…? We might be pivotal on the local and state levels, but nationally?

Too, what issues do we have as a group, that, say, Southeast Asian, Latino, or other Americans might not share? Please let us not mention reparations. Please, please, PLEASE let us not mention reparations during an allegedly nationally-televised series of debates. Don’t do it. Talk about the paperless voting, talk about the various wars (drugs, terror, democracy,et al.) we’re involved in, hey, let’s talk about debt of developing nations! NOT REPARATIONS. Not now.
I await more info on these “pivtoal” debates.

Beware

the Ides of March. I’m just saying. I don’t have to be original on the first post.