Retrospective — On Race in Liberal Blogland

For the clarity and convenience of the record, I'm assembling my series on racism in the liberal blogosphere into a single post. There are admittedly a few tangential strands in there, but I think the overall narrative thread is easy enough to discern, beginning with the infamous blackface incident (when I first began to notice the rift in the leftish blogosphere) and culminating with my polemical tirade on "The Greatest Cliché" (if you only have time to read one post, that's the one). Enjoy.

2006.08.20 — Blackface Joe: Five Grievances

2006.09.17 — The Color Line and the Perceptual Gulf

2006.09.20 — A Chasm Illuminated

2006.10.04 — Battleground America

2006.10.27 — The White Liberal Race Card

2006.10.30 — White Liberal Blackface

2006.11.04 — The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"

2006.12.12 — Constructive Chatter

Comments

[Yolanda Carrington]

Speaking of liberal racism (and misogyny, and rape culture) here's this bit of fucked up $hit that aired on Saturday Night Live this weekend. I'm just hearing about this now. I ain't seen it at all in the media.

I'll tell y'all more when I've calmed down.

[kactus]

The whole blackface joe thing went right over my head while it was happening--I think I must have been at the north pole that week or something. But reading back over the whole thing at FDL I was struck by people insisting over and over that it couldn't be considered racist until a black person proclaimed it racist; of course, once many, many people of color decried the racism of the image then the same people who wanted validation of its racism claimed people of color were too sensitive. Jeez. And if that sentence was twisted, it's nothing compared to the logic of white liberals who expect to be forgiven just cuz their intentions were good.

[Jenny from the Blog]

kactus:

The problem with so many of those old FDL threads is they were deleting comments with opposing views very quickly as they appeared, so if you weren't there in real time you didn't get the sense of protest. They're not archival at all.

So it's funny reading people lately (not you) who continually say that FDL is not so bad, etc. You kinda had to be there. I was, for a lot of it, and the deletions were so swift it was appalling.

[kactus]

Jenny, I've found a lot of people who were just really, really hurt when a blog community they thought was safe turned on them. FDL, for example. The first exposure I had was meeting women from DKos who were still reeling from the infamous pie fight--another thing that went bam, over my head.

Not ever having been involved with any of the big blogs, I've escaped that; but I know that the smaller-scale, but no less intense fights that have erupted in the feminist and POC blogosphere have been really painful. Lots of anger flung about, much justified, but also huge learning possibilities for people who kept their minds open. Sadly, though, those who are willing to listen and learn seem to be in the minority.

I've heard about the comment deletions at FDL and don't doubt it for a second.

[Jenny from the Blog]

kactus, I missed the pie fight, mercifully, but it must've been quite the tsunami because it's always referred to almost apocalyptically! I can imagine the reverberation, as the Kos site is so huge.

Yeswell, like you said, all of these quakes open up huge possibilities (the waters of chaos!) and I have been personally impacted because the latest FDL mess really helped me to realize how much quality is out in the larger blog world (kai and Donna, for instance) and so it has been a real fine set of circumstances all in all!

Take care,

[sylviasrevenge]

Y. Carrington, I'm really tempted to do a round-up of all the media coverage that's pretty much acquitted the lacrosse players that's accumulated over the past couple of months. The fallout's pretty disgusting, and to say this case has been handled improperly grossly understates the whole media crap-in.

Kai, thanks for compiling all these posts. I've explicitly told people reading my blog to disobey your request to read the bolded one if they don't have time and to read them all anyway. I didn't realize the yellowface/Bush and the blackface/Blitzer incident took place, either. Good Lord.

[Kai]

Hi folks!

Just wanted to drop a note saying I've been traveling and so haven't been around. I'm currently visiting my sister in Ohio for the holidays. I haven't yet had a chance to check out the SNL clip (thanks, Yolanda) but will do so shortly, though from what I'm hearing I should probably drink a bottle of something strong before subjecting myself to it...

Happy Solstice!

[Jenny from the Blog]

Kai, I'm sending you a virtual bottle of Tawny Port. Enjoy!

[Yolanda Carrington]

Kai, Happy Holidays!

[sylviasrevenge]

Enjoy the holiday, Kai!

[Professor Zero]

Good posts, as in, very good posts, and worth assembling for a Very Visible Long Article to be published in paper somewhere, I'd say.

All of these white people keep saying that because they do not have overt racist feelings, they do not participate in racism, or there is no racism, or something like this: it is amazing that they say this, but they do keep saying it.