Blackosphere vs. Whitosphere? 5 days in DC, #2
| By Alan Franklin - Mar 16th, 2008 at 10:15 am EDT |
Attended an interesting panel on "healing divisions in the blogosphere." The panel was moderated by the African-American Political Pundit, a great blog that I hadn't actually read before.
So we talked about why I and others hadn't read his blog before, and many other blogs focused on the African-American and other underrepresented viewpoints. The discussion ran aground for a little while as some interpersonal issues that had resulted in historical tensions between certain prominent bloggers got worked out, but then the larger questions before the room began to emerge.
There's no question the Democratic Party is divided right now between two candidates for President, and the mutual hostility between the camps is growing. It's true that one side can point out condemnable gender-based incidents that have occured. The people of color in this room, of both genders, could not weigh that against the appeals to racism that have been used against the other candidate and find them somehow "equally wronged." They feel that Democrats are compromising their integrity every day they remain unable to condemn what's happened with one voice. The bottom line: we have to acknowledge just how far this has gone before we can begin healing these wounds.
Discussions after that panel made something else clear: nobody thinks Hillary Clinton is herself a "racist." What people think is that she is ruthless, something different from a racist but willing to exploit what her campaign has identified as lingering racist sentiments among a portion of Democratic primary voters. What we're seeing here is the logical consequence of the Clinton campaign's ruthless ambition. Bloggers of color understand this, but they remain dismayed at the apologetics for attacks they have seen before and know very well, simply because they're being carried out by a popular Democrat.
So we talked about why I and others hadn't read his blog before, and many other blogs focused on the African-American and other underrepresented viewpoints. The discussion ran aground for a little while as some interpersonal issues that had resulted in historical tensions between certain prominent bloggers got worked out, but then the larger questions before the room began to emerge.
There's no question the Democratic Party is divided right now between two candidates for President, and the mutual hostility between the camps is growing. It's true that one side can point out condemnable gender-based incidents that have occured. The people of color in this room, of both genders, could not weigh that against the appeals to racism that have been used against the other candidate and find them somehow "equally wronged." They feel that Democrats are compromising their integrity every day they remain unable to condemn what's happened with one voice. The bottom line: we have to acknowledge just how far this has gone before we can begin healing these wounds.
Discussions after that panel made something else clear: nobody thinks Hillary Clinton is herself a "racist." What people think is that she is ruthless, something different from a racist but willing to exploit what her campaign has identified as lingering racist sentiments among a portion of Democratic primary voters. What we're seeing here is the logical consequence of the Clinton campaign's ruthless ambition. Bloggers of color understand this, but they remain dismayed at the apologetics for attacks they have seen before and know very well, simply because they're being carried out by a popular Democrat.
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