Jena 6

I have personally emailed most of the publishers of the major progressive blogs.  Only The Carpetbagger Report thought that my inquiry had merit.  I have pushed this story for over 6 weeks.  Finally, there is some MSM exposure. 

Pam, thanks for doing your part.

ecthompson
www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress

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by: ecthompson @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 11:46:25 AM CDT

Pam wrote:

"As you all know I try mightily to make the Blend a safe space to discuss race,..."

You do.

 

"...and even then, threads on the topic, save the Imus debacle, garner few comments."

That's true. 

"The progressive community still has a long way to go on race when it comes to the rubber hitting the road."

Yep. 

Pam, I'll add to your list of possible explanations:

White guilt.  I've never owned slaves, but much of what I own is due to racism.  This is a country of 'haves' and 'have nots' and white people tend to have more, not because we're innately smarter or more industrious, but because we were positioned for material success by systemic racism.  When I went to a fancy school or talk to my fancy friends about my struggles as a writer and how I suffered through rotting, broken teeth, they were silent and I ascribe that silence to a similar sort of guilt.

And here's another possibility:

Some of us are happy to see these young black men being bullied.  A lot of white folks are afraid of black folks, whatever they assert, and especially afraid of young black men.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 12:11:36 PM CDT

Not just the black bloggers though...

The smaller blogs are also talking - such as Racialicious and Rachel's Tavern, neither of which are run by black bloggers. But yeah, the lack of outrage is appalling. If it's not "THEIR" issue, [meaning the historical harassment of a disenfranchised group, a history of unfair application of the law, apparant current unfair application of the law, abuse of power by the DA, etc.,] then what pray tell is?

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by: lyonside @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 12:13:54 PM CDT

Firedoglake? Really?

You were expecting something from FDL, which has never (at least in my opinion) washed off the stain of the Clinton blogger luncheon aftermath and how they treated Liza Sabater, which led many of us to question just how contrite Jane was about using blackface on her blog?

If I do a blogaround today, the Jena 6 march will certainly be among the topics, but I just don't blog all that frequently as you probably know.  I really should have mentioned it in yesterday's blogaround, darn it...

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by: Elayne Riggs @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 12:25:18 PM CDT

Jane weighed in

She IMd that she had someone on location set to blog about it, but he didn't come through with any dispatches (so far).

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 12:28:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

wow.

i read the comments in the diary at kos. the amount of denial and defensiveness is amazing. thanks for pointing it out, pam.

 

i think the denial stems from a combination of ignorance and guilt. instead of owning up to the omission some people become defensive: "oh, not me. i can't be racially insensitive. not me!" but deep down inside, i think some of the commenters are uncomfortable and embarrassed.

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by: emily2 @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 12:33:07 PM CDT

First-Draft Comes Through

I see that Scout Prime at First-Draft has heard your voice and responded. Thank you Pam for always staying ahead of the pack to help keep us informed.

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by: Jim Jenkins @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:02:16 PM CDT

Pam, I offer another possibility for the lack of coverage by white bloggers:

In the end, we only care about ourselves.  WE are deeply selfish, regardless of our denials.  So, a white woman will write about feminism becaue if she writes about her damage, people won't see her as speaking to a larger, nobler issue.  And a black man will write about racism rather than his damage.  And a transwoman will write about trans issues rather than her damage. 

And so on, but in many cases, the subtext is, "What about me?  Me?  Me?"

So, why would a white blogger write about these young black men?  Doing so illuminates their privilege and many white bloggers would rather write about their misery, but way of systemic misery. 

You're the exception, Pam.  Sure, you write about race and homosexuality, since you're a black lesbian, but you promote trans issues and range in other ways.  You're also an empowering hostess when it comes to white folks discussing race, but there's so much that inhibits it. 

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:11:10 PM CDT

Racism and discrimination aren't "real" to the privileged

In the time I've spent  around plenty of young privileged progressives, I've gotten the opinion that, to a lot of them, justice and civil rights are theoretical causes.  When I point out the discrimination and violence that I and others have faced as a lesbian, transsexual person and/or woman, I find that a lot of the time, my progressive friends don't "get it."  It's as if either I'm being overly whiny and negative, or if the ramifications don't sink in.

Which brings me to Jena.  While I think that all progressives are upset by what's gone on in Jena, I think that a good number of them:

1) Think this is an isolated occurrence, confined to a few people in a small town or two down in the deep south.

2) Don't fully appreciate the reality of what happened.

There are a lot of progressives that don't understand the significance of nooses.  They may have missed the point (or not believe) that the DA effectively threatened to kill any black students that didn't stay in their place.  They may not appreciate that there are places in this country where it's possible, if you're not appropriately privileged, to have a loaded shotgun pulled on you, only to be charged with a crime for defending yourself, while the gun-puller goes free.  More to the point, those aren't things that theoretically could happen as an extension of some people's backwards personal philosophies-- they're all horrible, horrible things that actually happened to real people.

I don't know-- it's hard for me to talk about this stuff without getting all huffed up in a holier-than-thou rage.  When I talk to people about the way society and the justice system treats transsexual people (particularly poor transsexual women of color) all over the world, from DC and Philly to Chile, people don't understand that not only do I find the atrocities appalling, but that I worry that it could happen to me or a loved one (point of disclosure: I'm white, and otherwise privileged).  It's all very real to me.

In a sense, I guess I'm making the sickening argument that because I'm oppressed I "get it." But, it's just as easy to question why people who aren't members of routinely discriminated-against groups are often slow to understand just how wrong and hurtful all of this BS is.  Just because you don't feel personally threatend by injustice doesn't mean you shouldn't understand the magnitude and, uh, injustice of it.

Sorry for the rant.

Oh, and hooray for Joe Solmonese-- I'm with him on this one.

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by: eastsidekate @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:11:48 PM CDT

Nice post, Kate.

I'm with you on this one.

If you visit a site like iblamethepatriarchy, posters there will casually and repeatedly assert that sexism is the world's primary problem.  I've found similar assertions at the sites of black bloggers.  So, rather than the experience of oppression engendering empathy, as it has for you, it engenders antipathy, for a white woman might assert, "How dare you distract from the central issue of sexism with racism?"  And a black man might counter-assert, "How dare you distract from the central issue of racism with sexism?"

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:17:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You forgot about trans posters

.... citing the gender-binary as the prime problem with society.

I just see it as an issue of respecting other people's value as human beings.  Jena is absolutely about race, and race is a very useful and very "real" lens to view issues with, but when push comes to shove, most political issues (racial violence, K-12 education funding, health care, poverty etc.,) IMO, are about valuing other people.  It seems silly that so many people forget the inter-connectedness of social justice when dealing with their pet issue.

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by: eastsidekate @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:36:52 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You, betcha, Kate,

and there are white guy bloggers who assert that white guys get no credit for their toil and sacrifice.

I think that some rich people must love to see the squabbling of the masses, to see us fight over our sliver of the pie.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:52:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Exactly. It's not personal to them.

They may not appreciate that there are places in this country where it's possible, if you're not appropriately privileged, to have a loaded shotgun pulled on you, only to be charged with a crime for defending yourself, while the gun-puller goes free. 

I would go further. White privilege is the water we're swimming in as white people. Fish don't know they're wet.

But on top of that obvious factor, I think that a lot of progressive white people have gotten accustomed to being the most oppressed person in the (white) room that they are in. Don't forget how socially segregated the IRL lives of most Americans are.

That is, the very real repression of dissent in this country--white married straight couple gets arrested for their t-shirts, anyone? how about white woman lawyer arrested for representing her politically unpopular client?--has had an effect on the thinking of progressives, and not in my opinion a broadening effect.

Maybe I'm wrong. My experience of the last 7 years of increasing political repression and the criminalization of dissent have coincided with the period of my adult life in which I've made the leap from living in a white family to being part of the mixed-race future. So I'm certainly more aware of the dangers posed by state-enforced racial hierarchies, as the Jena incident exemplifies, than I was before I was raising a child of color.

So, am I the world? Who knows?

But wait, there's more!

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by: PhoenixRising @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:13:56 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

in case anyone wonders...

I had to delete Burnsey's comment with the loooong URLs because it screwed up the layout. I've asked for them to repost using linked text.

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:13:28 PM CDT

I just tried to reply to that post and couldn't.

Now I know why.

But here was my reply: "You're missing Pam's point, Burnsey, due to the static of your data."

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:18:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

That sucks....

I am sorry that I don't understand how to post the url in such a fashion that it suits you.  I guess I will stop blogging until I completey understand how to use html.  I was unaware that there was an educational requierement to post, since I never saw anything stating one must know html to post. (are you sure it's my url and not the upgraded chat feature? since it has been discused that the posting feature is acting screwwy since the upgrade?  My urls used to work just fine) 

I'll come back once I m edumacated a little better....

The trollish sounding blogger formerly known as BURNSEY

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by: R.K. Wright @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:20:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Burnsey, Pam's comment format has changed

It took me a while to figure it out too.  It's now WYSIWIG, which means you can type the text you want to use, highlight it, and then click on the link symbol to embed the URL (instead of having to go through the whole a href= thing).  I screwed up a bunch of links here and elsewhere before somebody pointed it out to me.

"If the apocalypse comes... beep me." -- Buffy Summers

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by: Kathy @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:44:05 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Burnsey

If you want to post a diary or comment and are having issues, feel free to drop me an email (it's in my profile).  I'd be happy to format the text and provide you with a before and after so that you can see how I format in AUTO_FORMAT (non-WYSIWYG) mode. I'm super busy with school, so I can't guarantee I'll be able to respond immediately, but I can try.

Or, Lurleen posted a quick formatting guide a while ago that's very handy.

Electricity's for light bulbs!

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by: n8nyc @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 21:45:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

One more thing and then I'll take a break from posting on this thread:

Pam, I'm sorry I don't participate more in these threads about race.  I know you want us to and I appreciate that you make it safe, but like most white folks, it's hard and I often take the easy way of saying nothing.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:20:10 PM CDT

exactly Holly

It's the "saying nothing" part that this post was about in regards to the A-Listers, and look at the blowback. It is safer/easier to say nothing rather than get embroiled in a third rail topic, that's because some folks feel there is nothing to be gained or that it will automatically lead to conflict. It's why there is so little progress on the underlying issue of discomfort and the reasons for it.

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:39:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Pam, you often talk about hair and although I might seem intent on derailing this thread,

I'm going to talk about my hair.  I think this is germane.  Last Sunday, even though I'm 51 and have short silver hair, I festooned it with rubber bands.  Of course, it agitated some folks and delighted others, for not even a 7-year old would have employed as many rubber bands as I did.  And tonight, I'm going to have jet black and dark auburn foiled into the silver, even though my season of performing is about to begin and I'll be standing before tens of thousands of Middle Americans.  I just get tired of being safe sometimes.  And threads like this aren't safe, which is why some Blenders will blame others for their deficiencies, although over the years, all of us white Blenders are deficient.  Your threads about race often garner a pair of responses.  Post about Mr. LaBarbera and dozens will respond, but Mr. LaBarbera is a gnat compared to the 600,000 ton leech that is racism. 

 

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:48:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

BINGO!!!

Holly, you're exactly right and I don't think there's a better way to say it.  Posts about LaBarbera get the tons of responses they do because well, frankly, none of us like him.  We all have the basically the same opinion of him and we feed off of that energy.  However, when the race issue comes into it, most of us here and I'll throw myself into that mix, are probably white and well, I will admit that as much as I think I'm not racist, there's a little part of me that is.  Honestly there's a little part of all of us that is (See Avenue Q's "We're all a little bit racist.")

That's not to excuse it, because we do need to address these issues as a whole society and not just as an LGBT one.  While sometimes we all can't believe that LGBT people could be racist because of our own issues with discrimination, we all know the "600,000 ton leech" in the room is that it's true-we do have racism within our own ranks.  There's a gay white-supremacist down in Norfolk who advertises on Hot or Not and has clicked on me a few times because I fit his white view of the world in appearance; that's just one example.

Pam, you do an excellent job of enabling us to discuss the issue of race and I appreciate it, and think you should do it more.  It's one of the older and worser problems in our community.  But, as a community, we have trouble looking past our own noses and the issues of LGBT discrimination.  This is something we need to work on which is why I'm actually very happy that the HRC is covering this event.

The issues with the progressive-blogosphere-at-large, I'd say that the same holds true.  We can rally behind an anti-war issue, we can rally behind pro-choice, and we can rally behind anti-Bush-policy, but the leech, just like spiders, give us mixed feelings and collectively makes our skin crawl just a little.  Again, not an excuse, just a sad sad reality of the PC-world we've created for ourselves.

I say it's a sad reality of the PC-world we've created because we do focus on what is/isn't PC to say.  We don't want to say the wrong thing and offend each other so we tend to put a taboo on the topic.  I think it's high time that we remove the taboo and start discussing it.  Stop being afraid of offending and just ask the quesitons.

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson

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by: Daimeon @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:34:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

civil rights are off the radar

i think in part the lack of coverage of this is that civil rights in general are off the radar.  LGBT rights are widely pissed on as "special rights", not civil rights, including by some prominent black people.  add to this that people seem to feel that "civil rights" was a problem addressed and fixed in 1964, and it's no wonder.  sad, but no wonder.

i recently surveyed presidential candidate's websites and found that, with a few exceptions, civil rights per se is not given the importance of a bullet point on their Issues pages.  not even by Obama, the civil rights lawyer.  the question remains - does their and the blogosphere's near silence on the issue reflect public disinterest?  sadly, i'd say probably.

Lurleen on Twitter

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by: Lurleen @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:28:01 PM CDT

I'll take a stab at it...

I've encountered this weird phenomenon my whole life. I came out in a small town in the midwest in the late seventies. It was a college town with a rather large gay community. Two professors were the glue that held it together having regular parties at their homes. They were both complete mysogenists. Women were forbidden at any of their gatherings. I talked to both of them at length and decided to boycott their parties as a result. They were both very articulate, but the upshot seemed to be that they found women icky and thought their presence would somehow make the boys more inhibited.

I lived in San Francisco for eight years and can't tell you how many times I heard racial slurs from gay men and women. I heard gay men rage about lesbians and lesbians rail against gay men. Thankfully this was not the norm.

As a white man who now lives in the mountains of western North Carolina I still do not understand this. I don't understand the black ministers that spout hatred for the GLBT community either. For many people, once they feel that they've achieved a certain level of acceptance in whatever community, they are eager to slam shut the doors. They are eager to argue that their own bigotry is somehow acceptable.

Racism, Ageism, Sexism, Homophobia - It's all the same to me. If we could all come to grips with this notion we wouldn't be separate minorities in my view, we'd be the majority.

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by: Jim Jenkins @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:46:38 PM CDT

Jim Jenkins:

"Racism, Ageism, Sexism, Homophobia - It's all the same to me. If we could all come to grips with this notion we wouldn't be separate minorities in my view, we'd be the majority."

Yep, yep, and yep, but I've tried and tried and failed and failed at joining feminists and people of color and gay folks.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:50:47 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You Forgot...

You forgot Anti-Semitism, which has not gone away.

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by: Holly in Cincinnati @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:18:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I didn't forget it. I just didn't list it.

Just like I didn't list classism, ageism, xenophobia, prejudice against fat people and disabled people and ugly people, and on and on and on.  My list wasn't intended to be comprehensive.  It was intended to hint at each person's tendency to focus on their navel.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:51:44 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Actually...

You did list ageism :0P  My navel has lint in it.  I've been focusing on it for hours.....Ok that was the extent of trying to inject some levity. 

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson

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by: Daimeon @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 17:27:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

i hate bigots

i'll never let bigots rent in my place.

"blogtopia - yes! i coined that phrase!"

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by: skippy @ Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 16:18:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Pissed Off at FDL

 

I'm a fan of both Jane Hamsher and FDL, but that argument is bullshit! I would love to do the right thing and speak out for justice, but that is no longer possible because it might cause me embarrassment? I'm sorry that the on-location thing didn't turn out, but I've seen blogs you know, link to things even when they didn't have someone on the ground.

We ought not to be so thin skinned. You are absolutely right to point out the dearth of coverage on the big blogs and First-Draft shows how easy it is to say "oh gee, I wish I'd thought of that, here's a post." Come on Jane!

 

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by: Jim Jenkins @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:06:55 PM CDT

Not as progressive as they think they are

As you know, I was a long-time commenter over at Shakesville/Shakespear's Sister.

I got into a heated debate over a race issue with several of the other commenters and Melissa jumped in.

Basically, I objected to Melissa referring to someone as "half Filipino" explaining that my nieces and nephew who are both white and Filipino object to being called "half Filipino" or "half white." They consider themselves to be both -- and just as white or as Filipino as anyone else.

I was told that I had no business speaking for my brother's kids (who I helped raise) because I'm white.

I then wrote that one can learn through the experieces of those they love and gave as an example what I learned about racism through my best friend, Kent, who was black.

Melissa went nuts and wrote that I would not be allowed to use the "some of my best friends are black" argument on her blog.

So, by her logic my experience of being pulled over by LAPD three times when riding with Kent driving his boyfriend's Mercedes, my hearing him called the n-word, and hundreds of other racist acts -- the worst seeing him transferred against his will from Ceder Sinai to County USC when he was dying so he would be "closer to home" -- are meaningless to Melissa simply because I'm white. She compares me to George Wallace and other racists who used the old "some of my best friends are black" line.

Melissa wants to believe that she's the most progressive person in the world. But, if you dare to point out a small flaw in her world view, she'll turn vicious.

I'm not using a hollow argument when I say my best friend was black. Our years together changed my life. From the first time a friend asked, "Why are you living with a black guy?" to the day he contracted Hepatitis in a filthy "black" hospital (a death sentence for someone with AIDS), my eyes were opened and I can see racism where many white folks are blocked by ignorance and inexperience.

I no longer comment on Melissa's blog. She doesn't get it and her support of people of color is typical of progressives who simply want to look like they're doing the right thing but won't challenge their own prejudices.

One of the things I couldn't get Melissa to understand is that just because someone is "half Filipino" that doesn't mean that person would be less likely to have racist opinions about Asians -- particularly Japanese. My brother's former father-in-law saw his father beheaded by a Japanese soldier during WWII -- so he's not really fond of the Japanese. There isn't an Asian brotherhood of some kind. Racism is a big problem in Asia.

Anyway, sorry about the rant. I may come off as holier-than-thou, but I'm willing to admit that I have much more to learn in life. Some people will always be blind.

I wont allow people like Melissa McEwan to tell me "it's not your issue" because I'm white -- and therefore not entitled to share my experiences with racism.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:15:40 PM CDT

Ad Hominem Attacks

Funny, though I often disagree with Melissa I have not encountered any viciousness.

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by: Holly in Cincinnati @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:19:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

There's a mean streak there

Melissa and her friend "Paul the Spud" started accusing me of issuing "veiled insults" in my comments. Paul gave examples of what he believed were insults toward others carefully hidden in my comments. It was a really paranoid and troubling accusation.

Even though I spent dozens of hours building a new blog for her, Melissa turned quite nasty toward me -- calling my comments "ridiculous" and attacking everything I wrote.

Many months ago, she wrote a blog post about how much she liked the movie 40-Year-Old Virgin. I commented that I had to stop watching during the drunk driving scene, because my boyfriend was killed in a drunk driving accident. That's no value judgement about Melissa, just my personal feelings about the movie.

Months later, I made a comment about movies and she wrote: "40-Year-Old Virgin is a good example, but oh, yeah, you didn't like that movie."

I commented back: "If you recall, I couldn't watch that movie because of the drunk driving scene -- my boyfriend was killed by a drunk driver."

She e-mailed me that I hurt her feelings and was trying to make her look like a jerk to her readers.

What do you think? I think she held it against me that I didn't like one of her favorite movies because it treated drunk driving lightly. And, she held that grudge for months!

That seems like a mean, petty and toxic person to me.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 17:57:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

glitches

Through some computer oddity, I haven't been able to read the comments at Shakespeare's Sister for what seems like months, let alone post any comments. 

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience there.  

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by: Holly in Cincinnati @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:06:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fritz, I had something similar happen at another site.

I questioned the non-cyber-credentials of a famous blogger and was pummeled.  In the end, I quit the site because that thread devolved into a dark fantasy about putting a particular neocon woman up against a wall and shooting her.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:53:52 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Please

Melissa is one of the most self-aware, fair and non-judgmental people in the progressive blogosphere. Unlike most, she knows racism is embedded in our social fabric; none of us is left untouched by it. And, most of all, we can all learn from actually listening to one another rather than shouting back and forth.

Understanding comes with dialogue out there, and there's precious little of it between the right people. 

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:04:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

She treated me like crap Pam

Melissa was more concerned with her public image than having a respectful dialogue with me. I repeatedly asked her and Paul to be respectful of my opinions. I didn't ask them to concede, only consider what I had to say as legitimate.

I know she's your bud, but she's a fair weather friend.

She was repatedly disrespectful, and intolerant of my opinions. She wants syophants, not honest debate.

The whole "veiled insults" accusation was the most outrageous experience I've ever had on the blogosphere.

It is a good thing that she resigned from her job with John Edwards because if she treated his voters the way she treated me, he'd be out of the running right now.

I asked Melissa to consult you during her accusations of my using the "some of my best friends are black" canard.

Did she?

Do you think I'm a racist, Pam?

Do you think I issue "veiled insults" to other commenters on your blog?

I did a lot of work for Melissa, free of charge. She was nice as pie when she needed me.

She's desperate to be an A-list blogger. And, she'll probably get there some day. But, she's not a nice person. She treated me horribly even knowing that I suffer from a severe mental illness.

I deeply regret having gotten to know her.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 20:44:59 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Perceptions of Racism

I read of a study this morning that compared the reactions of different peoples to both overt racism, and to "covert" racism in a job hiring circumstance.  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/afps-rct091907.php  Racism's cognitive toll: Subtle discrimination is more taxing on the brain

QUOTE:   ...After witnessing these fair and unfair hiring decisions, the study volunteers took the so-called Stroop test. During this test, the names of colors flash on the screen for an instant, but in the “wrong” colors (the word “red” in green letters, for example), and the idea is to quickly identify the color of the letters.   It tests capacity for mental effort, and the idea in this study was to see if experiencing subtle racism interfered with that mental capacity.

It did, at least for blacks, and more than the overt racism did.  As reported in the September issue of Psychological Science, black volunteers who had witnessed unfair but ambiguous hiring decisions did much less well on the Stroop test, suggesting that they were using all their mental resources to make sense of the unfairness. Interestingly, white volunteers were more impaired by overt racism than by the more ambiguous discrimination. Salvatore and Shelton figure this is because whites rarely experience any racism; they do not even notice the subtle forms of racism, and are thrown off balance when they are hit over the head by overt acts. Many blacks, by contrast, have developed coping strategies for the most hateful kinds of racism; it’s the constant, vague, just-below-the-surface acts of racism that impair performance, day in and day out. ...  ENDQUOTE

Through this lens, I can see how it is possible that some "progressive" people don't "get" the reality of this situation.  I assume that to many of them a noose hanging in a tree is just some rope, or a boy-scout knot tying exercise, rather than a horror-movie threat of violence or death.  They don't "get" the broader situation and context, they miss the implications buried in the term used of "sitting under the white tree."  They have no personal experience of being denied access to public resources or spaces for no good reason and with socially-approved violence always a possibility or the direct threat.  The system works for them, and ironically even when their own personal anger issue is police misconduct, they can often assume those cops are equally vile to all citizens.

Even people who describe themselves as "good lefties" can be that myopic, it's not just about one's ability to feel compassion or fellow-feeling for others, it's also about what one has directly experienced, how one percieves other people.

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by: Canuk @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:19:23 PM CDT

Perceptions--great comment

Thanks for the link to the study. It reveals a lot about how our perception are shaped by our experience.

When I chose a black roommate over 20 years ago, I was the first in my social group to develop a close relationship with a person of color. Today, our group is very diverse -- my brother and I were ahead of the pack in this area. He married a woman who is Asian. I shared an apartment with a black guy.

Of course, we both have horror stories to tell. But, observing and learning was fun in many ways.

Here are some examples:

Whenever Kent and I would go out to eat, the waitperson would almost always give me the check. We'd experiment with this. Sometimes, I wouldn't say a word. Kent would even order for me and I'd still get the check!

Here's the most interesting thing we observed: If the waitperson was black, he/she was MORE likely to give the white guy the check! In fact. they would often ignore Kent completely.

Once, I went into Blockbuster to rent a video and the clerk looked at my card and asked, "Liess, what kind of name is that?"

I replied, "German, why do you want to know?"

He answered, "Well, there's this ASIAN chick who comes in here with the same last name."

"That would be my sister-in-law."

"Huh?"

"My SISTER-IN-LAW."

"Huh?"

"MY BROTHER IS MARRIED TO THAT ASIAN CHICK!"

"Ohhhhh."

Then, there was the time a grown Asian man called my 4-year-old nephew a "banana" -- yellow on the outside and white on the inside. That wasn't fun, because I wanted to kill the guy.

Anyway, there are those of us who have lived and learned through major events and through more subtle experiences.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

---

by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:06:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Wow. That's so important, let's say it again:

...black volunteers who had witnessed unfair but ambiguous hiring decisions did much less well on the Stroop test, suggesting that they were using all their mental resources to make sense of the unfairness. Interestingly, white volunteers were more impaired by overt racism than by the more ambiguous discrimination.

I notice this gap all the time, but I don't attribute it entirely to race, I think there's an experiential component as well. I married a(nother) white woman who was raised in an entirely white environment, and our different levels of attention to subtle unfairness are quite noticable.

She attributes my higher attention to these incidents to my having been raised in a racially integrated town, which hosted students and professors from all over the world and black Americans from all over the South.

She is just gobsmacked when we experience the slap of overt racism, whereas I tend to be a bit more inclined to calmly but clearly explain why the racist is wrong and not let it ruin my day.

But wait, there's more!

---

by: PhoenixRising @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:22:10 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Here's another reason why this topic might be underreported by white bloggers:

Some white folks might think that they're scrubbed clean of racism.  I remember in a thread a few years back where a couple of white Blenders asserted that they aren't racist.  I admitted that I was...and I still am.  I live in a multi-racial neighborhood, so my racism can't slumber.  I see black folks everyday.  They're my neighbors.  I suspect that if I lived in a lily white neighborhood, I could pretend that I don't have a racist devil perched on one shoulder repeating those racist assumptions that I've been fed my entire life.  So, living here reminds me of my racism.  It also gives me chances to counter my racism.  I truly think if you live in a purely white neighborhood and assert that you're not a racist, you lack the daily data for such a conclusion.  And I suspect that choosing to live in such a neighborhood is a racist decision.

---

by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 14:41:39 PM CDT

Everyone shares this

I was waiting in line at the 99 Cents Only store behind two latinas and their young kids. I couldn't help overhearing their converstation.

"I heard you moved recently."

"Yes, I did. It is a beautiful house in a white neighborhood."

"Oh, that must be nice. We're looking for a place in Las Palmas [also a white neighborhood]."

"That would be great. The schools are so much better there."

The message I took away from that is that latinos are quite upfront about "movin' on up" and view moving into a "white neighborhood" as something to brag about. I was a little shocked.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

---

by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:16:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Racism

Outstandingly honest reply.  We all are racist.  We have to use reason and logic to overcome racism.  Our ancestors survived by protecting their own.  They survived by forming clicks. 

In our society today we are blasted with images.  Images that form instant impressions.  Madison Ave. uses our prejudice to sell clothes, cars and everything else they throw at us. 

Recognizing that we are all flawed is clearly a stroke of personal enlightenment that is rarely seen in times like these. 

---

by: ecthompson @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:21:42 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's nice to have someone second what I said. Thanks.

I have compassion for racists. 

If we ever were pre-corporeal wisps, we didn't decide, "When I'm material, I want to be racist."

As you note, ecthompson, we're permeated by racism everyday and from every angle.

---

by: Holly Capote @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:55:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Blog coverage

If you're looking for Jena 6 on the blogosphere, have you checked out Scholars & Rogues?   Jim Booth has an amazing piece here:  http://scholarsandro...

 

---

by: eschewv @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 15:48:03 PM CDT

We blogged about the Jena 6 at TMV

We blogged about the Jena 6 at TMV: 

http://themoderatevo...

---

by: Holly in Cincinnati @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:14:22 PM CDT

Pacifists are not racist for skipping on these violent kids

Like many of my liberal Quaker brothers, I am a pacifist.  That means that I find ALL forms of violence to be unconscionable.  These six kids did beat somebody nearly to death.  I don't really care to be called a racist because I refuse to defend violence.  Violence, expecially in response to non-violent provocation is illegal and wrong.  Action like what these kids did is why we need prisons.

---

by: ajbill @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 16:28:49 PM CDT

the protest was not defending violence.

it was peaceful, to begin with.  and it's purpose was to shine a light on the inequality of the punishments landed on the black and white guys.  also, you may want to get your facts straight before judging an entire situation so harshly.  for starters, the white guy was treated and released the same day, and showed up at a school function that same evening.  not bad for "nearly being beaten to death"!  yeah, the black kids were wrong to beat him up.  but the "justice" system was appallingly wrong to charge them for attempted murder and try them as adults.  is the white guy who brutalized and pulled a gun on the black guy still in jail too?  noooo.

as for the prisons remark, you really tip your hand there.  you're not a real quaker i'll wager.

Lurleen on Twitter

---

by: Lurleen @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 18:13:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Lurleen, do you have

linkage for "showing up at a school function that same evening?" That's a really important bit I hadn't seen. I'd love to have it in my list of references on this.

Electricity's for light bulbs!

---

by: n8nyc @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 21:57:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Here's one

n8nyc, here's a link to an MSNBC story that mentions him attending a school function the same night.

"If the apocalypse comes... beep me." -- Buffy Summers

---

by: Kathy @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 22:21:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks!

Much appreciated.

Electricity's for light bulbs!

---

by: n8nyc @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 22:25:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

mtv news

mtv news also reports that.  the white kid was punched once and went down.  then the black kids kicked him in the head (definitely not cool).

but the white kid was treated and released and went to a party that same day.

it sounds to me more like a school yard fight where the white kid lost, than a "beating" nearly "to death."

also, the white kid was apparently invovled in a fight the previous day w/some of the black kids.

i wrote to headline news asking them to clear up the same misconception they were repeating on their program.

"blogtopia - yes! i coined that phrase!"

---

by: skippy @ Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 16:27:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The protests are absolutely defending violence

The protestors are not asking for further punishment of the violent acts committed by the white kids.  The protesters are asking for a reduction in sentance for the black kids.  If you so called liberals really wanted a better and more peaceful world, you would seek greater punishment of the violent whites instead of working to free your group of thugs.  Until that happens, you are defending violence, and in effect promoting it.  That is wrong, and you should be ashamed to do it.

"yeah, the black kids were wrong to beat him up." and yeah the white kids were wrong to instigate violence.  Punish both and take a stand against violence against your fellow man, or continue to take a stand for violence.  Your choice.

I say work for peace not against it.

---

by: ajbill @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 23:20:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dimbulb, it was a SCHOOL FIGHT in which noone was

seriously injured. This is not the territory of the district attorney - this is the territory of the school principal. This was the sort of thing that cries out for community service hours for all, and some required remedial lessons for the white kids (in-school detention, with reading designated histories of the Civil Rights movement, and book reports thereof, timing of detention to coincide with sports or a banning of the white kids from sports for a year). They are STUPID KIDS.

 If they threw every kid in jail for schoolyard brawls, you'd still be in jail, with a heck of a lot of company.

---

by: NancyP @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 23:48:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Beaing beaten unconscience is not a normal schoolyard fight

And it is not just the white kids who need punishment, as your letter calls for, ALL kids who engage in violence need to be taught that violence is wrong.  Your cavilier attitude to school violence leads to children becomming adults with cavilier attitudes about violence.  And the precisely why we have aggressive wars and such a culture of violence in this country.  Get your head out of the sand and work for the good of us all instead of against it.

---

by: ajbill @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 00:11:13 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

he wasn't beaten unconscious

he was punched once and went down.  mtv news:

the night after the fire, then-16-year-old robert bailey jr. was attacked and beaten when he and some black friends attempted to enter a party that was mostly attended by whites. on december 2, bailey got into a verbal altercation with a white student who had also attended the party, with the white teen running to his truck and pulling out a shotgun. bailey and his friends chased the teen and took the gun away, leading to charges of theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace for bailey, while the student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all. at jena high school that monday, december 4, a white student, justin barker, 17, was allegedly overheard bragging to friends about how bailey had been whipped by a white man. when he stepped into the school's courtyard, barker was attacked by a group of black students who knocked barker out with one punch and then kicked him in the head repeatedly. he was treated and released from a local hospital and attended a party later that night, while the six were arrested and all but the 14-year-old charged as adults. the escalation of the charges — which could have kept the boys in prison for more than 30 years — outraged many of the town's black residents, who said the charges were way out of line with the crime.  

 

"blogtopia - yes! i coined that phrase!"

---

by: skippy @ Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 16:31:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dimbulbery

"If they threw every kid in jail for schoolyard brawls, you'd still be in jail, with a heck of a lot of company."

This line of thought is the problem.  Most kids aren't violent, and don't beat up other kids.  We as a society need to protect the vast majority of good kids from the thugs, rather than excusing them.

---

by: ajbill @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 00:23:51 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Huh?

"Non-violent provocations?" Like death threats? Or pulling shotguns out?

The lengths to which some people will go to avoid having to deal with their own race issues is really blowing my mind at the moment.

---

by: Darkrose @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 18:38:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thuggery is not defensible

Choosing to free a thug does not make you a better person, even if you portray it as working against racism.  Choosing to free a thug simply for his race makes YOU the racist.

---

by: ajbill @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 23:22:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

well, okay then

how about throwing in jail the other thugs who were let off the hook? you know, like the one who pulled the gun?

---

by: emily2 @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 11:50:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Exactly right

That is exactly right.  ALL of these kids (both the white & black thugs) need to be punished.  If this debate centered on the bad white kids getting equally punished, rather than loosening the rules on the black kids that were punished, then I think we would be onto a good solution for society. 

---

by: ajbill @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 12:10:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I posted...

...here.  Pam, you're right -- many white people, including me, are uncomfortable addressing racism.  In my case, it's certainly not because I don't care -- it's pure fear of getting it wrong.

"If the apocalypse comes... beep me." -- Buffy Summers

---

by: Kathy @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 17:40:13 PM CDT

actually...

you're absolutely right. i think many people not in the "in group" are afraid to speak because if their own pc-tendencies, i.e. they don't want to speak and get it wrong, thereby offending the "in group" in the process and appearing to be ignorant and/or patronizing. i'm neither black nor white, and sometimes i just punt on the subject on racism involving blacks and whites, because i feel that i'll just get it wrong (and i have missed the point in the past, believe me) or i'll just look patronizing or stupid. in high school i wrote an article in the school paper about reverse racism, and although i was writing earnestly and i thought, helpfully, i was so severely pummeled afterwards (verbally not physically, i.e. "you're ignorant!" "you haven't been in this country long enough to understand!" - say what? i was born here!) that i've just learned to step gingerly around the subject and declined to comment.

---

by: emily2 @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:06:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Progressives posting on Jena 6 are out there..

Sorry my group blog http://sirenschronic... isn't one of the 'powerhouses' in the liberal blogosphere, but we have been posting about the Jena six since we found out about it. Perhaps it's because we have brown and black women writers? Dunno...but our white women writers are just as outraged.

 

My personal blog, http://leftwingnutjo... has numerous posts about this issue as well. Both blogs have buttons to some of the sites that support the Jena 6. I also post on 3 other liberal sites and have put up posts on each of those sites as well. Tomorrow I will be running a 1000 word essay on this subject at http://thepeacetrain... and http://teambio.org

 

Sometimes you have to look at us, the little bloggers, instead of the bigtime bloggers to see the forest for the trees.  

Get in the backseat because we are all going to hell and I'm driving!

---

by: dusty1215 @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 18:48:38 PM CDT

dusty1215,

It's great to see you in the blend.  I've been listening to your podcast for quite some time!  You may have a less read blog but you're one of the more listened to podcasts both audio and video.  Thanks for the great work you do!

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson

---

by: Daimeon @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 07:12:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Lead news story here

The 5:00 news is about to start and the march is the lead story.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

---

by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:06:10 PM CDT

NPR &CNN

NPR has been talking about it all day, and CNN is supposed to do an expose tomorrow.  Today's "To The POint" did a great job laying out the situation, I thought.  Interested people can listen here

Lurleen on Twitter

---

by: Lurleen @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:25:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

poor jane hamsher, a unwitting victim of reverse racism again!

[UPDATE: Jane Hamsher of FDL isn't keen that I blogged about this topic, she emailed me that she feels that she (or any of the A-List) cannot post on the matter are placed in a bad position because of this post now without having and will have to defend challenges of racism. She actually had someone slated to post on Jena 6 who bailed on her. That's clearly not FDL's fault, and Chris obviously wasn't aware of that when he did his cursory surfing of the A-list.

That really, really astounds me. So Jane wrote in personally to whine about how she's in a bad position now because she couldn't get it together to insure meaningful coverage of the Jena issue on one of the leading liberal. 

I guess it's all good, though, if she actually had someone on this only a dog ate her homework! I hate it when that happens. :(

---

by: ebogjonson @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:23:27 PM CDT

look....

I said above, the person Jane had onsite didn't get Jena stuff to her in a timely manner. Sh*t happens. And she's right in one respect -- in some circles the lack of a post on Jena 6 will equal racism, which isn't fair or accurate. The lack of subtlety in these discussions is troubling.

A lot of this is about discomfort with the overall subject of race, and as many have noted, too many blacks (and other POC) and whites have painted themselves into a corner so that any discussion of race (or even a discussion about a lack of dialog on it) is loaded, and for a number of progressive whites it's easier to avoid the issue rather than stir the pot. It's pretty hard to disagree when you have Jesse Jacksons flamethrowing insanity to further stir the paranoia. The whole thing stinks.

---

by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 19:38:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

In a way, this reminds me of Duke Lacrosse

The circumstances are completely different, in my book.  However, the Duke case involved both race and rape, and things got so weighted down with baggage that it was rare to see any sort of nuanced discussion.  Say what you will about any of the parties involved, but I posit that the discussion that came out of it was superficial yet needlessly divisive.  People said what they thought they were expected to say, and were very, very defensive, lest someone think ill of them.  Given that the situation in Jena involves both race and black-on-white violence (yes, we've established that there was also a ton of white-on-black violence, too), it's not surprising that people are cautious to wade into the discussion-- sad, but not surprising.

---

by: eastsidekate @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 20:20:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm not attacking you, you're covering the story

But I have managed both paid and free editorial teams and I just flat out don't buy Hamsher's excuse.

People get the stories that are important to them, it's that simple. FDL is a blog, she's not etching the J6 in a stone tablet. You know what you do when you assign someone important and they flake on a blog? You write: "I assigned someone something important and they flaked, but this day is to terribly important to too many people to let it pass without mention." Instead of doing that she's hiding behind unseen IMs and POC blogger complaining about what a bind she's in. Classy, Jane!

There is "no lack of subtlety here." A piece of coverage either exists or it doesn't, end of story.

Also, I don't really see what Jesse Jackson has to do with anything. White people talk about Jesse Jackson the way Republicans talk about MoveOn.org. "Jessie Jacksons flamethrowing" has nothing to do with black narratives about J6 coverage. It's a white meme designed largely to let white folks know that the user is "reasonable", and I would urge everyone to stop using it.

Again, I'm not trying to attack or shoot the messenger, but I am startled that we'd allow the central point - lack of coverage of J6 by white progressive bloggers - to be hijacked by a pity party for how a dog ate Jane Hamsher's homework.

---

by: ebogjonson @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 20:32:51 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

or the big bloggers could have linked to pam?

I notice Miss Laura had a link up to the rally this afternoon. on DKos...

Thousands marched in support of the Jena 6 today.  Several Democratic presidential candidates have made statements, with Hillary Clinton calling for a Justice Department investigation and Chris Dodd saying he hopes LA Gov. Blanco "grants immediate reprieves should any of the Jena 6 be convicted."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mad Professah Lectures http://madprofessah.com
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

---

by: Mad Professah @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 23:13:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Solmonese's comments

Changing the focus just slightly...

..I LOVE how Solmonese was able to stand up at a DC rally about the Jena case, and help focus energy on the issue of racial injustice, and even evoke discussion of James Byrd.  Considering how many black ministers have been siding with fundies, it was wonderful to see one of the GLBT movement's figureheads turning the other cheek in light of the shameful bedfellows some of these black ministers have accepted. 

---

by: giftedguru1970 @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 20:02:33 PM CDT

Yes!

Solmonese's statement was an excellent case of connecting the dots in a way that unites, and doesn't divide. It's not difficult to do so -- and take the extra step of doing so publicly. Thumbs up to HRC on this one.

---

by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 20:36:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Un.....something

"I'd really like to blog about the case, and I spent about 30 minutes this morning trying to research it, but I couldn't get a good enough sense of what the facts are or what the precise cause of the protest is to really know what to make of it."

I think your comment of "unbelievable" in response to this is the understament of the eon.

There might be some valid excuse for some individual - but that damn sure wasn't it.

Kat

>^..^<

---

by: KatRose @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 21:12:59 PM CDT

Joined just to comment

I had to join this blog tonight in order to comment on this post, although I have visited many times before.

I've tried to cover the Jena 6 story and other issues of race. Whenever I post on the topic of race, I get slammed by the extreme racists who I'm convinced put "race" in their search engine box and just go from blog to blog spewing their filth. 

Over the last few days, my little blog has been absolutely slammed by visitors looking for information on the Jena 6. Of course, some of them have been wonderful, but a lot of them have been just pure racists. Now, I don't use that term lightly but when I have folks posting the n-word on a regular basis - well, you can draw your own conclusions.

Am I disappointed that the larger blogs are not even mentioning the Jena 6 case? You bet. 

In order for us to make progress on the issue of race, we have to be willing to talk about it.

---

by: Vivian J. Paige @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 21:21:23 PM CDT

A Listers

The fragile egos of some A-Listers is a wonder to behold. Remember when atrios wanted to "shoot someone in the face" because Terrance had dared complain about blogroll purging amnesty day and didn't have a front page blogroll?  Well, I remember it.  I think of it whenever I read a diatribe from someone widely read about one of their pet peeves.

How can you read about the events in Jena and not want to go scream at the sky?

I'd have thought one of the big guns would have picked up on Bush's hypocrisy today:

President Bush, who was asked about the rally at a news conference, said, "The events in Louisiana have saddened me. I understand the emotions. The Justice Department and the FBI are monitoring the situation down there.

"All of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice."

He advised whoever is elected next year to "reach out to the African-American community."

They're so often (rightfully so) hanging on his every awkward word.

Given the crickets that come out on many progressive blogs when the topics of homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, or antisemitism are brought up, I'd bet that some bloggers didn't want posts with paltry comment numbers.  But, it's been a long day and I'm feeling a tad cynical about all of this.

On Jena itself, have people been talking about the fact that that Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, doesn't think the noose incident has much to do with the case at hand? He's a Bush appointee and former oil company counsel.

The school board considered the nooses a childish prank.  Nothing to blog about in any of that???? Please. It took me about 15 minutes to piece together this sh!tty little comment.  Surely a mighty a-lister could have typed this with one eye on their rss feed.

In other realms check out the current NYT website front page:

(click for larger)
A few white kids with signs in Belgium headline while a huge civil rights rally serve as footnotes (Disclaimer, I blogged about this image with similar text).

Electricity's for light bulbs!

---

by: n8nyc @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 21:29:44 PM CDT

How does one even know who the A-listers are?

---

by: Holly Capote @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 09:35:35 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't keep

a comprehensive list, but I think of ThinkProgress, Atrios, Kos, Marshall, and a few others.  When I say "a lister," I'm thinking about the size of audience. I guess you could refer to the truth laid bear list too. For me, it's a lazy way of writing, "widely read."

Electricity's for light bulbs!

---

by: n8nyc @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 13:46:13 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

This quote comes to mind:

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I would rather be hated for whom I love; than loved for whom I hate.

---

by: GordonOKC @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 21:32:39 PM CDT

I was scolded

for using this same quote on an above-named progressive blog. "How dare you quote MLK to US?!" they wrote.

I was told by numerous commenters and the owner of the blog that my white skin disqualifies me from expressing an opinion on racial issues that involve my family members who are biracial.

I know Pam doubts my story, but there are many there who believe that whites shouldn't speak out about these issues.

I was shunned for pointing out that racism is a global issue -- that there are many Japanese who consider Filipinos, Koreans, Chinese and other Asian people to be racially inferior. The Japanese killed millions in forced labor camps -- in larger numbers than Hitler killed in Europe. But, we ignore that here in the U.S. because the victims weren't white. Just Google the terms "comfort women" and "bataan death march" and you may learn something new about WWII.

The issue of racism is an important one in the U.S., but let's not continue to ignore Darfur and other serious cases of racially motivated crimes throughout the world.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

---

by: Fritz @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 22:16:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well, this is one great thread!

I have to admit, I hadn't noticed the lack of coverage on the A-list blogs, mostly because when I am busy, I check out PHB, Americablog, Pandagon, and feministblogs (aggregator service) - and Pam is on all four for this issue.

I think that there is a lack of historical knowledge, and a lack of curiosity, and a lack of imagination and empathy involved in progressive white racial blindness.  I like to think that I live to attain the goal "Nothing human is alien to me" (Roman playwright/comedian Terence), so I do try to learn about other people's experiences outside the small white wealthy subculture I was raised in. But a lot of times, I Just Don't Get It until someone slaps me upside the head.

---

by: NancyP @ Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 23:42:02 PM CDT

A point that you might want to consider

As you all know I try mightily to make the Blend a safe space to discuss race, and even then, threads on the topic, save the Imus debacle, garner few comments."

I actually do try to read most of your posts, but I have to tell you, the fact is that I consider your posts on race primarily for informational purposes.  You post the information, and I read it. 

Comments?  Unless I have a question about what you have posted, what is there to comment on?  I suspect that some might like to "tut, tut" about the information in your posts, but, quite frankly, I find that sort of thing a waste of page space--so I don't.

I have posted questions, and maybe a few comments over at Rod 2.0's site, but they were primarily questions.  I have had nothing to question you about here.  So, if I were you, I wouldn't take it personally that there aren't a lot of comments on your race-based posts.  One thing that you might want to consider, instead of straight informational reporting, is framing questions, to spark discussion.  Having taught law school courses, I can ensure you that that is extremely difficult to do effectively.

BTW, you are probably correct about self-described progressive bloggers not wanting to get involved in discussions of racial issues.  Most of them don't want to get involved in gay issues either.  Case in point, Kevin Drum over at WashingtonMonthly.com almost never blogs about gay issues.  Neither does Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo.com, or Matthew Yglesias, or Hilzoy (ObsidianWings), or even FireDogLake--except for the one apparently gay blogger there.  I'll leave it to your imagination as to why.

---

by: raj @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 05:30:38 AM CDT

Q of the day

I often run Q of the day on a variety of topics, btw. I don't take it personally, it's just painfully apparent that many "informational" posts on topics other than race don't require a question or call for discussion to generate a lot of comments, whereas similar threads on race are left pretty barren, for the reasons discussed in this thread.

---

by: Pam Spaulding @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 05:42:32 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Why the "Big [White] Boys of Blogging Don't Organize Protests, but the AfroSpear Does:

It's obvious that they conferenced that idiotic "we're too stupid" excuse for their lack of coverage.  Here's an explanation that makes sense:  Why the "Big [White] Boys of blogging don't organize protests, but the AfroSpear Does

 

 

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by: francislholland @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 11:58:08 AM CDT

i'm really surprised and disappointed--

i had posted about it in Metafilter back in May  (http://www.metafilte... -- and we've had one other since then on it all), and thought it would have swept through all the blogs--i originally learned about it from Afrospear and it also was in international newspapers back then too.

 

It's just sad how myopic and DC-focused too many blogs are. It hurts all of us.

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by: amberglow @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 15:05:54 PM CDT

Fear

Speaking as a white blogger who has covered the Jena Six, I think the main factor is fear.   White bloggers are scared.  They're scared of getting nasty emails from overt white racists, they're scared of getting chewed out by black bloggers for saying the wrong thing, and they're scared of dividing their usually very white, very gentrified, very entitled audience.

 

The Iraq War is a much easier topic because progressives pretty much oppose it by definition, so it almost qualifies as small talk.  "God, the war sucks" is slightly less controversial than "Hey, how about those Cubs?"

 

I think Phil Ochs put it best:

Phil Ochs, Love Me, I'm a Liberal Lyrics

 

Looking for Phil Ochs tabs and  chords? Browse alphabet (above)

Artist: Ochs Phil Song: Love Me, I'm a Liberal Album: There But for Fortune

Buy  Phil Ochs Sheet Music Buy  Phil Ochs CDs

   
I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The white progressive blogosphere tends to be made up of people who think they're beyond those impulses, but they're just as wrong as white conservatives are when they say they "don't see color."  It's impossible to get beyond that impulse.  It's human nature to avoid controversy, and stuff like the Jena Six situation does qualify as controversial on most white progressive blogs, in my experience.

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by: Tom Head @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 05:19:12 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

And also...

...and I hate to say it, but I feel like most of the progressive blogosphere is really about getting candidates elected, not advancing issues.

Here in Mississippi, we have two rabidly anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-immigrant white male Democratic candidates--John Eaves and Jamie Franks--and DailyKos described them as "the best candidates ... in years."  Four years ago, we had an incumbent white male governor who was socially conservative but didn't flaunt it, and a pro-choice, black, female lieutenant gubernatorial candidate that received almost no white support.

I watched the entire local progressive blogosphere describe anti-immigrant rhetoric as the biggest problem of our election cycle when some low-ranked Republicans were using it...but when John Eaves started bashing immigrants, and started bashing the Republican incumbent governor for _not_ bashing immigrants, the problem of anti-immigrant rhetoric must have been solved overnight because I never heard these fine progressives bring up the issue again.  That's when it hit me: It was never about immigrants.  It was about electing Democrats.

So when no Democratic politicians are doing squat on Jena, I don't expect much of the progressive blogosphere to care.  The central question, certainly on Kos and on most other white progressive blogs I've seen, is: "How do we get our folks elected?"  If Hillary Clinton made Jena a central issue in her campaign tomorrow, I think the white progressive blogosphere would suddenly discover a passion for the issue.

That's one of the reasons why, Pam, yours is pretty much the only broad-spectrum progressive blog I read regularly.  Because you're actually issue-focused.  I don't think most progressive bloggers are, and I don't know how much of this is intentional and how much of this is just because they've been letting politicians dictate the terms of these debates for them, but I wish it wasn't like that.

I don't mean to be so snarky.  It's late and I'm tired and I'm not feeling very kind.

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by: Tom Head @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 05:38:21 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

i'm white too--

horror and disgust and outrage are universal -- at least they used to be.

I agree that most blogs are far more concerned with politics and DC, but our govt only exists to serve us--everything is political. Miscarriages of justice and overt and intrenched and official racism are inherently political, especially in a town where whites control everything, and all-white juries put black kids away but let white kids get off scot-free.

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by: amberglow @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 12:55:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

clarification

As a progressive blogger (nowhere close to your idea of top-tier) who was e-mailed and didn't begin to cover this story until recently (primarily because I run an atheist blog and did not see pervasive religious issues in the developing story), I want to clarify a couple things.

First, I think the progressive community was rightly outraged over the nooses hanging in the tree. Unfortunately, this was largely ignored by the mainstream media and did not spark the sort of protests it should have. This should have been the moment protesters descended on Jena. I take full responsibility for not jumping on this part of the story immediately. I should have done so because of the tremendous social importance even if I couldn't find the sort of religious themes that I typically focus on. This was my mistake, and I regret it.

Second, I am truly puzzled that the outrage seems to be more at the legal situation of the Jena 6 defendants rather than the initial incident with the nooses. Yes, I understand that the white students who hung the nooses had their hands slapped while the Jena defendants were brought up on all sorts of crazy charges. But lets not forget that six students beating another is a problem, regardless of the motivation. Should the White students have faced harsher consequences? Absolutely. Should the Jena 6 be elevated to hero status? No way. Their punishment should fit their crime, but there should be punishment.

I find the "free the Jena " stuff misplaced. If homophobes beat a gay student, would we be arguing for their release? Why can't we punish the Jena 6 AND the white students responsible for the nooses?

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by: vjack @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 09:01:30 AM CDT

because the white kids weren't punished at all.

we have no power to bring charges there--we only know what we see, and what we saw and still see is that there was incitement with the nooses, and then fights on all sides--but only one side got punished--and excessively so. Schoolkids fighting shouldn't have been court cases, but should have been suspensions on all sides--they weren't. Racism should have been countered by the school doing stuff about it, but they didn't. ...

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by: amberglow @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 12:58:02 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What I actually said was

that it would probably work better to send an email first and ask "why" before going on the attack.  Not only would it have produced more thorough reporting, it would have been more likely to get people to do what you want, if in fact your goal was to get more people to write about Jena 6.

Putting people in a bad position --  i.e., calling them out for something and then hoping they'll do what you want -- isn't always the best way to work with people whose support you are trying to elicit, especially when they've shown good faith in the past about working with you.

Ben Chaneles, BTW, finally wrote his report from the Jena.

http://www.firedogla...

 

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by: Jane Hamsher @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 15:19:39 PM CDT

A C-List blogger speaks

Obviously, I'm late to the party on this, but I wanted to leave a comment, because the "It's not my area of expertise" was the Dodge that I more or less use. So, having had my bullshit successfully called, I felt I had to post, and did.

So why didn't we give the story big coverage? (Not that coverage from the C-list would have greatly helped.) We're a group blog, and we are, in fact, mixed by race (accepting race as a self-evident category), sex, age. My feeling is that one of our bloggers didn't write because he was so enraged by it, he wasn't sure what the reaction would be if he expressed himself; another blogger was busy; and so forth. Leaving me, the WASPiest of the WASPs.

I guess I feel that I add value only through analysis, and since I really AM NOT an expert, and have not made myself one, what's the point? Which is why I wrote a roundup.

FWIW, one overlooked factor, at the C-list level at least, is simple exhaustion. I don't want to sound like I'm whining, but I've been blogging for years now, and I have a huge collection of riffs. I can assemble a post on FISA or Federalist 43 half asleep or half dead, but doing serious posting, as opposed to a roundup, on Jena would require learning not just some new riffs, but doing serious posting on Jena would mean learning not just some new riffs, but a whole new instrument -- and I have to keep the hits coming, so it's easier to bang out what I know....

My takeaways, FWIW, were:

1. Massive success, in great contrast to the Iraq protests in DC

2. I like the emphasis on a criminal justice system that works fairly for everybody, because it ties into a series of riffs that I do run, centered on the idea that the conservative movement has replaced Constitutional government with authoritarian rule.

3. Somewhere in my travels today I picked up the formulation that most blacks have only one or two "degrees of separation" from law enforcement. I think that white folks are shortly going to have their degrees of separation radically abridged, due to the activities of DHS, internal passport controls, show ID to get work, travel restrictions, etc.  It's interesting to think of degrees of separation from LE as a metric of privilege, since it's more dynamic and narrative than one-dimensional metrics like money (or, for that matter, skin color).

Anyhow, it seems like these are matters that need to be spoken of, painful though the process of finding words that cut only the enemy might be... 

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by: lambert_strether @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 23:55:37 PM CDT

i'll admit i'm late

but i was able to find (and blog about) a great run down of the events behind mike bell's arrest at mtv news (thanks to susie manrak at suburban guerilla, whose post was cross-posted at huffpo).

steven d at booman tribune also has written a comprehensive piece about it.

yes, the big box blogs are mia about this, but there's tons of stuff on the smaller, better, more personable blogs.

"blogtopia - yes! i coined that phrase!"

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by: skippy @ Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 16:07:12 PM CDT