Thoughts on Segregation In The Blogosphere
I’ve read about this in quite a few blogs that make a point of announcing the fact that they are written by women, blacks, gays or Mexicans, for example. These blogs mention often a segregation in the blogosphere, one I personally have never seen, though that doesn’t at all mean that it doesn’t exist–I’m not exactly knowledgeable on this subject.
But here are my thoughts:
On one hand I think it’s great that these people are speaking out as a voice for their ‘people’, so to speak. They are unrepresented (women and gays not really, but minorities certainly) and need a powerful voice on the blogosphere to stand out among the masses of white bloggers, certainly. And I definitely have respect for them deciding to do this. There is more than enough racism, hatred and intolerance in the world, and these people are fighting for their group’s rights, often without the acknowledgement or gratefulness of the people they are representing.
Namely, Black Perspective, Gaytheist Agenda and Latino Pundit. These three have definitely stood out to me as very intelligent, well-worded writers who could outsmart me and much of the white blogosphere any day of the week. Serious kudos to them, and give them some attention if you can. They certainly deserve it.
However, on the other hand I wonder if pointing out one’s race and making it the main feature of your blog being your race is a good idea in the long term, for several reasons.
The first being that it encourages segregation in the blogosphere. When you advertise the fact that you are a minority, it automatically separates you from the assumed majority.
The second being that, announcing your race or other ’special feature’ can override what you’re trying to say. Suddenly all that matters is your race. Online, should our race matter at all? For example, when I started writing, I mentioned my condition a bit, and I think it became the only reason people read my writing. Once I recovered and my condition was no longer talked about, my amount of readers significantly dropped. Of course, the two blogs mentioned above have far better material than I, so I doubt they’d have the same problem.
My overall point being that perhaps announcing one’s race and making it the primary focus of your blog may not be the best idea. People are more than the sum of their parts–bloggers are more than just their race, more than their gender, more than their age, more than that. Is identifying solely by one of these parts the best way to end segregation in the blogosphere, and racism in the world?
Don’t get me wrong. Minority groups should definitely be represented in the blogosphere. But perhaps when white bloggers speak not as white bloggers but as themselves, and minority bloggers speak as white bloggers and not themselves, it only perpetuates separation?
Just some respectful thoughts. I’m hoping to hear from the bloggers mentioned and their thoughts on the issue, as well as other minority writers. I definitely love what you guys are doing and support you 100%.
Blue Linchpin, thank you for the accolades and recommendation.
You wrote: “The first being that it encourages segregation in the blogosphere. When you advertise the fact that you are a minority, it automatically separates you from the assumed majority.”
I don’t understand this thought. The implication of this view is that we would be more included if we deny who we are. If I’m too Black then I’m not acceptable to White folks, so to make them comfortable I need to be less of me and join them in ignoring mine and my peoples needs for their comfort benefit.
“Online, should our race matter at all?”
Should is irrelevant. What is, is what is. Should race matter in loans, or should it just be based on the portfolio of the loan applicant. Well the answer clearly is the latter. Yet, it is well documented that Blacks are discriminated in loans even when they have the same income and credit history as their white counterparts. So because it should be that it doesn’t matter. Are Blacks are supposed to ignore this, and not say anything about it because talking about race makes white people uncomfortable and they just assume ignore it since it doesn’t affect them? Actually it does affect them; it benefits them, which is evidently a major reason why the majority of white people are fine with the race status quo.
“perhaps announcing one’s race and making it the primary focus of your blog may not be the best idea.”
That wholly depends on purpose. If the purpose is to try to have the most popular socio-poitical blog on the net, no; you automatically lose out the gate.
If the purpose is to address Black issues and Black life, then obviously it’s paramount.
It is hard for some people, especially those in the majority group, or those who identify with and or think in the paradigm of the majority to group to grasp the notion that if you and your needs and your culture are largely ignored by others, that if you don’t bring it up then it won’t be brought up. Further, some one else cannot speak to your groups the way members of that group can.
White people complain about their being a Black History month. Well if our school history books, for instance, didn’t consist of Black history being one chapter about slavery, and a couple of paragraphs about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks; and that basically being it (practically nothing in world history, as if we didn’t exist or do anything until we were brought here on slave ships) then there would have never been a need. Actually there wasn’t that much history of Black people being taught by white society when Carter G. Woodson started “Negro History Week” in 1926 (which later became Black History Month)
They whine about a BET’s existence. “You all would pitch a fit and call us racist if we had White Entertainment Television”. The point is, you already do, and always have. It’s called ABC, NBC, CBS, USA,TNT and the rest of the alphabet soup.
When MTV started, for almost the first decade they wouldn’t even play Black music. Now this is in the 80s, not the 50s; after we supposedly overcame. For most of the first decade Michael Jackson and Prince were practically the only Blacks played on that network; and they had to be crossover artist who are racially ambiguous looking at that. Still Jackson had to fight to get the Thriller album’s videos on initially. It took until RUN DMC came out with “Walk This Way” for Blacks to get any real play on MTV, and that was do to the fact that it was a remake of a popular white band’s song who also appeared in the video. Do to the success of that, then they created “Yo! Mtv Raps” in ’88 and finally started putting Blacks on.
The notion is that we should go along with being ignored and disregarded for unity. If our culture, heritage, history, concerns and needs were accounted for within white society we’d have no need for anything separate, but since they’re not, we have to do it ourselves or there’d be nothing for us or reflecting us.
Unity is fine, but unity at my expense is not.
Hey D. :)
I think I wrote my post a bit badly, or you misunderstood me at least. I definitely see what you mean, though, especially in the last several paragraphs of your comment. Thanks for taking the time and reading and responding, I was really hoping for your thoughts on it. (whoops, caught a mistake on my second to last paragraph…should have said black, not white bloggers)
I don’t think minority bloggers should EVER ignore their background or pretend their someone they aren’t. I rather meant that the internet is a place where perhaps we can make some serious steps toward getting rid of racism completely–one’s color is not so immediately apparent as when the person is standing right in front of you, and the person’s voice is heard far louder than when they’re someone living far away from you. So in the internet, we have a chance for less color arousal. So perhaps minorities on the internet here have a chance to be seen by the rest of the world as real people, not just ‘a black guy’ or ‘a Mexican’ as they would in the real world.
You are right, however. If the purpose of the blog or site is specifically to speak for, represent or discuss issues relating to their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc, then definitely it should be a focus. These groups are seriously underrepresented, but I think we’re slowly approaching the point where the color of one’s skin, sexual orientation, gender and religious beliefs are meaning less and less. Certainly there is still huge amounts of racism and hatred in the world. We separate ourselves into groups when really, we’re all humans with just different backgrounds, physical features and ways of life. Yes, these are parts of our identity, but they aren’t our sole features. We should give them equal representation to the rest of our features.
Not sure that made any sense. I probably shouldn’t have stayed up until 3:30 am then gotten up a few hours earlier and tried to make sense of anything…
Hope it did :P
I write a womanist blog and it is dedicated to raising awareness. This is not going to win my any popularity contests or wealthy anytime soon. The internet provides the perfect medium to spread information that is typically censored by the mainstream press, this is why it is vitally important that POC make our voices heard. We cannot allow there to exist yet another area where we are marginalized and created as other.
I can’t live with the “it’s getting better every day” attitude because point of fact it is not. If Katrina taught us anything at all it is that poor black bodies don’t count for anything in the western world. I want to be seen as “that black woman” because I believe that it is an identity that matters despite what we have socially constructed to believe and I will not hide behind the potential invisibility of the internet.