| What about trickier issues, such as American Muslims, who are a community identified by their religious identity, yet are drawn into the political sphere as a matter of necessity which means that their so called "religious" identity has been "secularized." Is the encouragement going to be that American Muslims alter the way they identify themselves in order to be subsumed into the left? While I have historically agreed with that idea, I am not sure if it is practically viable.
In terms of African-American politics (I grew up in the South and lived near Girard Avenue in Philly), is the emphasis on race-blind ventures, or race-conscious ones? If the latter, are blacks the only community where race-consciousness matters, or will you include other communities as well? Is the standard that a community self-identify as wanting race-consciousness?
Some larger questions are: is this a forum for policy initiatives, or for tackling case by case examples of grievances? Yes, I know, the most likely response is going to be, why can't we do both? Why not have activists meet policy professionals so they can learn from one another. I am sorry. I have been around long enough to know that is spin.
I am not really saying what my particular views are, because I am trying to gauge this community's affinity/interest in these matters. My experience -- and those of most minorities -- in the left online world have been: start your own stuff and do it by yourself, and hope that Mike at Crooks and Liars picks you up from time to time. Ultimately, white people congregate to sites like this one because they can assume the sites *belong* to them. I won't invoke Phillip Roth's the "Ur of We" but will say that I certainly don't feel as if I belong. No surprise that if you look around the few African-American blogs you get reference to Daily KKKos very quickly.
Sorry if you think I am jaded. I've been around the leftosphere for a year now, and haven't really seen much growth or introspection on these matters except at My Left Wing and Booman Tribune here and there.
The ultimate question is: race-conscious or race-blind; religion-conscious or religion-blind (referring only to those communities whose religion is already politicized); focus on under-represented people via minority-rights or economic-rights.
Finally, I see Avaaz on the blogroll with whom I was involved before they got launched: am I to presume there will be stuff about global poverty here (and not just the regular tripe about Darfur, which starts with genocide sucks, ends with, let's not give ammunition to Bush for invasion)?
Thanks for your time. I will now wait for the usual 1 or 2 comments, and then bounce.
My Huff-Po is Here. I am new there.
By the way, all this critique applies to "real life" ventures as well. I've been to Drinking Liberally meetings, finding them occurring in the a) most affluent and b) least racially diverse bars in the planet [except in those cities where you can't escape diversity, like NYC]. |
