| Seventeen doesn't seem like a very big number, particularly in context of the 1,400 or so people who will attend YearlyKos this week. But there is an inspiring story behind 17 of the bloggers who will descend on Chicago starting today, and given the conversations about diversity in the blogosphere that we've been having here, I thought it was worth spreading around a little more.
Oakland blogger Paul Delehanty, who writes as kid oakland on Daily Kos and founded Blogs United, began organizing regional caucuses for the 2007 YearlyKos Convention when he ran into many bloggers who would bring great regional, gender, ethnic and economic diversity to the convention, but who could simply not afford to go, or just weren't connected to the event. We all know that YearlyKos Las Vegas was not as diverse as it could have been, and Paul set out this year to begin changing that. He teamed up with Howie Klein and Vicki Cosgrove, and on a very short timeframe (about 4 weeks), they designed and executed a matching grant program that could help send bloggers-in-need to Chicago. With generous support from the Daily Kos community, they ended up raising more than $8,000 in donations of conference registrations, airline miles and travel cash for a total of 17 bloggers from around the country, all of whom will add voices and perspectives that have historically been underrepresented in this space.
There is a simple but important lesson here, about reaching out, and about recognizing a need and taking the initiative to ask for something. Paul asked these bloggers to come to the convention, to share their perspective and take back what they learned, and challenged them to raise funds from their own communities to help them get there. And he asked us in the rest of the progressive blogosphere to do what we could to support them. In the end, we all did it together, which is just how it should be. This is exemplary of the kind of work that goes into building successful multi-racial coalitions, which we have also talked a lot about here, especially how we can do more of it in the world of political blogging.
I want to introduce you to three of these bloggers, who are a good representation of the new faces we will have at YearlyKos thanks to this effort, and whose stories represent different aspects of the work we need to do in building our winning progressive coalition. See the extended entry for more, and a complete linky list of the grantees, who are calling themselves "The Chicago 17." They are all bloggers doing some amazing things, who would never have made it to YearlyKos otherwise. |
Nezua Limón Xolagrafik-Jonez is a 38-year-old graphic designer in Oregon. Nezua's political activism began around the immigration issue, and he launched his blog, theunapologeticmexican.org, on May 1, 2006, the day of the largest immigrant rights and marches rallies across the country. The negativity and racism impacting immigrants and in particular Latinos was a presence in his life, but it had been "on a level where it wasn't really registering." Nezua comes from a 2nd-generation family of migrant farm workers from Mexico, and he said there came a point when he couldn't stand to be silent anymore. So he designed and launched his blog, which he writes in a fun mix of English and Spanish, and one of his first posts was covering the immigrant marches in New York City, where he lived at the time.
Nezua heard about YearlyKos last year, but said his impression was it was a place where mainstream bloggers met up, and he didn't see how he really fit in. So when Paul called him and asked him to participate in the grant program, he was quite surprised. "I figure when an opportunity presents itself, you have to go with it," Nezua said. "I said yes, but I said I would still be my irreverent self. I'm going to be who I am from start to finish." Still, he caught some heat from some readers and said he even lost a few friends over accepting the invitation. "There is a faction of people who think you are a sellout when you cross certain lines," he said. "It's been hard to connect these groups of people." He plans to make a documentary of his experience, though, and in participating Nezua hopes to play some part in creating more understanding all the way around.
Susie Madrak wasn't planning to attend YearlyKos, either. A blogger in Philadelphia since 2003, she is between jobs after being unemployed for a while, and there was no way she could afford it. Susie, 52, comes from a working-class background, and writes about politics with that lens on the blog Suburban Guerrilla, which she founded. "It's not always something that is discussed, but so many bloggers tend to be from a fairly privileged background," she said. "I grew up in a Philadelphia row home, didn't go to college, was married when I was 19 and had two kids. For me it's always been about trying to keep your head above water economically."
Susie said she started blogging out of frustration over the war in Iraq. She has a background in journalism, so blogging came naturally, and she said she appreciated the ability to do something to combat the media cheerleading for the war that was going on at the time. "It was either that or throw a brick through the television."But her passion now is to push the Democratic Party and progressives on class issues, and to be a voice on those issues that comes from having experienced things like "having to choose between groceries and antibiotics for the kids." She said she will bring that voice to the Chicago convention, in hopes of broadening the conversation.
Bernita Smith lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and she said it's easy when you're in the  South to feel a bit isolated and disconnected from the rest of the progressive movement. She's excited to meet other Southern bloggers and activists at the regional caucuses at YearlyKos, and to begin organizing them into more of a force. She comes from a background in city planning and demographics, and uses her experience now to work for campaigns as a political consultant. Originally from New Jersey, she came to Georgia for grad school and never left, after getting her start working for President Carter's Atlanta Project in 1993.
Bernita, 37, has been blogging as part of her political activism and organizing in Georgia since 2004, on Blog for Democracy, and on Tondee's Tavern since 2007. "Because Georgia is so small in terms of politics, we got a lot of flack," she said. "We called out Democrats in our own party. It just didn't make sense what was going on." She also co-hosts a Blog Talk Radio show called Kudzu Vine, which airs every Sunday at 7 p.m.
Like the others, YearlyKos just wasn't on her radar. Her impression of the larger national blogs was that it was more about bickering than talking about unity, but she said better understanding how to improve connections between national and local bloggers is one goal she has in attending the event in Chicago this week. Bernita said she really appreciated the outreach from Paul, because it felt good that someone wanted representation from the South, and because the fact that other bloggers were organizing to send people like her was inspirational. So inspiring, in fact, that Bernita said she is committed to helping organize a similar effort next year to send more bloggers to the convention.
"If I would not have gotten the call, I would not have been there," Bernita said. "I'm very thankful for that."
The fact is, this wouldn't have happened unless someone took the initiative and did it. I commend Paul, Vicki and Howie, for putting forth so much energy to make this grassroots effort work. But I think part of what we need to learn how to do better is to integrate this kind of effort into everything we do, including planning these conferences. With more time and more institutional backing, perhaps we could have sent twice or three times as many bloggers from different backgrounds and perspectives to YearlyKos, enriching the convention even more. Maybe that is a good goal for next year.
Here is the complete list of Chicago Voices Grant Program participants, with links to their blogs and diaries, courtesy of kid oakland. Most of them will be liveblogging from the event, also, so be sure to check them out:
- Aarti Shahani, NYC immigrant rights activist and founder of the organization Families for Freedom.
- Diarist Land of Enchantment who will bring her incisive voice to this gathering of bloggers in Chicago.
- A young Democrat from rural Alabama named Trent Thompson, ably supported by a blograiser from his home state, and very much a part of the future of Democratic politics there.
- A member of the Young Elected Officials Network from Madison, Wisconsin: Dane County Supervisor Ashok Kumar.
- Jose, a Latino student activist from Los Angeles who is a veteran of the youth-oriented movement around civil and immigrant rights in Southern California.
- Amber McZeal, a New Orleans resident at the time of Hurricane Katrina and currently an activist with Color of Change and the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project.
- Matt Thompson, a teenage blogger from South Dakota who is committed to building the Dakota blogospheres.
- Matt Ortega, a millennial organizer instrumental in the Defenders of Wildlife campaign to unseat Richard Pombo and a blogger at diverse outposts like Firedoglake, the Huffington Post and the Rights Field.
- John Leek, a young Democrat, a kossack and founder of the "lone Democratic blog" in Mississippi, Cottonmouth Blog.
- Susan Madrak, founder of the blog Suburban Guerrilla and an activist committed to bringing working class voices to progressive politics.
- Nezua, the blogger and powerful voice behind theUnapologeticMexican.
- Kenneth Quinnell, a Florida blogger and activist with the Florida Progresssive Coalition.
- Brandon White, Detroit student organizer and mass transit activist and co-author of the blog the SuperSpade.
- Carla Axtman, blogger, journalist and mom from the Pacific Northwest.
- Terri Macmillan, a long-time kossack and DFA Activist whose life experience spans her childhood in New York City to her current work in Japan.
- Ryan McCleod, political organizer and the blogger behind the Louisiana blog, the DailyKingfish.
- Bernita Smith, a blogger and political demographer from Atlanta, Georgia (Blog for Democracy and Tondee's Tavern) and one of the voices behind Blog Talk Radio's Kudzu Vine.
Nurturing multi-racial coalitions like these is just the kind of movement-building that we desperately need right now. The Chicago Voices program is an example of the kinds of things that can be achieved when diversity is seen as a strength, and a priority.
As Paul says, "Outreach is an active, ongoing, constant thing. Our movement is only as strong as the diversity of voices we bring to the table, and sometimes we have to break down walls to get there." |
