Update: for more context on why this is important, please see Amy Alexander's The Color Line Online in The Nation
We're now at the midpoint of our first, more-leisurely-than-anticipated mutual guest blogging series. Thanks to Melissa McEwan, Sara Robinson, Pam Spaulding, and rikyrah for their time, energy, and extraordinary posts. In retrospect, our original plan of getting all the posts on OpenLeft and the mutual posts on the guest bloggers' blogs all in one week was a little over-ambitious. Oh well, live and learn.
Another thing that didn't go as planned was that we didn't stick narrowly to the initial topic.* Pam and the Jack and Jill Politics folks both said they'd like to take a more forward-looking approach than in our framing. Since our primary goal is diversity of voices on the front page, I said "sure." Apologies to all for not having communicated this better, and thanks to desmoinesdem, sb, dr anonymous, and Paul for their replies when plukasiak brought this up in rikyrah's thread. Apologies also to any who see this as resulting in false advertising, biased discourse, or disrespectful towards the concern of feminists/womanists; that wasn't the intent, but I can see how it could look that way. OpenLeft readers had said they wanted to hear from these bloggers, and I thought their proposed subjects related well to the initial theme. Was this the right decision? If not, what should I have done? It's a good discussion for the comments. On the communications, all I can say is "oops".
(The latest post in our mutual guest-blogging series, from rikyrah from Jack and Jill Politics. Thanks once again to all our guest-bloggers! - promoted by JonPincus)
Michelle Obama - The Latest Racial Rorschach Test I have believed from the moment Barack Obama announced his candidacy that his very running would be a test for America. I stated over a year ago, when Michelle Obama was first put out there by the campaign:
The entire Obama candidacy is about what I call a Racial Rorschach Test. The first phase were those idiotic articles about whether Obama was ' Black enough' for Black folks, which was insane, and off the point. Once that dog didn't hunt, we finally got around to whom the 'Black enough' test was really about, and that was White folk. While they're still mulling around this question and deciding whether to deal with it or not, we've got a new angle to this test- Michelle Obama.
I'm back to report as to how I see the Racial Rorschach Test is going, specifically as it concerns Michelle Obama.
The attacks have been coming fast and furious against Michelle Obama, with a depth of viciousness that is unwarranted, but deserves study.
WHY?
What is it about this woman that evokes this vehemence against her?
( the latest post in our mutual guest-blogging series. Thanks Pam, and looking forward to what people have to say! - promoted by JonPincus)
In looking back at the MSM treatment of Hillary Clinton over the course of the primary season, there was an expected eruption of misogyny -- from Chris Matthews Greatest Hits and The Tweety Effect, to the infamous Hillary nutcracker -- yet what I found most interesting was the handwringing over the whole matter. Similarly, there was desperation by some on the left (and right) to declare 2008 a "post-racial" election; they saw their hopes dashed as the bloody chum was tossed out to the hungry media sharks by Clinton surrogates and the usual GOP shills, rife with allusions, counter-charges and just plain old race-baiting idiocy (see Geraldine Ferraro, Andrew Cuomo, Bob Johnson).
(I'm going to steal Jon's thunder here and welcome Sara Robinson of (one of my personal favourite blogs) Orcinus as the next guest-blogger here at Open Left. If you ever thought racism was just a problem of the past, or that it went away on its own, Orcinus will disabuse you of that. Jon, feel free to add anything I may have missed you wanted to say by way of introduction. - promoted by Daniel De Groot)
What did Hillary's campaign -- and, ultimately, her failure -- mean for progressives? My offering is a meditation in four parts.
I Hillary was quite possibly the last great feminist heroine we'll see from a passing generation -- that early 1945-1955 cohort of Boomer women -- that produced a historically singular crop of them. And that, in the end, was both her glory and her curse.
It is a great pleasure to promote the first invited post in our "mutual guest blogging" series on feminist and womanist perspectives on Hillary Clinton's withdrawal from the race -- and why this matters to progressives. Thanks to our guest bloggers -- and to everybody who's helped work to make this happen!--Jon Pincus
Melissa McEwan is the founder and editor of the political and cultural group blog Shakesville and a contributor to The Guardian's Comment is Free and AlterNet. This is her submission in response to the invitation to participate in a discussion re: feminist/womanist perspectives on the primary.
Even before the primary had ended, feminists/womanists (hereafter FWs) who had become disenchanted with Senator Barack Obama as a result of worrying rhetoric on reproductive rights, his and his campaign's use of sexist dog whistles, and/or his silence in response to an appalling onslaught of misogyny unleashed upon his opponent, were being bullied at any indication (real or imagined) that they would not vote for him. The usual cudgels were brought out to browbeat them -- Roe (to which I'll return later) and the ominous accusation that if McCain won, it would be their fault. As ever, it was the people calling out sexism and/or anti-FW policies who were charged with creating division among progressives, as opposed to the people engaging in sexism and their defenders.
Given Obama's most recent flub on abortion rights, first stating he doesn't "think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother" regarding late-term abortion exceptions, then clarifying by reiterating the same thing and fleshing out the pregnant straw-woman who wants a late term abortion just because she's "feeling blue," plus more of the "pastor and family" rhetoric -- a veritable symphony of rightwing talking points, infantilization and mistrust of women, and hostility toward their autonomy -- one might expect the bullies to realize that perhaps the FWs who had concerns about Obama also had a point, but if bullies were rational, they wouldn't be bullies. And so the drumbeat to cast FWs with legitimate complaints as the root of progressive discordance has only intensified.
This oft-wielded cudgel to silence FWs who cry foul at sexism expressed by political allies is wrong for the following reason, which I cannot state any more succinctly than this: When someone engages in divisive behavior, any resulting division is their responsibility.
It is, simply, not the duty of any person who is repeatedly subjected to alienating language, images, behaviors, and/or legislation to nonetheless never complain and pledge fealty from the margins. If women, men of color, gay/bi/ trans men, et. al. are valued, then they should not be demeaned-and if they are demeaned, they should not be expected to pretend it does not matter.
We're going to be kicking off the mutual guest blogging next Monday, with participation from Pam's House Blend, Jack and Jill Politics, Orcinus, and Shakespeare's Sister on the topic of "feminist and womanist perspectives on Hillary Clinton's withdrawal from the race -- and why this matters to progressives". Something to look forward to!
And it's mutual: several of the bloggers have invited OpenLeft front pagers to post on their blogs as well. We still need to work out the details of this. If any front-pagers reading this have a post they'd like to make on the topic, please say so in the comments.
As the astute observers on this site have no doubt noticed, we haven't had the vote yet on followon topics. As an experiment, we didn't put the nominatino thread on the front page ... and it didn't get any action. Oh well, live and learn. And this week, with all the stuff going on with FISA, it felt like it wouldn't have gotten much attention.
Speaking of FISA though ... wouldn't that be a good topic for mutual guest-blogging?
As we head to the start of mutual guest-blogging next week, it's time to start working on the follow up. The topic discussion thread led to a bunch of great suggestions, all of which fit our basic criteria:
important for the progressive movement in general as well as the November election
very little good discussion of these to date in most of the progressive blogosphere
consistent with and reinforcing Chris, Matt and Mike's goals and strategy for the site and the movement
Please make sure to vote in the poll! For related threads, see the guestblogging tag If you're on Facebook, please join the group!
Things have been going extremely well on the mutual guest blogging project. Thus far we've got acceptances from Jill Tubman from Jack and Jill Politics, Pam Spaulding from Pam's House Blend, and Sara Robinson from Orcinus. The idea's steadily improved, and response has been consistently positive. It seems to me like we're on track for a major success. (Additional details below; invitation list and discussion here.)
We'll be going live the week of June 30, with a sequence like the following:
Recapping the first-round blogger guest-blogger nominations so far, bearing in mind that the topic is "feminist and womanist perspectives on Hillary Clinton's withdrawal from the race -- and why this matters to progressives":
Melissa McEwan of Shakesville (nominated by Taylor, 3 recommendations); her For the record post is a great articulation of the feminist perspective, and Shakesville's 100+-and-counting "Hillary Sexism Watch" series has been tracking this for months.
Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend (nominated by Paul Rosenberg, seconded by Populista; 6 recommendations for this and tw others combined)
Orcinus (nominated by Paul Rosenberg, 6 recommendations for this and tw others combined) featuring Dave Neiwert and Sara Robinson
Talk2Action, also a group blog (nominated by Paul Rosenberg, 6 recommendations for this and tw others combined), where recent posters include Bill Berkowitz, Rob Boston, Frederick Clarkson, Bruce Wilson, and Richard Bartholemew.
Egalia of Tennessee Guerilla Women, "Fighting to end sexism in Tennessee and the nation" (nominated by Sadie Baker and enthusiastically seconded by johnieb, 1 recommendation)
These all seem like great potential guest bloggers to me, and there's good diversity in a lot of dimensions, so I think we're off to a fine start. I propose inviting all seven of the initial nominees, giving them the option of whether they prefer starting with this first round or waiting for another topic.
Thoughts on this? And does anybody have any good connections with any of the blogs and bloggers?
Increasing diversity
The number of nominations was small enough that we've still got several empty slots -- we wanted to choose at least 10-12 to allow for some deferrals and cancellations -- so it's worth asking what additional perspectives we'd like to see represented here. A few things to think about:
(This diary continues the discussion of mutual guest blogging. This is an exciting proposal, and your opportunity to make suggestions about the shape it should take. Please join in! - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
There was a lot of support for starting the mutual guest-blogging project with a topic related to feminist and womanist perspectives on Hillary Clinton's withdrawal from the race -- and why this matters to progressives. So this thread is to collect nominations for potential guest-bloggers on the topic. Hopefully, it will also serve as a useful resource for those wanting to explore the issue themselves.
Please put your suggestions in as comments. The next steps will be to discuss, then filter the initial list, discuss, and then vote. We're going to leave this thread up for a couple of days to give people time to think it over; feel free to come back and add more later.
More on the nomination criteria and a few examples, below the fold.
For other discussions of mutual guest blogging, please see:
(Here is a second diary to advance our thinking about the mutual guest blogging proposal. The previous one focused on the "who," this one focuses on the "what" and "why." - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
This thread is to collect potential topics for the mutual guest-blogging project. There's no shortage of good ideas; we've starting out with eight possibilities (included below).
Let's use this thread to discuss more potential topics as well as the criteria that we want to apply to choosing the best ones for mutual guest-blogging.
(Here is our second American Blogger winner from this week. A very timely followup to my previous post in the "Women's Voices / Women's Struggles" series. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
We propose that OpenLeft feature 5-7 guest bloggers each week, prioritizing diverse voices and perspectives not usually heard on the front page. OpenLeft front page posters will reciprocate, by blogging on the guests' sites, and the combination will (with luck) create a temporary hub in the progressive blogosphere. The result is improved mutual understanding, links with other tightly-connected networks, and a base for more collaborative and effective strategic actions.
Note: This diary entry refines several ideas from the "American Blogger" thread including input from Taylor, Syrith, me, and several others who asked to remain anonymous. Thanks to all the reviewers of the earlier versions!
STATE BLOGS
