The Latest Blogosphere Blowout
I don't know how many of y'all - if any - have been following the latest Big Blowout in the liberal blogosphere. I have an office job and sit at my computer for 8 hours a day. I have.
In short, so that what follows makes sense, this is what happened: one of Hillary Clinton's advisors invited some big dogs in liberal blogging to come up to Harlem and meet Bill Clinton. Post-event, when the photographs appeared, readers noticed something that had gone unmentioned by the attendees: there appeared to be no people of color at the meeting (there was female and non-hetero presence, but the picture is heavy on the white male). Debates, anger, questions, pontifications, condescensions, and high emotions flew across the community. Overall liberal blog perspective: yeah, that sucks, but it wasn't intentional, folks were invited but couldn't come, next time it ought to be better, don't make this a huge deal. Overall liberal POC (people of color) blog perspective: this is a huge deal, it's completely ridiculous and a slap in the face and illustrates a huge disconnect in progressive blogging AND progressive politics in how liberals think about race.
Ok, still with me? Continuing - as the furor continued, a frequent contributor to Firedoglake (huge liberal blog) decided that it would be a good idea to tell one of the most vocal critics of the meeting, an African-American woman, not to "assail her betters" by having the nerve to get angry about the meeting, starting a whole NEW world of trouble.
I don't want to get into personal commentary on this event - plenty has been said already, better than I could say it, and if you want to read some articulate and interesting discussion of the matter, check out this piece from The Republic of T and this from Pam's House Blend.
What this whole thing really made me think about - and want to mention - is how much I miss Casque & Gauntlet* - specifically as a safe discussion space for talking about difficult issues without fear of persecution. As I read the fiery blog posts this week, and as I daily read blogs written by people of varying races and opinions, the major theme I see in discussions is defensiveness. When POC allege racism, whites respond defensively, often condescendingly. When whites question the charges, POC respond defensively, often angrily. It's not just a racial or political thing, either - I see the same issue at some of the feminist and environmentalist blogs I read. It's as if people, when questioned or challenged, read that as an attack and proceed to bellow that they're doing their damndest to cling to some hard-won scrap of territory and can't BY GOD be bothered to set foot off of that solid ground lest they lose everything.
(A recent notable exception to this is the recent feminism 'open question day' that happened on Molly Saves the Day, Feministe, and Pandagon, among others, wherein the bloggers promised to answer all questions about feminism asked in good faith. I think they're still working on answering all of the questions that were asked. I know that I learned a lot from reading the comments, and it gave everyone a chance to feel safe asking a question that might ordinarily be deemed ignorant.)
The other day I was reading a blog post somewhere about whether or not it's ok to ask a person of color what their race or ethnicity is (I've lost the link, bother). The blogger stated that it is never under any circumstances acceptable, as it is racist, nosy, and Otherizes the person instantly. Having never heard this line of argument before, I had a few questions (namely, what about close friends? what if I, too, were a minority? what if I was having conversation with someone and was unsure if they were Korean or Chinese, or Cuban or Puerto Rican?). But when I looked at the comments on the post, someone had already asked such questions and been tersely shot down. So I didn't post any questions, because I didn't want to be attacked for my ignorance. (Even in writing this, I note that my tone has become defensive, yikes)
Thus I couldn't agree more with what Pam noted here in a comment on another of Terrance's entries:
From my vantage point as I’ve said many times at my blog, POC and whites need a safe space to really discuss race. Political correctness has forced people into defensive corners of silence, and blow ups like these occur and people wonder why it gets so vile.[...]
I understand where the Liza’s emotion comes from when it seems like, as it did with the big boys ignoring blogger women, you see the same “oversights” occur over and over. Her approach — and the reaction to it — will now likely result in silence in the corners again. Sigh. Hands will be wrung, nothing much will happen, and eventually another flame war will ensue.
I learned more about race, racism, injustice, power, and privilege in a few evenings' open conversation at C&G than I did in a lifetime of living in a very diverse Florida town and several years of expensive classes at Dartmouth - because at C&G, it was ok to ask questions and meet in the middle. I did not always agree with everyone in the room, nor did they always agree with me. I stayed silent more than I spoke, and I could have been even more open than I was. It was by no means perfect and we weren't always able to completely understand one another. But we always got somewhere, because those of us who hung out and talked on those long nights listened and contributed and tried our best to come at issues with the intent of finding common ground, not of defending our carefully-constructed territories, and sometimes we succeeded. We were a real mix of people: white, asian-american, black, latino, stereotypes checked at the door. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to find more communities like C&G, whether virtual or real, but in the meantime, I guess the best thing to do is to keep reading and keep thinking, and try to actually ask my questions and initiate positive dialogue.
Hope this is coherent. I've got more thoughts on the matter that perhaps I'll get to sometime soon.
* C&G is a (non-secret, obviously) senior society at Dartmouth College. The society owns a house next to campus that serves as living space and social space for members, most of whom don't know one another before being invited to join. This is where I met the people who I've referenced above and where we held our conversations.