Racial make-up of Democratic convention bloggers criticized

Racial make-up of Democratic convention bloggers criticized

07:12 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 20, 2008

By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News
kmbrooks@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN — Democrats consider affirmative action a cornerstone of their national agenda, but some minority bloggers say the party isn’t practicing what it preaches.

Last week, the national Democratic Party announced that 55 online writers had been chosen for the “State Blogger Corps,” to cover the convention in Denver in September.

But some members of the self-titled “afrosphere” — blogs written or published by African Americans — are angry that the “State Blogger Corps” appears to be mostly white, particularly since the party appears poise to nominate a black candidate, Barack Obama, for president.

“OK, folks, black bloggers to the back of the bus,” read the headline on the African American Political Pundit blog.

Party leaders said the factors in determining state bloggers were readership, Internet ratings and focus on local and state politics, not race. The Texas representative, the Burnt Orange Report, has several writers, including at least one Hispanic contributor.

A second round of blog credentials will be announced before the end of the month, party leaders said, and minority bloggers will be purposely included in that selection.

It’s unclear exactly how many of the state bloggers are white and how many are minorities because the bloggers weren’t required to identify their race when they applied.

But the blogs don’t appear to be self-identified as written or owned by African Americans, as opposed to blogs like the African American Political Pundit or attorney Francis L. Holland’s numerous blogs, which feature his picture.

He called the list “tremendously embarrassing and harmful to the Democratic Party.” The delay in announcing the minority blogs, he said, is hurting their ability to raise money for travel expenses and get vacation time.

“November’s voter turnout depends on August’s blogger outreach,” said Mr. Holland, a member of a national and international black bloggers’ coalition called “The AfroSpear.” “Blogs address constituencies, and it simply is not possible for blogs that are all-white to effectively reach diverse Democratic constituencies.”

Still to come is the list of bloggers to comprise the “General Blogger Pool,” which party officials say will, in fact, be weighted to represent minority communities, nationally written blogs, and niche issues.

Leaders also pointed out that very few of the African-American blogs — critics included — applied to the State Blogger Corps, opting instead for the national pool.

Natalie Wyeth, spokeswoman for the party’s convention committee, said she can’t argue with their concerns about the list, mainly there’s no way to tell what race the blogs are. The party has spoken with bloggers about those concerns and reassured them that the process isn’t done yet, she said.

The debate picked up steam over the weekend, on blogs written by both whites and African Americans, in posts and in comments.

The issues prompted Shawn Williams, who writes the DallasSouth.com blog, to write to U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, to complain about the lack of diversity among the chosen bloggers

Pam Spaulding, an African-American blogger in North Carolina who has applied to the general pool, suggested on her blog — Pam’s House Blend — that minorities don’t blog about state and local politics as much as white people do, narrowing the pool.

A Hispanic blogger from New Mexico agreed and wrote that their blog was passed over in favor of a blog run by a white woman, but didn’t see any discrimination in a majority Hispanic state.

“I do think we should be looking at the quality of blogs,” said the blogger, who only identified his or her ethnicity. “Do we want to include certain blogs of poor quality to fill a sort of quota? No, that would be ridiculous.”

Linda Kellen Biegel, whose Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis blog will represent Alaska at the convention, said the issue should encourage more minorities to blog locally while pushing for more diversity in the entire blogosphere.

“No one knows what anyone looks like in the blogosphere. It’s easy to get caught up in anger, to ignore the actual underlying issue,” she said. “The underlying issue is that bloggers need to reach out and try to find other voices from the community that are diverse.”

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