Vision Circle

Such as it is today,

Such as it is today, the blogosphere is a sub-optimal technology for advancing black interests. Threaded discussion I got no problems with. With proper slashdotting, the emergent qualities of the same are of indisputable benefit. But slashdotting is not what's happening in the black blogosphere. What is instead happening by-and-large is that we are caught between a demographic and technological Scylla and Charybdis of a technology architected as popularity contest - with financial rewards proportional to popularity. In my opinion, this greatly limits the utility of the blogosphere as an instrumentality of free black pedagogy and leadership in what appear to be some fundamental and irremediable ways.

In a nutshell, free and valid black-partisan demagoguery {demos - the common people agein - to lead} cannot be undertaken in a context in which facilitators between people's emotions and their decisions are constantly at moral and economic cross-purposes with themselves.

Four data points prompt me to these conclusions;

Apology for Slavery

An Apology for Slavery

By Carol M. Swain

Saturday, July 16, 2005; Page A17

It's time for the Republican Party to write a new chapter in race relations. What I have in mind is something beyond the Senate's recent resolution on lynching and this week's expression of regret by a high-ranking Republican official for the GOP's use of what came to be know as the "Southern Strategy." What I propose is a formal apology for slavery and its aftermath. This could take the form of a joint resolution passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president in a ceremonial setting where Americans could gather to symbolically bury their past.

Whenever the idea of an apology is raised, some whites reflexively recoil. They believe it is a bad idea because it conjures up images of innocent whites prostrating themselves before blacks for crimes they never committed. Most outspoken are whites whose ancestors arrived after the end of slavery and those who fought for the Union. Neither we nor our ancestors, they argue, had anything to do with slavery, so why should we apologize?

Others will say that an apology is not necessary because one has already been issued -- two, really. In 1998 President Clinton acknowledged the evils of slavery. And last year President Bush visited Goree Island, a holding place for captured slaves in Africa, and spoke of the wrongs and injustices of slavery. "Small men," he said, "took on the powers and airs of tyrants and masters. Years of unpunished brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and hardness of conscience. Christian men and women became blind to the clearest commands of their faith and added hypocrisy to injustice."

More at the link provided.

Black Voices

My latest column for Black Voices looks at Tavis Smiley's Black Empowerment Summit a few months later.

Bankruptcy Laws on Ed Gordon

My second commentary for Ed Gordon comes out today. You can find it here after 1pm EST. It deals with the bankruptcy laws recently passed by the House and the Senate. If you ever needed proof that neither party really cares about flesh and blood constituents you don't need to look further than this bill.

Black Voices et al

Sometime last week it was revealed that a Floridian child was put in handcuffs by police after having a temper tantrum in school. The event actually happened weeks ago but it was just covered by the press. I wrote about it in this week's Black Voices.

And my friend Liana has been following our discussion about Thomas Sowell. For my money, the best critique of Sowell's work comes from Harold Cruse's Plural But Equal. But this article isn't bad either.

Mind Control

Can someone who believes that "Black leaders" lead Blacks to think a certain way, give me concrete proof that this is the case?

You have to be able to demonstrate that Blacks, as a group, believed one way until a "Black leader" said differently.

Or, you have to be able to demonstrate that Blacks, as a group, had no concrete opinion on something until a "Black leader" "told Blacks how to think".

This has to go beyond ancedotes, please.

Commentary on Nuclear Option

Hey. I'm not sure what's going on with Black Voices right now, but I was recently put down with News and Notes with Ed Gordon. The first commentary was on the filibuster battles in the Senate.

Education as a civil right

Today's edition of The Black Slate looks at my family's decision to homeschool.

Black Voices Update

Ok. I've got a bit of a breather. Haven't done much writing of any sort lately because over the past couple of weeks I've been to Detroit, LA, Philly, Jersey, Alexandria, and Williamsburg. Heading to Chicago next month, I am on the longest jag I've ever been on in my short life. I had to say SOMETHING about Cruse but couldn't really put on paper what I wanted to. Suffice it to say that if I could name three books out of my basics list that changed my life THE CRISIS OF THE NEGRO INTELLECTUAL would be one of them.

I haven't written about my black voices stuff in a bit. Here are a couple of my most recent columns. One on the growing black exodus for the suburbs. Another on Bush's conception of "the ownership society."

As an aside they are running a tally on who is the most popular columnist. As of right now the total number of respondents is 70...meaning you can't say much statistically about the results. But if you're so inclined and have the time, vote here. The folks I actually get the most out of are Amy and Jimi.

Tavis Smiley: "Black Leader"

So says David Lambro:

At a well-attended "town hall" meeting in heavily black Prince George's County, Md., some 250 people turned out to hear Mr. Mehlman in a question-and-answer dialogue. It was a rare event in a party that has all too often ignored the black community. A chief adviser to Mr. Mehlman told me this week he plans to meet with and speak to a broad range of black groups in the coming weeks. A major speech is planned at predominantly black Howard University, and he plans to visit more black neighborhoods. "There will be a lot of community-type events within the African-American community," this adviser told me. Notably, Mr. Mehlman appeared last week on the nationally televised PBS talk show named after and hosted by Tavis Smiley, who sponsored the civil-rights meeting in Atlanta that alarmed Miss Brazile. An independent-minded black leader who wants a broader political dialogue in the black community, Mr. Smiley is being sounded out by the NAACP to become its next president, a sign that the venerable black organization may be ready to soften its often-harsh anti-GOP rhetoric.

This is funny.