Home » blogs » Prometheus 6's blog

Cecily might have started some stuff

by Prometheus 6
September 13, 2003 - 5:48pm.
on Race and Identity

[LATER: Corrected Cecily's name in the title (damn spellchecker!)]

Colorado Luis (an instant addition to the blogroll, btw) has picked up on the "What does it mean" in his own Latino context:

Like S-Train (see the comments to "What Does It Mean To Be A Black Blogger?"), Luis decided right up front that the ethnicity gors right up front:

When I started this blog, I wanted to make sure to give lots of links to other self-identified Chicano/Latino bloggers, and for that matter, other interesting bloggers of color who talk about race and politics. I typed the word "Chicano" into Daypop and found that almost all of the uses of the term showed up in right wing nutcase websites like American Patrol. As far as brown, Latino-type bloggers go, in addition to the mighty Kos, I've found Steve Peralta and Luz Paz, and that's about it. (If you read this and think, "hey what about X?" feel free to e-mail me with a link to X.)

Why do I say "brown"? Because as I have mentioned before, the terms "Latino" and "Hispanic" are notoriously imprecise and intended to capture some people who enjoy the societal benefits of whiteness, while what I am talking about is blogging by people of color about the experience of being nonwhite in America. In an era when people had a more sophisticated understanding of race than most people have today, laws were passed banning discrimination on the basis of "race, color or creed." Today, people try to define "race" out of existence without addressing the reality that people in this country notice color and act on it pretty much constantly.

Defining race out of existance.

Don't. Get. Me. Started.

Buried in there are links to his previous stuff. Check 'em.

He also says:

Anyway, coming to this discussion from a brown Chicano/Latino perspective, I'd have to say I wouldn't make a distinction between "brown" or "Chicano/Latino" blogs and "brown" or "Chicano/Latino" bloggers similar to what Prometheus 6 proposes for "Black blogs" and "Black bloggers." There is the institutional blog LatinoVote.com, but other than that I haven't seen any blog that has as its main focus Chicano and/or Latino issues. But that doesn't mean that these bloggers' views aren't influenced by their life experiences. That can come out in surprising ways like Kos announcing "I am MEChA" on his site. And sometimes it is the most surprising contributions that can be the most valuable and insightful.

I have a very serious reason for separating the idea of Black blogs and Black bloggers, which is there's still way too fucking much noise about who's authentically Black. I ain't having none of that discussion in here. General Powell is Black. Disappointing, but Black. Condoleeza Rice is Black. Her great intelligence perverted by her dedication to The Dark Side, but Black. Thomas Sowell is Black. A sellout, but Black. Fifty Cent is Black. A bad fucking example, but Black.

And Kos is Brown, but because his blog is totally oriented on mainstream issues I can't say his blog is. Again, he's not in denial; you can't say "I am MEChA" in the middle of all this noise and be in denial, but the noise is a mainstream issue and is the only reason you know.

And there nothing wrong with that; just as there's nothing wrong with Luis' blog or mine, or MB's or Baldilocks' or any of a great number of blogs or magazines or web sites or organizations.

In closing:

  • I'm primarily about Black folks's stuff, but Latino politics get rhythm too. So in addition to Luis, I'm adding Grande Mesa Latino News (he's on pMachine rather than the Almighty Movable Type, but that's cool…) and Luz Paz.
  • "The problem is the name of the blog and my own biases -- when I saw the name I assumed it was some geeky sci-fi blog that would not interest me." - Don't be riffin' on my name, dawg. Seriously, I been easy to miss. I haven't been blogging for a year, and after all, Atrios and Tapped never read my blog
  • I'm hoping LatinoPundit hollas when he makes that move to MT. No point adding him to the blogroll just tt have to change it…
  • Looks like TAPPED's hopes for the death of identity politics has a snowball's chance in hell of coming about. Let's get ALL them identities out there. If they're as clever as they think they are, they'll come up with another plan. I have faith in the, We all do.

Trackback URL for this post:

http://www.prometheus6.org/trackback/1601
latest article | previous | next

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Submitted by Cobb (not verified) on September 13, 2003 - 6:05pm.

There's just one answer to this and it's NegroPundit.

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on September 13, 2003 - 6:40pm.

Can't find NegroPundit.As an aside, between Negrophile, Uppity-Negro and NegroPleaseDotCom, satire may remove the politically pejorative coloration from the term Negro.

Submitted by Cobb (not verified) on September 13, 2003 - 8:23pm.

Trackback from Cobb:

There is a deeper question implied by the black blogger question. But that devolves back to the simple question: What does it mean to be black and stand up and say what you believe? I'll get to that after I dispatch with a few other things....

Submitted by Al-Muhajabah (not verified) on September 13, 2003 - 8:27pm.

Kevin Hayden had mentioned Colorado Luis in an email message several weeks ago, I checked it out, and have had him on my blogroll - and more importantly in my RSS reader - ever since.When I first started blogging in late May 2002, there were hardly any Muslim blogs out there. If you go far enough back into my archives you'll see a bunch of plaintive posts exactly like LatinoPundit's, bemoaning the fact that Google provided more links to right-wing anti-Muslim sites than to actual Muslim blogs. Now there are over 150 Muslim blogs and that's just the ones I know about.One thing that helped build the community of Muslim bloggers was a discussion forum that many of us belonged to. People linked to their blogs in their signatures and started threads about blogging and slowly but surely more and more forum members started their own blogs. I think this works because it takes an already existing community and expands it into the blogosphere.

Submitted by Luis (not verified) on September 13, 2003 - 10:39pm.

Atrios and TAPPED should be reading this site, that is for sure. Great posts, great links, great commenters. What more can you ask for? I'm glad you appreciate my site, and I'm looking forward to getting some inspiration from what is going on over here.

Submitted by Cecily (not verified) on September 14, 2003 - 1:49am.

The name is Cecily, actually. ;-)

Submitted by Cobb (not verified) on September 14, 2003 - 4:00pm.

What I meant about 'NegroPundit' was a joint blog of color. Is there a call for this from the trenches? I don't think so. But indeed do black bloggers and brown bloggers feel that they get the proper amount of exposure?

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on September 14, 2003 - 6:26pm.

Well, there was no call for A Fistfull Of Euros either, but there it is.

Submitted by Negro, Please Don't Hurt 'Em! (not verified) on September 17, 2003 - 12:15am.

Trackback from Negro, Please Don't Hurt 'Em!:

my thoughts can best be portrayed in a soliloquy from......