Well, maybe just a little more.

Maybe there's still a little life in the Black bloggers discussion. I should run everyone who wrote something up through Technorati and follow folks back from their comments to their blogs. When it all settles down, I intend to collect all the links in chronological order in a post I can add to the "Best Of" box, because it's been right interesting. Not that I'm rushing anyone. I'm especially not rushing any of the people I was curious about…not a single one of which has participated. Anyway, one more interesting participant is Candicissima from Kitty Power, a young sister that posted in Cobb's comments:

What does it mean for me to be a black blogger? The same thing is means for me to be a black woman. It's a part of my identity, practically one word because they are so intertwined. Does it necessarily mean that I have to go screaming from the hills that I'm black or preface everything with "in my young black female opinion?" No because it's obvious. It's not something I'm hiding really. The cyberspace conversation is a one that takes place in real life too. What does it mean to be black? Does it involve an intellectual frame or behaviors or shared history or is it social conditioning? Do you have an obligation to "be" a certain thing and discuss certain approved topics? I am what I am. My blog, writings and life are unique in some ways. Not necessarily in others. In words I can say I am a black feminist progressive urban educated young sexual neurotic yearning cynical woman, but that doesn't even sum up the half of it. But, I think that my little corner of cyber space is important even if it's not necessarily on the radar of those who envision themselves the authority. And that's pretty much it.

Sister hit a familiar theme. I'm having a hard time commenting on this because hers is not an editorial blog, which is something of a requirement as I've defined "Black blog." So yeah, there's certain…not approved topics, but inevitable topics Black blogs deal in. They tend to be those topics that are traditionally the province of the "leadership," Black leadership, mainstream leadership, whatever. This is not envisioning ourselves as authorities, it's just speaking from our perspective with the freedom Candicissima speaks on the topics of concern to her (who I suspect would make a better than decent editorial blogger).

Trick is, when dealing in these topics clear thinking individuals who doesn't specify their race are assumed to be white. That's just the default, there's really no hostility or insult in that. But it tends to be something you feel the need to correct after a while, and then you get that "Oh, I didn't know…" and "You know, I pictured you as…" and if it really didn't matter you'd just pick up the conversation with the next topic, know what I mean? And though you know there's no harm mean there's still spiritual friction you have to deal with.

Ahem.

And Yvelle has further observations beyond his original contribution:

Does race portray itself online? Do racialized communities form without the presence of skin color? It seems that the answer is yes. What does that mean? That we don't leave our race when we leave our body? I won't try to say that our "mind" is racialized (because I'm against mind-body dialectics), though some would. But it certainly suggests a deeper or completely new ontology (a systematic account of existence) whether specifically to internet life or as a basis for criticisms for old ones - see authors like Hountondji, Fanon, bell hooks, or Alice Walker for great insites into racial ontologies.

P6 called me out on not being black.

Note: If I had to guess, I'd say Yvelle isn't Black. This isn't critical for participation, particularly since he's not trying to speak for Black folks. But it is notable.
Not that I was trying to confuse anyone. I was actually surprised at myself that I had never referred to my own race (I even looked back through the archives to see.) I think it reveals another role that race places on the internet. White people (in general) don't claim their race (maybe we assume everyone knows) while black people often (though not always) do. Perhaps there is some deeply ingrained racism in that? I'll have to consider that for a while before I have a solid answer.

There are reasons racialized communities form on the Internet—first of all we don't leave our bodies when we go online. I have to say I don't even know where that came from. As for the question of our minds being racialized, I'm tempted to just say, "well…yeah!" and leave it at that. Instead, I'll just point out that the only difference between any two minds is their content, and that content (being derived from our embodied experience) is racialized.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on September 17, 2003 - 3:12pm :: Race and Identity
 
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I'll bite. Although, I am a "brown," blogger. Maybe, that doesn't qualify me or maybe it does but, I will have my piece. It was an interesting post. Since I am a new blogger, I had wondered if such issues existed in the blog-O-sphere...ofcourse, it does who am I kidding. It was good to bring the issue out. In another arena, I notice that black commedians and latino commedians touch on the issue of "race," in their material alot. I think we are comfortable discussing our differences and have no problem jostling about it. This is good b/c, the more we bring it into the open and not tuck it away, the easier time we will have dealing with it.

Posted by  Louis (not verified) on September 17, 2003 - 5:03pm.

The whole mind leaving the body bit comes from early "cyber theory" (I know, I hate the term too) that talked about how we were able to 'overcome' our physical limitations in order to create a network of information. Some theorists even suggested that we no longer needed bodily evolution and that the next major human evolution would involve information. I wish i could get a citation for that, but all of those books are boxed up at my parent's. I'm pretty sure it either came from a book called "Silicon Second Nature" or a book on Gaia Theory - possibly "Gaia Theory and Selfish Genes" or else it was even in a "intro to computer science" text book. Anyways, that's were i was going with the idea. I don't think I presented my arguement very well at all. It was the end product of a long day. But I will have to disagree with the statement: "the only difference between any two minds is their content." Minds are also have structure and syntax. In many systems, such as Jasper's existentialism, our minds have no context, just the "encompassing" of ideas. There is some neurological evidence to suggest this, too. How does a neuron store data? It might not store the data, but it creates relations between relations to create an information network. Or something like that. And of course you still have rationalists who will argue the Mind is metaphysical and is "pure" which would exempt it from being racialized. And i'm sure there are many more theories of information and mind and body that i'm not touching. its really not even relevant beyond my point that its preemptive to say that our presence on the internet is racialized until we consider at least a few of the alternatives.

Posted by  Yvelle (not verified) on September 17, 2003 - 7:30pm.

Louis:In another arena, I notice that black commedians and latino commedians touch on the issue of "race," in their material alot. I think we are comfortable discussing our differences and have no problem jostling about it. I think this is more a matter of releasing the pressure than real comfort.That's the short form. I have an understanding of what makes something funny that would require some really, really beside the point explanations to have it make sense.

Posted by  P6 (not verified) on September 18, 2003 - 1:37pm.

Yvelle:Some theorists even suggested that we no longer needed bodily evolution and that the next major human evolution would involve information. See, it's stuff like this that makes me want to open up my experimental blog. If I discuss this kind of thing and race in the same place, my head will explode.Western culture has a serious distaste for incarnation. its preemptive to say that our presence on the internet is racialized until we consider at least a few of the alternatives. I have considered them. For instance:In many systems, such as Jasper's existentialism, our minds have no context, just the "encompassing" of ideas.…hence the ideas, i.e. the content is what differentiates that which otherwise has no context.How does a neuron store data? It might not store the data, but it creates relations between relations to create an information networkThis is the physical equivalent of my statement. There's no difference in the way the neurons in any brain operates, it's the pathways that develop as a result of processing our experiences that make our brains different.And of course you still have rationalists who will argue the Mind is metaphysical and is "pure" which would exempt it from being racialized.And these pure minds respond differently because…One day we can discuss this seperately from the racial identity issue if you like. For now I'll let you know this is not theory to me.

Posted by  P6 (not verified) on September 18, 2003 - 1:51pm.