Hi, Farai!

I'm curious about two things:
what is the process involved in picking your guests for Blogger's Round Table and the process of picking your list of black bloggers under the 'Black Blogs' section?
I'm asking this because the entire list and the guests of Blogger's Roundtable are, for the most part, neoconservatives and conservatives.
What is this telling us about a show that is supposed to come from the "African-American" perspective?
How is it that Bloggers such as Cobb, who labels black communities as "Sherwood Forest" (A wild, feral place full of brigands) come to epitomize Black Bloggers in totality?

My point here is that the black 'blogosphere' consists of many diverse views other than self-hating assimilated black who are mad at other African-Americans because they are mere embarrassments (yet the real socio-political roots of our black pathologies get a pass. This is evident in the writings of Cobb's allies).

But hey, you're 'family' and you're working the journalist hustle (I'm married to a journalist myself), so I figured that I would help you dig a little deeper to find other black bloggers who actually have healthy alternative view points on the issues you cover.
I'm sure the show's intern and producer meant well.

http://www.blacklooks.org/
http://askthisblackwoman.com/
http://www.anarchistpanther.net/

Sent by Bruce Little | 5:15 PM ET | 09-27-2007

Bruce,

For the record, Cobb's viewpoints are alternative to the prevailing political thought in the black community. I am not defending him. I do not know that there is anything to defend.

Is it possible for members of our community to have differing views and said views still be authentically black? I am not being sarcastic. I am serious.

There seems to be a sentiment in our community that you better toe the line philosophically and politically or risk being exiled. That can not be healthy for a people trying to move forward.

In some ways our thinking as a people has become stale and predictable. However, there are some good things on the horizon. Let us stop trying to squash every concept or line of thinking that does not look like it came of out a 1968 Civil Rights handbook.

Just a thought.

Sent by TR | 6:31 PM ET | 09-27-2007

THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING THIS OUTLET, EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE FIGHTING SHOULD BE PUNISHED. BLK AND WHITE.

Sent by ELAINE | 7:15 PM ET | 09-27-2007

Bruce, I appreciate your feedback and I will pass on your blogger's picks. I think we do a pretty good job of mixing it up. I mean, would you call our frequent blogger/contributor Jasmyne Cannick, who we had on this week, a neocon?

Keep passing on names.

Thanks...

Sent by Farai | 7:48 PM ET | 09-27-2007

Why thank you very much for Ms. Cannick's link. She is subscribed and book marked!
I wouldn't call her a neoconservative, but it would still be refreshing to hear from someone who is left of liberal sometimes on NPR.

Sent by Bruce Little | 10:50 PM ET | 09-27-2007

This is a reaction to Geffrey Bennett's article on the News & Views homepage under, "The Tale of Two Thomases," dated 10/02/07. Your second question posed at the end of, "The Other Side of the Thomas Family Tree ..." makes reference to him (Justice Thomas) as being "a black...." Now I have to say that that really causes me to cringe.

In my humble opinion, that's so not becoming!! It trivializes and demeans and diminishes the personhood of Black people, I feel. And I don't think that that's something we want to do -- certainly not on this program.

I remember being in law school, here in NYC, and doing summer internship work in Criminal Court and reading references like that in police reports. A young, Black, criminal defendant would regularly be written up as "... a black," (or even more often, "a male black") by what I guessed to be White NYPD officers. I flinched then, and I do now -- but even much more so, considering the context. I hope that you'd rethink this.

Sent by Sterling Cox, J.D., Ph.D. | 11:15 AM ET | 10-03-2007

Dr. Cox,

Thanks for your comment. The line you point out was indeed a typo -- one that I've fixed.

Sent by Geoffrey Bennett, News & Notes | 12:52 PM ET | 10-03-2007