by Farai Chideya

Okay folks:

We get your e-mails and letters. Today, for our weekly "Letters" segment, we got a ping that said we were "racist" for doing so much black news.

I don't buy that. Most of our listeners aren't black, and we get kudos from listeners of all races. Most importantly, our show is tasked, in our mission statement, with "illuminating the African-American experience." The question is, how do we do that?

Sometimes we profile black folks, including some who do some pretty unusual things. (See Christopher Johnson's piece on a top mixed martial arts fighter.)

Sometimes we discuss race.

Sometimes we have black guests discussing the news of the day, particularly on our politics segments, our bloggers' roundtables, and our reporters' roundtable.

And sometimes, as with today's segment on something (judging from this blog) that you care deeply about — the FDA saying cloning animals for meat is safe — we just have two white folks on talking through an issue that our broad mixed audience cares about.

So are we too black? Or just too strong... in that we are willing to tackle issues other people don't?

Look, I question our approach. Our staff does. And that's a good thing. It means we are willing to change and innovate. It's not as if we come in to work every day and always agree, among the staff, on how to approach these things. We're trying to figure it out.

That's also a strength. Our staff is racially and culturally mixed. We all have different interests. Off air, we have our various hobbies and superpowers. The staff includes a martial artist, two DJs, a jazz musician, a cyclist, a novelist, etc. etc. etc. One thing I hope is that over time we can bring more of our loves and quirks to the show ... and that we can get more of yours on through our blogs and by incorporating you on air.

(I also lurv the science fiction and horror movies. I am looking for a way to do something on horror movies for our air, so if you have any good ideas, ping me here through the blog.)

The upshot: even if it stings sometimes ... and even if we think you're wrong ... we want your feedback. We need it, and we hear you.