A feature you will see regularly on this blog is the "Soapbox Interview." We will introduce you to interesting political voices on the Internet. Today we bring you Chuck Olsen of The UpTake. He's citizen journalism personified.
Chuck Olsen is the founder of Minnesota Stories. He is also the producer-director of Blogumentary, a story about the rise of political and personal blogs, and was featured in the New York Times in 2005! Chuck sent us one of his favorite videos from his work with The UpTakeWeekend Soapbox
dear npr, after listening to the lady from panama i had to erite to you. It is hard for us as caribbean people to understand what the black americans feel about racism. we never had jim crow. i came to the us from the virgin island frsh out of high school. i didn't see my self as a black american . it was ok to call me black , west indian or african. I was proud to be all of that except africn- american. It was in a conversation on race with a white friend who finally told me she didn't see the differnce that I saw except for my accent between me and the other african american although she found me easier to get along with because I didn't walk aroung with a chip on my shoulder. even now when i have a child and grandchild thats all american i still tell them the same thing that my motther told me before I left thats not your home,remember you can always come home.so while we want to sit here and think that obama is using the race card which i don't think he is, we as blacks of a different backgorund may face racism live with it etc. but we can never truely undestand it the way blacks here can becuase jim crow wasn't a part of us and we can always go home, where do they go. I left the caribbean at 18, and have live in the us from 1980,. so this should be home.
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