Shawn William, Dallas Southblog blogger has blitzed the mainstream media with interviews in spreading the word about African-American Bloggers discussion of the Jena 6.
Howard Witt of Chicago Tribune who reported about Shaquanda Cotton and African-American bloggers gives updates on the Jena 6.
Witt highlights in his writing that their is a new civil right movement that is utilizing the internet. I believe that the blogger movement has connected with the strategy of the March on Washington. The new movement utilizes the African-American method of disseminating information with the word of mouth method. The two strategies are combined and individuals can choose to mobilize around an injustice that are located in different cities throughout the United States.
When local African-Americans communities are afraid to mobilize around an issue the internet can recruit other members of the larger African-Americans community that are connected through the internet to support these communities.
This is the new movement.
What's animating the protesters is not merely Bell's legal predicament but the larger perception that blacks in Jena, who make up 12 percent of the population, are still subjected to the kind of persistent racial inequality that once predominated across the Old South.
Not only in Jena but in many cities where African-Americans are silenced when protesting their injustices on the steps of uncaring city officials. Fort Wayne African-American Independent Woman is a member of this blogging community.
I wholeheartedly agree that it is very important for Blacks to involve themselves in the "new media." Of the many problems facing the Black Community, non-participation is among the largest. What encourages me about Blacks entering the "Blogosphere" is the opportunity for the Community to be exposed to a wider range of viewpoints and opinions. Unfortunately, Blacks, and other Americans for that matter, are innundated with Liberal ideologies that are not only harmful, but are also seldom challenged in the mainstream media. That is why I started my own blog titled "Black and Red." There, people can see a point of view from within the Black Community that is far too often drowned out, shouted down, and superficially dismissed. To your ends of educating, mobilizing, and engaging the literate Black; Community as well as the Fort Wayne local community; I wish you the best of luck.
ReplyDeleteOn the matter of the Jena 6, however, I disagree with you on a major point that has been echoed far too often by the media- the equation of this situation to those of the civil rights era and before. You state in your 21-September entry: "blacks...are still subjected to the kind of persistent racial inequality that once predominated across the Old South."
I find this argument to be counterproductive because it not only oversimplifies the Jena situation, but it also purports that race relations have not improved in the American South. While so-called "Black Leaders" echo that sentiment, it is exactly that tendency to hyperbolize that renders Sharpton and Jackson impotent and irrelevant.
I look forward to reading more entries on your site, and I urge you to participate in my blog at blkandred.blogspot.com.
Thank you for creating this important blog!
Thank you for your comment. However, many African-Americans in the blogosphere already are aware that there exist diverse opinions and views within the larger community.
ReplyDeleteI suggest the Afrosphere is a network in which we receive support from others with similar agendas beyond our own community.
And I believe it serves as an educational tool to those who believed that African-Americans are not engaged in supporting and changing our communities.
Thank you coming on and I will visit and read you blog soon.