Many great POC bloggers recently received a shout-out in the Boston Globe for their phenomenal anti-oppression coverage, specifically in the area of race relations:

These intellectual challenges to mainstream and other viewpoints are some of the opinions Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander-American, and black bloggers are exposing on a growing number of sites focused on social, political, and cultural issues. The sometimes facetiously named blogs range from Angry Asian Man to The Angry Black Woman. Readers can find Latino viewpoints at Guanabee, The Unapologetic Mexican, or Latino Pundit. Those interested in information from an Asian angle head to Ultrabrown, Zuky, or Sepia Mutiny. Sites created by blacks include The Field Negro, Too Sense, and Resist Racism.

The article also gives extensive coverage to Baratunde Thurston, also known as Jack Turner of Jack and Jill Politics, and Carmen Van Kerckhove, who runs the anti-racism training company New Demographic and heads up the pop culture blog Racialicious. I’m proud of all of them, and when Nezua of The Unapologetic Mexican shared the shout-out on his blog, commenter Will noted the compliment the author of this article extended:

But often these bloggers discard the handcuffs of their ethnic origins to tackle subjects affecting a range of racial or ethnic groups.

There was a brief pause in the congratulatory air after reading that sentence. (But trust me, the celebration continues!) However, what exactly does this statement imply about critical race analysis of media exposure and social phenomena? Specifically, is there a danger in choosing to focus on one’s own race rather than taking a more racially inclusive approach to fighting oppression? Can a person be handcuffed by their ethnic origins, resulting in a limited view of that person’s social environment? 

Over at Women of Color Blog, BFP outlines a scheme advanced by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department to require an I.D. check for all evacuees as they return to their homes in the aftermath of the fires.  Not surprisingly, this inspection is linked to the border patrol/ICE policy and is resulting in many victims of the disaster being slated for deportation:

-Sheriff Kolender, who typically says the Sheriff’s Department does not have the resources to do the federal government’s job of immigration enforcement, has refused to drop his policy of nonetheless helping Border Patrol when identifying potentially undocumented persons despite the tremendous demands on the Sheriff’s Department and the highly unusual practice of setting up military-style checkpoints outside people’s neighborhoods.