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? 

I found the Official Jena Narrative v2.5 via NPR's News and Views blog. I'd try to wrap my response in elegance, but I need to write something about taxation (Rep. Rangel is talking about overhauling the tax code and though the image of icebergs in hell leap to mind, there's a couple of issues I can rant about, so I will)

Anyway, the boy, who lives in Jena and identifies with the white community there, says there are twelve “myths” in the media's reportage which can be exposed by ignoring and inflating targeted events. But some of his case is just not knowing how humans work.

Myth 1: The Whites-Only Tree. There has never been a "whites-only" tree at Jena High School. Students of all races sat underneath this tree. When a student asked during an assembly at the start of school last year if anyone could sit under the tree, it evoked laughter from everyone present – blacks and whites. As reported by students in the assembly, the question was asked to make a joke and to drag out the assembly and avoid class.

I remember when the movie The Exorcist opened...the original, Linda Blair one that scared the hell out of the nation. I remember people who told me how scared they were laughing at particularly grisly scenes.

I do not really expect every journalist to be up on the latest neurological research, nor do I really expect someone who identifies with the population whose racism is currently being exposed to do much more than launch a massive self defense effort. But that laughing is NOT a sign the question wasn't serious.

The three YouTubism in this playlist is about a half hour of historical footage on the 1967 Newark Riots. Comparing the conditions they reported then to those reported now is enlightening.

World Intrapolitics will be the most challenging area for me. I'm pretty familiar with American issues on the international front, but I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable about African issues apart from US foreign policy to do them justice analytically. This will be something of a learning experience for me.

I do have good news resources, though. I'd like to share my three primary news and editorial resources on Africa.