Originally posted 2009-01-27 21:13:48 -0500. Bumped by Carol.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

The Argument Against a Post-Racial Society

I recently read a letter to an editor suggesting that race should stop being used as a descriptive element in news stories. While I fully understand the writer's sentiment, isn't the fact that President Obama the first Black leader of the free world news? And beyond that, I don't think our goal in this country should be to do away with difference, but rather, to embrace and promote it.

The primary characteristic that makes the United States different from virtually every other country in the world is that we are a quilt as oppose to a blanket, and that very patchwork of varying cultures is what makes us more, rather than less. That isn't to say that we're the only country that's made up of different cultures, but rather, we are the only country that is defined by difference. Thus, one of the greatest gifts that America can contribute to the world is the understanding that "difference" is a good thing rather than the reverse.

Promoted by roxy - originally posted 2008-11-05 13:26:10 -1000. Our friend from across the pond makes some excellent points. Discussion?

To many, many Americans, the meaning and deeply powerful significance of Barack Obama becoming President elect lies so completely in the history of their families and their communities and their nation that any comment from Wales is little more than an impertinence.

Of course, it is not such a remote thing I am not tremendously moved.

Bronxdem reviews the "Bradley Effect" -- so called because of discrepancy between the polling that said Bradley would win the California governorship and the actual outcome where he lost. Many attributed this to voters responding dishonestly to the polling. Bronxdem takes another look and analyzes the sociological reasoning behind questions, questioners, and those who answer.

Give it a read and see if her analysis rings true.

McClatchy carries one of the realities further in this article I just caught. The subject title above is the beginning of theirs and it finishes with this: here's to Kareem the Soldier

How many people remember this?

(c) Schoolhouse Rock; unofficial site here.

Head below the fold to see what made me think of it, and why -- and yes, the title is a dead giveaway.

by Mikhail Lyubansky

by Mikhail Lyubansky

This is heresy I know, since most of the white majority likes to pretend that it’s colorblind, but race needs to be part of the calculus in the November election for all voters. Of course, it was never not going to be part of the equation. And race is certainly part of the explicit discourse for Black voters, as it always is. My point is that it's high time white folks join in the discussion and acknowledge that it matters. Because it does.

Anatoly Kirichenko
Future of the Internet

Bumped.

On Saturday May 3rd, 2008 the first annual Race and New Media conference was held at the CUNY campus of New York City College of Technology. The conference was held as a platform for panel discussions on topics of race, new media, politics and religion, and included an insightful keynote speech by Omar Wasow, omarwasow.com. Wasow is a co-founder and ongoing strategic advisor of BlackPlanet.com. Under Wasow's leadership, BlackPlanet.com became the leading website for African Americans, reaching over three million people a month. Wasow has been featured on TV segments for NBC's Today Show and public radio's Tavis Smiley Show, exposing modern issues of technology.

Anatoly Kirichenko
"Not Another Campaign"

Anatoly Kirichenko
Wright or Wrong

Its is projected that the combined population of American Minority groups will
outnumber whites in the next fifty years. Many rural and urban enviornments are already finding diversity in similar propotions. American history is filled with examples of racial and ethnic discrimination; during slavery "seperate but equal" as an educational plan struck down by Brown vs. Topeka, legal discrimination against members of minority groups,underemplyment and undepayment of ethnic group members.

bumped by carol.

A few weeks ago I was talking with some people about Obama's A More Perfect Union speech, and the discussion led to a discussion of race in general...

It was one of those conversations that became a little heated, causing others who walk in on it to be taken aback. They weren't there to adjust to the slowly climbing temperatures.

George Lakeoff's 2004 book Don't Think of an Elephant had an enormous effect on Democrats, reeling from the Kerry election defeat. Since them there have been a slew of books making the case that Democrats need to learn the lesson that Republicans had already successfully assimilated. The need to "frame" the discussion of politics issues in relation to the deeper values held by the electorate.

A slew of books followed such as Jeffrey Feldman's Framing the Debate, and most recently What Orwell Didn't Know a compilation of articles on the subject. Now Lakeoff writes about Barack Obama's recent speech on race relations.

originally posted 2008-03-11 06:23:57 --promoted for some intriquing analysis, cho

Anatoly Kirichenko
“Hip-Hop is Dead”

In recent years, rap music has become too well connected with the culture industry, and the politically charged overtones and meaningful messages are non-existent. Rap is not only selling albums, but also a lifestyle and a “culture” to its listeners. Essentially, rap music has been transformed into a form of marketing, encouraging young African Americans as well as whites and all other ethnic groups to purchase items that bring these groups more in line with the “ideals” of rap music. The industry has a goal of creating consumers rather than giving them something good to listen to. According to Michael Quinn, “Never Shoulda Been Let out the Penitentiary",

What is intriguing about rap is that it is the culture industry’s main strategy for bringing economically and culturally marginalized blacks into the consumer society. To this end, it is necessary that contemporary notions of black identity must be engaged by the culture industry itself. Quinn 81