To Peter Daou and the DailyKos crowd, there are no black bloggers in New York City or Harlem

Gee, I can't imagine why you weren't at the top of Peter Daou's list...

I am very disappointed that a Clinton confab in Harlem failed to included any black or latino bloggers. This kind of attitude does nothing to bolster my confidence in Hillary, politically or ethically.

I don't think Jane Hamsher is an idiot. Agreed, that blackface cartoon was in very bad taste and harmful to Lamont. To Jane's credit, she quickly admitted that the cartoon was inappropriate and apologized for her poor judgement and insensitivity.

Ms. Sabater,

I have read your column of Aug.3, and felt compelled as the creator of the graphic in question, upon this subsequent column, to respond.

You appeared in the above linked column to hold Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake responsible for some rather large baggage, viz.:

...who the fuck is Jane Hamsher that she thinks she can talk for the black people of Connecticut or for that matter, the whole country. Who the fuck is this woman trying to pass herself as the protector of African Americans?

But a cursory reading of the column in question shows a disconnect between graphic and content...What was implied in the graphic(and later restated explicitly by myself, then apologising without reservation if offence had been taken) had nothing to do with what Ms. Hamsher wrote.
At best, she was guilty of poor judgement in illustrative artwork, something which she did apologise for, if memory serves.

Therefore, your issue may indeed be with me alone, and your vitriol spouted at Ms. Hamsher to be, perhaps, ill-considered.

Some things for consideration...One commentator at FDL during the issue had a rather salient point, to wit, "...Blackface was done for the amusement of white audiences. Joementum’s recent efforts in the African American churches of Connecticut–amusing as they were–were an effort to gain black votes. The image was not so much offensive as it was inaccurate."

From a historical perspective, this is true...But, again, for the sake of clarity my goal was to portray someone flying under 'false colors' for the purpose of an group affinity not of mutual benefit, while a talisman used to invoke this power was blinded to their true machinations.

Whether this is racist, or not is subjective.
You may think it so, and that is your privilege. I do not.

Now, in this current column, you wrote that a compatriot:

scolded me for calling out this white woman's antics in the name of the black people of Connecticut.

Now, who are you?
While I respect your right to any and all opinions that you may deem worthy, I have my doubts that this is your perch to claim.

However, I am powerless to either halt or aid you in your quest for such a prize should one exist, as I may only speak and be responsible for myself, as do you, and indeed us all. Selah.

Finally, to conflate this issue with another, such as a lack of racial representation at an informal meeting, and include in your list of worthy alternative representatives some who have no interest in such meetings, while at the same time presuming to speak for others unnamed ('...I was insulted, as so other black bloggers') detracts from your worthy point regarding balance at the tables of power.

For the sake of solidarity, I hope that someday you will have the opportunity to express your opinions at such events, and may good fortune hasten the prize's arrival.

Yours,

darkblack

You have a point. Don't clutter it up with extraneous charges. There ought to have been black bloggers at the meeting. Forget the rest-- at least when it comes to this point. Stay on message.

Liza:

Where were you when Steve Gilliard did HIS blackface pics? Or is it OK when blacks do it?

Look at Bill. You know his hand is resting comfortably on that cute brunette's butt. Go get em, Bubba!

I didn't get an invite. In any case, the hell with Slick Willie and his warmongering wifey. It's nice that he's paying rent in Harlem - but you certainly appear to have him confused with someone who gives a f!!!. He doesn't have to do these things in a PC way.

Next move. Mandatory health testing in Africa putting billions of dollars into the pockets of his big-pharma boys...the ones who blocked the health care program he was pushing here...that's hillary's ticket and this is the quid pro quo...we'll take healthcare, you take Africa...

And so, if you wanna meet with Billy - go get with him...phuk the blogger paradigm and them corny ass scrubs that rolled with him.

Prometheus 6 has led me to believe you're much bigger than that. It's not about the meeting...it's about the really real and only the really real...the meeting ain't really real. I know you that I know you know it ain't really real.

One love and peace of mind to you.

Hand of the Butt theory definitely works for me. The shoulder turn says it all. Monica II.

Damn good post, Liza. (And how quickly you got the defensive white person showing up to say blacks are just as racist but they get a free pass! I hope you had some money riding on that.)

Disregarding the post above about the invite of Oliver Willis, and not as a liberal blogger just as a student who happens to sometimes read blogs - a white student, and
admitting to my disdain for people like Hirshman who IMO showed her true colors ( white) via that black face fiasco.

I think it is pretty obvious that the liberal blogesphere is not really a progressive blogesphere, and it is still and will be for some time similar to a college frat or sorority in which the cool kids are there and like to wallow in their self importance making most of what they say suspect.
As for the Clinton’s – well there ya go.

This is what my grandmother always used to remind me in reflecting on the company one keeps.

As for the apparent irony of this all-white crew photo-opping in Harlem, I'd have to disagree. Last time, I rolled thru Harlem, I saw more white pioneers than coloredfolk. ; )

Oh, last point, Liza, be prepared for someone to point out Markos' and Peter's Latin American and Lebanese descent, respectively, to invalidate your radical ideas about the so-called progressive netroots' white domination.

these days - and there are, but ain't no way you saw more white folks that regular Meccans - les you was ova by Columbia and didn't know the ledge.

sorry c-rabb...maybe a tour bus just let out??

It's completely clear from reading TalkLeft or FireDogLake or any of those other blogs that they are looking to be a functioning part of the Democratic party. They want power. I'm sure in their hearts their intentions are pure. But we've seen this before.

Remember back when "where are all the women bloggers"?

Remember the same question came up "where are all the bloggers of color"?

Well, the white women made it.

Where have we seen all this before?

White people really need to quit patting ourselves on the back about how far we've come, because we really haven't come all that far. Anti-racism is a fucking full-time job.

The denial going on in this thread is just gobsmacking.

We fucked up (again, like we usually do). The sooner we are able to admit it and make amends, the sooner we can get on with the real work.

Love,

Hanna

Liza,

You know, how about not making Jane Hamsher stand in for all the blond white women who have ever pissed you off? I see your point about the ethnic composition of the lunch crowd at Clinton's offices, but as far as I know, Jane didn't write the guest list.

(Liza, please forgive me for using your words to speak directly to TRex, but it really makes me upset to see him so obviously misread what you wrote in defense of Jane Hampshire.)

With all due respect, TRex, I think you are misreading what Liza is saying...

"..Why couldn't Jane Hamsher find as many black and latino bloggers in Connecticut and give them a voice and visibility through her blog?"

That's where Jane Hamsher's name came into play -- about Connecticut, not Harlem. And it's a perfectly valid question. As a white man who Jane gave a voice and visibility through her blog, I think you should be the last person defending her on this.

Love,

Hanna

And it's a perfectly valid question. As a white man who Jane gave a voice and visibility through her blog, I think you should be the last person defending her on this.

I stand up for people I care about.

And as to this bit of claptrap:

"..Why couldn't Jane Hamsher find as many black and latino bloggers in Connecticut and give them a voice and visibility through her blog?"

CT Blogger has gotten numerous links from FDL and worked closely with us on the Lamont campaign. And (GASP!) he's black. But we don't link to him because he's black. We link to him because he's an excellent blogger.

In addition Pam Spaulding, Steve Gilliard, and Matt Ortega are contributors at FDL and one of our main four bloggers, Pachacutec, is Lation. So, while Liza may see this as a marvellous opportunity for some holier than thou grandstanding, she's way out of line.

I think it's great that Chris Rabb has actually posted a blog post.

Perhaps he should post more often.

The clueless of the black face saga is symptomatic

I suppose you mean "cluelessness"?

You can read the rest of what I have to say about this in tonight's Late Nite FDL, Liza. I'm going to make you a star.

That's a threat, isn't it, TRex?

Are you *sure* that's where you want to go with this? Is it that important that you stand up for your friend Jane that you burn what few bridges there are between white people and people of color on the web? Are you *sure* you're the right person to be writing the story of what happened? And making Liza the center of it all when she's not the only one who's brought this issue up?

I'm not threatening you, I'm asking seriously. Is your post going to heal or hurt? I'm sure it'll have jokes, cause you're good with the jokes. Humor can be healing. It can also be incredibly hurtful.

If you're going to take a personal fight out onto an A-List blog, are you sure you are doing it for the right reasons?

I really hope you think deeply about what you've implied you're going to do.

I don't think it's going to make the world a better place. Please, think on it.

Love,

Hanna

and denial going on at FDL at the moment. Trex apparently figured that the best way to prove that they do too like black folks was to put up a post dripping with just about every tactic used by the "we're not racist, you're racist, you uppity, ignorant fool who dares to criticize your betters, and to make spelling and grammar mistakes while doing so!"

I did try and leave a little comment indicating how that post read to a (at least this) black person, but it was deleted immediately, lol.

One would never expect a real conversation on issues like this to happen on that site, but for them to respond to even mild criticism about an issue that really is important to the future of Democrats, progressives and so on with that level of venom and wounded privilege surprises even me.

This witch hunt is baseless, insulting, and is probably killing your reputation.

I'm so very sorry if any post of mine here goaded TRex into attacking the community of bloggers of color and Liza in particular.

I condemn the actions of TRex and FireDogLake (including, but not limited to, the comments of the co-proprietor Jane Hamsher) taken on this day.

It is sickening and wrong what was posted. Unapologetic of past wrongs and racist to the core.

What was written by TRex and most of the commentors is demeaning to all people who hope for a just and fair society.

Love,

Hanna

Where are the Asian-American progressive bloggers? Why were they left out?

WHY?!?

You know what, I bet none of the bloggers invited by Clinton were Ukrainian-Americans. Or senior citizens - what about elderly progressive bloggers? Don't they matter?

And why no Muslims? Hmmm?

I don't see any Greek-Americans, Italian-Americans or Mormons either.

What I do see is something that looks like iced tea in a wine glass.

ICED TEA in a WINE GLASS?!?!? (look on the table, right there in front of.. um.. nevermind).

THAT PROVES IT!!!!

I'm sorry that you're not one of the cool kids - really, I am - but I'm just not that moved that you didn't get invited to the prettiest-girl-in-school's birthday party. I didn't get invited either.

Write a better blog.

(Better as in well-researched and spellchecked for a start)

Hello Liza,

This is my first day reading your blog, which I found via Steve Gilliard. I'm sorry about the vicious attacks you're being subjected to from the FDL crowd. Not that you can't handle it; but still, there's poison in many of the words being written. Actually I don't really agree with parts of your initial post (e.g. singling out Daou and Hamsher), but I think using FDL's high profile to pile on is divisive, ugly, and a questionable use of pixels and packets.

By the way, I'm a regular reader and occasional commenter at FDL. I'm also usually a fan of darkblack's work (and though I may disagree with him on certain matters, I do think his comment in this thread is in good faith). But yes, there's a strong whiff of white privilege that serves as the normalizing cultural basis for much of the discussion there (lots of breezy parlor talk and high tea politesse). When this backdrop of privilege or its manifestations come up, as best as I can tell, it tends to infuriate white liberals whose self-perception and proud identity is partly based on their feelings of moral superiority to the overt bigots of the conservative movement. I suspect that's why the vitriol descends fast and furious. As usual, white liberals think of racism mostly in terms of interpersonal behavior and personal virtue, rather than institutional and societal structure.

Witness the avalanche of posters on FDL who claim to be color-blind and honestly believe this makes them anti-racists; whereas, very few persons of color would make such a formulation, as we were never offered the luxury of color-blindness. We'd all like to get there, but in the meantime pretending it's so doesn't make it so.

Incidentally, as a blogger and a person of color (Asian American, CT resident who works in NYC, Lamont volunteer), I often find myself at odds with the dominant trains of thought expressed at FDL. Not long ago I was also roundly attacked when I wrote a comment linking to a post I'd written entitled "Blackface Joe: Five Grievances". I was instantly branded a blogwhoring grenade-lobbing concern troll and attacked with the same kind of rancid anger on display tonight. Granted, I chose a poor thread to post such a comment. But the overall dynamic is all too familiar to people of color. Clearly the blogosphere self-organizes in the same manner as any other sphere of social interaction.

Peace.

I might be completely wrong about this, but my perception of this Blogger-Lunch-with-President-Clinton controversy isn't about Race or Gender, but rather simply about national impact. All of the bloggers featured in the story and photograph have a wide, national base and high readership. Is it so surprising that Mr Clinton, who is a busy man, would reach out to the better known Liberal and Progerssive bloggers? I also understand that several black and Latino bloggers regretfully declined to attend, so that's that.

I think small bloggers like you and me are racially and gender anonymous, unless we choose to identify ourselves in our writings or by publishing a photo. So I'm sure you weren't excluded by reason of your color, but rather, as I said above, because they invited the "big names."

I don't know how long you've been blogging, but I certainly hope that your blog will prosper over time, grow, and you might be included in a future lunch.

It is my understanding that there were invitatuions which were offered to minority bloggers who chose not to attend. If you were not one of those invited and you know that there were others who were this rant quite simply is sour grapes. So did you know there were other minority bloggers invited?

Btw, Oliver Wills was invited and declined. And as Jane has pointed out, CT Bob is African American and he posts extensively on her blog. I am dissappointed to see the venom here. I will say it's reassuring on one level that the liberal blogosphere is not in lock step like the GOP bloviating echo chambers out there.

Until this "incident" I never gave a thought about ethnic backgrounds of bloggers. Funny thing about blogging is you are basically invited into the livingrooms of the mind and skin pigmentation a lot of the time isn't an issue unless it's spoken about in political terms.

As a white teacher in NE Florida who teaches several very ethncially and culturally diverse classes I can assure you everyday I see there is still an advantage to being white. Period. It stinks. Everyday I try to offer some small minute contribution to fight that advantage to make the playing field equal for everyone. Somedays it seems to be futile and I feel beat down. Other days at the end of the day during my drive home I think I might, just maybe, have made a small difference in that fight. I want everyone of my kids to just have that chance to succeed to be the best they can be according to their abilities on a level playing field.

I recently have been blessed with a child for adoption. I hope to introduce her to a world where skin color is part of a beautiful mosaic that makes up a grand painting of humankind. I was a rather strident and vigorious blogger before she came along. I haven't posted in weeks because I spend every waking moment with her that I can. But now I feel, after following this disappointing line of spatting posts over race within the libral blogging community, it might just be time to jump back in and start that fight agianst intolerance again.

DuvalDem of Truman's Conscience

i had the same reaction when i first saw the photo, but didn't write it up until now. good job, grrl.

Stop by at Greater Democracy or Orient Lodge to read my long spiel on this,
"The New Elite in the Fourth Estate, you have the power, the danger of a new incumbency, and holding on to the long tail."

Don't be offended. This is a small blog.

http://technorati.com/search/www.culturekitchen.com%2Fliza%2Fblog%2F

FWIW not everyone goes online to humiliate others. Some of us actually come here to share our thoughts rather than our paranoia.

Most blogs are small, absolutely ... yet!

If you knew anything about blog metrics, you'd know that Technorati never ever is considered the authority on those matters.

But what do I know, I'm a black bitch that shoud know not to challenge her betters.

I think it's time for the old "let's build our own and just let them have theirs" approach to this.

Isn't it possible that Clinton had Daou reach out to the bloggers he enjoys reading and there are no people of color who happened to make the list? If that were the case wouldn't it say more about his own personal taste in writers? Is it ok if there are no bloggers who happen to be Black that he likes to read?There are many great authors who I just don't enjoy reading so lunch with them would really be a drag...what would I say? "So, I hate your work".

The issues you write about are no doubt valid and insightful and I enjoy reading your points of view and agree with nearly all of them, but maybe you bore Clinton to tears. IF that were true nothing you could do for him would make sitting thru lunch worth it.Would you want to sit thru lunch with someone whos work you didn't like?An authors work is like art, everyone who views it sees it a bit differently if you are good at it.Not everyone is going to like your work and that is ok because you still sparked an emotion, even if it is negative. And that is the big picture purpose of art.Writing is an art.

Your blog does not make my top 10 daily reads but it makes my top 20 reads.Bill Clinton is entitled to not like your work as well as I do.He served this entire nation for 8 long years and he doesn't owe anyone anything else.Certainly none of us have ever served the nation in his capacity.He continues to work to help with the AIDS crisis in Africa., but you are willing to drag him thru the mud over the color of his lunch guests because what he didn't do for you seems to trump what he does for humanity.. he could say screw it and go play golf instead of doing any of it.

I like your blog, I admire you and your work, but please admit you may have not been invited because Clinton thinks you suck.Do you really believe Clinton told Daou to make sure all his lunch guests were white???I am of mixed races so I am very much on both sides so please accept my comments in the spirit in which they were intended. Thank you for your consideration

I find it very odd, and unfortunate, that there were no black or hispanic bloggers at this event. I also find it rather disturbing that people are attacking you personally for noticing this.

A squirrel chewed me out of an internet connection so I am just Finding out about this latest version of Jane Hamsher's cluelessness (read: unconscious denial, idiocy). Liza, were the only person who really had the guts to take Jane (and by extension, FDL including its bullying pack of firepups--which is why I am posting this comment here and not there. I know they will still read it. LOL) to task for the Joe in blackface graphic, and I applauded you then and I applaud you now for having the guts to say what so many others were thinking.

Darkblack, I know that you did not intend this and I applaud you for not stooping to level of meanness displayed by Jane/Trex/Christy in defense of the Joe-in-blackface image: But what you need to understand is that using an image of a minstrel-in-blackface is akin to calling someone nigger. Liza can do that. Steve Gilliard can do it. But you can't and I can't. (though I wish they wouldn't either!)

This is not hypocrisy, nor is it "reverse racism" (which is btw -- a notion that was created by the right-wing fascists. Anyone can be prejudiced, but racism stems from institutionalized power and privilege). You see, (and this is the shit we would be taught in social studies if the right hadn't been busily gutting American public education for the last 30 years) historically, to be a minstrel (from the white perspective -- and the black, I suspect) is to be the ultimate nigger.

As an artist, you should know that all art (images) is contextual. And if you are not well-versed in this aspect of American history and race "relations" then the Joe in blackface image is simply an expression of unconscious and collective racism. Which has not been healed.

While I understand your overt "rationale" for creating the image, I don’t think it really acknowledges that images/art have a life of their own. You didn’t invent the “blackface” — it has a long and sordid history. If you are going to appropriate a cultural image to make art, then you better do some research and find out what it is really all about. And Liza is makes an interesting observation . . . a more to the point image would've been of Joe in whiteface (Joe, the wanna-be WASP, like the Bushes who really are), but of course that would not have worked with ignorant HuffPo readers; it would've gone right over their heads—or a lot more of them would’ve taken offense (LOL).

But the blackface was powerful, wasn't it? It kind of punched you in the gut. Everyone had a reaction to it. Why -- because on some level (conscious or unconscious) we - all- know what it *really* means. You said that you meant to show that Joe was wearing a false-face in his relations with CT African-Americans. Which is true, he was/is. But what the image actually depicted was that Joe is Bush's "nigger" or said differently, he is "like" a black-face minstrel, subservient, self-mocking, ridiculous etc. At its worst and most toxic level, the imag