Does the Democratic National Convention have a
Policy? for it's State blogger selection?
Blogger Francis L. Holland and other black bloggers seem to think so.
DNC Must add 15 Black blogs and 15 Latino blogs
to its Virtually All-White "Jim Crow" State Blog Corps.
Barack Obama has won the nomination and is sending some key lieutenants, including Paul Tewes, to take over the reigns of the Democratic National Committee. "Obama is installing one of his top strategists, Paul Tewes, to help expand the DNC staff and oversee party operations," says USAToday. Tewes was very successful as Obama's campaign coordinator in Iowa and he previously consulted for the successfully US Senate campaigns of Maria Cantwell (WA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI).
http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-06-05-2626569413_x.htm
One of Mr. Tewes first challenges will be disbanding or restructuring a state blog corps accused of skin-color based discrimination. 53 of 55 state blogs chosen to cover the Democratic National Convention are white, and one afrosphere blogger, Francis L. Holland, Esq. of the Afrosphere Action Coalition, contends that Black and Latinos blogs are also needed to reach out to diverse Party constituencies.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/state-bloggers-selected-democratic-convention
"In addition to a 50-state strategy, we need a multiple constituency strategy.
The all-white state blog corps fails that test," said Mr. Holland.
The DNCC added six AfroSpear blogs and three additional afrosphere blogs to "general pool" of the 124 blogs covering the Convention, which means that Black blogs will be 7.2% of the blogs present. D. Yobachi Boswell of the BlackPerspective.Net blog, and coordinator of the Afrosphere Action Coalition, says he applied for the state blog pool but was rejected both for the state blog pool and the general pool. As a result, the state of Tennessee, which often has over 25% Blacks among its Democratic primary voters, will not have a single Black blogger at the Democratic National Convention. "That's an outrageous 50-state embarrassment," says Francis L. Holland, Esq.
To fully grasp the absurdity of this "outreach" effort, you have to consider all of the states with significant Black populations that will be entirely left out of the 7.2% Black blog corps: Alabama, which is 29.2% Black will have not a single Black blogger at the Convention. The District of Columbia which is 60% Black will be left out. Louisiana which is 32.4% Black will be left out. Illinois, the presidential nominee's home state, which is 15% Black, will be left out. Florida is 14% Black and 700 extra votes from Florida would have given the Democrats the White House in 2000, but Florida will have no Black blogger at the Convention.
Delaware is 20% Black, but will be left out of blogger coverage. Arkansas is 15.5% Black, but is left out. Connectict is 9% Black, but is left out. Tennessee is 16.1% Black, Virginia is 19.1% Black, and South Carolina is 28.9% Black, Ohio is 11.4% Black and a battleground state, while New Jersey is 13.3% Black. Black participation in Democratic primaries is actually much greater in these states, because Black vote for Democrats 90% of the time.
Table: States in Red Have Substantial Black Populations, but No Black Blog Credentialed for the Democratic National Convention
State
and Its Percentage of the State's Population*
(*States with no Black blog credentialed for the Democratic National Convention are highlighted in Red.)
|
State
| Population
| Blacks | Percentage |
| Alabama
| 4,486,508 | *1,308,232 | 29.2 % |
| Alaska | 643,786 | 21,787 | 3.4 % |
| Arizona | 5,456,453 | 158,873 | 3.0 % |
| Arkansas | 2,710,079 | 418,950 | 15.5 % |
| California | 35,116,033 | *2,337,935 | 6.7 % |
| Colorado | 4,506,542 | 165,063 | 3.7 % |
| Connecticut | 3,460,503 | 309,843 | 9.0 % |
| Delaware | 807,385 | 160,866 | 20.0 % |
| District of Columbia | 570,898 | 343,213 | 60.1 % |
| Florida | 16,713,149 | 2,335,505 | 14.0 % |
| Georgia (Georgia Unfiltered afrosphere blog)
| 8,560,310 | 2,349,542 | 27.5 % |
| Hawaii | 1,244,898 | 22,003 | 1.8 % |
| Idaho | 1,341,131 | 5,456 | 0.4 % |
| Illinois | 12,600,620 | 1,876,875 | 15.0 % |
| Indiana | 6,159,068 | 510,034 | 8.3 % |
| Iowa | 2,936,760 | 61,853 | 2.1 % |
| Kansas | 2,715,884 | 154,198 | 5.7 % |
| Kentucky | 4,092,891 | 295,994 | 7.2 % |
| Louisiana | 4,482,646 | 1,451,944 | 32.4 % |
| Maine | 1,294,464 | 6,760 | 0.5 % |
| Maryland (African American Political Pundit AfroSpear Blog)
| 5,458,137 | 1,477,412 | 27.1 % |
| Massachusetts | 6,427,801 | 343,454 | 5.3 % |
| Michigan | 10,050,446 | 1,412,742 | 14.1 % |
| Minnesota | 5,019,720 | 171,731 | 3.4 % |
| Mississippi | 2,871,782 | 1,033,809 | 36.0 % |
| Missouri | 5,672,579 | 629,391 | 11.1 % |
| Montana | 909,453 | 2,692 | 0.3 % |
| Nebraska | 1,729,180 | 68,541 | 4.0 % |
| Nevada | 2,173,491 | 135,477 | 6.2 % |
| New Hampshire | 1,275,056 | 9,035 | 0.7 % |
| New Jersey | 8,590,300 | 1,141,821 | 13.3 % |
| New Mexico | 1,855,059 | 34,343 | 1.9 % |
| New York (Culture Kitchen afrosphere blog)
| 19,157,532 | 3,014,385 | 15.7 % |
| North Carolina (Pam's House Blend AfroSpear blog)
| 8,320,146 | 1,737,545 | 20.0 % |
| North Dakota | 634,110 | 3,916 | 0.6 % |
| Ohio | 11,421,267 | 1,301,307 | 11.4 % |
| Oklahoma | 3,493,714 | 260,968 | 7.5 % |
| Oregon | 3,521,515 | 55,662 | 1.6 % |
| Pennsylvania | 12,335,091 | 1,224,612 | 9.9 % |
| Rhode Island | 1,069,725 | 46,908 | 4.4 % |
| South Carolina | 4,107,183 | 1,185,216 | 28.9 % |
| South Dakota | 761,063 | 4,685 | 0.6 % |
| Tennessee | 5,797,289 | 932,809 | 16.1 % |
| Texas (Dallas South and What About Our Daughters AfroSpear blogs.)
| 21,779,893 | 2,404,566 | 11.0 % |
| Utah | 2,316,256 | 17,657 | 0.8 % |
| Vermont | 616,592 | 3,063 | 0.5 % |
| Virginia | 7,293,542 | 1,390,293 | 19.1 % |
| Washington | 6,068,996 | 190,267 | 3.1 % |
| West Virginia | 1,801,873 | 57,232 | 3.2 % |
| Wisconsin | 5,441,196 | 304,460 | 5.6 % |
| Wyoming | 498,703 | 3,722 | 0.8 % |
http://www.ipoaa.com/us_black_population.htm
All in all, 45 US states, including battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania will have not a single Black blogger at the Convention, But virtually every single will have a blogger for its white constituency, not matter how small the state or how unlikely the state is to vote Democratic in November. This is not outreach; this is a color-aroused plan for electoral failure.
DNC Acknowledges that Blogger Pools are Separate by Skin Color and Unequal
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2008/05/dnc-acknowledges-that-blogger-pools-are.html
And what difference does it make that the nine Black blogs (7.2%) are part of the general pool rather than state blog corps? One need only imagine for a moment the scene on the floor, based on the rules developed by the DNCC: White bloggers sit like professional stock brokers on the floor of the stock exchange with dedicated seats and desks among the elected delegates, and with computers and broadband connections to facilitate their work, staying on the floor for as long as they like and inviting as many other white bloggers to the floor as it takes to have an all-white party.
Meanwhile, Black bloggers have to wait in lines at a special ticket booth to get on the floor, and are only authorized to stay on the floor for a maximum of 30-45 minutes, spending as much time in line waiting for these tickets as they are able to spend reporting on the Convention. When Black bloggers finally get to the floor, they will have to balance their laptop computers on one arm while typing with the other, because there will be no desks, seats, computers or broadband available on the floor for their use.
"Black elected state delegates and bloggers are not blind or stupid," said Mr. Holland, "and they will see this for what it is: the skin-color based institutionalization of a new blog apartheid within the Democratic Party, setting a precedent for all future Democratic national and state conventions."
But there was completely obvious reason why BlackPerspective.Net could not be part of the state blog corps. The state blog corps was always intended as an elite all-white corps and adding BlackPerspective.Net would have had the revolutionary effect of integrating an elite corps that was designed to be all-white when the selection of ONE blog per state was made based on the size of the blogs audiences. Adding an additional Black blogger would be like . . . allowing Blacks to eat at white restaurants or use white bathooms and train cars!
Obama's new team will have to move fast to prevent photographs of an all-white state blog corps from embarrassing the candidate just as he's starting the fall campaign. Photographs of an all-white state blog corps with special privileges based on color will detract from the candidates' message of inclusion, infuriate Black and Latino voters and depress voter turnout in November for all Democratic Party candidates.
The following news stories address the Jim Crow state blogging corps of the Democratic National Convention Committee:
June 2, 2008
June 1, 2008
Washington Post: Democrats' Convention Pool: Is It All Wet?
Bloggers Say DNC List Lacks Racial Diversity
May 23, 2008
May 22, 2008
May 20, 2008
Dallas Morning News:Racial make-up of Democratic convention bloggers criticized"
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/052108dnpolpoliticalblogs.123168d2.html
The Washington Post says that Howard Dean has been pursuing a 50-state strategy, but it seems that he's pursuing only the white voters of the 50 states while ignoring, insulting and infuriating the Black ones, as Hillary Clinton did in her losing campaign. What other conclusion can you draw from a 50-state virtually all-white state blog corps?
The party chairman, Howard Dean, has been pursuing a "50-state" strategy since 2005, an effort many Democrats have criticized because it has been an enormous drain on the party's resources. The DNC has trailed its Republican counterpart badly this election cycle and had just $4.4 million in the bank at the end of April, compared with the Republican National Committee's $40.6 million.
"In addition to righting the financial ship of the DNC, Paul Tewes and his team will need to end its color-aroused strategy of creating a class of super-privileged white "state blogs" while disregarding Black blogs and a constituency that votes for Democrats 90% of the time," says Francis L. Holland.
"Ignoring, insulting and marginalizing Black and Latino blogs from most of the 50 states is not strategy for winning the Electoral Votes from 50-states. It's a 'segregation forever' strategy, that considers an all-white state blog corps more important than the Electoral College and the success of other Democrats on the ballot in November," says Holland.
The Afrosphere Action Coalition is encouraging Blacks and Latinos, particularly from the effected states, to contact the DNC and their Congressional delegations and insist that Black and Latino bloggers be included in the state blog corps.
Sincerely,
Francis L. Holland, Esq.
Member, Afrosphere Action Coalition
francislholland@yahoo.com
55 (73) 3288-1716
The Francis L. Holland Blog
http://francislholland.blogspot.com
The Truth About McCain Blog
http://truth-about-mccain.blogspot.com
*Disclaimer: Although I am a trained and practiced attorney, I am retired and am not an active member of any state Bar. Therefore, I advocate in all matters on my own behalf and not as the legal representative of any person, group or organization.
The DemConvention State Blogger Corps is listed below.
STATE - BLOG NAME - BLOG URL
ALASKA - Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis - http://divasblueoasis.blogspot.com
ALABAMA - Doc's Political Parlor - http://www.politicalparlor.net
ARKANSAS - Under The Dome.com - http://www.underthedome.com
ARIZONA - Ted Prezelski - Rum, Romanism and Rebellion - http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net
CALIFORNIA - Calitics- http://Calitics.com
COLORADO - SquareState.net - http://squarestate.net
CONNECTICUT - My Left Nutmeg - http://myleftnutmeg.com
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA- DCist.com - http://dcist.com
DELAWARE - TommyWonk - http://tommywonk.blogspot.com/
DEMOCRATS ABROAD - Democrats Abroad Argentina - http://www.yanquimike.com.ar
FLORIDA - Florida Progressive Coalition - http://flaprogressives.org
GEORGIA- Tondee's Tavern - http://www.tondeestavern.com
GUAM - No Rest for the Awake - Minagahet Chamorro - http://minagahet.blogspot.com
HAWAII - iLind.net: Ian Lind Online - http://www.ilind.net
IOWA - The Iowa Independent - http://iowaindependent.com
IDAHO - 43rdStateBlues.com - http://www.43rdstateblues.com
ILLINOIS- Prairie State Blue - http://www.PrairieStateBlue.com
INDIANA- Blue Indiana - http://www.blueindiana.net
KANSAS - EverydayCitizen.com - http://everydaycitizen.com
KENTUCKY - BlueGrassRoots - http://www.bluegrassroots.org
LOUISIANA - Daily Kingfish - http://www.dailykingfish.com
MASSACHUSETTS - Blue Mass. Group - http://www.bluemassgroup.com
MARYLAND - The Center for Emerging Media - http://www.centerforemergingmedia.com
MAINE - Turn Maine Blue - http://www.turnmaineblue.com
MICHIGAN - Blogging For Michigan - http://bloggingformichigan.com
MINNESOTA - Minnesota Monitor - http://minnesotamonitor.com
MISSISSIPPI - The Natchez Blog - http://natchezms.blogspot.com
MISSOURI - Fired Up! LLC - http://www.firedupmissouri.com
MONTANA - Left in the West - http://www.leftinthewest.com
NORTH CAROLINA - BlueNC.com - http://bluenc.com
NORTH DAKOTA - NorthDecoder.com - http://www.northdecoder.com
NEBRASKA - New Nebraska Network - http://www.NewNebraska.net
NEW HAMPSHIRE - Blue Hampshire - http://www.bluehampshire.com
NEW JERSEY - PolitickerNJ.com - http://www.politickernj.com
NEW MEXICO - Democracy for New Mexico - http://www.DemocracyForNewMexico.com
NEVADA - Las Vegas Gleaner - http://www.lasvegasgleaner.com
NEW YORK - Room 8 - http://www.r8ny.com
OHIO - Ohio Daily Blog - http://www.ohiodailyblog.com
OKLAHOMA - DemoOkie - http://www.DemoOkie.com
OREGON - BlueOregon (blog) - http://www.blueoregon.com
PENNSYLVANIA - Keystone Politics - http://www.keystonepolitics.com
PUERTO RICO - Jusiper - http://jusiper.blogspot.com
RHODE ISLAND - Rhode Island's Future - http://www.rifuture.org
SOUTH CAROLINA - CracktheBell.com - http://www.crackthebell.com
SOUTH DAKOTA - Badlands Blue - http://www.badlandsblue.com
TENNESSEE - KnoxViews/TennViews - http://www.knoxviews.com
TEXAS - Burnt Orange Report - http://www.BurntOrangeReport.com
UTAH - The Utah Amicus - http://utahamicus.com
VIRGINIA - Raising Kaine - http://www.raisingkaine.com
VIRGIN ISLANDS - Democratic Party of the US Virgin Islands - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/democratvi
VERMONT - Green Mountain Daily - http://greenmountaindaily.com
WASHINGTON - HorsesAss.org - http://www.horsesass.org
WISCONSIN - Uppity Wisconsin - http://www.uppitywis.org
WEST VIRGINIA - West Virginia Blue - http://www.wvablue.com
WYOMING - Hummingbirdminds blog - http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com
