*** Scroll down to read Peter Daou’s response to my e-mail ***
[Note: Don't forget to read and comment on today's other post, Is Ben Cardin Lying, Or Just Misinformed?. It's sort of related to this one.]
There’s a rage in Harlem!
I rarely blog about what liberal bloggers are doing, but there’s some dissension among the ranks worth mentioning.
Black liberal bloggers are upset about the lack of color at last week’s Slick Willie-liberal bloggers lunch in Harlem. Clinton’s keeping an office there, don’t you know. “Colored” liberal blogger Liza Sabater, fellow Blogher Advisory Board member, had some questions for lunch organizer Peter Daou, blogger, creator of the Daou Report, and blog advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton:
What does it mean though that there are 20 bloggers invited to this lunch and not one is black or latino? What does it mean for this group of bloggers to be patting themselves on the backs for being with Clinton when they are all in Harlem and not one of them is a person of color? What does it mean for these people to be there and have not one of themn (sic) raise this issue in their blogs?
Check out the menu: southern [fried?] chicken, baked sweet potato fries, cornbread — soul food with no soul bloggers! 
(Clinton likes B. Smith’s, too)
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
Firedoglake, an apparently popular liberal blog, mocked Sabater with this post. Blogger “TRex” laid out the blog’s racial creds by naming a few black contributors to Firedoglake.
Daou says he invited black bloggers. In an e-mail to Sabater:
From: peter@daoureport.com
Subject: RE: There are no black bloggers in New York City or Harlem
Date: 15 September 2006 06:53:51 EDT
To: blogdiva@culturekitchen.comHi Liza – several bloggers were invited who couldn’t attend, including
Oliver Willis (who you didn’t mention in your post). Also, I was told =
that more events like that are planned, and there will be an opportunity to
invite bloggers who didn’t attend the first one.So respectfully, you may have reached a conclusion without all the =
facts.Best,
PeterP.S. Feel free to publish this email as an update to your post.
Sabater has some advice for Daou that I think he should follow. Part of me doesn’t want to get in the middle of this since it’s their problem, but what the heck? Democrats, unlike Republicans, cannot win elections without the “black vote.” If H. Clinton plans to run in 2008, Daou ought to be reaching out to black liberal bloggers, who can create a lot of problems for her campaign.
Daou says he contacted at least one black blogger outside New York, but I wonder how many in New York he contacted? Traveling costs money. In my case, as a newly self-employed consultant, I have to turn down conference invitations if there is no offer to pay for travel and lodging. Perhaps that’s what happened here.
Daou is alright with me. He included my blog in his Daou Report round-up since its inception. The first time I appeared on MSNBC, he e-mailed and said I’d done a great job. But, by way of free advice, he should do something to appease the upset black liberal bloggers. It’s unwise to ignore blogospheric rumblings, especially when those bloggers can make trouble for his boss.
The great thing about Republicans and conservatives (not always the same) is there are no “diversity” sermons. Although I sometimes wish I weren’t the only black person at certain functions, I appreciate not having to hear lectures on racial “reaching out.” Ideally, people of any color should be attracted to ideas rather than skin color considerations. Democrats and liberals are the ones obsessed with skin color, so when I see all-white liberal gatherings, I find it hysterically ironic.
Memo to white liberals: It’s hypocritical to push the “value” of skin color diversity on others when you don’t make an effort to ensure that your meetings, meet-ups, and conferences are “diverse.” Just one outspoken Christian conservative black woman blogger’s opinion.
I’ll close with this: liberals can be really nasty to each other. Go to Technorati and read the responses from both sides of the issue. [Update: Actually, the Firedoglake response is the worst. The 10 or so others I read are civil enough.]
(Photo credit: AMERICAblog)
Update: I e-mailed Daou to get his comment. An excerpt from his response:
There was limited space and I extended invitations to a diverse group of bloggers from various ethnic, gender, and demographic backgrounds, including several African-American and Latino bloggers. (Geographic location was not a primary consideration.) Those who accepted attended, those who didn’t accept, didn’t attend. There was a limited amount of time to work out all the invites and the travel arrangements and since more outreach was planned, those who couldn’t attend the first meeting would get an opportunity to participate in the next one.
