*** 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.
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Well said!
From one liberal latino Christian guy who looks white enough to have gotten into that group.
AC
“Firedoglake, an apparently popular liberal blog…”
Not only is it popular, but it’s famous as the home of Jane Hamsher, who put Joe Leiberman in blackface.
You don’t say?
I *love* sweet potato fries. Greens, too, for that matter.
So that’s what a roomful of liberals looks like.
Wow, in a crowd, you could never pick them out from normal people.
If you look at Mr. Bill, you will note that he is not smiling. That must be because he was upset that there were no people of color there. Yeah, that’s it…..no people of color. He was feeling the pain.
Look at the one who is with “groping” distance of Mr.Bill!!!!! LOL!
I’ve been following this with some amusement because I’m surely not surprised. Racist liberal white folks are even worse that racist conservatives. They front real well. I prefer my bias upfront, please.
However, I will say I read the post at FireDogLake and my blood was boiling. Once again, another ‘keyboard gangsta’ who wouldn’t dare say that to someone’s face.
Oh well.
What is Thomas Sowell, chopped liver?. What is Walter Williams, a blintze? These libs are too much … they pour people into molds, or ignore them.
This must be how they formed the LEGION OF DOOM oh goodness where are the SUPERFREINDS?
“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.”
Funny, companies and institutions are berated in the press all the time because their employee mix is does not meet the exact percentage share desired by writers, and companies and institutions would be hung from the highest available post if an explanation such as above were to be proffered.
I’m looking forward to the next group photo from one of these events. In addition to African-Americans and Latinos, expect a Pygmy, an Inuit, two members of New Zeland’s native Maori, and, if Daou can find one that blogs, a chupacabra.
Damn, this is a great photoshop opportunity.
Liberals are racists as hell. They are just slicker with it. If this wasn’t a 1950’s Old Dixiecrat style meeting I don’t know what is. I was never impressed with Clinton and him having his office in Harlem added insult to injury to me as a black american. Why are black folks so dog gone gullible when it comes to this man with no morals? And they had the NERVE to have a southern style black meal up in Harlem. I bet you they got it from a black caterer or restaurant and the latinos cleaned the tables off. lol
I can state categorically that there WERE people “of color” at that gathering, just by looking at the menu that was served.
They were catering the affair.
Dave,
I believe you are wrong, you could pick them out. They are all rather frumpy and MOST unattractive. Would you let your son or daughter date any of those folks? I don’t think so. They look like bad summer camp couselors who have no friends at home. Summer’s over, sorry boys and girls, you have to go back home and be a nerd.
Hey, you’re all missing a key point; Bill Clinton is black.
Who are you going to believe; your intellectual betters or your lying eyes?
Plebes.
How are fried chicken, sweet potatoes, and cornbread considered “black” food? I was raised on that stuff, and I’m not black. Well, I am from the South.
I don’t understand. Wasn’t the first black president there?
Here’s a funny conspiricy theory. More than likely a black caterer or black restaurant served the hearty southern cooked meal served to the white liberal bloggers. On the menu was “sauteed spinach”. With the E-Coli warning with spinach…maybe serving the dish was a payback for not having any liberal black bloggers at the table. Just having fun with this mishap by the liberals….LOL
La Shawn, I basically just love the way you assess this kinda stuff, and just about everything else, too. Please consider running against non-New Yorker Hillary. Let’s get you elected. This white capitalist-egalitist-constitutionalist-reformist (C.E.C.R, say “see-ker”) will cheer you on all the way. Yes I made that up. Until there’s a party that I can relate to, my cause is to be a one-man special interest group. It’s kind of a lonely pursuit, but what the hey, we can dream.
Given the enormous threat to our safety and way of life posed by the jihadist lunatics, maybe it would be a good idea for those of us who can at least claim to be civilized to start finding ways to GET ALONG WITH EACH other? This is too serious a threat for further tomfoolery folks!
just more of the same from the “do as i say, not as i do” crowd. didn’t we have something like this pop up during the hearings for ruth buzzi ginsberg to get onto the supreme court? ginsberg worked for the aclu (or some similar organization, if memory serves) in DC or oakland or another city with a largely black population. and then it turned out that her staff was….lily-white. and had ALWAYS been lily-white. of course, not one word of this made it into the MSM. and i could be remembering wrongly. but, seeing bubba and his “all-black crew of harlem bloggers” there in that pic, somehow, i doubt it.
I believe that there is an “All in the Family” episode that covers this perfectly.
Nah! That’s no more southern food than I am. That’s just a northern rendition of southern food. But there’s no collard greens (cooked in bacon grease of course), no fatback, and I’ll bet you the tea is unsweetened!
Liberals can’t even get the meal right!.
LOL
Now I’ve heard everything. Steve Gilliard is a popular tinfoil hat wearing liberal blogger who is black and from New York. He’s the one who said Michael Steele is a “Simple Sambo running for the bighouse”.
stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/10/simple-sambo-wants-to-move-to-big.html
Talk about timing, those comments also ran in the Washington Post the exact day Steele announced his run for the U.S Senate. For the Washington Post to give Gilliard any attention says a lot. So basically they’re full of it.
Unsweet is the only way to drink tea.
Btw, along the lines of other comments, does anyone see an uncanny resemblance between that group and the cast of Revenge of the Nerds? The guy in the rear center is apparently the coach.
His ‘liblogger’ group is about as racially diverse as his administration was. I just made the point elsewhere: BClinton doesn’t have the grace to admit that he no longer matters. History has moved on. He won two Presidential elections last millennium. Just like in dog years, that was a long time ago.
Former President William Jefferson Clinton has the most deep-seated, pathological need to be loved of any public person I can think of. If you examine his entire life in that context, it makes perfect sense. He is a completely flawed vessel, made more so by his even more flawed spouse.
As a 53 year old Hispanic born and raised (Idaho no less) in this country, I can count on one hand the number of in your face redneck bigotry I encountered in my life. The episodes of condescending bigotry from “enlightened and progressive” liberals are innumerable. I can dismiss the ignorance of rednecks, but the condecension from people who think that they are smarter and better than others just makes my blood boil.
#7, Belle, LOL, I was thinking the same thing. Soon as I saw the picture, I couldn’t help thinking the grey-haired guy in the middle of the back row goosed her derriere just as the picture was snapped.
The menu list gave me a special chuckle. But I agree that Peter Daou is a good guy.
“I did not have sex with that blogger.
I had sex with the other one. Yup, the cute one up front. Y’all think she looks like Monica? I surely do.
Remember it all depends on what the definition of ‘BLOG HER’ is.
Pass the ribs and the watermelon. Thanks, y’all.”
I love that kitty cat graphic on your blog.
La Shawn:
Thank you. Your blog should be required reading for the folks on the left.
Oops. My bad. Not enough cartoons and way too many big words.
Oh, well…
Best regards,
Bile, Snark, and Sneer
Jane Hamsher’s Photoshopped picture of Lieberman and Clinton.
The original.
It’s so funny that this is even an issue, that if only there were at least one token Black, that’d be all they’d need to make things perfect.
And of course, that’s all Blacks are good for to the Democrat Limousine Liberals….tokens–cute entertaining toys to be waived at as the Limousine cruises by.
Clinton-the ‘Black’ president.
What a sham that turned out to be.
Is Harlem the new Hollywood? BClinton has his office there, Hugo Chavez visits there to bribe low income(read:black) Americans with cheap gas. Nothing like a little racial class warfare to warm peoples hearts towards Communisim.
He’s wasting his time. Whether Harlem or St. Paul, Mn. or Fairbanks, Alaska-low income Americans are still Americans, and are better off under our system of government than they would be under Communism.
Chavez may think he’s winning the hearts of the lower classes of our society, but they need only look over at the tyranny of Hugo’s buddy Castro in Cuba to see what their future would be like under Chavez’s ideal government. Or look in any history book to see the outcome for the USSR.
Chavez is a fool, but like his playmate the President of Iran, a dangerous one in charge of a great country. If we can bring democracy to Iraq, we should also free the people of Cuba and Venezuela.
What have Jewish and black people gotten for their undying loyalty toward the Democrat Party? More BS about how the republican party hates them so they better vote democrat? During the 2004 presidential campaign, what exactly was the democrats message to the black community? Was it helping to empower blacks through economic programs, moral issues, programs designed to strengthen families etc. It was none of that. The message was “your vote was stolen in 2000, make your vote count this time”. The other message was “Vote or Die”? Thats the democrat message to black America? We don’t have to have an agenda for blacks, they better vote for us or they are a sellout to their race. Thats really comforting. When one race gives up all its political power to one party, this is what happens. Democrats know they don’t have to no longer work for the black vote or carry through on a campaign promise, they expect it or else. Like the Borg, One mind and one collective.
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