TOO WHITE

"Wow, if there were one place on the planet that people could be judged exclusively on merit rather than the color of their skin you'd think it would be the Internet."

The Daily Kos is the biggest and most popular liberal blog on the Internet, it is one of the biggest blogs, period. Every day thousands of comments are posted, and the only reason it doesn't get more attention here is that like Little Green Footballs or New Republic volume of comments does not necessarily indicate quality. Recently one of the members of the Daily Kos staff did a poll to find out various demographic details of the readers of the blog, and posted the results. Not long ago, this showed up on one of the "diary" sections:

So, last week DrSteveB, our inhouse resident statistician, demographer, and expert on universal health care options, posted the results of his DKos What is your race & ethnicity poll?. His results were staggering, and his analysis of the ramifications of the results are an essential read - I HIGHLY recommend reading his diary through completely, as it does a great job of responding to a lot of comments he recieved while doing the survey.

But the reason why I'm writing this diary is to pose a question in regard to his results. If, out of 3,807 Kossacks surveyed, 82% of 'us' self-reported as white, 4.2% as black, 4.5% hispanic, 4% asian, 1.1% native american, and 0.08% were hawaiian/pacific islander - well, my question is: why is the DKos community, at least statiscally, so 'white'? What are we doing wrong, and what can we do about it?

The Puggle points out that the United States is 69% white according to the latest census (not that you'd know this if you watch MTV), and that the survey taken indicates that Daily Kos is 82% white. Other stats indicated that the people who answered the survey are 14% gay or bisexual, mostly around 40, and middle class.

Puggle asked some questions and commenters responded this way:

I neither know nor care what damn color you are.

I look at skin color like i look at someone from France. It's potentially mildly interesting but it isn't something you or i can help and it doesn't imbue the owner with either innate flaws or virtues.

However, If someone comes "AT" me with their skin color (i.e. "i am sooo proud to be,black,white,brown etc which you are not..." or "you couldn't possibly understand the sufferings of MY people because you are not in MY tribe but are in fact a member of the group THAT RAPED MY PEOPLE!!!"....

then all i can say is, "Thank you very much but i am due back on planet earth"
-by Sooner


Do you really think you can say that, except for a few exceptions,

Kossacks are not racist

Really? Some might argue that most (if not all) white people (even all humans) are racist. Some more than others. Some act on it, some don't. We are all products of a racist society. We are not immune because we are liberals.
-by lil love


Oh colorblindness is a load of crap, at least insofar as in my experience the people who claim it the most are the ones who practice it the least, from whichever perspective. And insofar as one or two people actually practicing it perfectly doesn't change the overall structure of our highly racialized society.

I think it's an important discussion to have, but we need to figure out how to have it in a way that moves us forward - at least here, I feel like so many of the race discussions we end up having go in circles, and I'm not sure how to break out of that pattern.
-by Miss Laura


Kos is a group of (somewhat) like minded people. The fact that I am Wolf clan of the Cherokee should not (and doesnt seem to) reflect on how people react to what i say. The internet may be the first truly colorless society. The only way some one knows what race you are is if they know you or if you tell them. I like it that way.
-by Yoseph

Kos is a group of (somewhat) like minded people. The fact that I am Wolf clan of the Cherokee should not (and doesnt seem to) reflect on how people react to what i say. The internet may be the first truly colorless society. The only way some one knows what race you are is if they know you or if you tell them. I like it that way.

But could it be that we/some perceive the internet as "colorless" because it conforms with a particular concept of normality that correlates with and is recognizable from y/our daily "reality"? Can you be sure that those who do not identify as "white" and come to the internet also experience it as a "colorless society"?

Colorlessness and transparency have always been the privilege of those who do not need to deal with difference. Studies have shown that language used in SAT tests can be biased. Is it not possible that there are structural biases within in DailyKos that, if addressed, could attract more people of color, and further enrich our knowledge and discussion?
-by Salvador Hardin


"Racism denotes a prejudice against people who aren't white."
What a bullsh*t statement....

from the movie Stand And Deliver
Dr. Pearson: There are two kinds of racism, Mr Escalante. Judging a group because they are a minority, and not judging a group because they are a minority....

Actually there are even more....
There is also "race pride" or pride in in one's own group or tribe based on SKIN color or ethnicity. (something that cannot be changed)
Every genocide ever started began with an overweening pride in one's own group and a demonization of another.

There is also "victimhood" racism. Where the sufferings of one's racial forbears are lovingly taken up by the present generation and used like a cudgel on the descendants of the "accused" race for advantage in resource aquisition and or "revenge/redress".
Also a pre-requisite for genocide.

A side note.... Anybody who tries to play my children as members of a "guilty" race is going to get their ass whooped.
-by Sooner


I tend to believe that most people don't believe that racism is a problem in this country. The survey does not surprise me at all with 82% of those who answered the survey were white. This is how corporate America looks as well. I worked 28 years for a major utility company and always found myself being the only black or one two blacks in the various departments that I worked in.
Overall I don't think some blacks are aware of the importance and influence of the blogs at this point. Of course I only speak from my own experiences and conversations with other blacks. I'm not sure what the solution would be to increase the numbers here at DKos.
But also consider that many people still come here to view this site but don't join. I was a lurker for at least a year before I joined.
-by mistletoe


Gays are significantly over-represented, at least on the poll I saw. Should we start an outreach program to the straight community?

Honestly these polls are as close to meaningless as they could be. Everyone makes far too much of them. I, for instance, seldom respnd and often lie when I do.

Come on. These are not scientific polls.
-by melvin

The response that Puggle suggests is a committee to get together and figure out how to get more minorities (but presumably not fewer gays) on the blog, and to work on some kind of Internet/computer outreach program for inner city minorities, rural areas, and prisons. A kind of Internet Aid entitlement program so that the Internet is more diverse and inclusive.

Many of the comments were frustrated that the Democratic Party is not reaching out to blacks especially and minorities in general in the big city, that they have all but abandoned the middle class working blue collar voter. That's not especially surprising, since the core strength of the Democratic Party today is rich, academic, and in entertainment these days. Minorities, especially tend to be taken for granted - and as long as these groups vote in such predictably high numbers for the party, why not?

The Puggle points out his interest in this subject by describing himself as "I'm a 32yr old phd student, about to start my first full time faculty position. I teach queer studies, and how it intersects with issues of race and class" and noting he is a "radical democratic progressive market socialist." His entire thrust in teaching "queer studies" is not to give history or to examine the status and interaction of gays in society, no he has a specific agenda:

So, when I teach queer studies to my students, my most important task is to demostrate the links whereby fighting for queer rights necessarily includes fighting for the rights of people of color, immigrants, the global third world, the poor, etc - otherwise, we reproduce the same 'us first' mentality that created homophobia in the first place.

The approach clearly being not that we should be one people and one country, but that we're all little groups who need to struggle for power for our groups, and form coalitions to fight the man.

This attitude of "what color your skin is matters deeply and only whites can be racist" (a concept demonstrated by a recent WU professor) is in my opinion much of why blacks have such a lower average standard of living and education level than whites. The attempt to identify one's self primarily as black and at best secondarily as American is a problem. So is the idea that standard English and grammar is somehow "white" as Salvador Hardin suggests above by saying that typing isn't race-neutral "because it conforms with a particular concept of normality."

This is typical sophistry, it sounds impressive and meaningful, but actually is nonsense. Normality, by definition, has to have a specific, shared, and recognizable meaning or it ceases to be normal and the effort to avoid this fact is a common problem for the leftist. Over at Right Wing News, the commenters had a different approach:

Guild ridden whiteys are the core of the radical left so why are these KoS kids surprised that's their base?
-by AlexinCT


To me the solution is obvious. Kos should charge a small fee or tax each time someone posts a diary or makes a comment. The money that is collected should then be spent buying computers for black people. They should form committees to keep track of the demographic make up of the site and another committee to search out and find worthy people of color.That would be the liberal way of doing things right? I cant imagine why they aren't doing this already.
-by _LC


Well, if they want to up minority participation, a good place to start would probably be backing school vouchers for inner city children and firing ineffective teachers.

Knowing how to read after Graduating from High School may help. Being able to understand the concept of 4.2% might also.
-by clayv4


They're not doing anything "wrong" (with regards to this anyway).

It's like jobs or anything else, it should be merit not quota based like affirmative action.

If your blog merits involvement by minorities, they'll participate, if not, you don't import them, you just go on about your business.
-by Gilibertarian


It is, of course, extremely indicative of which ideology has the right view of the future of race relations in the United States that the biggest liberal blog on the net thinks the large proportion of white males on their site is "wrong." Only on the Left is your race or gender ever utilized against you nowadays. This is simply stating the obvious, but flip the situation around: Suppose Hawkins publicly complains that the proportion of black readers for RWN is too high. His credibility and influence in the blogosphere would melt overnight. Anyone's would. I'm reminded of Justice Thomas' famous critique of the paternalist mindset on display when someone demands a need for integration:

"In effect, the court found that racial imbalances constituted an ongoing constitutional violation that continued to inflict harm on black students. This position appears to rest upon the idea that any school that is black is inferior, and that blacks cannot succeed without the benefit of the company of whites.... After all, if separation itself is a harm, and if integration therefore is the only way that blacks can receive a proper education, then there must be something inferior about blacks. Under this theory, segregation injures blacks because blacks, when left on their own, cannot achieve. To my way of thinking, that conclusion is the result of a jurisprudence based upon a theory of black inferiority."

Missouri v. Jenkins, 512 U.S. 70 (1995) (concurring)
-by Maledicta

In the end, the Internet does tend to eliminate differences other than linguistic ones, and sadly the language is suffering because of the Internet and text messaging.

Racism