Jim Crow Rears His Ugly Head...At The Democratic Convention?

As you may know, I applied for press credentials to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention as a member of the Democratic National Convention Committee's (DNCC) State Blogger Corps from Georgia. While I was considered for those coveted press credentials and made a very strong case for myself (i.e., membership in the Atlanta Press Club; Georgia state Senate media credentials, etc.), they were ultimately awarded to another Peach State blog; Tondee's Tavern.

Folks, the case being made here and on African American Political Pundit is that if a group picture of the state bloggers credentialed by the DNCC were taken today, you'd see a photograph with a bunch of white boys and maybe one or two blacks. That, my friends, does not reflect the diversity of the Democratic Party.

I congratulate Jon Flack on being credentialed and I hope that he'll report the hard news from the floor of the Convention.

Now there are some who are raising questions about the DNCC's selection of the state blogs from across the nation. At Open Left.com, there's an ongoing debate suggesting that the state Democratic parties hand-picked the blogs representing them in Denver to "clamp down on blog dissent". In short, there is a growing feeling that the state blogs selected to cover the Democratic National Convention were those sites who would put forth the most positive stories coming out of the Convention and give the Democratic presidential nominee a big boost around the internet.

It wouldn't surprise me if some state blogs more critical of the Democratic Party were passed over for other blogs who portray Democrats in a more favorable light, but I'm not going to dispute that one way or the other because I don't know if it's true or not.

However, there is a bigger issue here that minority bloggers from across the nation are beginning to pick up on. It seems, at first glance, that there is a significant absence of color among the DNCC's State Blogger Corps. Francis Holland of the self-titled Francis L. Holland blog writes:

I'm concerned that virtually all of the state blogs selected by the Democratic National Committee to cover Denver are white. Of course, it remains possibly that one of these white blogs will bring a Black person along as a blogger. But, Black bloggers and voters are not willing to wait until we arrive in Denver to find out whether a group of virtually all-white blogs will also send a group of all-white bloggers to Denver. We strongly suspect that we already know the answer, and it is totally unacceptable to us. Do any of these all-white blogs even have any Black bloggers who might participate? That's something we need to know before Denver. [Source: 5/16/2008 The Francis L. Holland blog "Jim Crow Blogging at the Democratic National Convention?"]

Kenneth Quinnell of the Florida Progressive Coalition Blog tones down the rhetoric a bit, but essentially makes the same argument presented by Francis Holland:

The overwhelming majority of the 54 state/territory blogs are run by straight white males. While it is difficult to come up with an exact number, since many bloggers don’t publicly identify themselves by demographic characteristics. Part of the problem, at least from what I can tell, is that bloggers who aren’t straight white males are less likely to blog about state politics and are more likely to write about national and social issues. [Source: 5/19/2008 Florida Progressive Coalition blog "DemCon08 — Problems with State Blogger Selection"]

Folks, the case being made here and on African American Political Pundit is that if a group picture of the state bloggers credentialed by the DNCC were taken today, you'd see a photograph with a bunch of white boys and maybe one or two blacks. That, my friends, does not reflect the diversity of the Democratic Party.