COMING OUT COLORED™

How about that digital divide? Third of US, no access (NTIA)

A retweet... @skinnyjeans on Twitter: "According to NTIA [National Telecommunications and Information Administration], almost 1/3 of [United States] don't use internet at work or home": http://bit.ly/aENleP. -- #comingoutcolored #digitaldivide. That's a lot of people, a lot of homes, a lot of neighbourhoods!

Black History Month 2008: Carter G. Woodson & the Origins of Multiculturalism

"Carter G. Woodson and the Origins of Multiculturalism" is the theme of Black History Month 2008. Check downloadable materials on the site.

"Racism, Ethnicity and Television," John D.H. Downing

This is definitely worth reading, sharing and discussing. It's from a short yet provocatively clear essay on the Museum of Broadcast Communications website.

""Until the late 1980s whiteness was consistently naturalized in U.S. television--social whiteness, that is, not the "pinko-grayishness" that British novelist E.M. Forster correctly identified as the standard skin-hue of Europeans... We come to the most complex question of all, namely how viewers process televisual content related to race and ethnicity. It has already been argued that decades of daily programs have mostly underwritten the perception of the United States as at core a white nation with a white culture, rather than a pluricultural nation beset by entrenched problems of ethnic inequity. ... it was ever harder to muster a coherent and forward-looking public debate about race, whiteness and the nation's future, given TV's continuing refusal, in the main, to step up to the plate. It was not the only agency with that responsibility, nor the unique forum available. But TV was and is crucial to any solution. ... (John D.H. Downing, Racism, Ethnicity and Television)

AFASDA Haitian Women's NGO Gets Online...

AFASDA - founded November 18,1997. Web: www.haitimedical.com/afasda. Mission: Working with Women and helping them to make actions for a more equitable society through their active participation. Actual Projects: Literacy, Health, Environment, Health, Training Center for girls. Realisations (projects completed): Potable water, Health Education, Education, Human Rights, Literacy, Agriculture. Geographical area of intervention: In the following departments of Haiti: North/North-East/West/South East/Center. Number of Members: 1000. Contact: AFASDA, c/o Mme Elvire Eugène, Rue 21 J-K # 145, Cap-Haitien, Haiti. email: afasdacap@yahoo.fr; phones: 011-509-262-2558 or 011-509-557-4626; fax: 011-509-262-3535 att.Elvire Eugène. More info in both English & French on their website.

Dissonance: Nick Anderson's political cartoons

"Race, poverty, despair" Nick Anderson, Louisville (Ky) Courier Journal

We'd love your Vote - 2005 Black Weblog Awards

Coming Out Colored and Marian's Blog would appreciate your votes for the Black Weblog Awards. Go to BlackWeblogAwards website to vote. Just plug in your name and email address - these will be invisible (seemed a bit confusing, but...) - then add a nominee and as many categories as you think apply to the blog (note category qualifications such as date blog started, etc). You must cast separate votes for more than one blog. A blogger may not vote for her or his own blog, so I'm counting on you. Thanks in advance for your vote of confidence! Voting closes Wed, 31 August 2005, 5:00pm Eastern Daylight Time. Winners to be announced Sept 3rd. Thank you!!

Rene's videoblog: 'Brownbloggers West' at Blogher

We look forward to viewing & sharing Rene's v-blog (videoblog) of a most interesting Brownbloggers session, Sat, 30 July 2005 at Blogher. The two panelists were Nichelle Stephens of "Nichelle Newsletter", and Laina Dawes from Toronto, whose blog is "Writing is Fighting ." (See Rene's photo, below.) I could not resist bringing up Harvard's infamous 'Project Implicit' - the IAT race test - which, as I personally experience it, evidently boils down to "white folks good; Black folks very, very bad" - which, even when one 'allows' for racism & white supremacy, is not the whole story, not the story of everyone who's done the test, is extraordinarily slanted and, well ... straight-up racist; particularly in a specifically anti-Black way. During Brownbloggers West (at Blogher) there was lots of discussion, including Laina Dawes' Black Canadian blogging perspective. V-blog producer Rene's other, fascinating projects include Webzine2005 - dealing with "independent online publishing", Rise Up Network (RUN), and the Luxomedia blog. Its motto: "be the media." Thank you for the documentation, Rene.

Brownblogger West panelists Laina Dawes (l) and Nichelle Stephens (r). Dawes blogs from Canada and Stephens from NYC. Photo courtesy Rene (renegade)

Internet images of people of color

How would Harvard's Project Implicit test on race describe and interpret a seemingly ordinary (to me) image? This is from Technorati. Helping 're-discover' the world's people of colour.

Technorati: "there are no posts tagged antiracism"

Well, before this one anyway... At 11 August 2005, on Technorati, prior to this post - in Technorati's own words - there are no previous posts tagged 'antiracism'. Part of me wishes I were making that up. Although I'm sure some relevant material already has been tagged under 'racism' (how about 'antiracist'?), the two words obviously are not exactly the same, and in the strictest sense they're antithetical. Tag: http://www.technorati.com/tag/antiracism

Coming Out Colored (& Marian) were at Blogher 2005

The Blogher conference of women bloggers took place just one week ago, on 30 July, and Coming Out Colored and Marian's Blog were in the house. It was a groundbreaking meeting, well worth attending; held at the Techmart center in Santa Clara, appropriately in Silicon Valley, in California, Estados Unidos de America. The location was great although Techmart really could've cranked up that wi-fi connection. I'll add other thoughts and info as they arrive or occur. Congratulations to Lisa Stone, Jory Des Jardins and Elisa Camahort - Blogher's organisers - for pulling it off so well. They've issued the list of participant survey questions - emailed, of course- and plans seem already underway for Blogher 2006.

lynne d johnson & other Bloghers in July 30th opening session