Where were the African-Americans?

[gee double you bee]

Scanning through the amazing photos from the recent candlelight vigils held all across the country in support for Cindy Sheehan, I was heartened by a number of images, but one thing I noticed disheartened me, where were all the black people?!

Is it because the online activist community (which lead the way for the vigils)is, more or less, white? Is that even true? If it is, how do you work to change it?

note: because it's the internet and sometimes it's difficult to tell, there's no subtext of racism, snarkiness, trolling or animosity here.

[Montauk6]

1. Umm, hugging Maxine Waters... hello???

[gee double you bee]

2. oh, you're right!

My bad, nevermind.

[gee double you bee]

3. sorry, that was dicky

Yes, obviously there were a few African-Americans there, however, the vast, vast majority of people weren't. That's the point I was addressing.

[Lefta Dissenter]

4. from the original Camp Casey...

though I'm not sure that was included in your query...

[gee double you bee]

6. My intent

wasn't to imply that there were no African-Americans at the vigils, or Camp Casey for that matter. I was simply pointing to the discrepancy between whites and blacks at the vigils, and opening up a discussion as the why that might have been, and ways we can go about remedying it.

[Montauk6]

9. H. Elaine Johnson from Midlands SC is reportedly on her way down

I guess it's just that I get so sick of this BLACK-WHITE BLACK-WHITE BLACK-WHITE thing. Enough!

Keep in mind that one of the ORIGINAL voices that chimed the anti-war sentiment was that father (and GODDAMN me for not knowing his name) who early on held that picture of his son up to the news camera speaking to Bush directly, "YOU killed my son!" I'll never forget that image.

I don't understand what there is to remedy. Are we also going to tally the number of Chinese, Arab, Indian, Mexican parents as well?

And, please don't forget that the true leaders in the anti-Bush/anti-war push on Capitol Hill has been the Congressional Black Caucus. These folks aren't twiddling their thumbs worrying about reelection, they're hitting hard.

So, while we may not be physically there in Crawford TX (a place where, I understand, even a lot of WHITE folks try to avoid), please don't take that as an indicator that Cindy's message falls on deaf ears in the Black community. That's just not so.

[Kipling]

5. The online activist community is mostly middle class.

And, therefore, white. What can be done to change it? Affirmative action and boosts to inner-city schools will be a start.

[gee double you bee]

7. that strikes me as only half the answer

It's my understanding that moveon.org played a large part in getting the word out about the vigils. Maybe moveon should look into advertising on popular black-issues oriented websites? That's the kind of idea I wanna foster with this thread. Not only ways to address what Kipling is talking about, but ways to reach out to the already existing online black community.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Got spare change?

:shrug:

[gee double you bee]

10. Does this not concern anyone else

or is this too heavy an issue to get into at 7AM on a Saturday morning? :P Which I can totally understand.

[steve2470]

11. If it were not for: John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee

and other African-Americans whose names escape me at the moment, we would be in very serious trouble. We owe what freedom we do have, largely, to that community. The Congressional Black Caucus were the only Democrats to protest the 2000 election.

[gee double you bee]

12. I completely agree with that

I think (by the responses) I've failed in articulating my concern. I feel shitty about it because this is an issue I feel is of great importance. Maybe I'll try again later, or maybe someone better at writing who knows what I'm trying to get at will post something more eloquent and get a good discussion going.

[Booster]

34. No, Gee Double. You're not wrong, but maybe a little misguided.

When I went to my vigil I was kind of shocked that most of the people I talked to had never heard of DU, although I did meet a young couple who are here often. If it weren't for DU, I don't think I would have known about the vigil and how to find one in my area. We used to depend on the local news for such things, but no longer. I think the fault, if there is one, would lie with the black talk/music radio personalities who should have been told about it so they could tell their listeners. Think about, folks. Where did you hear about the vigils?

[Sgent]

13. I agree

I too have been troubled by the relatively homogenous appearance of our protests. Blacks are an important part of our community -- in many locations making up over 50% of democrats. If we aren't seeing them at rally's, then we have a problem.

Either our outreach sucks, thus they are not aware of the rally's (most likely), or they happen to agree with GWB(highly doubtful).

Since all the rally's were predominately advertised via the internet -- something which is only in 50% of homes, we have fallen down speaking to our own constiuents.

[gee double you bee]

15. that's what I was trying to say

but failed miserably at. Thank you. :)

[H2O Man]

14. Why is it an issue

to you?

[Cocoa]

16. need to find out if it's true first

before it makes sense to ask, why are so few blacks at the protests, need to answer, how many blacks were at the protests.

[fasttense]

17. You have a point there Cocoa.

From the pictures posted above, you can clearly see African Americans were represented in the "Support Cindy" crowd. From the list of politicians who are backing Cindy it is clear African Americans are very well represented.

I'm wondering if this (lack of support from African Americans) is not merely a perception problem. The Corporate media never seems to show the black faces on television. I think it is a ploy to keep African Americans from getting involved. It may not be deliberate on the part of the corporate media. It goes along with that reporting on missing pretty little white girls but very little reporting on missing people of other skin colors.

I also noticed that the protesters against the Cindy protest are also shown on corporate media (more frequently than their numbers support) as being made up of mostly whites.

It may just be the manipulation of the news by the corporate media that gives you the impression African Americans were not represented in the "Support Cindy" crowd.

[Pepper32]

18. I think you're right....

This seems to be the trend online and offline(TV). Until today I haven't seen in pictures of the Crawford protest with African Americans in them.

[blondeatlast]

28. And were they out of proportion to the general population?

From what I've seen, they were close to directly proportional.

Considering the expense involved in online activism (the OPs point), I'd say that's pretty encoutraging, actually.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tamtam]

20. I noticed that also

I didn't know if it was the news not showing black people or if there just weren't that many black people at camp Casey. I'm sure if you look at the state vigils you would see a good number of black people.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gee double you bee]

22. great points liberalismresurgent

and that's where I think I went wrong with this topic. I singled out black people, when you're correct, they weren't many asians or hispanics either.

look, I know bringing up race in any context is touchy these days, especially on a politics driven message board, which is why I put that little addendum to my original post.

It's an organizational thing.

That's my hunch as well, and it seems to be the consensus so far. So the question is what do we do about it?

[me b zola]

23. gwb,

Are you an African American who is interested in getting other AA's more politically active?

[gee double you bee]

25. nah I'm a white dude

And I don't think AA's need to get any more politically active than any other group, we all need to do more. People have noted in this thread that there are plenty of strong, black leaders.

But I'm speaking specifically about the AA community (or as someone else noted, minorities in gernal) and their relationship with the online activist community, because there seems to be a fairly large disconnect.

If the future of the Democratic party, and in fact the future of politics in general, is going to continue to be dominated by the internet, and message boards like DU, blogs like Kos and sites like MoveOn, I think it's vital to make sure everyone is involved, blacks, asians, hispanics, whites, everyone. But as it stands, online activism seems more or less dominated by whites. I don't think that's healthy in any scenario, and I know it's not healthy for our party or our country.

[sintax]

26. We spoke about this at length at the end of our vigil

your point is spot on. What is needed is for folks to get out into places where they are less likely to go and experience some discomfort. This means white liberals getting into East St. louis and into the South Side of Chicago. Some do.

More importantly it means listening and being involved and engaged in issues of poverty. Too many on the 'left' live in the political comfort zone.

nominated

[oasis]

24. Time off from work and travel expenses play a role in participation.

If a poll were taken today in the black community there is no doubt that Bush, his war, and the GOP would get low marks.

[Habibi]

30. Yes, that's what I was thinking too

Without wanting to resort to stereotypes, is it possible that the African-American community doesn't have that many folks who can afford to travel to Crawford just now?

[blondeatlast]

27. I saw them pretty much right in proportion to the general population.

Seriously, one of us must have misinterpreted something?

[gee double you bee]

29. another suggestion

would be to reach out to African American fraternities and sororities. Is there any kind of existing effort to do things of that nature?

[DivinBreuvage]

31. Where were the poor white folks?

Where where the vigil organizers coming into black neighborhoods and poor white neighborhoods to promote this stuff? Who was trucking poor folks without transportation to the vigils? Who was talking to the bosses of folks with irregular working hours to convince them to let their employees off to attend the vigils?

Vigils and protests are for people who have the leisure time to indulge in that kind of activity. Working class people, especially those with kids, have other stuff going on; and if they don't, they generally prefer to do something else with their few minutes of spare time than go to a vigil that isn't going to bring any meaningful benefit into their lives anyway.

And if they ever do turn out, a lot of the folks who lament about their "uninvolvement" here won't be too happy about it. Poor old Phil Ochs isn't much in vogue these days, but his "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" would be a good lesson for some to reflect on.

[gee double you bee]

32. EXCELLENT point

and I think you just shifted my thinking on this. The more I think about it, there isn't so much a race disparity in regards to online activism, as there is a class disparity. Poor Americans of EVERY race are being left behind in this online revolution.

[txindy]

36. Not necessarily being left behind, but unable to take the time to go

This isn't a major city we're talking about, after all, it's Crawford. I think a lot of people who would love to go simply cannot due to work, school, kids in school, money, transportation, etc. Now, if we're talking about local protests and vigils, that's different. That may be a lack of reporting by the SCLM and probably is.

[QC]

33. Great post! n/t

[txindy]

35. You mean like these two women, also Gold Star mothers?

http://11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=68052

They've never met with Junior. He's never even acknowledged their losses. He's going to find it very hard justifying his position regarding them.

[fasttense]

37. Thanks for posting that link txindy

I thought, and the corporate media made it sound like, brush meets with all the grieving mothers of his illegal war. I guess someone forgot to include these two brave women.

[Bridget Burke]

38. What is the actual racial breakdown of the activists?

How does it relate, proportionally, to the general population? Could media coverage be a factor?