Spencer Overton recently pointed to new developments among Black political bloggers. He points to the CBCI/Fox News Debate. I would also direct you to Imus and Rush for areas where black bloggers (like Al Roker!) have contributed to the online discussion.

The BlackProf says there are 3 factors at work here:

1) A Generational Shift
2) Transparency that Holds Black Elected Officials More Accountable
3) The Power of Collaboration

Regarding that last one, he states:

Despite the interactive and collaborative nature of the Internet, many Black blogs have remained relatively autonomous. We’ve provided links to occasional posts on other sites and included other black blog sites on our blogrolls, but our interaction has been limited, at least with regard to action. And autonomy is important—the wisdom of crowds comes not through parroting, but through autonomous decisionmaking. And we all have different interests. But the CBC/Fox Issue is an important step in the evolution of network effects—the power of a broad, flat, and well-connected blackosphere.

Black bloggers may not always agree with each other 100%. There’s still the Malcolm X vs. Martin Luther King, W.E.B. DuBois vs. Marcus Garvey vs. Booker T, etc dynamic of different ways to get at the question of how do we build power and how do we improve the lives of African-Americans. Because improving the lives of African-Americans improves the lives of all Americans in the long run.

It’s ok to disagree and even to talk about those disagreements on strategy and tactics. But our power is in collaboration and coming together to focus on targets where we are largely in agreement such as holding black (and non-black) elected officials accountable and pushing back on racists like Fox News, Imus, Rush and so on is one way we will gain strength. There are other ways to gain strength though such as fundraising. That’s one area for 2008 where I’d like to see my blogging brothers and sisters get involved.

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