Jack & Jill Politics

Black blogging in an organized rather than individual fashion is still nascent yet I agree with Gina McCauley over at What About Our Daughters. We have shown that we can work together to achieve attention for issues that are important to us. Getting the mainstream media and ultimately Viacom to pay attention to Hot Ghetto Mess (That Show) is just the beginning.

Here’s Gina:

We’ve seen it before with the CBC-Fox Debates, Shaquanda Cotton, and cases of African American women whose kidnappings and murders have been overlooked ( Stepha Henry) by “mainstream media,” Black bloggers are beginning to leverage their online power to obtain off line results.

THIS REALLY IS NOT ABOUT THAT SHOW
THAT SHOW on a certain network will be a mere footnote in history, the real story, overlooked by the “mainstream media” in all of this is that OUR generation is coming into its own as activists. We don’t do things the way that our parent’s and grandparents did . We shouldn’t have to. They sacrificed so that we could have access all of the tools you have seen during this brouhaha over THAT SHOW. You saw us getting our message out to the news media. You saw us go toe to toe with one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and we did it with a cellphone and a desktop computer. That is all.

BLOGGING WHILE BROWN
It is important that we continue to nurture this emerging activism so that our efforts related to THAT SHOW are not just a flash in the pan. That is why Blogging While Brown is so important. Next year is an election year and whatever party you support, bloggers are going to play, perhaps, a much larger role in the electoral process than ever before. Black bloggers MUST be a part of that. Also, this is an opportunity for those who want to start a blog or expand their skills to get access to the technical experience to help them get their point across.

I agree. Given the South Carolina primary and the perception of a potential split vote among African-Americans between Clinton and Obama — combined with a sense of a lack of strong black political leadership — there is an opportunity for younger and new media-savvy African-Americans to unite. We CAN move issues and minds. I also believe in this cycle, we can begin to have an impact using techniques such as fundraising for candidates, coalition building and coordinated action-based campaigns to provide a valuable step forward for not only blacks, but other Americans, too, on kitchen table issues.

I am proud of Gina McCauley’s work. That is a sister with a program! I am looking forward to hearing more about Blogging While Brown and talking more about how we can get the real needs and real concerns of African-Americans (and other Americans) a little higher on the agendas of the mainstream media, Congress and the White House.