Afro-Netizen™

Blogging While Black: An Afro-Netizen's Take on the Next Talking Drum

By Christopher Rabb
Contributing Editor
Savoy Magazine

February 2005 Issue

BLOGS (N. PL.) (FROM "WEB LOGS"): online journals housed on a website whose content ranges from accounts of the authors' personal lives to celebrity gossip to electoral politics.

In 2004, "blogging" was on the lips of millions of Americans, despite the fact most people didn't know what the term meant beyond the idea that it somehow influenced the evolving landscape of American pol­itics.

The most notable example of this blog-centric neo-populism was in the successful fund-raising efforts of former presidential candidate Howard Dean. Under the tutelage of his rogue campaign manager, technophile, ]oe Trippi, Dean embraced blogging and its power to reach voters in new and effective ways that transformed his candidacy from insurgent to front-runner. In the process, this dark horse candi­date raised over $45 million from over 600,000 Americans. The average contribution was $70 from grassroots benefactors, many of whom had never given to a political campaign before, still more who had never or rarely voted in the past. Im­portantly, the Dean campaign proved once and for all that a candi­date could not only talk to potential voters, his candidacy could become that much more viable by actually listening to them. In so doing, the Dean campaign created a new para­digm. No high-priced tuxedo din­ners or celebrity galas necessary.

Last summer I was fortunate to be one of the 37 bloggers "creden­tialed" at the 2004 Democratic Na­tional Convention. An added distinction to this history-making role was that I was the only official blogger whose readership was pre­dominantly Black.

Before the advent of blogging, my online entrepreneurial venture, Afro-Netizen, was purely e-mail-based. Since 1999, I had been e-mailing my content - primarily ag­gregated news from various sources - to thousands of largely educated Black urbanites nationwide and abroad. My motivation for this pur­suit stemmed largely from my beliefs about the Civil Rights Movement and the success of its grass roots communication tools.

In this post-civil rights era, it seems we have embraced the con­sumerist fiction of simple charis­matic leadership, without understanding the reality of the grassroots organizing that gave the Civil Rights Movement its direction, power and effectiveness. Many of us forget that it was a movement that was executed through organized struggle. And behind the marches was the power of technology that al­lowed freedom fighters young and old to spread the word.

Before there were cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptops and the Internet, there was the mimeograph machine - the manual and primitive predecessor of today's copy machines. Information about boycotts, marches, and other forms of protest was spread through printed leaflets, which papered Black communities throughout the South. The grassroots communication tool of today's digital age is the weblog ­our generation's mimeograph; our talking drum. Despite our dispro­portionately high voting power, con­sumer power and impact on American culture and entertain­ment, Black folk are virtually miss­ing in action in the blogosphere. The need to communicate with like­minded Black netizens, for me, was essential. This web avocation re­mained in guerilla mode until I blogged at the Democratic conven­tion, and forever shed Afro-Neti­zen's self-imposed stealth status.

Little did I know that the conta­gious nature of content shared on blogs would catapult Afro-Netizen (and many other weblogs of differ­ent creeds and constituencies) into the public eye literally overnight.

In Boston, I interviewed mem­bers of Congress and uploaded the digital audio recordings to my blog. I attended progressive symposia that the networks would not cover and uploaded my observations when I got back to my hotel room. I took pictures while on the floor of the convention and elsewhere and shared those images with my reader­ship. And while I was covering the convention, the media were cover­ing my fellow bloggers and me more closely than Ben Affleck and Bono.

I was interviewed on-air by C-SPAN  and Canada's CBC network broadcast I later learned reached over 35 million viewers. Before I could begin to process this stagger­ing fact, I would be interviewed by still more publications such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and New York Newsday.

This was important for Afro-­Netizen, but signaled an even greater possibility for the Black community. In light of the highly populist and independent panoply of voices in the blogosphere, the main­stream media have dubbed this web phenomenon "participatory journal­ism." But blogging is not exclusively or primarily about reporting the news; it is fundamentally about grassroots communication between individuals and groups without the filter of government agencies, politi­cal parties, corporations and other such entities.

Thus, blogging is inherently egalitarian and democratic because anyone - even those who are not tech-savvy - can set up their own weblog and wax philosophical within just minutes. And to do so is often of little expense, if not free (minus the value of your time, of course). Such blog platforms as Blogger.com, Blogspot.com, and TypePad.com are three of innumerable online sites that the curious neophyte can use to make their voices heard amidst an American media universe monopo­lized by essentially seven corporate behemoths. Moreover, a blog’s en­demic power comes not from its ability to generate revenues, but is derived from the will and capacity of its readers to coalesce around the sharing, mobilization and analysis of issues the more entrenched institu­tions do not address. Namely, the is­sues that have an overwhelming impact on the Black community.

For those millions of us Afro-netizens who go online to shop, research, and communicate with one another, the epicenter of Black life has become the media. But until the media we rely upon includes blogs in particu­lar, we are literally ceding our best of hope of communicating and organ­izing amongst ourselves - two bedrocks for any viable movement for a community's uplift.

Those of us fortunate enough to regularly use the Internet and who now have an almost addiction to Google.com, Mapquest.com, eBay.com and Amazon.com, cannot afford to limit ourselves by so gravely under-utilizing the web and the opportunities at hand. We must blog while Black. It is not a fad or a luxury; it is our civic responsibility to do so. And to abdicate this duty, is to succumb to the dangerous mythol­ogy that Blackfolk must wait for our next messenger from above, all the while not realizing that the messen­ger is at our fingertips and the invio­lable message from generations past endures in our hearts and minds. Where the success of all previous grassroots movements has been measured by feet on the ground, the power and effectiveness of blog ac­tivism for Black folk and other dis­possessed communities will be measured by hands on the keyboard.

Christopher Rabb is a blogger, free­lance writer, web entrepreneur and activist. He is the founder of Afro-Netizen, one of the oldest, most prominent Black-ori­ented online communities on the web. Rabb is a native of Chicago, currently residing in Philadelphia with his wife Professor Imani Perry, and son, Freeman Diallo.

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Me, Mikulski & Grandma Murphy

Repeat loser Alan Keyes has accepted the Illinois GOP's invitation to be beaten by up-and-comer state Senator Barack Obama for U.S. Senate, and it reminded me of a recent conversation I had with Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who kicked Keyes conservative keister back 1992.

I had the pleasure of a long, impromptu conversation with Sen. Mikulski (D-MD), the day after Sen. John Kerry "reported for duty", having formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president.

The Senator sat next to me in the waiting area at Boston Logan Airport. Across from us were two of staffers. Midway through the conversation we were joined by the Senator's DNCC "tracker" -- a Greg Kinnear look-alike with disheveled hair and short-shorts, and a smile that could light up a room.

Sen. Mikulski explained to me that a tracker was the person responsible for prepping folks who would take to the convention podium. He would tell her when to walk, how to stand, where to look, how to pace oneself while speaking, etc. While I have already forgottten this man's name, one could not forget the wonderful stories he told us with great glee, which may have even gotten the Senator's stoic bodyguard to crack a smile.

We had ample time to be regaled with colorful tales of public figures asking for beer before they went on stage, or others resisting his requests to practice their speeches, because our respective flights were both delayed.

Later, the Senator and I talked about many different, intersecting subjects: absentee voting, progressive 527 organizations like MoveOn.org and Progressive Majority, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama -- all of whom she spoke about with high regard. We also commiserated on the demise of her former colleague and my former boss, Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun, for whom I worked on her legislative staff early in her first and only term. We talked about the racism and sexism she encountered while in office, and the more preventable issues she grappled with that all conspired to derail the political career of a highly competent, truly intelligent, and decent woman.

I mentioned to Sen. Mikulski that my family was from Baltimore. And after a minute of playing the name-game, she realized that I was the grandson of long-time community activist, TV personality, and former columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper, Madeline Murphy. Once that connection was made, her body-language changed, such that for the rest of our exchange, she was turned fully towards me and leaning in as though we were old friends. She gave a knowing laugh, clearly reminiscing about the Madeline Murphy who would call her office to raise hell without hesitation or apology.

It was clear that she had great respect for my grandmother -- a woman who spoke truth to power, and, without a doubt, is a hero of mine, whose edge while beveled by a massive stroke a few years, still has that characteristic.

Her late husband, Judge William H. Murphy, Sr. -- my grandfather -- would always remark when hearing about the achievements and advancements of my generation, "We are an amazing people." But as much as successive generations of Blackfolk have undoubtedly accomplished, I look at my mother's mother, Madeline Wheeler Murphy, and I see a freedom fighter with extraordinary wisdom and an iron will, a fraction of which I could only hope to possess one day. When other grandmothers were telling their little ones, "Don't forget to wear a sweater," my grandmother would remind me as know-it-all college kid in the belly of the Ivy beast, "You are surrounded by assassins" -- said not so much as an insult, but as a cogent reminder that Yale was not built for "us".

I had heard from some of my fellow legislative staffers in the Senate that there was a seal on the floor of Sen. Mikulski's office that staffers quickly learned not to cross. When I asked what made that seal such an important threshold, I was told in half-jest that it was because when the Senator would hurl her desk phone in a rage, that's as far as the cord could reach.

I never met the Senator while working in the Beltway. However, given the deference she showed my grandmother and the legendary "edge" she and my grandmother shared, I wonder what it would have been like working for her: another diminuitive, but forceful crusader for the less fortunate, representing a state where my maternal lineages go back well over 200 years.

I doubt I'll never know, as I have since acquired an allergic reaction to employment within the Beltway. But I do know one thing: It's time I paid my grandma a long overdue call!

Mea Culpa to the Deaniacs

Dear Deaniacs:

Please accept my sincere apology for my less-than-substantive commentary on Howard Dean last week. It was uncalled for and beneath Afro-Netizen's reputation and mission to "inform, inspire and engage" its readers.

Of all the blog entries Alex Williams of The New York Times decided to excerpt from, he chose my pre-convention missive on Dean. I gave him the rope, and he hanged with it. I could speculate why of all the entries he chose to use for his article, he chose that one, but that's a separate matter. (Although, I find it somewhat ironic and amusing that the impetus for this mea culpa is the revered, but bruised New York Times whose own mea culpa for their tainted coverage of the American invasion of Iraq was, shall we say, half-assed.)

I had only wished that I had posted my many observations on conversations I had with a diverse array of citizens at and orbiting the convention last week in time to clearly show the growth (what Republicans call "flip flopping") I experienced with regard to my views on the impact of the Howard Dean movement on the DNC, this election cycle, civic involvement from previously disaffected people. Well, better late than never.

For many months now, I have found Dr. Dean to be an enigmatic character; and I have been frustrated by some of the things he has said, and the extent to which he has been portrayed by many as a progressive largely because he 1) was not in the DNC's pocket, 2) was unabashedly against the American invasion of Iraq, and 3) his candid insights about Democrats' poor response to the highly cynical GOP strategy to spook white rural swing voters, appropriately titled: "guns, God and gays".

And though I am still not quite sure where to place Dean on my political radar screen, I have a new-found respect for his ability to rouse thousands upon thousand of Generation Xers and others, who had not been moved to action by any other movement or public figure.

Before the convention, I used to postulate that these Deaniacs were BHNC-types ("big hat, no cattle"). I believe now that I was egregiously wrong. I have greatly underestimated legions of Deaniacs who now are not only first-time voters, but who have also become delegates, precinct captains, local campaign volunteers and so on. I met many such folk in Boston who are truly walking the talk, and are outpacing many of my well-educated, upwardly mobile Black friends and colleagues who, despite their awareness of the bloody sacrifices our parents and grandparents made mere decades ago for us to be able to vote undaunted, are still painfully derelict in their most basic civic duty to be counted.

My conversations and experiences in Boston this past week have given me a much more nuanced and higher regard for Dean's impact on civic activism -- particularly among whitefolk within my generation (of thirtysomethings), who like himself are what Deaniac Lawrence Winnerman's mother dubs former "Yell-at-the-TV-Democrats". Essentially, folks who have the energy to gripe about the right-wing direction in which this country's been moving, all the while eroding our already proto-democracy, but who are not sufficiently motivated to get off their Dorito-laden sofas to do anything about it.

After talking with folks like Lawrence and his buddy Shanna Sawatzki, spouse of a Dean delegate from Washington state, I had an actual heart-to-heart dialogue with real Deaniacs without the blurred lense of the press getting in my way.

Lawrence is white. He is 34 years old -- my age. He had never voted before (an ungodly crime which in my family would be punishable by . . . I can't even imagine the consequences)! He had not felt moved (from the couch) to vote until the candidacy of Howard Dean. Not only that, he actually contributed money to Howard Dean via his weblog BEFORE he took his first vote! If that's not revolutionary in this beat-up, Republicrat-dominated political system, I don't know what is. But wait, there's more!

Lawrence is now a precinct captain in his home district, and is helping to elect Democratic candidates on the local and state level -- not to mention actively working towards electing the very-non-Dean candidacy of John Kerry. Lawrence and crew have also taken it upon themselves to spin off their state's version of Dean's Democracy for America called Democracy for Washington.

Lawrence is also part of The Backbone Campaign, a small, but growing regional project geared towards supporting and conspicuously honoring Democrats who walk the talk regarding promotion of progressive legislation and public advocacy.

Bill Moyer and compatriots brought out a 70-foot backbone to the Democratic convention to promote their simple, but enlightened cause. I didn't get a chance to see it in person, but the symbolism was vivid enough in my mind's eye to appreciate their creative effort to encourage the DNC to act like the Democrats their leadership once faithfully produced.

I know this sounds like a Kum-ba-ya moment, but the impact of the Deaniac movement is neither minor nor ephemeral. It is real and nothing less than revolutionary. And in discussing its anatomy, scope and import, we -- particularly those of us in the Black community -- can avoid being preoccupied with personality or policy differences and focus on the infrastructure and mechanics of a movement that will soon eclipse the man who was once its epicenter.

While many Blackfolk are content to wait for "our next leader", many previously apathetic whitefolk have not only found a "leader" in Dean, but more importantly, embraced and helped strengthen a movement that transcends the cult of personality or leadership as embodied in one chosen individual.

I never thought I'd say this, but perhaps the Howard Dean movement is exactly the wake-up call many of us Blackfolk need in this most crucial election cycle (and beyond) to be movement-minded and not leader-leaning. While to older and wiser activists may see few unique elements of the Dean movement, Deaniacs' web-empowered activism should remind us that when we dig deep enough, indeed it was this movement made Dean -- not the other way around.

And it is this fact and powerful lesson that compelled me to acknowledge what I believe is a turning-point in grassroots politics that I should not have initially reduced to tongue-in-cheek jabs that belittled the largely positive contributions Howard Dean and his adherents have made to this election season and the two-party system at large.

DNCC Post-Mortem

To think, armed with my Mac laptop with WiFi access, a new Casio Exilim digital camera, a tiny digital audio recorder, a snazzy smartphone, a smidgen of chutzpah, and several thousand Blackfolk and other negrophiles eggin' me on, I was able to represent for the little known, but fast-growing "afro-blogosphere" and definitively prove once and for all that "blogging while black" is not a myth, it is a vital reality that will one day revolutionize the modern mass media mafia, as we know it today. (I love alliteration, don't you?)

As a result of the DNCC having the sense to allow irreverent, unruly and largely unaffiliated independent bloggers to cover the convention along with traditional members of the press, it turns out the big story of the convention was the bloggers themselves.

Who would you have thought that a progressive, neo-capitalist afro-cosmopolite like me would have garnered the interest and attention of dozens of news outlets? Clearly, I didn't when I received my confirmation letter in the mail just two short weeks ago.

I also got the chance to talk to a number of interesting public figures including, but not limited to: Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D., Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), Rep. Chaka Fattah, Philly mayor Hon. John F. Street, award-winning writer ZZ Packer, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), actor/radio host Janeane Garafalo, Oracle president Charles Phillips, Prof. Michael Eric Dyson and wife, Rev. Marcia Dyson, DC mayor Hon. Anthony Williams, political strategist/TV pundit Donna Brazile, and a handful of esteemed Black North Carolina state legislators.

I also spotted Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., 70's bombshell Jayne Kennedy and Outkast's Andre 3000, among other notable Negroes.

However, one of the absolute high points for me was having the honor interviewing Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) who I learned knew my paternal grandfather, Dr. Maurice F. Rabb, Sr., of Louisville, Kentucky. Both Fiskites, Rep. Lewis and the late Dr. Rabb (1901 - 1982) were civil rights activists and "race men", though my grandfather was significantly older than the venerable congressman. To download the enormous, unedited audio file (in AIF format) of my interview with Rep. Lewis, please click here.

I would have never dared to think that what began as a humble, civic avocation would one day be covered by the likes of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, L.A. Times, Newsday, Houston Chronicle, Congressional Quarterly, and so. (See below for more references.)

I also was interviewed via phone on CSPAN's Washington Journal last Tuesday, and on live television on Canada's CBC "Canada Now", a primetime news show anchored by David Gray, which CBC producer, Jennifer Brown, told me (afterwards) reached over 50 million people!

Well, thanks to these same media outlets' coverage of this weblog and the rampant word-of-mouth within Afro-Netizen's long-time and loyal following, Afro-Netizen is no longer in "guerilla mode". How ironic it is that many of the same media outlets who have done so poorly providing consistent, meaningful and highlly visible reporting on our community are the ones who have helped usher Afro-Netizen into "primetime".

Other publications and entities that cited Afro-Netizen:

Air America Radio

BrainFrieze

Culture Kitchen

Daily Kos

Norwegianity

Rocky Mountain News

Entry #10 from Boston: Balloons Malfunctioned, But Kerry Didn't

Have you ever heard twenty thousand people exhale all at once? You would have if you were in the Fleet Center tonight after newly minted Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry, accepted his party's nomination.

There was a collective sigh of relief that radiated through the entire arena and carried exhausted conventioneers out of the Fleet Center on a cloud of hope that maybe, just maybe, Kerry might actually pull this election off, and inaugurate a new era of Democratic leadership not seen in decades.

Entry #9 from Boston: I've sipped the Kool Aid

You just can't get the scale and gravitas of this convention on TV -- what little televised media show of it on our public airwaves.

Fomer senator from Georgia, Max Cleland, just gave an emotional introduction to John Kerry. And now, John Kerry is being welcomed into the arena by a standing ovation and cheers from thousands of hysterical supporters. While I am quiet and still, I am still moved by this highly scripted and Spielberg-produced moment. So, you could say that this seamless convergence of the Beltway and Hollywood has made me take a wee sip of Kool Aid.

The preparation, technology, and logistics behind this 4-day extravaganza is mind-boggling. But tonight is "Oscar night" of American politics.

It's import on the folks in this arena is palpable. And while the vast majority of attendees here are political stalwarts and civically engaged in their respective communities, you'd have to be Spock not to feel the sublime weight of this imperfect, but elastic democratic exercise I am witnessing now.

In a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, I was asked for whom I would vote. My tongue-in-cheek response was anyboby but Bush or Nader. But there is no question that I will be voting for Kerry -- perhaps even twice (as is my right as a native Chicagoan).

The Kerry-Edwards campaign needs help towards meaningfully working with communities of color in enlightened, timely, well-funded, and non-paternalistic ways. And I am committed to working with them to that end. It appears that this Afro-Netizen community is an ideal and vital means by which this can be done.

Entry #8 from Boston: Chris Matthews is a punk

Thanx to all of you who brought to my attention Chris Matthews' unceremonious and hostile decision to cut into Sharpton's speech last night and make reference, of course, to Tawana Brawley.

New blogging buddy and political satirist, Tom Burka, of Opinions You Should Have, received a call from his wife decrying Matthews' decision to yank coverage of Sharpton's amazing oration -- quite possibly the most powerful speech of an electorally non-viable political figure in modern times. His non-viability only increasing with every highly selective reference to Sharpton's storied past.

I wonder what former Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) thinks about this media phenomenon. Or for that matter, former drunk driver and alleged cocaine expert, George W. Bush. And since I'm in good ole Beantown, would it be inappropriate for Chris Matthew and Co. to familiarize TV audiences with the late Kennedy family patriarch, Joe Kennedy's "entrepreneurial activities" that paved the way for the unequivocally positive contributions many of his scions made to this country?

While not particularly surprising to many of us, Matthews' selective double-standard may be the outgrowth of a tragic disease called in this new civil era: "bias" -- or what my maternal grandmother, Madeline Murphy, and former Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper columnist, would call the antics of a racist dog.

Oh, wait a minute, he worked for the late, great Democrat, Tip O'Neill -- and he's a celebrated on-air personality in the leftist-dominated mainstream media, so I guess it'd be impossible for him to be . . . "biased".

Anyway, I'm sure that in the interest of fairness, whenever Matthews talks about his buddy and (briefly) deposed white journalist, Mike Barnicle, he'll start every exchange with "

Speaking of racist dogs, I walked past fascist columnist and CNN talking head, Bob Novak, on my way to the convention the other day. I thought he was ugly on the inside, but damn! Even "fugly" would be too mild a term. Granted, I don't have the dashing good looks of civil rights deactivist Ward Connerly, but come on, Novak. Perhaps it's time to consider a visit from the Fab 5.

The next day when leaving the convention, I ran across noted gay rights activist, Armstrong Williams, and vegan anarchist, Delroy Murdock. (I believe that's their respective claims to fame, but I may be wrong. Can someone check this for me?) Too bad I didn't run across them with a truck . . . filled with anti-self-loathing ointment, which incidentally, I am told Pfizer is working on as we speak.self-love that is (metaphorically, of course.)

Last query: Can whiny 'Crossfire' co-host and DNC automaton, Paul Begala, call a guest on his show a "racist dog"? No? Too bad. We can in the blogosphere though. Right, folks?!

Aside from the periodic death threats, blogging's awesome!

Entry #7 from Boston: Dubya's got questions, Sharpton's got answers

I thought Brother Senator (aka Barack Obama) owned the night yesterday. Tonight, however, was all Sharpton. Don't get me wrong Jesse was on point, as was Kucinich, and no slight meant to Edwards either, who incidentally is the son of a mill worker. (I kid because I love.)

But back to the keynote speech of the night, Sharpton blew this crowd away!

Addressing a group of African Americans at the National Urban League Conference in Detroit last week, Bush risking a migraine, raised a number of salient rhetorical questions of his largely masochist audience.

Excerpted below is a passage from his speech that Rev. Al Sharpton definitively answered in such a way that Dubya may refrain from speaking to any assembly of Blackfolk -- maybe even Colin, Condi, and Clarence on a bad day.

Paraphrasing some extraneous incognegro, Dubya begins:

"Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant." (Laughter and applause.)

Now that was said a while ago. (Laughter.) I believe you've got to earn the vote and seek it. I think you've got to go to people and say, this is my heart, this is what I believe, and I'd like your help. And as I do, I'm going to ask African American voters to consider some questions.

Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted? (Applause.) It's a fair question. I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But do they earn it and do they deserve it? (Applause.) Is it a good thing for the African American community to be represented mainly by one political party? That's a legitimate question. (Applause.) How is it possible to gain political leverage if the party is never forced to compete? (Applause.) Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?

Sharpton's retort was nothing less than riveting. I have taken the liberty of excerpting what I thought were his most inspired comments:

Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question.

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres.

We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

(APPLAUSE)

Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

(APPLAUSE)

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of good men (inaudible) soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us.

(APPLAUSE)

This vote can't be bargained away.

(APPLAUSE)

This vote can't be given away.

(APPLAUSE)

Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

Entry #6 from Boston: 'Brother Senator', "How Does It Feel?"

"So, how does it feel?"

This is the question I asked rising star, State Senator Barack Obama, tonight after his triumphal debut as U.S. senator-to-be from the great state of Illinois.

Upon recognizing my voice, Brother Senator (as I will call him henceforth) turned a bit to make eye contact with me and give me that easy, familiar smile. He stopped a moment, looked at me intently through the dark richness of the music-filled room as though the sway of the people encircling him was a mere summer breeze, and simply said: "It's good." Not a rote: "It's all good," but more like good in the sense of goodness.

Goodness, no doubt, radiating from the collective surge of pride toward a man who made the more jaded and disaffected among us Blackfolk feel a sense of hope, optimism, and dare I say belonging to a political party still a shadow of its former self since the tragic rise of the New Democrat. Not ironically, Brother Senator became the embodiment and most compelling messenger of what Howard Dean's "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" rhetoric sought to reveal without the need to say so explicitly. The poignant authenticity of his personal narrative transcended what other speakers had to spell out with expressly ideological language.

Nearly crushed by undulation of old and new friends and supporters who raced to his party in downtown Boston to bask in the afterglow of collective, I saw in Brother Senator a calmness -- and perhaps relief that had the effect of putting me at ease as well.

I nodded, allowing my non-verbal cue to signal that I appreciated the courtesy of his response and his need to move on. But before I got a chance to step away, he asked me, "How are your folks?"

C'mon. Is he for real, this humble servant-leader? A man who just hours before made an inspirational keynote address that made grown men tremble (myself included), took a moment to genuninely inquire about my mom and dad amidst the throngs and the shower of red grids of refracted red beams emitting from the dozens of digital cameras raised high in hopes of capturing a moment in time framed by his youthful visage. (I tend to get a bit maudlin after 4am.)

Stunned to find his presence of mind to ask about my people, I warmly replied, "Good. They're good." Good as in the goodness of parents who raised me to appreciate the importance -- necessity -- of civic involvement, who over 20 years ago took me to the victory party of my native Chicago's late Mayor Harold Washington -- perhaps the last time I felt as moved by a rising Black political servant-leader in my 34 years.

Lastly, I'd like to end this blog entry with an exceptionally rousing portion of his speech:

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I’m not talking about blind optimism here—the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope!

Entry #5 from Boston: Obama for President?

Obama broke it down!

I have been acquainted with this man for a number of years, and have always been impressed with him as a public servant and as an individual. But he definitively hit that next level tonight. It was a deeply moving experience that viscerally effected this crowd of thousands here tonight in a dramatic and overpowering manner I can barely describe.

This arena was filled with an excitment and energy far surpassing the reaction to Bill Clinton and Howard Dean's speeches. In fact, I found his words transcended the conventional political speech, and reached a truly sermonic level while still deftly avoiding all the usual preachy or moralistic traps many lesser public speakers fall into.

Obama's got the whole package: substance and style and represents the future of the Democratic Party.

Before Afro-Netizen reached hundreds of thousands of Blackfolk online, my nascent ChicagoBlack e-newsletter promoted his unsuccessful bid for U.S. Congress a few years back. And I suspect Afro-Netizen will be covering his certain political ascent for years to come.

Remember all that talk way back when about Colin Powell? Tonight represented the end of that shallow era.

Keepin' on keepin' on, Barack! You have arrived -- and there's no going back now!

This moment I will remember for a lifetime. I only wish I could have shared it with my son.

Entry #4.5 from Boston: Dems Debut with Dean

I can't wait to hear what Howard Dean has to stay tonight.

I've joked about Dr. Dean previously, but I don't do it to disparage him. Despite my lingering unease with his candidacy and various foot-in-mouth gaffes, I respect his candor and work ethic.

I feel compelled to say this having shared a cab last night with Terri MacMillan and D. Dillard, two very impressive afro-cosmopolites I met after the mass exodus from the Fleet Center.

Deaniacs through and through, these women are ex-pats living in Tokyo, Japan and Geneva, Switzerland, respectively, here representing the Democrats Abroad delegations.

I must say, I admire the fact that they are as politically involved as they are, given the thousands of miles that separate them from our fruited plains and purple mountains' majesty!

Entry #4 from Boston: Been there, done that

Well, now I can tell my son, Freeman Diallo, one day that I attended the Democratic Convention in Boston as the sole credentialed blogger representing a predominantly Black online readership among an inaugural class of 35 very affable and eclectic bloggers. (It has been brought to my attention, however, that there is another credentialed blogger of color, Jesse Tayler of Pandango.net whose target audience is not geared specifically to Blackfolk as is Afro-Netizen.)

Surrounding the largely white, male, techie cadre of affable fellow bloggers, there were diverse hordes of journalists, guests, DNCC, DNC & Kerry-Edwards staffers, lobbyists, security, teenaged DNCC volunteers, security, lobbyists, security, and delegates -- oh, and did I mention security?

What can I say? It was a rousing night of scripted Democratic sentimentality and cautious optimism. You don't have to be the inventor of the Internet to know an A+ set of speeches by Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton and the inimitable "Comeback Kid"!

And while very swiftly replayed, lauded, dissected, and critiqued, the speeches that should have been covered by CNN, MSNBC, and other mass media outlets were barely mentioned.

Quite possibly one of the most influential individuals in this presidential race has yet to be sufficiently acknowledged by journalists and pundits: Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH). If she can energize and mobilize her largely Black constituency in the Cleveland area to turn out in big numbers in November, she may very well put Ohio in the blue column for the Dems, just as the Florida Democratic delegation seeks to accomplish down South -- particularly, CBC members Reps. Kendrick Meek, Corrine Brown and Alcee Hastings.

As Ohio is a bellweather for the nation, if Rep. Tubbs Jones delivers in her congressional district and beyond, she should would most certainly deserve "honorary white-boy" status and all the perks that come with it. It is also worth noting that Rep. Tubbs Jones is a co-chair of the DNCC's Platform Committee, not to mention that she is also the very first Black woman to serve on the juicy Ways and Means Committee (aka Dollars & Cents Committee).

While I'm not particularly impressed with the Dems' 2004 Platform document whose theme is: "Strong at Home, Respected in the World", it's vastly better than Dubya's prospective GOP platform simply entitled: "Yee-ha!"

Entry #3 from Boston: Fleet-footed

[Attention readers: These blog entries may contain high doses of sarcasm. Please read with caution.]

I'll be hoofin' it to the Fleet Center shortly to join the 15,000 credentialed journalists who are covering this suspenseful political extravaganza (he says sardonically)!

After all, other than knowing the nominee-to-be, his running-mate, and the Democratic Party's official 2004 platform, we don't know anything! For instance, where is the Utah delegation going to be situated? And who will be holding the tazer-gun when presidential footnote Al Gore takes the podium?

Have I already mentioned that it appears I am the only credentialed blogger of Negroidal descent to cover this convention? I hasten to add that there would be none had I not known a few folks in the DNC and DNCC who facilitated my request for such access.

This lack of meaningful inclusion adds insult to injury given that of the 15,000 credential journalists here, only a smattering of Blackfolk are among them. A new friend and colleague, Walter Fields of The North Star Network said that at the media walk-thru here 3 weeks ago, of the few thousand press folk who attended, he literally saw only a handful of Blackfolk present.

Now, don't even get me and Walter started on Viacom's erudite BET presence here, or the underrepresentation of Black newspapers. And before folks start adding comments to this blog entry about the "crabs in the barrel" phenomenon many of us believe our community suffers from, let me interject something to the contrary. Over the last few weeks, I have begun to have highly encouraging conversations with other Black netpreneurs who are actively interested in and committed to working together towards pooling our resources for our mutual benefit and the benefit of the African-American community -- online and off.

I am certain that by this time next year, those of us in Black cyberspace will have formed a well organized coalition that will bear much fruit.

Lastly, on an unrelated note, I was mortified to hear Teresa Heinz Kerry tell Pittsburgh journalist and part-time supermodel, Colin McNickle [cmcnickle@tribweb.com/(412) 320-7836], to "shove it"". I hope she didn't learn such language from that awful hippity-hop music that those angry Blacks like to play so loudly in their ghettos. After all, you know she's African-American. Surely, the family values-lovin' dynamic duo of Bush & Dick wouldn't dare utter such foul language [not including "*sshole" and "f*ck off"].

Entry #2 from Boston: Damn, I'm tired!

I got back to my hotel at 2am this morning, and returned to my room which overlooks one of Dubya's alma maters, the Harvard Business School. (BTW, I think his concentration while there was Financial Mismanagement.) Anyway, I was supposed to attend the bloggers breakfast this morning hosted by the DNC, but I had a mystery ailment my wife speculated I got from tying my shoes too tightly. (Boy, is that pathetic or what?).

Anyway, I'm back on my feet and headed to the Ritz Carlton for a lunch honoring members of the Congressional Black Caucus. I'll be using an obsolete press pass that I have yet to renew to my podiatric-induced injury this morning. From there, I will likely head to a off-site session entitled: "Media and the Minority Community". Of course, my first question is what the hell is a "minority community"? And secondly, who the hell are they calling a minority? Every time I hear that word, my skin crawls, and it makes me think back to the 3/5 Compromise.

I also find it odd that in one breadth conservatives and liberals alike talk about "the global economy", but neglect to acknowledge the global complexion -- a decidedly melanin-rich one, making people of Caucazoidal extraction the new minority. That semantic beef aside, I will be interested in seeing the extent to which the growing concentration of media control is occuring and its impact on the de-democratization of the press. For indeed, to paraphrase an anonymous wise person, "Hegemony [political, cultural or commercial] and freedom of speech cannot co-exist."

Let me get going before I harangue any longer! But before I go, here's a list (to be fleshed out later) of where I went last night, with whom, and who I spotted:

I tagged along with long-time friend and former Capitol Hill running buddy, Nicole Venable, and her beau, Hassan Christian (all jokes about his name have already been made). Nicole, along with fellow lobbyist and friend, Laurel -- and husband Clint -- were generous enough to help this hapless blogger gain access to four high-filutin' convention-related receptions [read: alcohol-ladened pseudo-hoity, rump-shaker expos]! One party was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, another by the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the Black Caucus of Massachusetts, and AT&T et al. The last reception was for jazz afficionado and senior congressman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) at Cheers "where everybody knows your name" [unless you're a Black actor, of course].

Though I missed this morning's bloggers brunch, I did run into the Napoleonic Howard Dean last night who was surrounded by three burly security guards who made Dr. Dean look like a Vienna sausage, albeit a surprisingly well dressed Vienna sausage. Donning a new dark suit complemented by a white shirt whose collar did not gouge his neck veins, Dean is now what I'd call "fashionably irrelevant."

Later on, I saw Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) [self-proclaimed lover of P. Diddy's 'Making the Band'], Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), and I actually shook my blogging booty with a very festive Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) whose staff implored me not to eblogerate the congresswoman. I told them that as long as they didn't take any compromising pictures of me surrounded by three girating white women sandwiching me in a Champagne and mussels-induced dance frenzy, I'd be kind to the liberal California congresswoman with the fancy footwork who "dropped like it's hot".

A fuller list of luminaries with whom I rubbed elbows is to come ASAP!

If for some reason I'm not able to bloggify again until the wee hours and you're suffering from insomnia, click here for the perfect cure!

Entry #1 from Boston: Afro-Netizen girds for battle

I've been running Afro-Netizen ("aN") in stealth mode for so long, it's quite a bizarre experience now having to field calls from the Wall Street Journal, New York NewsDay, Congressional Quarterly, and so on.

Since someone at the DNCC leaked the list of credentialed bloggers last week, I've been getting many requests for interviews from journalists all across the country who want to know more about Afro-Netizen, why I'll be blogging for it at the Convention, and what I'll be blogging about.

What I've been telling folks it's pretty straight-forward:

Founded in 1999, Afro-Netizen is an online community of civic-minded, intellectually-curious, and (to a greater or lesser extent) computer-literate Negroes. (Incidentally, if you are none of these things, you likely have little to no use for aN.)

I tell them that while this website is technically a blog, I am not your typical blogger. While I am young, male and computer-savvy, I am neither white nor a nerd, though some of my best . . . never mind. I kid because I love, people. Certainly, not all of my fellow bloggers are nerds -- just an overwhelming majority of them. And before folks fire back that I am only nominally a blogger, let me just preempt them by conceding that fact.

In reality, I am merely a rogue afro-cosmopolite who for years has been a news aggregator by avocation, and only recently has leveraged blogging tools to build out a site to complement my guerilla e-newsletter for the benefit of my many thousands of loyal readers nationwide and abroad.

I tell inquiring journalistic minds that my Afro-Netizen constituency is overwhelming educated, urbane, and Democratic. I then mention how it appears from my vantage point administrating this de facto community of conscience that many of our readers seem disaffected with the paucity of viable choices we have as voters who wield inordinate power as an influential contingent of the most solid Democratic constituency since the New Deal. We are, thus, stuck on a jackass in a bleak two-horse outpost called the American electorate.

Journalists have asked me if I think that now and/or in the recent past there are/have been gaps in coverage of political conventions. My response has been that as an avid consumer of "news", little substantive information is given by the networks in particular on how this process works (at the conventions), how campaign finance reform will impact the conventions' dynamics, participants and constituencies they serve, and what this all means to the average voter.

So, we'll see what happens on Monday when I enter Jackass Central!

Stay tuned . . .