At the eleventh hour I was invited to be a conference panelist at the George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
Someone affiliated with a conference sponsor encouraged IPDI conference organizers to formally invite me to join th panel on Innovations and Successes of Online Issue Advocacy.
This new comrade -- who at blog-time, I have yet to meet -- took the initiative to recommend me to the IPDI folks after I had sent an e-mail to four white male colleagues of mine who I respect in order to prod them to actively leverage their access and privilege to call for greater inclusiveness at such events and overall.
My sense was that it was taken in the spirit it was sent. And within about 48 hours, I was invited to be a panelist at a conference that otherwise I was not likely to attend.
That said, now that I'm hear, I'm glad I was invited. But in this morning's plenary session where perhaps 500 people attended, while a surprisingly high percentage of women were on site, it looked like a College Republicans meeting in terms of its (lack of) racial diversity.
The trouble with me being the Ambassador for All Colored Peoples is that no such position exists, and would be woefully misguided to create, regardless the good intentions of the creator(s). The other impact of me being (potentially) the only person to talk substantively about issues of racial equity, fairness and inclusion with regard to electoral politics and civic engagement generally is that either by perception or in reality I morph into "the angry Black guy" icon that spooks the paleo-liberals (credit: Dan Carol) and others transcendent of espoused political ideology.
I need help. Blackfolk need help. People of color need help. Innumerable under-represented communities need help in this regard.
Howard Dean used to boast that he was the only (nationally, viable) white politician who initiates conversations about race -- even when people of color aren't in the room. Well, whether or not you think he and his camp have walked the talk, so to speak, those comments remain on point: If you acknowledge you have been born into or otherwise acquired some privilege or access in our society, be that racial/ethnic, gender, class, occupation, wealth, etc., if you call yourself a progressive, you have an obligation to leverage it for the benefit of those who do not. Otherwise, you are essentially a paleo-liberal (Dan who paternalistically believes that certain disparities are intractable and your privileged position mandates that you take it upon yourself to speak and act on the behalf of those less fortunate ones who can't handle the burden of democratic involvement.
With that said, I will be speaking on the aforementioned panel in about 15 minutes, and hope to do justice to discussing these issues further and enbolding other progressives of all stripes, as Ghandi once said, "to be the solution".
It would be great to have a followup on this story. Have been in such a position many times in my long and productive (read that "Progressive" life) and it would wonderful to see how you handled it.
By the way, I've been trying to join your group for months (Yahoo) to no avail.
Betty Soskin
http://cbreaux.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Betty Reid Soskin | Monday, March 14, 2005 at 07:26 PM