Where Are We?

I am sitting here watching one of the morning news shows and at the end of the program, as they transfer over the the Today show, they have a segment on their coming expanded show, so now there will be four hours of Today. Not a problem as I don't watch them beyond a certain point. Apparently they have added a fourth person for this new hour, a Ms. Hotb. O.k., with the exception of the weatherman, who is black, this is a lily white show, and I suppose this shouldn't bother me really, but it does. Where is the inclusion of sisters? If they could find all these white women, couldn't they find an experienced sister to add to the show. Yes, I know what they would say, that Ms. Hotb is an ethnic minority, but as far as I'm concerned they see her as white, as one of them, so she's not a minority in their eyes.

To me, this is just a reminder that while we have come a long way, we have so much farther to go. Our work is not done and yet we have dropped the ball. That is only part of the story, because to be sure the other part of it has to do with racism. I wonder how many sisters went to that studio for an audition, hoping to get a plum like that, yet knowing they wouldn't even be offered the job? How many brothers went for one of those interviews? This is one of the problems our culture is having at this point in time. Too many of those who "run things" think that blacks have everything they need, all the rights Dr. King won for us through the civil rights movement, but this train of thought is dead wrong. A simple thing like what I just wrote about shows us that this is not so. We haven't come nearly far enough and there is much work to do.

I'm trying to read as many African American blogs as I can, and this weekend I have decided to work on seeking out and adding some of those blogs to a blogroll in my side bar. Some of these bloggers express an interest in trying to create not only and agenda, but also becoming a force to be reckoned with, but I'm not seeing it at this point in time. I don't know what the protocol is for inviting others to read your blog, but I intend to try and find out. I did invite one blogger to come read my efforts and you see where that got me! I've tried everything I could to get my little blog out there and will keep trying, but I still want to know what's on the agenda for other bloggers and just how they think to grow a movement like that of dkos if they aren't willing to try and pull in the readers and other bloggers.

I believe that like the creator of dkos, black bloggers could make a world of difference if they banded together and made their voices heard, if they had a cohesive agenda. This is the only way in which this can be done. I don't know if we can make a difference in this election, but certainly on the local level we can make a difference with our efforts. But we must all be in support of each other, constantly reading each other, and in communication with each other through our blogs. It can be done.