Race and the Internet
Apparently this is the week to discuss whether race matters in the blogosphere. If you’d asked me 15, no even 10 years ago, I would have naively said that race doesn’t matter. Warning: standard white person line - “my parents raised me to be very inclusive and accepting of others.” But now I know that it does and I think it’s an important component of our total self, but not the defining component. In order to appreciate diversity, we need to see the person as a whole and that does include their race and they way their experience in that culture/skin has shaped their worldview.
When I was 16, I moved to a majority-African American city, went to a majority African American high school and “historically black university”. I dated men from all over the world and then met and married a Latino man. I have a biracial child and my brother (who, I swear, has told me “I hate White people. I wish I was Black.” Yes, he’s 26 going on 3. 
) also has a biracial son. My best friend is African American. I have seen the light fade or brighten depending on which combination of us is in the room. When my husband and I were first married, his English was very limited but even without knowing that (perhaps just seeing us speaking in Spanish, which we do), restaurant servers, hotel staff, etc., would often ask ME what HE wanted. 
My best friend, who is the most talented, intelligent, sweet person ever has pretty much the same (I’d say even better) education as me and she had a terrible time getting a job while I have never had a shortage of offers. I made the mistake of suggesting to her once how unfair it was that it appeared that they were taking her race into account and she got really mad at me, saying that I really couldn’t know how it is.
And so that’s the point. I can never really know. I can observe people’s experiences and make conclusions about society at large. I can try to change others through my own actions and words. But, ultimately, race does matter.
Does it matter in the blogosphere? There’s a very well thought-out post at MamaSaga. She says it’s a cop out to say that it doesn’t matter in the blogosphere. I would venture a guess that many bloggers, race aside, are fairly middle/upper class and so that would trend to a certain group. I agree with some of Mama Saga’s commenters that I read blogs that interest me. They are White, African American, Latino, Lesbian, Liberal (majority), Conservative (shout out to new reader Scouts Honor!), Catholics, Jews, Agnostics, Lutheran Men Who Play With Guns ( 
), etc.
I think we are attracted to people who are like us and the question is which of the many facets of our diversity are we looking at when we try to find “like” people. My blogroll tends to be filled with outspoken, educated women (like me). I enjoy reading immigrant or immigration-related blogs and stories because I immigrated to the U.S. as a teen and, although I came from a majority white affluent nation, I still had a challenging assimilation period. I relate to immigrants. I relate to Mommies, particularly those who work outside the home. I relate to law students. I relate to WLS patients. I relate to Episcopalians. If we read blogs that make us think and interest us and then we find out that there is something about the person — be it race, gender, sexual orientation or life background — that is surprising to us, then doesn’t that just further help us to understand that group? The Blogosphere allows us to meet people we might never come in contact with IRL. I think it can only help us continue to break down sterotypes about what race, gender and other diversity categories mean to us and to society at large.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for the shout out.
I agree there are blogs where I seek similarities. People just like me, but I also look for the opposing view point. I love that a spirited conversation is right at my finger tips.Then there are ones like yours that point me where I want to be one day. Keep on writing. I love getting my law school fix.
Honestly, I have learned so much from the blogosphere–way more than I learned at Berkeley. I have to admit, there are times when it depresses me as well. Why we have to cookie cutter people by race just kills me.
Berkeley was the mother of political correct-ness and I lived in a coop in which I might have been the only white girl. My roommates asked how they should refer to me to their friends. Huh?
Well, one preferred Chicana and the other preferred Peruvian-American. So what did I prefer? I said, “How about my friend? an American?” All grandparents on both sides were here before the American Revolution. My buddies didn’t like that and had to have a label. They chose to call me their “European-American friend.” Okay.
I really wish we could get past the labels. A good friend from our old town was a gay man in a committed relationship who adopted a black child. I worry about the hell they will go through. I hope , at the same time, that the world will change before she hits adulthood and they won’t have the problem. I hope your child is equally freed from any bumps.
I’ve been hanging out at this pretty radically liberal blog called Young Negro Woman in America’s blog. ( See! we conservatives can have an open mind.)
What I have seen there really hurts my heart :
http://rosieandlucy.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/my-problem-with-interracial-dating-pt-2/
It hurts my heart how some people are so against interracial children, dating, whatever. Yet, it makes me think, learn, and discover another viewpoint I would not have had without the blogosphere.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Wow, what a great comment! Thank you for this and for the link - that author jumps to some pretty harsh conclusions. She does have a bit of a point, though, in terms of the comments people make about mixed-race children and how they never fully fit in to either culture. My nephew is biracial African American/Caucasian and my brother is not married to his mother. His reality will be sooooo much different than my sons. It’s really sad.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:29 am
insightful post… I think that race matters not to me .. in blogland too..
August 11th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Interesting, I was putting together a post on race this week too. The comment about mixed-race children never fitting into either culture got me thinking - it can cut both ways. Race matters but it can also be a benefit. My father’s Irish-stock, my mother Chicana. I feel comfortable in both worlds - sort of like two ‘membership cards’ instead of one. Racism is real, of course, as are the cultural differences, but I think the parents bear the brunt of it; to bi-racial kids it’s just family.
August 11th, 2007 at 7:08 am
I think it depends whether your background is obvious or not. I think biracial African American kids do get a lot of flack, esp. from non-mixed race African Americans and especially if they have very obvious features from other cultures. I had an AfroAsian friend in high school and she put up with a lot of “what are you?” questions.
I know that for me personally I worry about my son, but more in terms of his knowing and appreciating his father’s culture than in terms of him being discriminated against because of it. My three cousins are the children of a Colombian man. He refused to let them learn Spainish, wouldn’t speak it in front of them, and basically denied his heritage because he thought that would give them an advantage. I think that is sad.