Conspicuous lack of African American posters

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

One of the greatest things about the 'Net, in my far-from humble opinion, is that it neatly makes a lot of labels superfluous. Who knows if someone is really male/female, young/old, black/white, etc. The words and inner person are what counts.

This is purely a guess, but staying anonymous as to race could be a huge relief, y’know? The simple fact is that race is still a defining label to many people. I’d like to think that actual bigotry would be minimal, but it’d still be a drag toting the label as “designated black person”.

If black Dopers choose not to got out of their way to make a deal of it, seems sensible to me. Heck, the discussion here is all pretty generous and well intended. But it’s still discussion! How much more relaxing and valuable to be taken simply as oneself, and luxuriate in the kind of casual acceptance that’s so hard to find otherwise.

Please…I’m not capping down on anyone, or criticizing. This is just an observation. I strongly suspect that black Dopers abound. It’s just that the People Pages really show a very small percentage of Dopers, and there are lots of reasons to not appear there: procrastination, shyness, logistical issues, privacy, etc.

It’s a mistake, I think, to make assumptions based on such a small sampling, that’s all.

Pax, guys?
Veb

22

(bolding mine)

Alas? I thank the gods you are Puerto Rican!!!

:smiley:

23

I also forgot to mention that you probably never read these threads:
Are black women looking better these days?

and

Blacks Killing Whites is NOT a hate crime?

andhttp://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=19626"]Why do black people like chicken so much?

didja?

Too bad…

[url="

24

I also forgot to mention that you probably never read these threads:

Are black women looking better these days?

and

Blacks Killing Whites is NOT a hate crime?

and

Why do black people like chicken so much?

didja?

Too bad…

25

alas. oops, wrong choice of words on my part. my bad. too many beers. think I’ll switch to wine.

26

:: Demo just bought 4 magnums of Merlot today ::

:eek:
:smiley:

We now return you to your regularly scheduled (going to be headed to the pit soon) thred.

Thank you.

:wink:

27

Democritus

Actually, I did.
And I feel the same disgust as did most of the responding posters- Those are some seriously horrible stereotypes.
I do not know how you made the leap of what they were posting about and the subject of this post. The mere mention of black people in the subject? That leap in logic seems infinately more racist than anything I have posted here.
Please re-read this thread look over what I have said. I quite clearly stated that if there is in fact a lack of black posters on the boards, this would be a shame. The more diverse a group we have here, the better.

I merely mentioned the apparent lack of black people in any of the Doper gatherings pictures or People Pages.

If there were absolutely no women on the people pages and none to be found in any of the Doper gathering pictures and I instead said: (quote made with the change of “whites/asians/indians” to “men” and “black people” to “women” and “females”)

Would that make me a sexist?

Sorry about my tone, but I seriously resent your insinuation of racism on my behalf.

I have requested this thread be closed.

28

seroiusart – that’s got to be a damnsilly reason for requesting the thread closed. You made a point, it seemed fair, reasonable and accurate, let’s discuss it.

Got to tell you PC or not PC, in the UK we’ve dragged these issue’s all over the place in the last few years and society really don’t get anywhere by not addressing real world realities. It’s braver to talk than back off from reactionary accusations. What the hell is wrong with talking about a bloody obvious fact ??? Stand your ground.

Anyway, I’d also noticed the absence of black dopers in the People’s Pages and did find it curious given that quite a high % of people post from work. The other thing that struck me was that a very high % of American posters seem to come from Cal or the North – there <b>are</b> also Southern posters but, on my own quick straw pole, the numbers seemed pretty out of whack. Perhaps I just didn’t read it accurately.

Stats are still saying that young black males are under presented in formal education so maybe that has some bearing on the office-based posters. But even if that’s true, it doesn’t seem to answer to many questions.

IMHO, there are a whole load of reasons why people do and don’t post to message boards – and if they do post, their choice of MB, as well. This is classic Thesis stuff.

I think the stats would reveal a lot of potential avenues of analysis. The interesting thing about the SDMB is that it’s not topic orientated, it’s a free for all covering just about anything. The only consistent feature’s I can identify are that posters seem intelligent, opinionated, have time (at work or home) and are educated to a reasonably high level. And they like the notion of regular cyber community. Must fill a want or need, I suppose.

If those features are accurate, perhaps they don’t appeal to some social groupings who do have alternative social or cultural outlets. I don’t know, I still come back to the office thing – MB’s do seem to be primarily (obviously, not exclusively) an office orientated culture.

Or it could just be that the People’s Pages aren’t a fair reflection of the STMB.

It’s an interesting point. - might be that, in time, cyber culture might point up some less well recognised social attitudes or undercurrents prevalent in the wider society.

29

Gees, hate that Sunday morning hangover/illiteracy thing – got to learnt to proof read.

30

Coldfire, thanks for the interesting take on race relations in Amsterdam. The relative lack of racial pressure there must be refreshing. It’s very hard to avoid in the U.S.

This is due, IMHO, mostly to the fact that racial identity in this country has its origins in slavery, at least as far as blacks are concerned. Of course, the Native Americans have their own gripes about discrimination and domination, too. You mentioned Suriname used to be a colony. Colonization history is very different from slavery history. Look at our genial relationship with Great Britain!

Our racial PC-ness here is out of control, though. We have been drilled to not make race an issue that not noticing it has become another whole issue. Now, I fear, the tail is wagging the dog. Let me also say that it’s not necessarily individuals that have problems with this; it’s the institutions. Their PC influence is ubiquitous (and iniquitous?)

31

In addition to being notoriously bad dancers, white folks tend to be much more vain than people of color.

Therefore, the vast majority of those who sent in photographs of themselves are ofays.

32

I was going to add my 2 cents worth on this issue. I’m getting tired of the so-called “I’m not a racist ranting” and some really blatant, spine-chilling crap as pointed out by Democritus. Then I decided that I was going to gently place “racism” alongside “religion” as one of those issues I am not going to discuss on this board.

Then along comes Ukulele Ike, one of my all-time favorite posters, with his usual wit and wisdom… why hasn’t he posted his picture on the Wall?

33

Because in real life, I just so happen to be…

HARRY BELAFONTE, the King of Calypso!

Dayyyyy-o…DAYYYYYYYY-OOOO…Daylight come and me want to go home!

Now I’m off the the BBQ thread to show those poor melatonin-deprived bastards what to do with all those pork loins and briskets they’re incinerating.

34

I was considering this very topic when reading Satan’s Islam thread in IMHO. My conclusion was that
a.) The original column (The Straight Dope…duh) is published in alternative papers.
b.) Alternative Papers often are written for the white art/music/writing community, and while there are plenty of amazingly talented black artists and musicians, as a community, the white art community and African American community don’t have too much overlap, other than the aforementioned black artists/musicians/writers.
C.) Therefore, African Americans would be less aware of The Straight Dope, less likely to wander over to the site to waste time at work, and less likely to get sucked into the vortex that is this board.
D.) According to my theory, black artists/creative types would be more likely to find this board. Of course, this may all be a load of crap.

But do me a favor, lets drop the racism accusations. It’s damn easy to determine who is being a bigot around here, (the threads Demo cited are pretty clear indications) and asking why there is a decided lack of minorities in our little happy community is not being a bigot. Seriousart is just asking what about the SDMB makes it so dominated by whites. It’s a valid question, not a racial slur. Yea, it could be that as egotistical pinkies, we assume that every person behind a screen name looks like us, but it’s also probable that our African American contingent is even smaller than what would be expected on an international message board.

Now, lets just all hold hands, light something on fire and sing Kumbyaa, OK?

35

Arms aloft here, “We are the World…” < checks stage left, Harry B lost in some promo hell:
http://www.daewoous.com/CMindex.asp >

36

Phewww…
Sorry about rushing to close the thread, guys. I guess I was so worked up over Demo’s reply (albeit, by his own admission, a drunk one…) that I opted to close the thread.

My paranoid self just started thinking… Here comes the avalanche, I notice a simple fact, and now I’m the big black-hating racist?!

I just didn’t want to spend my days fending off horrible accusations.

Glad to see there’s some clear thinkers out there.

Still think it’s an intriguing subject.

37

Whew! (looking around to see the dust settling)…So, as I was trying to say, it seems that there is a discontinuity between the type of discourse here (content, style, meaning, the whole thing, etc.) and certain generic cultural styles, particularly amerikan black. A whole lot of people pontificating, babbling in their best academic syntax, orderly turn-taking, all of that and more, are simply not common to the constellation of features of black discourse. And, aside from that, if a computer costs $1000, then the lowest income families will be less likely to have one, and if a large number of black families are low income families, then there will, de facto, be fewer black people with access to this board than white people. Now, you may find racism in that. That, I believe, is your OWN prejudice, and as Edmund Burke said (1790)"…Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled and unresolved." You can see what you insist on seeing - or you can open your mind.

38

Haven’t read the entire thread, but I’ll just say this. There are about 120(?) pictures on the People Pages, and 8000 registered users.

39

Please explain your spelling of the English noun and adjective, ‘America’ and ‘American’ as ‘amerika’ and ‘amerikan.’

I suspect this stems from ignorance, and am anxious to fight it if necessary.

–John

40

After spending a lot of time on the boondocks board, I must point out something you all have missed.

Far too many whites treat minorities as representatives of their race. Whites often ask questions that seem to imply some sort of psychic link among minorities or that people of one ethnicity know all others of that ethnicity. Often the questions themselves are pretty ignorant, but even when he questions themselves are reasonable it still chafes. I suggest you visit: http://www.boondocks.net and read the boards a bit. It has many fine rants on that very aspect.

SDMB is the sort of places that are full of curiosity. By posting here you open yourself up to a lot of questions. Maybe more posters don’t mention they are black because they don’t want to deal with those type of questions.