The blackosphere is the black part of the blogosphere. It is made up of those blogs that are written and read mainly by blacks, American or otherwise. Francis L. Holland, a one-time black blogger at the Daily Kos, came up with the term. The white part he called the whitosphere.
In 2006 there were maybe 800,000 black blogs that updated at least once a week, enough to support a steady readership. About one blog in nine is black. Blacks online are more likely to blog than whites.
Just as America’s cities, towns, schools and churches are largely divided by race, so is its blogosphere! Among those who read blogs, blacks mainly read black blogs – which they find to be more interesting – while white Americans read almost nothing but white blogs.
According to Holland and others, white Americans are mostly not interested in what blacks say and think. Most do not care, while some just want to pick a fight. And even when they are interested, they often find it hard to accept or understand what blacks are saying. Because of what it says about themselves as whites (not pretty). Because the black experience that it comes from is not one they share.
Black bloggers among themselves can say the truth straight out – there is no need to sugar-coat it. But with whites it seems you need to be more careful if you want to be heard at all.
According to Jack and Jill Politics, examples of black blogs that pitch their message in a way that whites will hear and understand but still have some bite are African American Political Pundit, Angry Black Bitch, Skeptical Brotha and Black Agenda Report.
One of the wonderful things about blogs is that you can get news and opinion that you would never find on television or in the newspapers. While it is a great thing for whites it is even a greater thing for blacks: very few of those television networks and newspapers are owned or run by blacks. The news and opinion they pump out is as white as its missing women. Of, for and by white people.
Blogs give blacks a worldwide public square they never had before. One where they can express themselves freely.
In 2007 some black bloggers saw the power of this, those like the Field Negro, Asabagna, Prometheus 6 and the Republic of T. They banded together to form what is known as the AfroSpear. Over a hundred blogs have joined. They want to use this public square to further the interests of blacks everywhere.
AfroSpear along with liked-minded blogs are known as the Afrosphere or blackroots (the black grassroots on the Internet). They helped to free Shaquanda Cotton and get over 10,000 people to come to Jena to protest.
Most Afrosphere bloggers are left-leaning. There is another part of the blackosphere that is on the right, with blogs like Booker Rising. But most black blogs, like blogs anywhere, are much more private in their concerns.
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Good post
Thinking about it, 95% of the blogs I link to are blk blogs. Only in the fashion and beauty section do I have links to non black bloogers, sadly. The funny thing is, the very first blog I read was written by a white British stripper living in NYC trying to get a book deal and a green card mimiinnyc. The second blog was afrochic, then nobastardkids and from there I slowly begain to come across more blogs. I’ve seen a number of bloggers come and go, partically within the Nigerian blogging community.
You have inspired me, I think I will write a post about this topic.
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Abagond,
The Black Blogosphere is the only place where I get the news affecting our community because the mainstream media doesn’t care nor are they interested in issues affecting communities of Color around the world.
As for whites reading Black blogs, most come over to make critical and/or hateful remarks. I had to restrict the replies to those invited after I’ve received several hateful racist/sexist commentaries regarding Black people and of my drawing “The Apotheosis of Shawna” last year. From that day on, people can read my blog, they just can’t respond to it unless I know them well enough to give permission.
Stephanie
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Stephanie: Sorry to hear that. Good point about the hateful whites. I have seen that. But it is hard to tell if it is “most”. It is not always easy to tell the race of a commenter, while the hateful ones make it crystal clear.
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This is the first that I am hearing about these Black Blogs. I have to tell you that I was searching through this one and I found some of the things that you have written astonishing and fascinating because I have experienced many of them. The one that hit closest to home was the “acceptable blackness” post. It was amazing how much I identified with that. Just like Angry Black Bitch, I have always gone to mostly white parochial schools. I’ve always listened to rock music and spoken properly. I have always hung out with non-blacks or “acceptable” blacks. Reading your blog was a real eye opener for me because it has answered a lot of questions of how I was sometimes treated by my teachers and friends and why some of the things that my Black friends would say (“I’m definitely going to marry a White man” or “I know I sound like a white girl, right”) would bother me so much
-Morgan, age 17
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Wow, I am glad my blog is so helpful! There are plenty of black blogs in my blogroll – at least three-fourths of them are black. Check them out!
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Speaking of your blogroll- where is it? I am aware this post was written in 2008, but I think I saw blogroll on your previous layout. Where is it now?
About blackosphere: I am not sure if you can always guess bloger’s race (or even gender), unless they blog about certain issues that affect mostly their community. The sad thing is, people really care only about things that affect them. If something doesn’t affect them, then they’re not interested.
While this is ok if someone blogs about cats (of course only cat lovers will be there, why would someone not interested in cats read the blog in question?), when it comes to more important issues, it’s not ok. I don’t think you have to be affected by racism to read and discuss racism. I don’t think you have to be raped to discuss rape. Same goes for war and peace, identity and all the important things for humanity.
Your blog is very interesting and helpful. It sure helps me understand some things better. I like your style. I might not always agree with you (mainly on posts about women), but I really like the way you present and discuss things. Maybe it’s because you use a pen name and basically blog anoyimously.
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