Black Bloggers And Conference Diversity

Who needs who?

by j. brotherlove

I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few web/social media conferences (SXSW, PodCamp, etc.). An issue that comes up in these types of events is how to include more racial diversity. For attendees blessed with healthy doses of melanin it’s impossible not to take a mental tally at these conferences. But often white attendees or organizers bring up the overall whiteness of the event (usually after it has ended).

I’m accustomed to being one of the few brown faces at social functions, school or work. But everyone isn’t. That’s one reason I’m excited about the inaugural Blogging While Brown conference in 2008. There has been a lot of talk about such a conference over the years. I believe the black blogging community finally has the numbers to support this type of event.

Nominees from this year’s Black Weblog Awards certainly show we are online in droves and blogging about a myriad of topics (not just hip hop). This growth has occurred outside of the larger web community and its conferences. That brings to mind an intriguing question: Do bloggers of color even need to attend these conferences?

For a good companion to my post about judging the Black Weblog Awards try brownfemipower’s smackdown Radical Knowledge: Where are all the bloggers of color? at Cure This:

Contrary to popular opinion, communities of color have not sat about for the last few years wringing our hands wondering how we can get those white folks to pay more attention to us. Our communities are flourishing and full of intellectual diversity. Most of the more progressive/radical bloggers are blogging about grassroots social justice issues that directly affect their communities. I almost never read mainstream news sources any more…

Her last sentence supports the recent McKinsey study that reveals consumers of news aren’t loyal to any one media resource. We divide our time between many different brands within radio, TV, Internet, newspaper and magazines.

The reasons given for visiting a number of sources included “every news event has at least two sides,” to “get all the facts,” to “form my own opinion,” or to find specific types of content, such as local news.

Life as a racial/gender/sexual minority creates unique and important circumstances for bloggers. Circumstances that aren’t frequently addressed by organizers of tech conferences; either you assimilate or get left out. The dead-on brownfemipower goes on to write:

So when we have so much work to do between ourselves and within our own communities, there better be a very good reason to attend a mostly white conference that is expensive as hell, largely has no interest in anything bloggers of color are doing outside of the conference, has gone to some lengths to even kick bloggers of color out of their community, and pretty much means almost the opposite of what bloggers of color mean when it says “create change”.

Ouch! But it’s so true. Our struggle is to build our own spaces, uplift our offline brothers and sisters, and participate in other spheres (much like everyday life). As a community, I believe brown and black folks need to be in the larger spaces; and not just when we’re “allowed” to participate. Invite ourselves; crash the party; make some noise; change the game.

Thanks for mentioning the conference. Registration will be up any day now. CROSS BOTH SETS OF FINGERS.

I volunteer at SXSW so if you come down next year, maybe we can meet up. If you went to last year’s trade show, I was the one staring at badges at the front door

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