ethnic diversity of bloggers, not
I was wondering this same thing just last week, what?s the deal with blog diversity, ethnically speaking? There are certainly many Anglo bloggers, and a number of Asian bloggers, but where are the masses of Latino and African bloggers (American-hypenation left out for brevity)? Supposedly there are about 13% of the American population who are Latino/ Hispanic, and 13% who are African; proportionally, if all things on the digital highway playing field were level, that?d be 1 out of 4 blogs / bloggers. [okay, and Asians are over-represented] Which the technological tools to do blogging is free, and internet access is free via the public library, and attempts have been made to provide technology to the masses on the digital fringe, there are many who aren?t blogging, or goggling, or chatting, or messaging.. maybe they?re just living! And here we are preoccupied with our psychosis and too much time on our hands 🙂
Hey DJ, I think you’ll find that there are many Latin blogs out there. Although many are in Spanish, or Portuguese. In many ways finances are still a problem. Although Internet access is free, your time at the library is limited to a 30 minute session, and if there is no one there, you can surf longer. But if you are not spending much time on the internet. Chances are you won’t come across blogging. I didn’t till recently. I would venture to say that those on the digital fringe are doing the same things we do, watching movies, playing games (video, cards, dice), and discussing things. But whereas some do it by chat, these people have face to face interaction in community. One of the things missing from suburban America. If you go into less affluent neighborhoods, you’ll see people sitting outside. I went to a housing project and just before supper, everyone seemed to be outside, they bought out chairs and just sat and spent the time talking to one another, and these were mostly males. In the apartments you could see a bustle of activity as kids were running around and someone was cooking in the kitchen.I used to think online communcation was solely relegated to meeting new people. But it occurred to me that many people do their chatting and email with people that they’ve seen/know/interact at work or school with. Anyhow its all just another tool by which people communicate.But there are probably some people who need to get out from behind the computer and get out in the land of the living! Not me, not you :-)But because I blog, or chat online doesn’t mean I’m not living, or avoiding life. I guess I feel that online writing has helped me to grow and reflect. But I agree there is the danger that we can become too self-absorbed.Now there is “audio” blogger. Imagine the possibilities. I think though that in the coming years, the presence of the computer in American homes will come close to that of vcr’s, dvd’s, t.v’s. But perhaps not as fast as dvd’s…
we are here – the latinos- We are here! Even though mostly I’ve seen us working as if we were anglos – where are the ones working for the spanish only community? I am working on a team blog in Spanish – hopefully public soon.
If we even begin to ‘get’ what Christ & the Apostle Paul were saying about love one another, don’t be divided, neither Jew nor Greek, and so on…. then we need a place to start. Some folks can immediately start being intentional by heading down to the urban areas and volunteer in ministries there. Most gotta start more slowly…. say by READING diverse blogs, and start to see life from a different perspective.I say keep up the good work, DJ and the rest of you.God Bless.YBIC,Neil Cox”Got Change for a Blog?”
q’vole, broham… i responded to this post at mein blog: here