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06.09.06 01:39 PM

the black caucus at yearly kos

technorati tags: yearly kos |black caucus

baratunde is at yearly kos and he's writing about the the black caucus there over at daily kos today. "what is the yearly kos?" you might be asking yourself.

i too wondered. but that was a while ago when i received an email on April 21 from someone named TrueBlue Dem. the email contained a link to a daily kos diary entry by tgnyc entitled No Black Panelists at YearlyKos?. the post generally discussed the lack of diversity at the yearly kos event, particularly regarding the extensive and impressive list of invited panelists. at that point the list contained no confirmed African-Americans, and only one had been invited.

since i've been a proponent of increasing multicultural voices at various conferences, i found both the email and post thought-provoking. as many of you know, this will be my second year as a participant at blogher and it was also my second year as a participant at sxsw interactive. as well, in this year alone, i've also been either a panelist (or invited as a panelist) at beyond broadcast, women action & the media, and MIDEM.

though i found the content of tgnyc's discussion interesting, the yearlykos event is of a political nature and that's a topic i rarely address. yet in hindsight, i realize i should have posted about tgnyc's discussion then as it would have been useful for others. and perhaps i should have attended the event as well.

it turns out that there appears to be quite a bit of diversity at yearlykos in terms of caucuses represented: LGBT Caucus, African American Caucus, Latina/Latino Caucus, Asian-American Caucus, and Native American Caucus, among others.

i can't speak to the nature of these caucuses, or to the diversity of panelists scheduled to appear within the overall programming. but what i can surmise from baratunde's diary entry is:

• caucuses are discussion centers and not panels


• the african-american caucus was primarily attended by african americans


• the digital divide is still a concern for african-americans who do have access

for more details, check out baratunde's entry

posted by lynne | link to this |