The reason I am writing this diary is I have been asked recently by three different local bloggers (2 in the south, 1 in the northeast) "why there are not more Minorities blogging?" Now I am not an expert but I do know a lot of Black bloggers (and quite a few Latinos too). I recently started asking them this question, and more importantly how do we change this?. I also asked some of my White blogger friends for their views and ideas on this. I hope this serves as a guide to anyone who post on Daily Kos, who also post locally, and wants to see this situation corrected.

THE INTERNET IS AN ACTIVE INFORMATION SOURCE UNLIKE TV WHICH IS A PASSIVE ONE

Yes this may seem obvious, but in my opinion this is the greatest mistake most progressive blogs make when they decry the lack of minority bloggers. Most people "stumble across" new websites by way of a search engine. They are actively looking for information on a specific topic. This is in contrast to TV where people turn on the news to watch what is being presented as "news" passively. Yes even with the advent of cable with more channels and obtions then in the broadcast days, there is no comparision to the multitude of choices available on the web.

So how does this come into play? Put yourself in your "consumers" shoes. Imagine you run a local blog. Next imagine yourself as a Black or Latino. Think about and issue effecting minorities in your state. Got that? OK now google your site. Does it show up? If a person was actively looking up said topic, which in a sense means they are interested in it. Would your site even register?

One of the reason I started publishing Black Kos, week in review is to give the larger progressive blogosphere a window into what issues are affecting and being talked about in the "Black community". If you run a local blog it would be easy to link stories like these. Hell copy mine if you must! The idea is that if someone is looking up a topic they SHOULD find your site. This alos should establish that they can come back to your site and find similar information from time to time along with the other polictical news.

HAVE YOU REALLY LOOKED FOR POTENTIAL MINORITY BLOGGERS?

There are 30 Historical Black colleges in the United States. Most if not all teach Political Science classes. Have your local blogs ever tried to contact a political science professor there? What about their student government? Many of these schools have suffered from unequal funding, do you think maybe they would want to post a diary on this subject? (hint, hint) This is a vast untapped recource. What if every one of these schools has one potential Georgia 10?This would require liitle more then a few phone calls or quick emails. But I'm not going out on a limb to say that this is a vast untapped recource for local bloggers. This is also an easy and cheap way to reach out because let's face it most blogs don't have large budgets. Think of it as a form of advertisement. You have this great product and you want knew consumers to use it.

HAVE YOU CONTACTED ANY LOCAL BLACK POLITICIANS?

Here on Daily Kos from time to time we have national politicians who post on this site. Politicians by their job and nature want "low cost" means to reach out to their constituants. They also will trumpet this reaching out. So how does this come into play for your local blog? Email a state rep or state senator and ask them a few questions? 3 of them should be general (what do you think of spending money on highway 59, cutting taxes while laying of firemen, ect) three should be specifics to their community (is racial profiling having an adverse effect in your community), but the last three should be questions pertaining to a committee they sit on.

Nothing NOTHING drive minorities nuts like only being asked question when their is a "Black issue". Until very recently it was rare to see a minority congress person interview on topics like social security, foreign policy, ect but let their be an urban riot and BAM suddenly they are every where. You still see this phenomenon on the sunday morning shows (almost no Black's, Latino's, or Asian's but a few woman now).

Now many Black and Latino officials have been sitting on commitees for years so why aren't they being asked any questions?

I digressed a little there, but the point is that if you develop a relationship with local politicians of color it will be mutually beneficial. They will tell their supporters that they "wrote an article on this topic on your blog" which helps drive traffic to your blog. Their writing their adds some voices your local blog may lack. It also allows them an unfiltered way to express their views directly to the voters.

MANY MINORITIES DONT SEE BLOGGERS, CONVENTIONS, ECT AS BEING WELCOMING TO PEOPLE LIKE THEM

Part of this is race. A vicious circle develops where people seeing a dearth of Black or Brown faces and think "this isn't for people like me." But the fact they don't go only reinforces the lack of minorities, which caused the problem in the first place.

"No one goes there (to that restaurant) anymore, it's too crowded!" Yogi Berra

The crowd at an event helps self select who will attend. This can only be changed by reaching out and getting more minorities to attend.

But this isn't just about race. My own opinion is that class is playing a larger role in this then many people will admit. In the minority community the idea that politicians only pay attention to money and moneyed interst is stronger then in America as a whole. By not thinking they can have an effect, the interest in attending plummets. Many minorities see these events as meetings of upper middle class to rich people where they are not really welcomed.

Spreading the idea that the netroots are about BREAKING big money interest would pay huge dividends here. I really think getting this idea out there would be huge. Letting people know that the netroots is about raising large sums of money from many small donations, people like them, would be huge.

The idea is that since they collectively decide to whom the money goes to, there isn't any chance that their donations are being used to empower anyone else but themselves. Over the years many communities of color have been victimized by people who proport to be raising money on their behalf, but who swindle it instead. Showing how the netroots can be a important tool in breaking down this barrier is the key.

THERE IS A NEED FOR THE NETROOTS IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR
Because of voting rights laws many Minorities are congregated in Minority Majority communities where there are few interparty competitive races. But getting involved in intraparty races in other words Primaries would be huge. Many cities suffer from poor management, but as we saw in Newark NJ with Cory Booker, bad incumbants could only be unseated by a challenger raising money from "outside" sources. This tends to bread resentment. By spreading the idea that incumbants can be beaten by the netroots, or at least being held accountable, would lead to many bad pols being removed.

There is a difference between politicians of color being democrats, and being progressive. Because most communities of color are Democratic many pols there don't feel any heat for bad votes. The only way to change this is to have more contested primaries.

The idea that many minority pols are only getting elected by raising money from "outside interest" is much stronger then many people realize. Local blogs by helping to change this could have a positive effect.