November 9, 2007

Villager Joins NPR Roundtable Hosted by Farai Chideya


Villagers, I am heading to local NPR station later today to participate in a weekly blogger roundtable on News & Notes hosted by Farai Chideya (shown in the photo to the right). I will be joined by La Shawn Barber and Yobachi Bowell. The show is pretty relaxed -- think of it as a conversation around the dinner table with friends and family, or at a coffee house or bar.

My understanding is that we will be talking about four topics (time permitting) during the show:
  1. Growing influence of 'The AfroSpear - The history of AfroSpear is documented. This progressive section of the afrosphere stoked the fires that led to mainstream media coverage of Jena Six, Genarlow Wilson and Shaquanda Cotton situations. The group recently began to track the Top 10 Black Blogs with a list that is published monthly on both the Electronic Village and BDPA Foundation blogs.

  2. Who speaks for Black America? Anyone?? - Personally, I think that this is a bugaboo of white powers-that-be resulting from their utter surprise at the response of Blacks all over the country to the news of MLK's assasination.

  3. UC system considers using race for admissions - I think that affirmative action programs are valid responses to institutionalized racism. As such, I think that using race for admissions is a valid option for consideration.

  4. HOTGIRLS - (Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations) uses rap music to start conversations with girls about the challenges they face growing up --- BUT rap is often blamed for promoting degrading images of women -- Is this what they call a conundrum?

Anyhow villagers, I hope that you will listen to the show live or via the taped audiocast! Let me know what you think about the four topics or the show itself!

7 comments:

AAPP said...

Villager, I will be checking it out. Sounds like great issues are going to be discussed. great post.

Unknown said...

AAPP - It should be interesting! I'm glad to hear that you will be on the show next week!

Gerri said...

Farai Chideya - born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. That sounds like a very Zimbabwean name. I will stop by and listen in.

Derrick said...

Here's the link to listen to our segment: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16293470

Danielle said...

As I mentioned in my email, I am so in awe of you all and NPR to include bloggers in a major segment.

Everyone in the blogosphere knows if you want true and intelligent commentary go to bloggers.

As always...

Eddie G. Griffin said...

We have come full circle to once again declaring, Power to the People. But tread lightly on the subject of Affirmative Action. It is no longer perceived as a rectification of past discrimination, though we African-Americans are the inheritors of the vestiges of an unequal system. Public perception would have it that 40 years is long enough for black people to have caught up. They now call Affirmative Action “reverse discrimination”, a “quota system”, and “preferential treatment” based on race. These arguments present a bulwark against a call for Retribution.

Unknown said...

Gerri - I'm not sure of Farai's roots, but, she is very accessible so I encourage you to reach out to her directly.

Yobachi - Thank you! I've updated the post to place a link to the segment right at the top.

Danielle - I thought of you today as I watched the Democratic debate on the UNLV campus. Did you go?

Eddie - Yeah, I know you're right ... but, my time was limited so I decided to be provocative in the hopes of getting a return call to the show (smile)