February 1, 2008

Blogging While Brown

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Someone forwarded me a link to a blog called Electronic Village which is tabulating rankings for black blogs. Somehow I qualify, even though it’s the MoJo Blog (a ‘problematic’ they address). I offer this not because I’m on it but because it’s a convenient way to figure out where to go looking for black blogs/topics of interest (there’s a looong list of black blog links).

I can’t vouch for quality (see below for mention of anti-Toni Morrison misogyny), or the quality of the organization itself, but their top 10 rankings for February 2008 are as follows:

1. The Bossip: Bossip.com (Authority: 1,173 / Rank: 2,023) – [Entertainment] Bossip.com becomes the third Black blog in the past three months to take over the BBR #1 slot. Bossip.com is a fast growing urban-focused new media property that draws a loyal following of young and influential trend setters who are up to date with what’s hot in society. We don’t know if The Bossip is a brother or sister … but, we do know that What About Our Daughters ain’t happy with The Bossip for calling Maya Angelou a ‘ho’. Hey Bossip … any response to WAOD concerns?

2. Pam Spaulding: Pam’s House Blend (Authority: 1,167 / Rank: 2,047) – [Politics] This is a prolific blog with a number of contributors that shares candid thoughts on politics and invites others to join in the debate. Pam shared some blogging tips with us recently. She wrote, “Are there secrets to getting eyeballs? Hmmm. I don’t think so, though having religious right nutcases calling you “a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy” probably helps. Seriously, there is no one suggestion to gain larger readership. It’s luck, timing, and blogwhoring at other sites similar to yours to entice readers to take a peek at your stuff. Having your own “voice” that stands out as different as well as authentic and true to yourself helps a lot.”

3. Angel Laws: Concrete Loop* (Authority: 1,128 / Rank: 2,199) – [Entertainment] This is a Black celebrity entertainment blog with gossip, music, celebrity interviews, pictures and such. Angel Laws, a 22-year-old college student in Jacksonville, NC, started this blog as a hobby. It is now one of the top-ranked Black blogs in the world. Angel recently walked the red carpet herself. Have you seen your favorite celebrity on Angel’s blog?

4. Debra Dickerson: MoJo Blog (Authority: 1,085 / Rank: 2,352) – [Politics] Mother Jones is an independent nonprofit whose roots lie in a commitment to social justice implemented through first rate investigative reporting. Debra Dickerson is the author of An American Story and The End of Blackness and a former intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force. Admittedly, I am trying to determine if a blog owned by a non-profit should be on the BBR. What say u?

5. Fresh Crunkjuice: Crunk & Disorderly* (Authority: 788 / Rank: 3,933) – [Entertainment] This blog was created in August 2004, however, it didn’t get serious until May 2005. This is an active entertainment blog that tackles the world of African American celebrity gossip. From Kanye West to the Reverend Al Sharpton, C&D takes no prisoners. I’m still hopeful to get some link-love from Yo’ Fresh on his Fresh Picks!

6. ESKAY: Nah Right (Authority: 727 / Rank: 4,482) – [Entertainment] This is another Black blogger that is steadily moving up in the rankings. Some say that Nah Right is the most important East Coast hip-hop blog there is. His blog began in May 2005 and continues to thrive. Somebody tell ESKAY that we are looking for him to share his village voice with us on what it takes to grow a successful blog.

7. Oliver Willis: Oliver Willis (Authority: 603 / Rank: 6,002) – [Politics] Oliver is a fan of the Washington Redskins. His blog alternates between posts on the NFL and presidential politics. He began his blog in April 2005 and we hope that he will share his village voice with us at some point.

8. Natasha Eubanks: Young, Black & Fabulous (Authority: 591 / Rank: 8,840) – [Entertainment] Natasha moved her hot gossip blog to her own domain. Natasha is a law student who recently relocated to the Washington area, said she gets about 99 percent of the information she posts simply from researching the Internet out of her own curiosity and interest. Did you see when Natasha and Omarosa went after each other recently?

9. La Shawn Barber: La Shawn Barber’s Corner (Authority: 542 / Rank: 7,033) – [Politics] Freelance writer La Shawn Barber offers political commentary from a Christian perspective. NPR News & Notes listed the 8/15/2007 Blogger’s Roundtable with Sis. Barber as one of their best shows in 2007. I ‘met’ Sis. Barber during NPR Blogger Roundtables that we did in Nov 2007 and Jan 2008. She is an insightful sister with a powerful political blog. She is shown in this photo with Pam Spaulding (BBR #2)

10. Natasha Eubanks: Young, Black & Fabulous (Authority: 423 / Rank: 10,523) – [Entertainment] See #8 above! Her newer blog has moved up to BBR#10, making her the first blogger with multiple blogs in the Top 10!

——————————————————————————–
HONORABLE MENTION (11-25): Afro Bella*, What About Our Daughters*, Jack and Jill Politics*, Darla Mack News & Reviews, Sandra Rose, Rod 2.0:Beta, The Field Negro*, Entre mes Lignes, How To Split An Atom, Black Looks, Keith Boynkin*, Ill Doctrine, A Hot Mess!, Republic of T and Real Talk NY Provides The Latest Hip Hop News*.

——————————————————————————–
The only qualification is that the blogger needs to be of African descent. The blogger does not have to be a member of The AfroSpear or the Afrosphere Bloggers Association, although we invite all Black bloggers to join either (or both) of those organizations.

Those blogs with an asterisk after their name are 2007 Black Weblog Award winners. Black Blog Rankings lean heavily on the Technorati Authority and Rank score for each blog. The Technorati authority and rank numbers are shown in parenthesis. The authority figure includes a number of factors including the number of blogs that are linked to this blogger over the past six months. The rank number indicates how many blogs are between the person listed and the #1 ranked blog in the world.

According to the site, there’s also an International Blogging While Brown Conference this summer.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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