Prometheus 6

I dropped back by P6 because, after having read Assault and Field for a while, I found them to be rather tiring. So I've put this site back into my Google Reader and will follow a little more closely after months of being in the dark.

At Cobb, I feel like I'm coming to the end of an era. I've been doing the Cobb thing for about 5 years or so now, and I really don't see a whole lot more interesting and new things to say. Part of that is because over the past several months, I've started a very demanding job and my brain is just not as creative as it was when I had more time on my hands. But a real part of it is that I think I have just about exhausted my mandate.  

There's a part of me that wants to write like Jimi Izrael, thick in the dialect. There's a part of me that wants to talk about religion and the temptations of ordinary life. There's a part of me that wants to just play bass guitar and do blogging simply as a guest on a group blog. One reason I don't hang the whole thing up is that eventually there comes something I really want to say.  When I quit in 06 and restarted within 6 weeks, this was the case.

As a black political partisan, I find the blogging format just a bit too limiting right now. I can't see a lot of what needs to be said being done so well in text. I've always had the patience to get the nuance out there, but few people have the patience to absorb it. Three things have made this abundantly clear, that is my participation in radio, in the recent formal debate with Michael Fisher and with the contrast between how my video recordings have illuminated my writing, especially on the Shaquanda Cotton issue. 

What I'd like to do, probably more than anything, is to be able to get some kind of online hosted video blogging thing done. One on one or roundtable. I was very impressed by the stuff presented at bloggingheads.tv recently with Glenn Loury, and I think that kind of captured spontaneity is really the next level.

On another level, with regard to black political partisanship, I'm honestly feeling fuzzy about the endgame. The majority of African Americans are indeed middle class, and I'm not as certain as I once was that the poltiics of our parents (when that wasn't the case) can actually be extended with any real continuity. Not only do you have to find out what was best about Huey, you have to explain Huey to a new generation, and then explain what parts of him to leave on the cutting room floor. That's tedious, and for the sake of inheriting the mantle of Huey (or Angela, or Booker, or Garvey) I'm not sure that it's worth the trouble. In black politics, I am beginning to believe that the nature of the appeal is more significant that the power of the message. It's not that Obama's message needs to win so much as Obama needs to win. Symbol over substance. Really, I just don't want to  be a part of a dogmatic vanguard. We have overcome. Why the drama?

As I mature and get where I'm getting to, I find myself increasingly responsible for the livelihoods of folks outside of the traditional black community. It's not just a consequence of my work and where I live, but what I think is my responsibility as a man and as an American. As such, I find it increasingly tempting to assess 'the black community' in terms of standards that applied when I lived in 90016. This is problematic because I become jaundiced about old problems I recognize and puzzled about new problems I do not recognize. In the end, since I don't believe in race, my advice and prescriptions are the same given my understanding of how America works and what moral principles I think ought to apply. This has been the case for a while, and I think it has been useful to apply that perspective to the stream of contemporary issues coming across Cobb's doorstep. But I think it brings into question who is a good audience and what are good subjects for Cobb. The problem is, my current audience is only likely to take up a certain subset of the subjects I write about. I'm not in control of that. It's like Romney answering the Mormon question 80 different ways. 

Finally, I think it should be said that I'm not really having the kind of fun I think I should be having with other black (and non-black) writers I respect online. I think blogging makes us concentrate too much on our political and philosophical differences and too little time on shooting a more comfortable breeze. This is why the podcast / vidcast thing appeals to me. This lost community is something of an old thread with me and that's what I'm feeling now.

So I am inclined at the moment to handle some light to medium weight contemporary subjects at Cobb, drop into something controversial on occasion, and watch what other folks are writing about. So I'm here at P6 catching up.

We have overcome. Why the drama?

And the thread can be closed on that note. 

It's always good to take a breather from the really serious stuff and write something fun. Bloggers have gone through a lot in just under a decade - the tools have appeared, morphed repeatedly and the communities with them. No surprise your initiative has done the same.

I've been at this a couple of years and still feel very much like a neophyte. I'd enjoy reading your responses to posts here. 

Still programming...

So you want to see what we're talking about. I never have a problem with that.

If you're looking to have fun, you'll probably be disappointed again. Still kind of serious up in here. Given our history, which I remember if you don't, it will take a while for me to take you seriously again.

I'm not necessarily trying to have fun HERE, not that it's not possible, but I'm saying that all aspects of black community aren't work to me.

I'm not exactly sure how seriously I should be taken, or how seriously I should take the idea that P6 doesn't take me seriously. I imagine the answer to that question would be found in the realm of influence. For example, I'd imagine that I don't take the Jena controversy as seriously as P6 does. In the end, how significant is Jena? I'm taking the King Memorial controversy seriously, and I have been rather astounded at the overwhelming silence of bloggers on the subject. So, what's serious, what's not? I don't think we can tell using our own blogs as sounding boards.

 Aside from that, I still believe that analysis and commentary are valuable in and of themselves even if it is irreverent. I've been clubbed over the head for being little more than a writer. I'm not a community activist and I don't go in for a lot of charitable work. I'd very much like to be a big time philanthropist, but...  

All things considered, I do still want to be taken seriously. So I guess there's still some work to do.  

I'm saying that all aspects of black community aren't work to me.

Of course. Much of it is pure release.

Aside from that, I still believe that analysis and commentary are valuable in and of themselves even if it is irreverent.

Not if it's incorrect, or just blather to unfocus a discussion.

All you have to do to be taken seriously by me is NOT blather, NOT unfocus the discussion. Or just observe, but then no one would know you're there.

Cobb...

"after having read Assault and Field for a while, I found them to be rather tiring."

Imagine writing about this stuff all the time.

I saw Ed breaking the blogging thing down at Dream and Hustle.

All I can say is, if you're accomplishing your goal, keep doing it. If you're not, change.