How we classify ourselves is different from how others classify us.

I don’t have a problem making West Virginia/Redneck/Hillbilly/White Trash jokes about myself. But I’m might go all Deliverance on someone else who makes that kind of crack.

If a group of Black Female Lesbian bloggers want to group themselves under that banner, that’s their choice and I applaud it. It would be totally different for me to impose that label upon them — even if they use it themselves — in my blogroll.

B’shalom,

Jeff

I honestly don’t know how it works/should work so to speak.

The main flaw I see in being “blind” to all that as you describe it is that then, we don’t get the benefit, necessarily, of a variety of first-person voices who are living something we never will. This is very important, I believe. And it’s part of what I’m trying to remedy/rectify/offer as a choice for readers who visit this blog.

I’m barely in the embryonic stage of this so if I’m not making sense, well – no surprise.

Yes. My preference is to not make note of gender, ethnicity, race, political faction or any other criteria in my blog roll other than geographic, i.e. NEO vs Non-NEO.

I wouldn’t feel right qualifying you as a female blogger because that implies that you are measured on a different scale than non-female bloggers.

You are on my daily read list not because you’re one of my favorite blond, Jewish, suburban female bloggers under 50, but rather because you’re one of my favorite bloggers. Full stop.

B’shalom,

Jeff

Yeah, as I wrote, I’m embarrassed to say that I really didn’t even think about it much – I’ve always realized that Derek Arnold is the only non-White blogger I can think of in NEOhio. I know Cincinnati has a few bloggers of color, but other than that? There have got to be more, I keep thinking but I don’t like that they aren’t more apparent. Maybe I need to ask George more about it but I guess I just would have thought that “blogs would bring us together” or something and it wouldn’t be segmented. I know – naive.

Anyway – I’m going through the quandary of whether to blogroll blogs AS “WOC” or “POC” – I mean, personally – I really don’t like that notion, but on the other hand, I’m finding that that reference is common within the blogs by bloggers of color. I’m just not sure and also, I think preferences vary from blogger to blogger.

Do you have an opinion on that?

When I first started blogging I sought to create some diversity in my blog reading. It was tough. It was particularly tough to find blogger of color.

It’s good to know that nearly four years later, that is no longer the case.

B’shalom,

Jeff