Farai Chideya hosted Blogger's Roundtable on NPR News & Notes earlier today with Arlene Fenton, Jay Anderson and me. We talked about the rumors of Condoleeza Rice seeking vice presidency.
All three of us agreed that Condi Rice was not going to be McCain's veep candidate. All reports indicate that she wants to leave Washington DC at the end of Bush's term of office in order to return to the academic world of Stanford University. I don't think Condi brings anything useful to a McCain ticket. She doesn't have economics expertise ... nor is she a darling of the radical right ... also, she is tightly-tied to George W. Bush ... and that ain't a good thing for McCain! Those are three things that McCain needs in his VP candidate.
Actually, the rumors are insulting in some respects
to the talent-level of Condi Rice. She has some serious skillz and doesn't deserve to have her name thrown in the ring by the Republicans to counterbalance the diverse talent (Clinton or Obama) being showcased by the Democrats.
Our roundtable also dealt with the question of whether or not Civil Rights groups are obsolete. What do you think villagers? Are groups like the NAACP or the Urban League or CORE or SCLC obsolete? In our view, the issue went beyond the ability of these groups to adopt new-age technology, such as blogs. Rather, the blogger's panel wondered if the leadership of these groups could look at problems in our community from a 21st century perspective.
Actually, the rumors are insulting in some respects
to the talent-level of Condi Rice. She has some serious skillz and doesn't deserve to have her name thrown in the ring by the Republicans to counterbalance the diverse talent (Clinton or Obama) being showcased by the Democrats.Our roundtable also dealt with the question of whether or not Civil Rights groups are obsolete. What do you think villagers? Are groups like the NAACP or the Urban League or CORE or SCLC obsolete? In our view, the issue went beyond the ability of these groups to adopt new-age technology, such as blogs. Rather, the blogger's panel wondered if the leadership of these groups could look at problems in our community from a 21st century perspective.
As an 
example, we noted that NAACP and Al Sharpton jumped on comparisons of the Dunbar Village ('alleged') rapists were being treated unfairly in light of the fact that ('alleged') white rapists in Boca Raton are free on bail. Ol' school thinking! White boys got bail, therefore, our Black boys should get bail. That is stinkin' thinkin' when the Black boyz are undeniably responsible for rape, torture and terrorism with an innocent mother and her son. 21st century thinking is that no bail should be offered to the Dunbar Village rapists. Eventually Al Sharpton and NAACP apologized for their stinkin' thinkin'.
Finally, I was pleased with Bro. Anderson (AverageBro blog) perspective that our civil rights organizations ... and Black bloggers ... should be more PROactive and less REactive. For example, he calls for bloggers and Black organizations to get engaged in mentoring, tutoring and other PROactive efforts to keep our young people on the right path, rather than REact when our young people get involved in rapes, gangs or other counter-productive behavior.
We had a great time. I hope you had a chance to listen to us live ... but, if not, you
can click here to listen to what we had to say. What would you have said on either of the two questions --> Condi Rice for Vice President? or Are Civil Rights groups obsolete?
example, we noted that NAACP and Al Sharpton jumped on comparisons of the Dunbar Village ('alleged') rapists were being treated unfairly in light of the fact that ('alleged') white rapists in Boca Raton are free on bail. Ol' school thinking! White boys got bail, therefore, our Black boys should get bail. That is stinkin' thinkin' when the Black boyz are undeniably responsible for rape, torture and terrorism with an innocent mother and her son. 21st century thinking is that no bail should be offered to the Dunbar Village rapists. Eventually Al Sharpton and NAACP apologized for their stinkin' thinkin'.Finally, I was pleased with Bro. Anderson (AverageBro blog) perspective that our civil rights organizations ... and Black bloggers ... should be more PROactive and less REactive. For example, he calls for bloggers and Black organizations to get engaged in mentoring, tutoring and other PROactive efforts to keep our young people on the right path, rather than REact when our young people get involved in rapes, gangs or other counter-productive behavior.
We had a great time. I hope you had a chance to listen to us live ... but, if not, you
can click here to listen to what we had to say. What would you have said on either of the two questions --> Condi Rice for Vice President? or Are Civil Rights groups obsolete? 
