Whatever That Purpose May Be...

"I love the connections I've made through blogging, but at the same time I want to be respectful of this collective's purpose, whatever that may be. "

Zesty - In response to my post: "The Idea Is Still Maturing... Slowly"



I tell you what the purpose behind BrownBloggers is:

As a brown skinned man in America I gravitate to a lot of things. Because of my African heritage, I'm attracted to the kick of the drum and all that it has to offer. I love hip hop, even in it's current state. I love black literature and I consume it because it and things like African American art are pretty much ignored anyway and I feel like I get to have certain things to myself based on that. But as an artist, I feel for those that put great literary pieces of work together can can't get credit, accolades and compensation because either their work is 'too black' or is largely ignored. That hurts me.

As a multi-cultural kid of Latin heritage. I also recognize and respect the richness of my dual cultures. I also respect the fact that my ancestors came to this place from many places via Mother Africa. I may not believe in or have the faith based system that my African American mother or Puerto Rican father has but I have been raised to have an open mind, the willingness to learn and respect for what was taught to me. I attended Catholic school and was baptized as such at an early age. I also converted to Protestantism as a teenager and then Islam as an adult while serving in the military. After all that I have seen, I never felt the need to trash another person's culture or belief system because it is different or unfamiliar. Instead I choose to embrace all of it as my own. It made me... Me.

I've dated out of my race and out of my country. No, I never dated a white girl, but I have dated women of Japanese, Korean, Chilean and Indian heritage. I also courted a Nigerian woman and tried to marry a sister from that island just off the coast of Florida.

What I'm saying is, I got a chance to travel and live abroad and meet people, and I'm nowhere finished from doing and experiencing that. As much as I travel and experience stuff, no one group of people has is as bad as my family here in the states. It seems that society has everything for everyone, but access to my people's thang is damn near impossible. Yes, there are some that have the loot to market and advertise and some of us that have done good in and out of the hood, but it is not enough. So when I'm seeing folks on the internet coming together from all over the place in the attempt to share something good and having commonality, that gets me excited.

So I wanna do my part to organize and continue in that tradition.

There is no intention of excluding anyone from BrownBloggers. Just like BlackPlanet, Black Voices, Black America Web and other sites of the ilk, whomever wants to participate regardless of background or color can and will and I hope the same for BrownBloggers. There is a focus, to bring together brown-skinned bloggers of many backgrounds and use that commonality, the love of art, history, family, the spirit, education, health and such to enhance the online experience of the user whatever their culture may be. There ain't no crime in that, well at least I hope not.

I also recognize that in cyberspace there is a digital divide. The balance between the sensational and sensible needs to be rescaled. Emphasis on the superficial when it comes to brown-skinned people America seems to outweigh that of what some consider sensible, and I want to do what I can to get my weight up on the other side of the scale. There is unevenness, so if I can create anything to bring folk together to have uplifting conversation geared towards building my community I will do so. This is what BrownBloggers is to be. A place for folks that look like me to come and congregate and fellowship with each other to reach a common goal, enhancing each other's cyber experience thru infoshare... And I plan on monthly blogger meet and greets so we can put faces to the words typed and get to the bottom of the myriad of problems that seem to keep us apart and hold us back, whatever that may be.

Fortunately, I am 3 brown skinned cultures deep in heritage. I am American of African heritage, I am an islander from the Caribbean and I am also from a small country in South America. There are many more of my kinfolk with brown or brownish type skin that need a forum, a meeting place, an ujima.

I feel it's time for me to get off my ass and do something about it. I'll take the ridicule and the questioning, but I'll also sleep better at night knowing that I can finally go someplace on the world wide web where folks who look like me and can fellowship without the bullshit.