Let's Stop All The Madness About Tavis Smiley's State of The Black Union Black Bloggers "Golden Ticket" Contest
Apparently Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union "be that special one" blogger contest has stirred up a little ruckus in the black blogosphere. There was a full-blown war about it over at What About Our Daughters and serious questions being raised at Jack & Jill Politics and at Black America Web 2.0. Once again, black folks are worrying about something that really doesn't matter one bit in the larger picture of things.
I got Mr. Smiley's e-mail about the contest and stopped reading at the first mention of "submit an essay." I take my blog seriously, it's not a game or a sweepstakes. Considering it's the 10 year anniversary of the State of the Black Union, you would think that Smiley would be inviting black bloggers to be on his program panels and to cover the event, not trying to clown us with a simplistic and condescending golden ticket popularity contest to pick one black blogger for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Further, considering Smiley's poor track record with the African American women who have appeared on these SOBU panels, I couldn't get excited about the idea that a black female blogger would have a real chance to get picked. With that said, Smiley's contest is just too corny and ludicrous to take seriously in the first damn place, much less getting all lathered up about. Quite frankly, as already addressed on this blog, I question the purpose and value of the State of the Black Union event, period.
In my opinion, black bloggers have other things to be concerned about, like the future of blogging while black. After a whirlwind couple of years for black bloggers, some serious issues and problems have arisen for black bloggers. I think we should be spending our time debating and discussing, reflecting and reviewing, plotting and planning the current and future state of the black blogosphere.
