blackosphere

photo of Jen and Steve Gilliard from The News Blog and Julia by pnh under Creative Commons license

Slant Truth: You were one of the first outspoken Black political bloggers I discovered.

Skeptical Brotha: His passionate defense of truth and progressive values set him apart as a blogger of heft and of heart. His passing is a tremendous loss for us and I extend my profound condolences to his family and to all those who knew and loved him.

Brownfemipower: His blog was actually the first blog I ever read–I was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and went to their site to get up to date, on the ground coverage.

Political Sapphire: [...] In my three years on the 'Net, I have seen over and over through a variety of dust-ups that a major condition which the Left blogosphere imposes on Black bloggers as a prerequisite for acceptance is that we can't really be "Black"; i.e. cannot state our perspective and attribute it to actually having lived lives as Black people in this world, a state that no matter how utopian your outlook is presently different than it is for "the default", i.e. white people. And certainly not loudly. Indeed, the ready use of the trope that "nobody knows your color on the Internet" by white liberals routinely, even if unwittingly, sends a very real message to many Black bloggers new and aspiring (as it did to me, at first) that our true perspectives are simply not welcome. That the uniqueness of a third eye perspective, or voice may indeed be a strike against us, particularly if our perspectives don't line up with the orthodoxy that passes for progressive thought on the 'Net these days. It's the ultimate message, which bluntly most of us already get in the real world anyway: if you want survive, and succeed, you must be prepared to be absorbed into a Black-less Borg and become "the default". You aren't really Black, anymore. Or at least, you'd better pretend you're not. [...]

J's Theater: [...] One other element of his blog that I enjoyed was the periodic recipes: I never tried any of the ones that he and Jen posted, but I thought the recipe-posting was an interesting idea. Farewell, and safe journeys to wherever the best bloggers go!

Culture Kitchen: [...] Steve not only made blogging look easy with his obscenely long posts of quality news dissection. He made it easy to be black online. And that's what made him so brilliant, that he never, ever gave up on his negritude.

There's a lot of us negros and latinos online but on the political side of the spectrum and 5-6 years ago, not so much. [...]

Baldilocks: [...] When one's ideological opponent dies, it's sometimes difficult, if not impossible, to say nice things about him/her. However, the nicest thing that I can say about Steve is that I wish that he hadn't died so young and suffered so much along the way.

Go with God (hopefully), Steve.