You are invited to participate in a grassroots online discussion,
confronting the issue of racism, and searching for new insights and
directions for action, organized by participants on Salon magazine's Table
Talk. Salon electronic magazine, named as #1 website by Time, features a
discussion forum, Table Talk, where wide-ranging, and occasionally deep
conversations occur. Participants include journalists, students, sailors
and schoolteachers, professors, artists, mechanics and poets. People bring
their personal experiences, research, and web links to discussion threads,
and argue passionately for their points of view.
Table Talk goes beyond a chat, because the material written is available
for review, not ephemeral. It goes beyond a listserve, because new entries
are added all the time, by active participants.
What makes it most successful of all, are the wide variety of thoughtful
participants it attracts, from around the US, and around the world.
We have recently had a far-ranging discussion of Ebonics, where in a few
weeks, hundreds of posts were authored by dozens of participants.
Participants provided links to online research papers, newspaper articles,
and first-hand reports of events. Sparks flew as African Americans, Russian
immigrants to the US, Latinos, a deaf person fluent in sign language, and
whites, including teachers from the Oakland schools, debated and challenged
each other, to establish how and why Ebonics might be useful in breaking
the barriers to literacy for Oakland's African American children.
The Race Project will be a special section devoted to issues related to
race in America and around the world. Discussions which participants have
proposed thus far include:
* Race and identity: Is there such a thing as color-blindness?
* Children and race: how do we raise children to understand and deal
with and fight racism?
* Directions for leadership: where should activists focus their energy?
* Asian Americans: Are we a "model minority"?
* Race, science and pseudo-science: what is race, scientifically speaking?
* What does language have to do with race?
* What did you do when confronted with racism in your life?
* Integrated families and multi-racial identities: How do we fit in?
* Where do we stand in regards to racism today? What are the hard
facts on economic and social indicators?
We would like to include you in our discussion as well. The Race Project
should be launched officially on Saturday, March 1. Please come by and
check it out. If you go to Table Talk today, you can read the thread which
discusses the creation of this special section, titled "Creating the Race
Project." It is located within the Salon Central Section. Table Talk is
located on the web at: http://tabletalk.salon1999.com/webx
Anthony Cody
510 642-8941
FAX 642-1055
*******************************************
A ship in port is safe, but that's not
what ships are built for.
- Grace Hopper
*******************************************