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Cross-posted at www.francislholland.blogspot.com

Recently, Matt Stoller of MyDD opened a compelling dialogue by asking whether it was necessary for Blacks and whites (and I would add women and other sociological minorities) to frequent the same websites in order for the Democratic Party to maximize Party chances for electoral success.  The short answer is:  "Yes, blog apartheid within the Democratic Party does reduce Democrats' chances for electoral success."

Matt said,

Now first I'm going to address this community about our culture.  Most MyDD readers are comfortable within what I call 'Jewish political culture', which is a very individualistic, progressive style of argumentative discourse . . .  There are lots of other cultures out there, and lots of other ways of thinking about the world.  These represent themselves online, but they don't necessarily represent themselves here.  Does it matter that they don't?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/2/12/1237

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Reading this, I began to wonder how whites would respond if Blacks began a "Blacks Only" blog movement. If I decided to start a “No Whites Allowed” blog within the Democratic Party, I know precisely how I would enforce the “no-whites” restriction without acknowledging this intention explicitly. I would state clearly in my Reparations Blog FAQ that, although the blog was a Democratic blog, it was devoted to promoting reparations for slavery. Although whites, of course, would be permitted to visit and participate freely in this blog, any comments that were not supportive of reparations would have to be “troll rated”, leading to expulsion for repeat offenders.