Will it change? Or not?

[RowdyOrbit]

Will the web help to reshape the images? Or change the perceptions, for people of color?

[Pete Chatmon]

I might argue that it already has, Obama being the case in point. Folks just have to find a way to exploit the web with original content that plays well on the medium, provides a broader perspective to the experience, and hits in Volume. It's got to be a lot of folks doing it consistently. That's where it differs from Obama because the spotlight was already trained on the 20 or so candidates running for office. There is no ready made spotlight for a "directing candidate" -- but we can make it happen if we move strategically and creatively.

[Anthony Q. Artis]

Absolutely...the whole beauty of the web is that everyone is 100% in control of their perception. With fairly basic resources (such as Ning which is used for this community) we can appear to be whoever we want. You don't even have to be a "person of color" online if you choose not to be...you can just be a dopeass company with service X on a level playing field limited only by your ability to design and build valuable content (pay for others to do so for you).
-Ant.

[RowdyOrbit]

Thanks for answering. Great insight.

Pete Chatmon said:

I might argue that it already has, Obama being the case in point. Folks just have to find a way to exploit the web with original content that plays well on the medium, provides a broader perspective to the experience, and hits in Volume. It's got to be a lot of folks doing it consistently. That's where it differs from Obama because the spotlight was already trained on the 20 or so candidates running for office. There is no ready made spotlight for a "directing candidate" -- but we can make it happen if we move strategically and creatively.

[RowdyOrbit]

Thanks for the reply. Excellent perspective.

Anthony Q. Artis said:

Absolutely...the whole beauty of the web is that everyone is 100% in control of their perception. With fairly basic resources (such as Ning which is used for this community) we can appear to be whoever we want. You don't even have to be a "person of color" online if you choose not to be...you can just be a dopeass company with service X on a level playing field limited only by your ability to design and build valuable content (pay for others to do so for you).
-Ant.

[Tim Gooch]

Here's a late reply from a middle-aged white guy in KY.

I have to confess that, in spite of the widespread integration of our school system in Louisville during the 1970's, I still find myself face-to-face with relics of my past. This community and my intro to the podcast are a case in point.

Upon the first couple of minutes of listening to the podcast, I started to wonder if this was for me. I'm about as white as I can be, and even the slightest street lingo leaves me scratching my head. (If you watch Weird Al's "White & Nerdy," that's me.) What I heard (in terms of speech patterns) during those first few minutes caused me to think, "I am just not gonna get any of this."

Then, three minutes in, I stopped listening to speech patterns and started hearing content. I listened to the whole show, and then another, and another. Just about the time that I heard some "lyrics to live by" that I just couldn't relate to, I heard a quote from George Bernard Shaw.

I sat there, stunned, and then felt ashamed that I was stunned. Why should I have expected anything less? Would my expectations have been different if the hosts were a couple of white guys? Sadly, they probably would have been.

My only complaint now is that the audio quality of the podcast seems a bit rough, making me wish I could hear everyone's voice more clearly. That's quite a leap from where I was during the first few minutes of that first podcast.

Now, I'm the last person on the planet who can judge if this is a "hip" community or not, but I can tell that the guys behind it are smarter than I am, funnier than I am, and can teach me a ton about making films and telling stories. I don't know if that means that anything has changed... except maybe me. - Tim