Thinking Blogger

A NEW FLOWER BLOOMS was kind enough to give me a "THINKING BLOGGER AWARD". Besides the right to show off the graphic, the best benefit is the opportunity to nominate five other deserving bloggers.

So, here's my list:

BRONZE TRINITY: BronzeTrinity is an African-Canadian ray of sunlight. She attacks controversial issues with vigor, with innovation and with a true positive spirit. With a sense of vision, she genuinely believes in an empowered, informed grassroots movement for all kinds of social change. Most importantly, her positivity is infectious -- she'll get you to believe, too.

Bronzetrinity maintains the Afrospear Online Paper.

AfroSpear: A Think Tank For People of African Descent.

They describe what they're about better than I could: The origins of “AfroSpear” started from a discussion a group... [I]t developed into an idea to create a diasporic-wide think tank type blog.

We don’t always agree, but what we have in common is our love for our community and a commitment to the progress of those of African descent, both near and far. We are made up from a variety of voices with a variety of perspectives. Lubangakene, Sylvia and Field Negro reside in the United States. Asabagna is of Caribbean heritage residing in Canada. Aulelia is a Tanzanian woman living in France.

Adjunct to this blog is the "Afrospear Nation", the widest blogroll of black bloggers I've come across. Surf lots, but remember to bring your manners.

African American Political Pundit describes himself as, "African American Political Pundit is a former Democrat, turned Republican, now an Independent; who is politically biased, pretending to be neutral." A fiercely original thinker, his blog is the kind of intellectually honest blog that can be provocative for white readers... but then, he isn't blogging for white readers. Also, as most of the Afrospear Nation is blatantly leftist, for the Elephants in the crowd, you can find some conservative black bloggers on his blogroll.

Jack and Jill Politics, mentioned here before, is an incisive, left-leaning political blog from a self-described "Black Bourgeoisie perspective". What I like is the intellectual honesty and the fact that the "Black" perspective trumps the political ideology (a recent post about Edwards "code talking" is a solid example of this.

thefreeslave is one of the more challenging blogs on this list for a white audience, but, much like birth mom or adult adoptee blogs for adoptive parents, a blog like this that gives so much deep thought to racism, to me, is crucial. thefreeslave sees White European culture as a hypocritical, imperialistic society, and those values define white action. This is not the starting point of most white people on America... the "land of the free" and all that. If you've never framed the racism question in that way, thefreeslave will provoke thought and introspection.

So, there's my list. There are a host of other equally valuable black bloggers, representing a range of black thought. In general, I feel it's VITALLY important to understand issues within the black community. I have approached commenting with a tremendous amount of humility, thankful for their perspective and understanding that it's not any of their jobs to educate me, but my job to educate myself.