Comments on: Reading the root http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/ Giving you the sharpest knife possible to cut through the mainstream media fog. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:08:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: john tomasic http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/#comment-7247 john tomasic Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:38:19 +0000 http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/#comment-7247 I just saw that the version previously published was the draft version. The real version just got posted. I just saw that the version previously published was the draft version. The real version just got posted.

]]> By: john tomasic http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/#comment-7246 john tomasic Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:30:42 +0000 http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/#comment-7246 full agreement. I'm compelled the projet if not always the material. full agreement. I’m compelled the projet if not always the material.

]]> By: LG http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/#comment-7245 LG Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:53:35 +0000 http://www.popandpolitics.com/2008/04/21/reading-the-root/#comment-7245 I will be very curious to see the long-term health of The Root. As you say, there are interesting pieces here. You write that "the writers at The Root seem to be people in sweaters or suit coats, composing their pieces in cafes or on fairly plush living room sofas, typing into late-model laptops, people very much a part of and invested in the culture they are critiquing." While this is true, and perfectly normal, it does often read like a "separate but equal" Slate as often as it does something attempting a new voice for a middle-class black audience. Gates (who seems to have offered his name and little else to this enterprise) is well aware of W.E.B. DuBois dictum regarding Afro-American double consciousness--being both of the mainstream and apart from it. To date, the mainstream press has been all about the "apart from," presenting blacks as dangerous or alluring exotics of one sort or another. Now Root is all about the "of the mainstream"--presenting us as self-involved smartasses just like the writers at Slate. I just think it's too bad that the publication has not yet found a voice through which to revel in the duBois' duality itself. Of course, that may be too much to ask from one publication. But The Root has taken that burden upon itself, since it bills itself as a revolutionary voice for black America (despite its mainstream corporate pedigree: HBO, Washington Post). Right now, we're seeing a lot of that corporate pedigree, and not too much of that distinctive voice. The site is new, and it will grow and mature. The process will be interesting to watch. I will be very curious to see the long-term health of The Root. As you say, there are interesting pieces here. You write that “the writers at The Root seem to be people in sweaters or suit coats, composing their pieces in cafes or on fairly plush living room sofas, typing into late-model laptops, people very much a part of and invested in the culture they are critiquing.” While this is true, and perfectly normal, it does often read like a “separate but equal” Slate as often as it does something attempting a new voice for a middle-class black audience.

Gates (who seems to have offered his name and little else to this enterprise) is well aware of W.E.B. DuBois dictum regarding Afro-American double consciousness–being both of the mainstream and apart from it.

To date, the mainstream press has been all about the “apart from,” presenting blacks as dangerous or alluring exotics of one sort or another. Now Root is all about the “of the mainstream”–presenting us as self-involved smartasses just like the writers at Slate. I just think it’s too bad that the publication has not yet found a voice through which to revel in the duBois’ duality itself.

Of course, that may be too much to ask from one publication. But The Root has taken that burden upon itself, since it bills itself as a revolutionary voice for black America (despite its mainstream corporate pedigree: HBO, Washington Post). Right now, we’re seeing a lot of that corporate pedigree, and not too much of that distinctive voice. The site is new, and it will grow and mature.

The process will be interesting to watch.

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