The man has lost his mind...**UPDATED**

Gee, should I be flattered?

U.S. ex-pat-in-Brazil and non-practicing lawyer Francis Holland did the Internet version of "LOOK AT ME, LINDA, LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

Celtic Diva Suffers White Myopia

I especially enjoyed the ATTN: LINDA KELLEN BIEGEL with a link to my Anchorage Daily News column (not Alaska Daily News) and the Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis link if there was further doubt...just in case the article might slip my attention. He then posted a comment on the blog with a link to the article for that extra little guarantee.

White myopia...yeah...I don't notice the beautiful little black girl who crawls into my bed to wake me up every morning now that school is out. I know that isn't necessarily a guarantee that anyone has a clue, but the fact that I'M THE ONLY WHITE BLOGGER ADDRESSING THE ISSUE HEAD ON might give most people a general idea that I'm not your typical member of the "whitosphere," as he calls it.

But noooooooo...he and several other members of the Afrospear thinks it's a really GOOD idea to single me out for attack because I AM THE ONLY ONE who doesn't back down. Perhaps they aren't taking into account that my participation in the issue may be IN SPITE of the fact I'm attacked and that most people wouldn't bother when confronted with hostility?

Golly, I can't imagine why the DNCC might be ignoring him!!!!! Francis, you have noticed that they are discussing this with other people who are NOT YOU, right?

I won't bother to recount the majority of the article for my "gentle readers." If ya'll wanna go there, feel free. However, I did find this part to be worth repeating:

LINDA, the Democratic National Convention is still more than two months away. As a state blogger, you are authorized to bring a team of bloggers to Denver. If you are truly concerned about diversity in the state blogger pool, you will find some diverse bloggers from Alaska who want to cover the Convention, and you will invite them to go with you. Or you will refuse to participate unless some Blacks and Latinos are permitted to participate with the same privileges on the floor of the convention. Anything short of that is just more obfuscation and self-deluded whitist denial.

The beautiful irony of his comment is that Monday, Writing Raven and I had discussed the possibility of her coming to Denver. We have lots to discuss and weren't really ready to go public as we have many logistics issues to deal with, but my discussion with an AK Dem leader today was one more step on that road. We have a meeting tomorrow (at an undisclosed location **grin**) but I'll state right now that if everything falls into place (job, money, etc...) Raven will be coming with me.

And...if we can get away with it...she'll definitely be spending time on the Convention floor as well.

Of course, this probably now means he's going to unleash the dogs of war on me. God forbid I should look for candidates on my own to integrate Alaska blog coverage. Instead, I should repeatedly attack the DNC and try to strong-arm/shame/threaten them to MAKE me do it.

Yup, much more efficient.

************************UPDATE************************

Holy crap! Sometimes, I hate it when I'm right...and not just right, REALLY RIGHT!

This was the post I woke up to, after leaving the comment on the previous post announcing that I was bringing a PoC blogger with me to Denver:

Why Do Whitists Lie SO Much About Their Color-Aroused Behavior? It has my picture, of course, and no link to my blog because while he's telling lies about what's in it he can't exactly link to it can he?

"Dogs of war" indeed...

Here's the comment I left:

"Cognitive Dissonance: Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation.

If someone is called upon to learn something which contradicts what they already think they know — particularly if they are committed to that prior knowledge — they are likely to resist the new learning."

I knew that you would be really, really, really upset that I was actually bringing a PoC writer with me to blog at the Convention because the dissonance would be so profound. However, I guess I never realized how far over the top it would send you.

I'm not going bother with most of this. I'll just point out that you can blame yourself for the fact that I won't include the "Afrospear widget" on my blogroll. After my treatment by you and at least one other blog within the Afrospear, I never want it to appear that I promote your blog. I do have "blogs of color" included: (Jack and Jill, Pam's House Blend, Zennie's Zeitgeist, Margaret Cho, Alaska Real, Kodiak Konfidential) and several are Afrospear.

Most offensively, when you point out the "white chick" in the picture, you fail to point out the reason for the picture at all...my beautiful brown daughter standing next to me...as if she's invisible. That was a picture to commemorate her very first political event...a protest of the Iraq Occupation. I was very proud that she was joining her mother in promoting Progressive ideals...the same ideals I thought you were supposedly promoting on this blog.

So, if black folks don't suit your purpose or behave differently than you think they should, you treat them like they are invisible?

I've gone out of my way to participate in--even promote this conversation (at my peril) and have received nothing but flack from you because I didn't want to seek a solution "your way"...through inflammatory accusations, intimidation and shame. You may have had some success with it in the past but I never believed it would work here. I chose to seek a solution my way...and in my little part of the world I was successful. I'm even bringing a wonderful new voice in the blogosphere...a woman-of-color...to the Convention and that was the announcement that generated this hateful, lie-filled post.

However, I actually thank you for this post. Why I thank you for it is you've proven what I've believed all along about you...you don't REALLY want a SOLUTION, you just want to fight.

****************UPDATE 2*******************

This comment from the latest article truly says it all:

Terrell, with the Bush economy the dollar is quickly losing its value overseas. It's not principally about money, though. It's about the freedom I feel.

I really don't care anything about WhiteDiva, but the whitist ideas she expresses give me an opportunity to express myself against an ideology that needs to be debunked. Since she typifies that ideology in some of the things she says, I take it as an opportunity to address and discuss that ideology.

I'm glad she'll be giving a Bantastu pass to an Alaskan native blogger that allows that blogger to enter an area of the Convention center that he would not be able to enter without permission from a white blogger.

But, I would feel humiliated to attend the Convention under those circumstances, like going to a restaurant that I would only be allowed to enter if I was in the company of white people.

Of course that seems perfectly natural to white people, but not to me.

You are furious because you never expected that anyone was really going to meet or beat the challenge you threw out there...the challenge for white bloggers to bring other bloggers of color with them. You NEVER expected anyone to actually preempt your challenge. You were just using it as a smug smoke screen.

Now you have to discount it to resolve your own "cognitive dissonance" issues because you can't LIVE with the idea that there are white Progressives out there who are almost as tired of racism, classism, religion-bashing, etc...as those who are the victims of it.

Folks really should read your article on why you live in Brazil. You bask in the Brazilian sun nursing your 1980's/1990's view of this country supported by statistics and anger. You use your blog to lob grenades at those of us of all races, religions and creeds who live, work and try to make a difference from within the U.S. Worst of all...probably deeper down than you are even aware of...you don't really WANT the racial issues in the U.S. to improve because then the justification for using your rage like a WMD and living as a tortured-black-man-ex-pat in Brazil would no longer exist.