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Who Comes to Kos?

By Ben Adler - Aug 3rd, 2007 at 1:41 pm EDT

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In a phrase: white people. Yes there are more than last year, yes they are of all ages and regions. But they are overwhelmingly white. Not exclusively. There are bloggers who focus on identity politics here, in the audience as well as on panels. But if the netroots are going to be a major power base in the progressive movement, they will need to work on diversifying.

Reader Comments

the race question

By carry Aug 3rd 2007 at 9:31 pm EDT

this is a really important and underappreciated point. The analogue question I have for you Ben is: do you think the progressive youth movement, say based on what students campus progress is working with and who attended your conference, also lacks this diversity?

Question:

By Superduperficial Aug 4th 2007 at 1:23 am EDT (Updated Aug 4th 2007 at 1:25 am EDT)

Have any efforts been made to *exclude* people of color from this menagerie? If not, what's the issue? To say that Daily Kos needs to "diversify" is a bit patronizing (though I assume you didn't mean it as such), almost as if people of color are pokemon to be collected.

If Kos' conference is a success, it's a success. Judging the conference by the demographics of who shows up, rather than by the actual content they're offering, is unproductive.

I think part of the issue here is that there's a lack of clarity from the Kossacks as to YearlyKos' mission - is it about charting the way toward electoral victories, or bringing about education and discussion on the issues? The demographics of who shows up are a lot more important if it's the former than if it's the latter.

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