Very Interesting Black Blog

Jamila.

Been checking it out lately. It’s quite amazing.

I figured the author was Black, but the writing was so bright and the person so well-read that I started to wonder, a function of my liberal racism. “Are you sure this person is really Black? I mean, they’re so smart!” So I went looking for evidence that the author was really Black.

I finally found it, but then they said they were wearing a dress in that photo. Huh? Because along with the Black hypothesis, I also assumed the author was male. Because the writing was so good and especially the thinking was so bright and erudite in that, you know, male way. That’s my liberal sexism. “This writing is so smart and good. No way it’s a chick!”

So I followed the link to their Facebook page and lo and behold, a Black woman, and not an academic looking one either, a young, pretty fun-looking one!

What’s really strange is the link list. There’s me (that’s how I found it), some Black woman blogs (including the awesome What About Our Daughters?), some super-feminist blogs, then the other extreme – some Men’s Rights Activist, masculinist and PUA blogs, then some race realist blogs, then some libertarian sites. Huh? Huh? Huh?

Reading around, she’s also sympathetic to race realism, which is really strange coming from her type, or really any Black blogger. Sensibly sympathetic to it, and taking some of the usual Blacks who are trying to tear it to pieces. She has an excellent review of Michael Levin’s Why Race Matters book. Levin is actually not a bad person, and his heart is in the heart place. I wonder if he’s a Liberal Race Realist at heart.

What’s weird is that to some extent, with all of her strange contradictions, she’s a bit of a Black female mirror image of me!

Very strange site. Very strange. But good stuff!

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30 thoughts on “Very Interesting Black Blog”

  1. Seems like you experienced many surprises my friend!

    A black female who’s sympathetic to white advocacy.

    I guess she must be one of dem house negroes! You may like her blog, but she is hardly representative of most blacks.

  2. Robert, the first step in life is being able to distinguish the genders.

    I appreciate a lot of people confuse me with Stephen Daedalus but Jamila is definitely a girl’s name in the African-American community. Even I know that, and I’ve never been to the States.

    You need to listen to more rap music.

    1. It sound Arabic to me, so it could be an Arab girl’s name as well. But many black [Christian] parents name their kids Arabic names for some reason I’ve never figured out.

    1. Yes! I have been to your site before! I just went to the About page. I thought the same thing last time. No way is this a chick. Way too smart. LOL. I mean, there are smart women, yeah, but not smart like you. And they don’t come off like you do either. Maybe it’s that writing style or something, I don’t know what it is. Darn good writing style you have there.

      I think I’ve got it. Most smart chicks, or women writers period really, come off as somewhat hysterical (either that or they’re pure cerebral).

      Because, you know, females are hysterics, right? Thx for agreeing!

      But you’re not an hysteric. At the same time, you are quite female. Yet at the same time you’re emotional, of course, women are emotional. But not too much, you sort of keep it to yourself and don’t let it bleed all over your prose. Your prose is emotionally controlled, but when you discuss your life, there’s a lot of discussion of feelings.

      BTW, flattery will get you everywhere.

      1. I know what Robert means. I often form mental impressions of an author’s sex while reading their material and 95% of the time I’m right. Even when the subject matter was gender neutral. Stereotypically male writing tends to be very dry and logical and less involved with evoking sensations or feelings. Think Noam Chomsky. I’ve never read a female author that is as dry as him. And I’m not using “dry” in any derogatory sense, I mean in the sense that it does not pull emotional strings. Female writing often does, even when they try not too, it’s like she can’t help that she’s trying to express how she FEELS about something, rather than be objective and dispassionate.

        1. Yep. This is probably what’s behind the Lawrence Summers observation. Women have more connectors between the brain hemispheres than men;,so they don’t distinguish the objective from subjective as strongly; and that makes them better writers but worse scientists.

        2. I still have to believe though that it’s possible to train people to think objectively. Even if that’s not their predisposition.

          Then again, I feel like I was wired to be objective and rational. I’m not sure I could write in a feminine style even if I tried.

        3. Tulio, the way I see it, very few human beings are truly objective.

          We all harbor biases of some sort. Some of us are just more willing to admit them.

          But yes, I long for the day when people adopt a truly scientific position on controversial issues.

          Commenter Thaddeus over at Abagond does a pretty good job at it, but he too can get snarky when someone disagrees with him, and he isn’t always rational.

          He likes to think of himself as the dogma destroyer. He acts as a myth buster who seeks to challenge dogmas held by blacks and whites alike (which has occasionally gotten him into hot water with Abagond, Ankhesen Mie, Jasmin, J, Y, and some of the other black commenters, as well as white trolls such as No Slappz and The Great White Man, who were recently banned).

        4. Wow, someone has a high opinion of himself!

          Just joking!

          Wait, have you actually used that screen name?

        5. Nope, never used it before. I would be afraid to. Most Whites who would use a name like that are racist assholes. Over at Amren, lots of those WN’s have screen names like that. 🙁

        6. BAG, I said logical, not objective. They are two different things. True objectivity is virtually unattainable by humans since we the product of our different environments. But one can be logical and not objective. Because someone arrives at a conclusion rationally doesn’t mean they were being objective or anything close to it. It just means they employ deductive reasoning to reach a conclusion, but the reasoning used to reach that conclusion can be quite selective. I think men are generally better at reaching conclusions using reason rather than emotion. Whereas it was always your mother that had the most empathy. That’s why a kid needs a mother and a father, not two dads or two moms.

  3. Thank you Robert.

    You do flatter well. No, I am definitely female. I check regularly, just to be sure.

    I do appreciate it is hard to be sure of anyone’s gender in this area of the blogosphere, particularly with so many talented writers out there adept at blurring gender boundaries, but you seem as likely to be male as anyone else round here.

    I enjoy reading your blog too. Perhaps at some stage I will actually have something substantive to say about some of the things you write about.

    Until then, best wishes (you are of course, always welcome over at my blog).

  4. There are limitless talented Black bloggers … including Jamila … in the afrosphere. In fact, many are gathering this weekend in Washington DC for the 3rd annual Blogging While Brown Conference hosted by Gina McCauley (blogger, What About Our Daughters).

    peace, Villager

  5. Hi Bob,
    I can’t help but get the distinct sense that a goodly bit of White Knighting is going on here, something that I have a theory about, but that’s another time for another venue (mine!;) ). But for now, I’d just like to say this…

    Given Levin’s publicly stated views about Black folk, one has to ask, what is Jamila’s point? Aside from the fact that she cherrypicks Levin’s book – consider her position on racial profiling and compare it to Levin’s for example – one has to ask, why does she seem hellbent on giving aid and comfort to people who by their own writings, don’t mean the bulk and mass of her people – including her own family – any good?

    Moreover, it seems that Jamila doesn’t read the many blogs she’s posted. For example, she recently attempted, very feebly I might add, to argue that the Feminist Lobby “doesn’t exist” when clearly it does, and there are very prominent voices in the blogosphere who can prove it. They appear on her bloglist, namely Welmer and Paul Elam.

    So again, what is her point?

    Then there’s the many contradictions among her beliefs, etc. Hmm.

    I’ve written about all this and I would very much like to get your reaction and that of your readers here:

    http://theobsidianfiles.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/how-black-women-like-deery-jamila-make-life-difficult-for-all-sistas/

    and here:

    http://theobsidianfiles.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/jamila-akil-intellectually-fakin-the-funk/

    Holla back

    O.

  6. If this is the woman from Chicago, Illinois, who lists New Life Covenant Oakwood church as one of her interests, she is certainly pretty. I shall read her blog with interest. I live in a white ghetto here. Way too white. One of the whitest places in England along with Newcastle upon Tyne. B O R I N G.

  7. Now I’m getting jealous. I thought I would be the first black female to create a blog that discusses race realism in depth! I guess this woman beat me to the punch.

  8. “Women have more connectors between the brain hemispheres than men;,so they don’t distinguish the objective from subjective as strongly; and that makes them better writers but worse scientists.”

    Well, that would probably make them better QUANTAM PHYSISITS then, since the obect is part of the subject and vice versa.

  9. wow! This post is unbelieveable. I hope that this thinking is exclusive to you and that most people judge black women more fairly. I would like to think that I’m intelligent, but if people pre-judge me before getting to know me, that would make life very challenging.

  10. Hey Tulio. Yes, a lot of people are under/overestimated because some don’t realize or understand this principle.

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