All About Race

In a city where racial politics is alwasy simmering beneath the surface, a former network news producer has started a blog devoted exclusively to the dicussion of racial issues.

Carmen Dixon, at www.allabout race.com, sees her site as the place to " talk about race in America. And by talk I mean share, discuss, argue, learn, teach, laugh and understand. This is a place for personal stories about how the vagaries of racial conflict affect each of us. Too often, race is the unaddressed “elephant in the room,” even at a time when our “melting pot” is spilling all over the stove."

Dixon said she s tarted the site out of a frustration over the lack of recognition of racial issues and how most of oir problems are based on stereotypes.

"I’ve always enjoyed talking about race even if getting the conversation started was uncomfortable. We comfortably talk about sexuality, gender issues, and money, but just mention a story in the paper with a racial component, particularly in a mixed race crowd, and everybody clinches," she writes.

" Many times I’ve avoided racial topics because I was afraid to discover that someone I like has racial views completely incompatible with mine. It hasn’t happened often, but it has. Like the time I found out one of my good friends at the time was “passing” because she thought it would help her career. Or the couple of times I chose to explain to a white friend why they could not use the “n-word” and had to strike it from their vocabulary."