Kevin Ross: ALL ABOARD THE DIGITAL RENAISSANCE MOVEMENT

I met Kevin Ross at the Blogging While Brown this summer in Atlanta.  This was after appearing on NPR’s News and Notes with him back in the Spring.  He’s been a prosecutor, a judge, a D.J., and probably some other stuff he hasn’t told me about yet.

Kevin  is currently President /CEO of 3BAAS Media Group , a strategic marketing and branding firm specializing in online messaging. He also blogs at 3 Brothers and A Sister and has an Internet show on Blogtalkradio.com that I’ve had the opportunity to appear on.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing an interesting project Kevin is working on with a Texas HBCU, but today I thought I’d post portions of an article he wrote about African-Americans and new media.  Check Kevin’s entire article from Our Weekly, but here are some of the highlights.

• There was a period not long ago when select media outlets single-handedly shepherded how society obtained and reported news about people of color. That train has left the station.

• A cacophony of unbridled voices like Southern, lesbian, political commentator Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend; Shawn Williams of Dallas South Blog; Afronerd; and bi-racial writer Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen, have jumped the tracks, stopping traffic on the information superhighway in ways no one could have predicted….

• Dubbed the “Digital Renaissance Movement”, never before have the shackles of our rich, yet painful past been so rusted and non-encompassing. Collectively, technology has freed Black people, making data of and about African-Americans infinitely more accessible to millions of people all around the world. The timing couldn’t be better.

• When the Democrats recently held there national party convention, seven bloggers dubbed “The Denver 7” made history by being the first independent group of black bloggers to actually obtain media credentials to cover the event… The Denver 7, which includes Gina McCauley of “What About Our Daughters”, Baratunde Thurston of Jack & Jill Politics, and Oliver Willis, are living proof that the Internet has emancipated us all.
• Celebrating the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the historical nature of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and its use of technology, a case can be made that the mountaintop is clearly within our reach.  And with black bloggers in the driver’s seat, there’s no turning back. So please remain seated everyone. We’re almost there!