I have often said quite plainly that the blogosphere is a reflection of society in many ways. And it is clear to me that it is indeed a mirror of the racial inequities, discord and tensions that exist in the physical world.

More specifically, that highly partisan, left-leaning subset of the blogosphere is as white or whiter than the community from which it springs in the real world.

There are the white liberals who tacitly believe that they can represent the set of wide-ranging diverse progressive constituencies all by themselves, and then there is the much smaller, far less visible and tragically less influential group of white progressives who are as critical of the white domination as those of us progressives of color who see that "there's nothing new under the sun".

This was largely the theme of my comments at the Seize the Moment Conference in DC last weekend, where I provided my 10-minute remarks via audio file for the panel on the netroots.

But for the sake of brevity, the moral of the story is: If there's an organizational will AND intentionality to foster/create/grow into meaningfully diverse groups/coalitions/campaigns, then it will happen. If there's not conscious, consistent and candid dialogue around issues of race, class, gender, etc. in the conceptual and planning stages and the resources and strategies to act on what comes out of such sensitive, but indispensible exchanges, then we will continue to see the all-too-preventable trainwrecks that conservatives love to smugly point out: "We [the GOP and its surrogates] treat our negroes, macacas and extraneous Others better than you do no matter how many of them you dupe to vote for Democrats!"

And the sad reality is, it's pretty true.

In fact, if I didn't have a conscience, a soul or the ability to smell sh*t from long distances, I'd convert to an afro-republicritter this very moment!

How do you see which organizations are walking the talk, you ask? Look at their board of directors and look at how/where/with whom they spend their money.

Of course, there are more nuanced and complex ways of digging deeper. But I dare say that 9 out of 10 groups who fail on the diversity front will have boards and budgets that reveal their true interests, priorities and values.