Welcome to the third edition of Black Web Friday, and to me it’s a special treat because it’s the first one of the year during Black History Month. I haven’t decided if I’m writing a special post here for the month yet, as I have one coming on my business blog later today, but I figure I’m doing my part this year in helping to highlight black social media throughout the country.

Actually, one of the debates I’ve been having with myself is whether I only want to stick to North America, which includes Canada, or whether I should think about including black people from other countries as well. While a black blogger in England and Australia might be going through the same type of thing that happens in the United States, are they removed enough from our issues so that it becomes someone else’s problem? What about those in Africa who are actually the majority in their country, but outside might not get the press? I just don’t know yet because in other countries I’m not sure they consider themselves as “black” per se; I know that many Africans that come to the states don’t see themselves as akin to black Americans all that often. Stupid TV and movies have made us look pretty bad even to them.

Well, I figure we’ll see as I go along how it goes. For now, let’s get going.

The first site I’m highlighting is called Racing Toward Diversity, and is the brainchild of Fields Jackson, who also made my list of 21 black social media influencers. His site highlights diversity initiatives of companies and businesses across the United States for all disenfranchised groups, so it’s just just about black people. There are multiple contributors on the site that write on the blog, white papers and case studies. There’s a jobs board and a consistent list of the top 25 most diverse companies in the country. Just so you know, the blog has a traditional commenting section, but they do tell you that it’s moderated. Diversity; it’s a good thing y’all.

The next site I’m highlighting is Lisa Irby’s 2 Create A Website, which also has blog that I thoroughly enjoy. She’s an entrepreneur who built up her site well before she decided to add a blog, and by the title you know she creates websites. Her knowledge is on par with anyone you can think of and her website is highly ranked, so I expect she’s killing it. Lisa was also featured as one of the 21 folks. On her site she offers lots of free advice, including how to get things set up for a website, self hosted blog, and is a proponent of Site Build It. She also has another eponymously named site (since Sire mentioned it, “eponymous” means it’s named after you) where she lists other websites she owns.

The last person I’m highlighting today is named Stanford Smith, who has a blog/website called Pushing Social, where he talks about all things social media and blogging, kind of like me. I keep wondering why in most places he has a picture that makes him look tough because I’ve seen his smiling picture and I think it’s a good thing. As a matter of fact, if you look at this post of his on getting readers to stay on your blog, which I liked a lot, you’ll see him smiling; tell me I’m wrong. 🙂 Anyway, he’s not only a blogger but is VP of marketing at a digital media company, which proves he knows what he’s talking about, and if this guy isn’t someone who should be known by more people, I don’t know who should be. Stanford was on my 20 black social media influencers list.

We’re done for now. Check them out, and fast!