This is something totally different from what’s become my norm, but not all that different from my past on this blog.

Back in the first half of 2012, I started a series of posts called Black Web Friday. For 19 consecutive weeks, I highlighted black websites and blogs, anywhere from 3 to 5 each week, until I finally shut it down on May 25th, 2012.

First, let’s talk about the reason I did it. I had come across a large number of blog posts and articles of other types that were highlighting the Top 50 this and the Top 100 that, and many of these lists were about people, with some businesses mixed in. My gripe was that on all of these lists there wasn’t a single black person mentioned… not one! Some of the lists were on major media company websites; ugh!

I’d finally had enough and decided to complain about it on one blog… Problogger! Yes, the big one. It was a guest post, so I decided to ask the person why she hadn’t included any black people on it. She actually answered and said because she didn’t know any. That comment also got other comments from people saying I was being negative and that the writer didn’t have to add any black people if she didn’t want to.

I was dismayed that the writer didn’t know any black bloggers or websites. I was angered by the responses of the other people. These days we talk a lot about the concept of privilege, but it’s always been there, and it was rampant online back in 2012. In essence, the idea that only white people were prevalent on social media and in blogging and that white people deserved the honor of being named more than anyone else.

Maybe that’s a bit strong, but it’s how I felt at the time. Back then, this blog was ranked pretty well, but others were ranked way higher. One of the people who I’m going to mention here, Lisa Irby, was actually ranked in the top 7,000 blogs in the world at the time; seriously!

Thus, I felt it was time to bring some attention to black websites and blogs by listing some of them. Actually, in 2010 I wrote a post titled 8 Of The Top Black Individual Blogs, and in 2011 I wrote a post titled 21 Of The Top Black Social Media Influencers. The last time I did something like this was in Black History Month, 2012, February 15th, titled Black History Month: The Blogger/Social Media Edition.

Let me tell you; it was both hard and easy. I found some lists of black blogs and websites, put together my own list and came up with over 200 possibilities. Then I looked at all of them… every single one, and noticed that some of them had already faded away. Still, I came up with my list of around 65 or so blogs, put together my feed and brief bios, and started the series.

I have to admit that I was proud of the series. When I started, I knew it was going to be a regular thing… until it wasn’t. If I was proud of myself, why did it end?

It ended because I realized that the overwhelming majority of people didn’t seem to care; at least I felt that way. As the series went on, there were fewer comments on the articles. Not only that, but, as I’m doing with this post, I publicized the articles on Twitter and I told those whose Twitter handles I had about the article listings… and almost none of them stopped by or thought about sharing the articles with others.

That was kind of a turnoff because, even these days, when people end up on a list the majority of them will either write a comment on the blog or share the post at least once with others they’re connected to. Every time I’ve been listed on someone’s article I’ve always shared the post; I think it’s not only courtesy but it’s important to do, especially back on what I was trying to do for the “community”. One of the people listed below, Ileane Smith, even created a Twitter list of almost 300 black Twitter folks and shared it with them… and hardly any of them noticed or cared; sniff!

The struggle is still there though. A few weeks ago I saw another list of 50 whatever, and there wasn’t a single black person on it. Then I read this blog post talking about the need to be inclusive in blogging and social media, and I got into the post… until the writer decided to highlight 3 white women and 3 Indian bloggers… and that was it. Pandering if you ask me, but I was irritated because in the article the writer talked about the need to make things for “African Americans” on social media fair and balanced… and then he excluded them. Sigh…

Thus, this post. Here’s what I did and what I’m going to do here.

I went back through the 19 posts dedicated to Black Web Friday to see how many of those blogs and websites are still active. The folks listed here were only in that series; others are listed in the links I shared above.

The criteria for “active” was that there had to be something new within 6 months from today’s date. Out of the 65 or so blogs and websites I highlighted before, 28 of them are still active; that’s 43%. That’s actually not bad when compared to the rest of the world.

What I’m going to do now is list those 28 blogs with links to their sites, and just paste their Twitter handle next to the name of the blog… if they gave me a Twitter handle. Why is it I can’t convince everyone to put their Twitter link in their articles or paste it somewhere on their website so it’s easy to find? 🙂

Anyway, no details this time around; if you or they are interested, they can search their names to go back and see what I said previously, they can leave something in the comments saying what they do now to promote themselves (only those who I highlighted in the article; anyone else doing it will have the comment removed), or just click on the link and check them out for yourself. I’m also telling those folks whose Twitter handle I have about it on Twitter; that should prove to be interesting.

Once again, if anyone says they don’t know any black bloggers, online black businesses or black social media people, share this with them; educate the masses! Here we go:

Basic Blog Tips @basicblogtips

The Grio @thegrio

Izania @izania

Colorlines @colorlines

2 Create A Website @LisaIrby

Electronic Village

KMP Blog @arierich

Little Tech Girl @littletechgirl

Brotha Tech @BrothaTech

Your Black World @yourblackworld

Webmaster Success @KharimTomlinson

Evelyn Parham @evelynparham

Uncommon Chick @uncommonchick

The Cubicle Chick @thecubiclechick

Oliver Willis @owillis

Pilates 4 Fitness @pilates4fitness

Marcie Writes @Marcie_Hill

Ask The Money Coach @themoneycoach

Beyond Black And White

Money Chat @MoneyChatLive

My Brown Baby @mybrownbaby

Black And Married With Kids @blackandmarried

Joey Pinkney @joeypinkney