Sometimes I reflect on how Mudcat thread conversations would be different if more people of color posted here or if these conversations were taking place on either a majority Black forum or a forum that had many more Black people and other people of color.

Take, for example, the current thread Dark Matter
thread.cfm?threadid=101707&messages=39 .

When I first read that title, I thought the topic of the discussion would be "dark skin color". However, it appears that the topic of that thread is actually the discovery of dark matter in space.

I've found the subject of dark matter in space to be interesting in and of itself. But for a number of reasons, the article which prompted the Mudcat thread on Dark Matter- http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/16/dark.matter.ring.reut/index.html -caused me to think about how invisible dark matter can be in the real world- and on Mudcat.

Take for example this longish excerpt from that article:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A hazy ring of dark matter spawned by a colossal cosmic crash eons ago offers the best evidence to date that vast amounts of this mysterious stuff reside in the universe, scientists said Tuesday.

Images taken by NASA's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope allowed astronomers to detect this ring of dark matter created by the collision of two galaxy clusters 5 billion light-years from Earth.

"This is the strongest evidence yet for the existence of dark matter," astronomer Myungkook James Jee of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore told reporters.

Astronomers believe dark matter -- as opposed to ordinary matter making up the stars, planets and the like -- comprises about 85 percent of the universe's material, but evidence of it has been difficult to come by.

Dark matter cannot be directly seen. It does not shine or reflect light, but astronomers infer its existence in galaxy clusters by observing how its gravity bends the light given off by even more faraway galaxies. They do not know what it is made of, but think it could be a kind of particle."

-snip-

I know that the first article had nothing whatsoever to do with race. But juxtapose that excerpt with this one from an editorial review of Ralph Ellison's book "Invisible Man":

"We rely, in this world, on the visual aspects of humanity as a means of learning who we are. This, Ralph Ellison argues convincingly, is a dangerous habit. A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue. "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me."
http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Man-Ralph-Ellison/dp/0679732764

When I think of outer space & race, in relation to popular culture, one of the first things that pops into my mind is the Star Trek character Uhura.

As any fan of the American television series Star Trek knows, Uhura was a beautiful, dark skinned woman who was the communication commander on the original television series.

In its overview of the original Star Trek series, the author of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series
writes:

"At a time when racial segregation was still firmly entrenched in many areas of the United States, Roddenberry envisaged a multi-racial and mixed-gender crew, based on his assumption that racial prejudice and sexism would not exist in the 23rd century. He also included recurring characters from alien races, including Spock, who was half human and half Vulcan, united under the banner of the United Federation of Planets...

The second pilot introduced the main characters: Captain Kirk (William Shatner), chief engineer Lieutenant Commander Scott (James Doohan) and Lieutenant Sulu (George Takei); Sulu's title in this episode was Ship's Physicist (changed to Helmsman in subsequent episodes). Chief medical officer and the captain's confidante Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) (a Dr. Piper was present on the pilot), Yeoman Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) and communications officer Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) were introduced later. Roddenberry's inclusion of the Asian Sulu and black Uhura, both of them intelligent, well-spoken professionals, was a bold move when most television characters of the time were white and those who weren't were often presented in a highly stereotypical manner."

-snip-

While I certainly applaud Star Trek for including some non-stereotyped non-White characters, when I watched that series I do recall wondering where did all the other people of color go-long time passing? I asked this question since it seemed that, with the exception of Uhuru and Sulu, the rest of the crew of the Starship Enterprise was made up of White people. Okay, there were a few other nameless Black crew members scattered here and there in a some episodes of that original series. But, still, the crew was largely made up of White people.

Does that matter? Imo, Yes. I'm talking more than role models here, but I believe that role modeling is an important factor of why it matters that television shows are integrated with non-racially and ethnically stereotyped characters.

Also, does race matter and should one's racial identity matter while discussing racial and/or non-racial topics on Internet discussion forums?

Imo, sometimes yes and sometimes no. Sometimes the fact that a person posting on the Internet is of one race or another [or more than one race] can add context, perspective, information, authenticity, and insight to the discussion. There are other times when a person's race is of much lesser relevance or of no relevance at all to the discussion. Admittedly, it's not always easy to determine when being dark should or should not matter on the Internet and-in real life.

Imo, "Does being dark matter?" is a different question than "Should being dark matter?" I believe that, eradicating institutional racism should be one goal. Another goal should be recognizing race as a descriptor without ascribing any good or bad connotations or values to that descriptor. I don't believe that racial/ethnic colorblindness is an appropriate goal.

All this to say, sometimes I think that being dark should matter, and sometimes I think that being dark shouldn't matter.

What do you think?