Various comments:

John 'Giok' MacKenzie, in your 08 Mar 08 - 06:51 AM you suggested changing the title of this thread to the question "Is Mudcat Difficult For People Of Color?" While I appreciate the suggestion, that title doesn't confer my basis for starting this thread-that is-my certainty that sometimes posting on this forum, and reading certain Mudcat threads is in fact difficult for me.
That means that
1. sometimes posting on Mudcat and/or reading Mudcat threads is not difficult for me

2. the difficulty may be sometimes because of my mis-interpretations and/or oversensitivity to certain topics by virtue of my racial background, my experiences, and/or my temperment

3. other people of color who are Mudcat members or guests may have less difficulty or no difficulties what so ever with posting on Mudcat or reading certain Mudcat threads

4. Mudcat threads which cause me difficulty may cause another person of color less difficulty than they cause me, or may not cause them any difficulty.

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John 'Giok' MacKenzie, in that same 08 Mar 08 - 06:51 AM post you commented that "I also wonder what question one would have to put in a search engine to discover this thread, and I don't think it wouldn't be a folkie person asking it."

It seems to me that it would be helpful to have a "related threads" hyperlink listing for race/racism Mudcat threads just as there are related thread listings under the thread title of numerous other Mudcat threads. Because I think that such listings help folks access archived threads, I'll volunteer to identify some past Mudcat threads on race/racism and I'll provide hyperlinks to those individual threads within this thread.

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With regard to the question, why aren't there more people of color {colour} posting on Mudcat, Richard Bridge asked "Can it simply be that our music is largely Anglocentric and that that is no attraction? If that were so, should we not see an increase in the number of non-anglos posting in BS, particualrly given the importance of race and gender issues in the Democratic primaries?"

Richard, one of the things that I've discovered about Mudcat is that it is what you make it. Because of the liberal definition of "folk music" and "folk culture" and because of Mudcat's easy to use, open posting structure, members and guests can start above the line threads and BS threads on almost any subject they want to. Therefore, the only reason why Mudcat remains anglocentric is because people who post here don't start threads on non-anglocentric music* and non-Anglo people {who one would presume would be more likely to start threads on non-anglocentric music-aren't aware of this forum, or choose not to post to this forum.

*John 'Giok' MacKenzie asked "Who like myself loves Portuguese fado music and finds anything much about it on here?" I don't know anything about Portuguese fado music. My assumption is that because it is in Portugal, and Portugal is a country in Europe, fado music would be considered "anglocentric music". But perhaps not. In any event, I agree with McGrath of Harlow's question to Giok
"Why don't you give it a go?"

And that question isn't rhetorical. In my opinion, some Mudcat threads are for the purpose of conversation/discussion and others are for the purpose of presenting information. Of couse, many threads are both}. Mudcat presents opportunities for sharing and learning.If there is a topic that most people don't know about, that doesn't mean that thread shouldn't be started. But it does mean that the original thread starter might be the only one posting to that thread. Just because only one person {or just a few people} post to a thread, doesn't mean that no one else is reading that thread or no one else will read that thread in the future.

As to why people of color may not post to BS threads-about race/racism and a host of other subjects, one reason why people post online is for the purpose of relaxation/enjoyment. If {When} a person perceives herself or himself to be "the only one" {of their race/ethnicity} posting on a forum, because of the attendent difficulties/challenges that may occur as a result of being a minority in that community {which we have discussed in this thread}, that person may not take advantage of the opportunity to "hang out" and post on that forum. Instead, that person may decide to spend their leisure time off-line, or on other forums which are more integrated or where mostly {or only} people of her or his race/ethnicity post.

As to JTT's comment "What about dragging all your black musical friends in and getting them to drag theirs in?", I take it that that comment was meant for all those posting on Mudcat who have friends who are Black {and other people of color}, whether they be musical {or non-musical}. I've tried to encourage people to visit and post on Mudcat. Not counting Quarcoo who has joined Mudcat but who regrettably I've only met online, I've not been successful in getting people I know to not only visit this website, but to continue coming to Mudcat and to post on this forum. However, I'm gonna continue trying to get more people of color to post on Mudcat. And I hope that other Mudcat members and guests will do so too.