List Review Service #021, 'AFROAML' (APR 11, 1993)
URL: ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/pub/stacks/lrs/lrs-021
LIST REVIEW SERVICE ISSN: 1060-8192
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Issue No. 21 11 APR 1993
AFROAM-L : Critical Issues in African American Life and Culture
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Published periodically by The University of Missouri, St. Louis
Libraries. Raleigh C. Muns (SRCMUNS@UMSLVMA.BITNET), editor.
CONTENTS: REVIEW (R. Muns) (56 lines)
SYNOPSIS OF ACTIVITY (26 lines)
SUGGESTED USES (12 lines)
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION (13 lines)
ANNOUNCEMENTS (00 lines)
END MATERIAL (30 lines)
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REVIEW -
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Boy did I squirm while reading AFROAM-L. By trade I am a "white
male techie," thus, for me, perusing AFROAM-L was like having my
feet held very close to some live coals. There's nothing like
being inundated with intellectually dense dialogue between
African Americans (AA's to adopt the list's own shorthand) to
kick all those biases you thought you never had right in the
teeth. In other words, reading this list was a blast!
Postings on this list included:
Issues of the _Somalia_News_Update (ISSN 1103-1999).
The unabashed diatribes, news stories, and press releases of
the "New Liberation News Service" (e-addresses listed were
nlns@igc.apc.org and psloh@garnet.berkeley.edu). The "feel"
of NLNS is similar to UPI and AP.
Dialogue, dialogue, oh wondrous dialogue!
People actually talk to each other on AFROAM-L. One heated
discussion chewed over the pros and cons of male-only African
American schools. Another thread covered the role of the AA
community with regards to gays in the military. A third mulled
over the environmental rape of poor, predominantly black,
communities in the United States. For this latter, Aaron Laramore
(alaramor@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) suggested Jonathan Kozoll's
_Savage_Inequalities_ (New York: Crown Pub., c1991)) as a good
work describing the "environmental racism" applied to, for
example, East St. Louis (20 minutes from my office).
Having been castigated on an Internet list at one time for
bitching about the "Capitalist Monolith" and its strangling
effect on certain classes of information, I offer this list as a
good place to get an alternative point of view. Americans, white
and otherwise, will find a lot of the issues discussed familiar
Note: the subjects of the discussions may be familiar, but if
you're not tuned in to African American culture, the results will
probably not be. Don't stereotype this list in advance. Many of
the issues as discussed transcend terms like "left" and "right".
Only a handful of non-US accounts were listed as subscribing to
this list, which is too bad. I can see some usefulness of AFROAM-L
for Europeans attempting to understand the new multi-culturalism
of their own countries. We Americans may be all screwed up, but
since we've had a lot of practice at it, others might as well take
our successes and mistakes to heart. The struggle continues...
Oh, yeah. Everyone's the same color in cyberspace.
-R. Muns (SRCMUNS@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU)
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SYNOPSIS OF ONE WEEK'S ACTIVITY -
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Name of List Reviewed: AFROAM-L
Location: AFROAM-L@HARVARDA (Bitnet)
Listowner: Lee D. Baker
LDBAKER@HARVARDA (Bitnet)
No. of Listserv Subscribers: 190 in 4 countries
Period Monitored: 03 APR 1992 - 09 APR 1993
No. Messages Period Monitored: 96
No. Queries Posted: 05 (05 % of total activity)
No. Non-queries Posted: 91 (95 % of total activity)
Lines Sent (w/o headers): 3591 (app. 156 screens of 23 lines)
Msgs. Posted Last 01 Months: N/A
Searchable Archives: No
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SUGGESTED USES FOR LIST -
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1) Outstanding resource for ANY ethnic studies program.
2) Says what it does, does what it says - discuss critical
issues in African American life and culture.
3) Awareness tool for melanin-deprived individuals.
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SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION -
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To subscribe to AFROAM-L, send an e-mail message with blank subject line to:
LISTSERV@HARVARDA (Bitnet address)
Message should consist solely of:
SUBSCRIBE AFROAM-L your_name
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = END REVIEW = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To subscribe to the LIST REVIEW SERVICE send an e-mail message with blank
subject line to:
LISTSERV@UMSLVMA (Bitnet)
or
LISTSERV@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU (Internet)
Message should consist solely of:
SUBSCRIBE LSTREV-L your_name
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin
board/conference systems, individual scholars, and libraries.
Libraries are authorized to add these reviews to their collections
at no cost. This message must appear on copied material. All
commercial use requires permission.
Opinions expressed are solely those of the reviewer and do not
represent the views of the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
Copyright 1993. Raleigh C. Muns (Reference Librarian)
Thomas Jefferson Library, University of Missouri, St. Louis
8001 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, MO 63121 (ph:(314) 553-5059)
BITNET: SRCMUNS@UMSLVMA
Internet: SRCMUNS@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU