I can say as a 'Black' American who is Web savvy that I don't think I will be using Blackbird. That's not because I feel it's racist, but because I have enough extras on my computer and from a browser standpoint, Firefox is my browser of choice. If I want to look at Black sites, then I know how to Google. I just don't see adding more clutter to my world. Of course, I'll rethink this if Blackbird actually takes off, and it becomes a necessity that I have it. I have to stay up on things.
I thought about informing my friends and family of the new browser "Blackbird" for African-Americans, but after deciding I wasn't going to use it, I didn't want to clutter your worlds either. (But now you have the information... do with it what you will!) I mean, a lot of people don't know which browser they are using anyway. All they care about is getting online to do what they do. Unless you're a techie or designer or whatever, do you really care what browser you use? I think the people debating the issue have completely overlooked this argument.
I have been guilty of playing to this type of niche marketing in the form of BOBOBusiness.com (Black Owned Black Operated Business) and BlackWritersNetwork.com, but these sites are no longer active, and never really took off for various reasons, the main one being that I just didn't have the time to deal with them.
It really trips me out that people get so bent out of shape about things like this. I mean in the grand scheme of things, is it really that important? I have read some really racist things on the Web. I mean statements that you would not have to wonder if they were racists or not. There was no debating it. I don't see arguing over something trying to decide if it's racists or not. If it's racist, trust me, you won't need to wonder about it.
