Also, over the past few years Black bloggers have become a real force on the web. I was amazed to se our networking work so well. I think we can all be proud of that. I remember when we started using the net I was often the only black person and the only woman around. Now we have the power to start a real movement. Let’s keep the ball rolling!

What’s really important here is not even whether Cosmo is deliverately undermining Kiri’s chances. What is more significant is that we are living in a world where the possibility seems perfectly plausible. Cosmo ideally should run the sort of magazine where people would say, “Cosmo would never do that!”. A good reputation and track record are the best protection from such accusations.

“omigosh! i swear… i just posted about this, as I was shocked when I went back to check for the winning contestant also. previously, i joined afrobella and other [bloggers] encouraging them to vote and a reminder post for people to go back and vote again since you were able to vote once a day. how ridiculous! since my sentiments mirrored your post, i tried to check my train of thought and asked myself… why is everything racial?? whereas, i recently left an online discussion about how african americans usually bring racially charged or ‘ethnic’ perspectives, if you will, to convos, situations, etc. but goddamit if i’m not alone in this sentiment! it’s just something our culture has evolved into from our history. despite our progress in this nation, we still always have to keep one eye open! let me go visit afrobella’s site!”
ha man oh man =(

Thanks for a response, but a general response to specific questions isn’t sufficient. People are questioning why only after Kiri’s video surged to the lead was the process declared “corrupted”.

Granted, there can and are probably many things have impacted CosmoGirl’s decision to stop the voting but the timing of stopping the votes when her video was in the lead a day before the contest was set to end is suspicious. This is particularly so because people who were following the votes noticed that when the videos of the other two contestants surged exponentially NOTHING happened.

Shifting the issue to whether Kiri wins or not isn’t really going to get much of a response. She WAS winning based on the last vote tally that I saw, and that was stopped.

People want to know why the voting was stopped because a lot of people had involved themselves in trying to help her win. They voted daily. They told their friends and family to vote daily. They blogged it and sent it out on MySpace and Facebook. Basically, people had invested themselves and their efforts in this contest, so to see it be so close but then see it suddenly ceased was disappointing.

How you can expect there NOT to be theories about why is simply naïve.

So what gives? My advice is either address the point or cease releasing statements until you CAN address the issue.