Pam Spaulding was in the seventh grade when her English teacher pulled her aside one day and told her she had made the honor roll.
She went home that night and cried.
But Spaulding wasn’t crying out of happiness. Her teacher had told her she was the first black student at the school to make the honor roll. The first black honor student in a predominantly black school.
“I always felt like an outsider,” Spaulding says.
Today Spaulding has an award-winning political bog, “Pam’s House Blend.” She commented on CNN during the presidential election and was one of the first bloggers to get credentials to cover the Democratic convention.
But as a black lesbian, Spaulding still finds herself an outsider.
When she blogs about race, she says, many of her white readers don’t get it. When she blogs about gay or transgender issues, many fellow African-American bloggers don’t get it.
Spaulding brings quite the bio, and yes, she’s related to those Spauldings. We’re asking her to keep it local for The Durham News, and she’s eager to take on the challenge.
“I’ve seen a lot of change, and it’s not all for the better,” she says. Especially in south Durham, where she and her partner live just up from Southpoint mall.
“It’s convenient to have Lowe’s near your house,” she says. “But it's evolving into something I feel ambivalent about.”
We look forward to the evolution of The News with the addition of columnists like Spaulding; Southern High teacher Karen Perron, who debuted last week, and others to come.
Tell us what you think in a letter to the editor at editor@nando.com. And thanks for reading.
Mark
