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@ProfD As I learn more about the case, the more disturbed I become. I'm particularly troubled by reports that the victim and his twin brother were big husky guys who were known bullies in their neighborhood, dating back to grade school days, and that when Karmelo tried to leave the tent, they became the aggressors and pulled him back in and began assaulting him. Poor Karmelo stepped into a den of iniquity when he sought shelter under that tent. This case is being compared with the one involving Kyle Rittenhouse who shot and killled 2 unarmed demonstrators during a "woke" protest march. He was armed with an assault rifle but "feared for his life" when they challenged his presence. He was found not guilty by a jury of his white peers. This Texas situation is a tragedy on so many levels. A hard lesson for black kids to learn in America, "the land of the free white man and the home of the brave black nigga".

Yes, it is entertainment! That is what I was missing in terms of understanding why people listen to this stuff. Whether you are listening to beefs on social media or watching the Knicks whip San Antonio -- it is all entertainment. I think Trump understands this better than anyone. People eat up all his crazy comments -- even if they are outraged, even if it has a negative impact their mental health. Trump knows his brand of entertainment will get coverage and optimally feeds social media algorithms. All he has to do is call a reporter "stupid" and the entire country hears it -- even people like me who eschews his words. He has parlayed this into Billions and the Whitehouse. I can't blame him, Trump is an prefect reflection of America's, social media optimized, values and incentives. I heard on just now that the average person social media more than hours a day often "doom scrolling" making themselves crazy. I recommend people delete all social media from their cell phones. If Facebook did not exist, Trump would not have been elected, in my opinion.

I usually don't share "Reported Content," which are email people send me complaining about content on the site from lurkers. I usually just ignore this stuff, but this one caught my eye so I decided to share it :-) "This post is clearly full of racism and calling for hate towards a specific color of people are absolutely insane. That post is contradicting themselves. Let’s keep spreading hate amongst color."

Hard to argue against when resources are either stolen from a country or withheld from the people. It might be helpful to study the history behind most wealthy people. Wealth isn't built putting the proverbial shoulder to a plow. Excuses are definitely not a constructive way of coming up & building wealth. Right. They deserve to be taken out. This guy would vehemently disagree with your belief: The basic needs of human survival remain unchanged since we showed up on the planet. We have developed tools & technology to make life easier but the requirements are still food, shelter & clothing. How was the wealth they inherited built? Most poor people were born into it. Only a few people sink down to poverty & stay there. Richard Pryor was a brilliant comedian.😎 All roads lead back to the money. Entertainment generates a lof it.😎

There were witnesses to corroborate his version of what happened. Too late. A plea bargain would have been offered before trial. Believing in self-defense & stand your ground law is probably why the Anthony family didn't cop a plea. For whatever reason, the family didn't think about the fact that they live in Texas. The sentence is 35 years. Surely, they will appeal the conviction. Otherwise, Karmelo Anthony will be locked up until he's at least 40 years old.😎

I did! I can’t tell you how many hours I spent shooting craps or playing CeeLow in the stairwells of my building or how many bottles of MD 2020 and night train we drank. Once I started high school I began to cut back on that kind of stuff and spent a lot less time hanging out with the boys from my neighborhood. It was a good thing too… No, she was just a racist piece of shit. It took a lot of control for me not to do something I would later regret. @aka Contrarian I watched the first two games at sports bars and had a good time hanging out with friends and family. During the third game, I was exhausted from hanging out late and drinking the entire weekend before and didn’t even watch game three. I spent the time pulling together the BLK Bestsellers List (an activity. I’m sure I found more interesting than watching the game). While I am rooting for the Knicks I honestly don’t care that much. While I was an athlete and enjoyed playing sports, I’ve never really been a sports fanatic— it is just not in my DNA. It is probably why I’m not into pop culture very much. Speaking of bestsellers lists and pop culture. There was a book that just missed making the adult hardcover non-Fiction category, Live Your Promise: Escape Your Wilderness, Heal Your Pain, So You Can Manifest the Life You Want by Cheyenne Bryant https://aalbc.com/books/9781401998820 I had not heard of the author or book before, but when researching the title, I discovered The Author was the center of a lot of controversy shit, this guy named Toure (who I’ve met) got into a viral argument with her and there are a countless number of videos going in on her being a grifter lying about having a PhD and all sorts of things it was unbelievable the variety and number of people that were creating videos, just talking trash about her. Even the breakfast club had her on their program. While scrolling through that content. I also learned there was a fire storm brewing over Kevin Hart’s roast. Apparently they made a lot of inappropriate joke disrespecting George Floyd, and Cheryl Underwood‘s dead husband; while at the same time cutting jokes at the expense of white people like Melania Trump. Here too there was a tremendous amount of content with everyone and their mother weighing in on the controversy. Kevin Hart was also on the breakfast club defending the roast. It seems like the breakfast clubs business model is interviewing people at the center of controversy. All of this to my mind is contrived, unnecessary, and a colossal waste of time. It’s like a bunch of old maids, getting together and gossiping and talking shit about people and most of the people talking are grown men. I don’t get it. I mean, I do get it. It’s the way a lot of people make money and gain celebrity. This is one of the ways in which I think we were better off 50 years ago when men were incentivize to do things that were more constructive then talking shit about a comedy roast or a Cheyenne Bryant. While we’re on the subject of pop culture, I’m tired of reading about Scott Pelli and the other CBS correspondence who got the boot. They’re getting a bit too, sanctimonious for my taste. These guys have great high, paying high profile jobs, traveled the world met, smart, rich, famous, influential people and did so for decades—boo hoo! They act like losing their jobs is the end of civilization. Trust me, civilization will survive the loss of 60 Minutes.

Frankly, I don't think Karmelo had a good case. He was where he had no business being, and he aimed to kill, rather than maime. Did he have any witnesses to back up his version?. Can he take a plea bargain?

That is a good question @Delano . My initial reaction is all of my experiences (growing up in Harlem during the 60s and 70s) and genetics (being a black man in America) have shaped my values.

Study all groups of people & you'll find similar levels of intelligence among human beings. Intelligent OGs are respected. Absolutely. I knew him well before he became an activist. Always been a conscience young brother. He speaks truth.😎

Every family has a dysfunctional member or a few of them. 🤣😎

The fix was in from the beginning. The quick verdict was a sign of their arrogance in telegraphing the outcome. I believe the defense was working for the other side too. Don't know why the family thought it was a good idea to hire a white legal team.😎

@Troy Hey! Are you excited about the Knicks? Or is all of the hulaboo too connected with - pop culture!😉

@Pioneer1 Blah, blah, blah. You could never be accused of being an original thinker. You 've offered no new explanations for the behavior of young black offenders. You just parroted what others have been saying as the same criminal behavior persists among a certain element of black youth, - getting your panties in a bunch, and trotting out a lot specious arguments because I quipped about equal opportunity when it comes to committing crime. Rant on! If you hate it, I love it. 🥱😴

ProfD Dr. Ben Carson is smarter than a whole lot of white folks. There's a whole lotta Black folks who will run rings around white folks intellectually. Dr. Carson is one man. A "whole lot" doesn't mean the majority. Yao Ming was a tall athletically gifted basketball player....does that mean Chinese in general are? I knew you were going to mention gang members & African killing sprees. You should have, because it's so obvious...lol. How many of those people kill non-Black people? Good question. Shows you how silly and foolish they are.....killing up their own like that. How many of them start world wars killing millions of people? None. Most of them don't have enough sense to come up with the technology TO fight wars on a global level. Too busy killing off a lot of their smart ones...who don't flee and run to the West for safety. How many of them have gone on killing sprees to overthrow the system of racism white supremacy? Few. Again, a testimony to how silly so many of them are. Don't want to fight their REAL enemy...just eachother. Military members are paid by white people to kill or be killed in the spread of racism white supremacy. Correct. The racists pay them to kill their own. The question is, how much money could one of THEM pay the racists to kill other racists? How many Africans can bribe or manipulate Europeans to ride around on bikes killing eachother and destroying their countries? Take a guess where I was born & raised. I'm good money there. You're thinking about your childhood back in the Shalimar and Run DMC days...lol. Them little niggaz running around with dreadlocks and purple lips smelling like shunk in "Soufees" today don't know who you is! All them old school rules done got thrown out of the window. De'marcus and 'em ain't trying to hear all of that shit about you coming from the same place he is....lol. Speaking of Soufees D.C.....have you met of an activist out there called the Irritated Genie? If so, what do you think of his movement?

ProfD If you see a dude with Rasputia... Oh no NOT NORBIT....lol. It's so funny to me because I have a cousin like that. Like that old school song, she can't wait to get in public infront of people and clown on him. Even at family reunions and get-togethers she clowns on him. And it's HIS family! Training to be a fighter doesn't require any more intelligence than being a weightlifter. Just matter of discipline & getting in the gym & repetitions. You said it doesn't require any MORE intelligence, but it does require a DEGREE OF intelligence. A stupid person is unlikely to learn those techniques or appreciate the pay-offs of the hard work, discipline, and practice. Those fake weed smoking, gun-toting wannabe n8gglets could be your distant cousins too. Distant? Some of them are my FIRST cousins! Just the other day one of them got into a fight with his brother-n-law because he came over to his house for a visit and he caught the clown in his garage using his tools trying to hack off his leg tether...lol.

ProfD Sure. A person can definitely make decisions that lead to being poor under the systems that control resources. Poverty is a condition of human design. Some may argue that poverty is actually a social construct. Especially given the fact that many people don't even know they're poor UNTIL they compare themselves with others more well off. The anger comes from knowing wealthy people aren't necessarily smarter &/or harder working. Inherited wealth is a great example. In other words, some of that anger is actually DELUSIONAL and unfounded? Because the fact is many wealthy people ARE smarter and harder working than many poor people. Not everyone inherited their wealth, some are self-made. But a poor person full of excuses will push that narrative to avoid taking responsibility for their lack of smarts or poor work ethic. The West exploits other countries. True Many of the leaders of those countries seem to WELCOME that exploitation. They would argue their culture isn't failed. It's just different from ours. I would argue both. Not only are most cultures in Third world poverty stricken nations DIFFERENT than ours but they are also INFERIOR to ours from a financial point of view. I would also suggest that the West COULD be considered more SOCIALLY and MORALLY advanced than a lot of these nations because sexism and slavery was the cultural norm but eventually banned and outlawed in the West....but still exists in full force in many of these other nations. Those cultures have been living the same way for thousands of years. Facts And evidence of this is there lack of advancement for thousands of years. Many of them...like the Afghans...are still living in the stone age. Meanwhile the West has been constantly progressing not only financially but technicologically for hundreds of years and especially since the Industrial revolution. How did the heirs amass that fortune? They inherited it. Usually from family members who thought enough of them to actually leave them something besides a car note, lol. ....or a long lost brother they never knew existed until the funeral, lol. Nope. She self-medicates to temporarily escape the reality of being poor. Or she came from a middle class or working class family, fell in love with the wrong boyfriend and started smoking crack with HIM. Plenty of cases like that too. Many poor people didn't come from poverty, they came from wealth and fucked their lives up with terrible decision making and rebellious attitudes. One of my favorite Richard Pryor punchlines. My man got so many of them.....lol. In that one performance alone! Troy I fell prey to peer pressure wanting to run the streets chasing women, gambling, and drinking. It's hard for me to imagine you shooting dice and drinking cheap wine....lol. No wonder you flipped on the old White woman at the dollar store and cussed her out over some wine! 🤣 What was your favorite: Ripple or Thunderbird?

Sure it does. Every effect has a cause. Just because your EXPLANATION of it doesn't make sense, doesn't mean the behavior itself doesn't make sense or can't be understood. I contend that their behavior isn't "senseless". It's an obvious product of a number of ingredients in various combinations. Among them poor parenting, mental illness, drug use, etc......

We saw this coming in that trial. Especially given the jury demographic. This was rather quick though.

Well, it only took the jury less than 2 hours of deliberation to issue a guity verdict. Karmelo Anthony is now facing 5-99 years in prison on a murder conviction. The sentencing phase lies in the hands of the judge. To be continued....😎

Wyatt Outlaw was a Black American hero that history has tried to forget. I’m trying to get my new novel, The Short Happy Life of Wyatt Outlaw, listed on AALBC but so far haven’t figured out how. It’s available on am*zon, B&N, Ingrams, and other sources. Little is known about Wyatt Outlaw’s life, but his tragic death is well documented. My novel imagines Wyatt Outlaw as a son, husband, and father. The novel is framed with the murderous events that occur in Graham, North Carolina, on February 26, 1870. The atmosphere is thick with political tension and impending violence. Wyatt Outlaw, a Black town commissioner, master carpenter, and Union veteran, is marked for death by the White Brotherhood and KKK. Born the unacknowledged son of a white planter and an enslaved mother, Wyatt is sold to protect his father's fragile public image. After years of working as a slave on a tobacco farm and then being brutally beaten by a patroller or “pattyroller,” Wyatt's world improves when he meets Rachel. Because marriage is forbidden for slaves, their romance culminates in a secret jumping-the-broom ceremony. They begin a family, but when a violent clash with a pattyroller—to defend Rachel—forces Wyatt to make an impossible choice to flee North, he joins the United States Colored Cavalry to fight against the system that enslaved him. Following the Civil War, Wyatt returns to Graham a free man and a proud combat veteran. With the help of his strong mother, who takes care of his three sons, Wyatt attempts to create harmony out of the ashes of the Civil War. He builds a successful woodworking business. He is appointed town commissioner and becomes a leader in the Union League, working to forge a political alliance between newly enfranchised Black voters and poor white farmers. But this coalition is a threat to the old Southern aristocracy, and the planter class unleashes the White Brotherhood and KKK to crush Wyatt’s organizing efforts through terror, triggering a ticking-clock countdown leading to the Kirk-Holden War. The narrative is followed by a Book Club Discussion Guide that offers readers and book club groups a profound look at what it costs to build a family and community when the world wants to forget you.

@Del at the risk of being repetitive, the community where I spent my formative years is what shaped my identity and influenced my approach to life. The suburb of Chicago where I was born and raised during the Depression was unique in many ways. It was racially integrated to the extent that Whites, many of whom were Jewish, could and did live anywhere they chose, but because of restrictive convenance regulations, Blacks could only live in a certain area, - not by the railroad tracks surprisingly, but in the middle of town; a little black "island" surrounded by a Caucasian "sea", where the interracial population co-existed and where it was not unusual for Blacks to have white neighbors who didn't flee their homestead when Blacks began moving in. This quaint little village had, overa period of time, become the final destination of Negroes leaving the South seeking a better life via The Great Migration. Although ny father was from Missouri and my mother from Tennessee, most of the slave descendants in my hometown had roots in Mississippi, Alabama. and Georgia. Because Colored and Whites observed an unwritten rule of staying in their own lanes, at that time there was very little racial strife in my town. I always suspected that this was because we Blacks were comfortable and content in our own community which could be described as a carbon copy of its white counterpart, and we were secretly amused by the idea that, in our own special way, we could match the white initiatives when it came to any civic or social undertakings. And we did. No separate but equal scenarios when it came to education, however. Whites and Blacks all attended the same high school, which back then had the reputation of being one of the best in the state. Therefore, an excellent education was ours for the taking and what I learned during my 4 years there, benefitted me throughout the rest of my life. Amongst ourselves,we black residents of this town, also had our own codes and customs. Colorism, for instance, was incidental, superceded by achievement and accomplishment. Those 2 assets were what took priority and gave status, and they always remained at the core of my value system. Nor were we deluded about the plague of the racism that sent our elders fleeing from the South. But we had the luxury of humoring our antagonists. We snickered at their notions of racial superiority and this somehow neutralized them, an approach that I use to this day, arguing on Face Book with MAGAs. Incidently the "we" I refer to, consisted mostly of the circle of people I grew up with during the 1950s, an era often described as being "bland", something that may account for the compromises that defined our lives back then. These folk are all dead now but they remained my friends throughout the years, as we always kept up with each other, always finding things to laugh about, always reminding ourselves of the carefree days of our youth, forever marveling at how we somehow managed to circumvent discrimination, always removed from turmoil which is why I do not claim that my upbringing was typical or ideal . It was, what it was.... I cite all these examples of how growing up where I did, influenced how I later maneuvered through a world where I gradually realized that Life is a crap shoot. Sometimes you get lucky. I am truly a child of the 1950s era. I was very much influenced by the music of those times; both the modern jazz and the luscious melodic ballads and the poetry that was their lyrics. I loved the wry intellectual humor of the comedic satirists popular back then and the film noir movies that always had an ironic twist. The fads and trends that followed temporarily captivated me, but they never replaced my affinity for those idyllic times that first enchanted me. zzzzzzzzzzz

Senseless behavior doesn't have to make sense.

I would’ve been better served if I was in fact more like Preach when I was a boy I loved to read and learn, but no, I fell prey to peer pressure wanting to run the streets chasing women, gambling, and drinking. I did ultimately pursue athletics and academics — trying to be “balanced.” I did sport classes like preach so if you saw me, you probably thought nerd:-) until I was about 19 when I started wearing contacts.

If you see a dude with Rasputia... It shows men stay for similar reasons.🤣 Training to be a fighter doesn't require any more intelligence than being a weightlifter. Just matter of discipline & getting in the gym & repetitions. People of average intelligence accomplish a lot. In fact, their hard work enables others to become millionaires & billionaires. Those fake weed smoking, gun-toting wannabe n8gglets could be your distant cousins too.🤣 Nat Turner is a hero. Agreed. Neither group should let the most ignorant represent &/or be its spokesperson. The intelligent among the groups should set the record straight instead of hiding as if they are in the witness protection program. I feel the same way about silent white folks who don't call out their racist brethren & the system of racism white supremacy.😎

Gotcha. I'm just going by the fact it hasn't happened in a couple thousand years & counting. 😁 Dr. Ben Carson is smarter than a whole lot of white folks. There's a whole lotta Black folks who will run rings around white folks intellectually. I knew you were going to mention gang members & African killing sprees. How many of those people kill non-Black people? How many of them start world wars killing millions of people? How many of them have gone on killing sprees to overthrow the system of racism white supremacy? Military members are paid by white people to kill or be killed in the spread of racism white supremacy. It is impossible to control an environment without owmership. Asking for resources versus stealing is a better decision to make. Again, debts have to be paid. Debtors have to be willing to pay up however the lender wants their money back. That's why they say be neither a lender nor a borrower. Haiti doesn't control the money it generates. That debt to France goes into perpetuity. Take a guess where I was born & raised. I'm good money there.😎