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It is no secret that Jewish gangsters built the entertainment industry in America. The history speaks for itself. The music business is one of the best examples of the greed and corruption that enabled white folks to make billions of dollars on the backs of talented Black people who just wanted to earning a living by playing music. The mention of Berry Gordy is a classic case of whataboutism. Gordy learned the tricks of the trade from somewhere or someone. He didn't create that business or write up contracts out of thin air. Back in those days, Jews had no problem with finding *smart* people worth *mentoring* in Black communities. A lack of knowledge of and/or failure to embrace and teach entrepreneurship and wealth-building has been an Achilles Heel for Black folks for a very long time. It would eliminate the horror stories of folks getting swindled out of their money.

Below is an interesting comment to an article on the site, "The Music Moguls Who Bled Millions from a Black Legend" by Reclamation Project. (Note: Someone from the Nation must have given me permission to run this article and I must have had an explicit reason to run it as I rarely republish entire articles that have been published elsewhere it is bad for SEO) What do you think about the article linked at the end of the commentor's post ("Motown’s abuse of its artists")? In an earlier version of the comment Minister Farrakhan was referred to as "Sinister Farra-Con." I deleted that version as the comments were the same save the gratuitous diss. J. Feldman's Cooments Follows: Total racist, anti-Semitic rubbish. Louis Farrakhan's claims are unsupported. The fact is that without the Chess family, you never would have heard of Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, and plenty of other Black artists. Yes, all artists--regardless of race, religion, nationality, or ethnicity--need their own proper legal representation and managers to look out for them. That's always been the case. Even the Beatles had to get involved in litigation to get their share of royalties due them. And that has nothing to do with whether or not the record companies, theater owners, etc. are White, Black, Jewish, Christian, or whatever. Now, as part of getting proper management representation, one of the biggest names in the business years ago was Joe Glaser, a Jewish manager of musical artists. Joe Glasser was a feared person in the business industry, as he fought fiercely on behalf of his clients. Associated Booking Corporation, or "ABC" as it is also known, was incorporated on June 26, 1943, and is still in existence today. Glass and his company have represented such performers as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Dave Brubeck, Barbra Streisand, B.B. King, The Allman Brothers Band, T. Rex, and The Platters, to name a few. Does Louis Farrakhan have anything to say about Joe Glasser, who has done far more to benefit Black people than Farrakhan ever did? Nope. And when Berry Gordy started his own record company and created the Motown empire, Gordy ripped off Black artists far worse than the Chess Brothers could ever do. But does Louis Farrakhan have anything to say about Berry Gordy? Of course not. This entire article is just racist, anti-Semitic BS. Here's just one article on Berry Gordy's ripoffs: https://english.elpais.com/...

Right. Because the snowflakes and sensitivity police would have you arrested for making that statement outside acceptable channels. Here's doubling down on insensitivity or mysogyny or whatever, I'm glad the infertile 77-year-old woman looks great. Makes that coochie the perfect playground if it's still potable and pokable. Calm down folks...these are just jokes.

Abraham Lincoln only had one year of formal education. It's hard to sing lyrics if one is unable to read them. Also, he's not a formally trained musician. Despite any real or perceived illiteracy, R. Kelly became a successful songwriter, composer, music producer and entertainer. By no means am I proclaiming these men to be illiterate. Just providing examples of people who beat the definition and/or stigma.

@ProfDIn what area is the man who wrote the Gettysburg address considered to be illiterate? What does RKelly being able to sing have to do with his not being able to read?

IMO, since the beginning of time, technology has never been the enemy. Humans have become a lot more efficient as a result of technology. As always, how we choose to utilize technology whether for good or bad will determine our outcome as a species. For a long time now, some religious people have proclaimed we are living in the last of evil days (Revelations). It would be hilarious if AI became advanced enough to be the proverbial nail in the coffin of humans. No mark of the beast and fire and brimstone. A super-computer or robots just turning out the lights and putting humans to sleep permanently.

No. Because illiteracy is more broad than the usually accepted definition. R. Kelly, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Faraday and POTUS Abraham Lincoln could be classified as illiterate according to the broader definition.

Yeah she looks good. If her mind is as sharp as yours there must be something in the water

that was the definition I was using. Does your response change? that is a surprising response, if someone were responsive for “humankind's greatest achievements and accomplishments” surely we would know there names if you shared them.

@Delano If AI becomes superior to humans the rights we bestow on it and the murder question are irrelevant. The power dynamic will have shifted. AI would potentially be as concerned about us as we are with chickens. AI would know us better than we know ourselves and train us to do their bidding the way we train animals. That is assuming AI found it necessary to keep us around and not exterminate us like vermin. @aka Contrarian I often wonder if life would be better without technology. It seems no one is able to make the evaluation given the bias of living in a given time. I’m old enough to remember days before technology was in use and I’m not convinced we were less happy. technology has brought us longer healthier lives, the ability to travel cheaply and widely, more food, access to information and entertainment, but I’m not convinced people are actually happier. I doubt white men are happier. Women are probably happier, but that may have more to do with freedoms enjoyed by civil rights. One could argue that the increased happiness Black people enjoy due to emancipation and civil rights has been wiped out by technology. net-net I believe I’m personally better off with tech, but as a society I’m not so sure. The quote from Kurt V, @Delano shared was a excellent example.

I wasn't implying that. If AI has the rights of a person then terminating it is akin to murder.

@Troy yes those are valid additions.

Illiterate usually connotes an inability to read and write. Another definition is having little or no formal knowledge in a particular field of study. I'lll refrain from name-dropping on a public forum. However, looking at history past thru present they're easy to find.

This implies that being human is the pinnacle. AI has the ability to become something far superior to a human.

You gotta add two more things @Delano; (1) provide free and low cost labor; and (2) serve as a scape goat to low and middle class white people. Woodson called it “miseducation.”

There is true by definition I was unaware of this. can you name a couple of examples from the last decade or two?

When anything really good is made, music, books, ideas, discoverability is the problem. The last time I looked cardi b and Meghan the stallion topped the rap charts. I doubt anyone serious about rap would consider their music the “best.” i used to tell an poster (from long ago), @CDBurns, that there isn’t any good rap music today, and he would say essentially the good stuff is under ground it is not the stuff you heard in the hot 97s and the power 99s. Cream does not rise to the top. the stuff with the most money behind it does. Currently, in the book world, Heaven and earth grocery store is outselling all other black novels by a wide margin—the next 5 books combined don’t come close. But I don’t know a single black person who has read the book that likes it.

Oh, OK. I kept going back trying to figure it which photo Chevdive was about. When Ms-77-looks-like-35 can make a baby I’ll be impressed. note if this was posted in the black excellence forum, I works have kept that comment to myself

That is an education. I was likely to go to schools where that wasn't always the case. Black's aren't supposed to thrive. Black have two functions. Entertainment and to be the economic incubator for immigrants. It's been that way since the birth of this nation.

I've been hearing about this dumbing down of America for more than a decade now. Yet, I see little kids under 5 years old navigating their way through smartphones and tablets. Illiterate people have been responsible for some of humankind's greatest achievements and accomplishments. Functionally illiterate people have been handling jobs the best and brightest folks are unwilling to do. There's a huge swath of gray in the middle. Not to worry as AI is coming along to put a whole lot of folks out of work. For hundreds of years now, America has had a net IQ of average.

i don't know whether or not the protests are staged. Tying back to another thread, I don't imagine the protestors have to work anywhere. I wonder if a file is being kept on the protestors to prevent future employment.

The same thing is happening with music as well. We'll find out soon enough whether or not cream still rises to the top.

In a few days it will be the 54th anniversary of the Kent State massacre. While I can't speak for the motivations of the individual protestors, considering the number of Black boys killed in the Vietnam "conflict," these protests disproportionately benefited us. @ProfD, I don't know if the protests are staged. That is a cynical, but understandable, perspective. @aka Contrarian, It could be that the information you've consumed regarding the protests are biased in such a way to lead to a "false ring" feeling. It could also be that these protests are unsustainable, when the semester ends the kids will go home. sort of the way the Black Lives Matter protests when home after the end of the pandemic... I don't think the protests are staged and I think the participants are, largely, sincere in their protests.

The reality is that I'm largely defenseless against a direct malicious attach

@Delano simply "educated" is sufficient. We have been filled with propaganda. We've been taught what to think, not how to think. This is getting worse. On this conversation I tend to agree more with @aka Contrarian part of this is my bias to intelligent elders. When I encounter such individuals. I generate reevaluate my positions, for experience is a great teacher. But back to @nels question: Since there were no specific predictions, it is not possible to provide an adequate answer. If Nels was talking about a race war, a collapse of the US government, sea level rise, the Rapture, I'd say yeah, we are prepared, simply because we have survived everything else hurled our way