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I can only hope to capture language and place it on the screen in the way Cynique does!!!!! Troy, complex issues are often very simple. I don't say this lightly. I say this with a lot of life experience in this very short time on Earth. We truly do love to make things a lot more complicated than they actually are. We do it every day. I do realize that there are factors which shape how things happen, but in general we can't control those factors. That doesn't mean it's complex, it just means there are factors we can't control. I don't know West, but I have seen him in action at conferences where he earned 50K to speak about racism. Every man has a right to earn, and I can't say what he does away from the camera, but in front of it he's just another person telling everyone what he feels is correct. The only thing we can agree on here is that the media controls who establishes Blackness in America. There are thousands of intellectuals around. We meet them everyday. They are our college professors, local small biz people and those who allow us to live our lives on a daily basis. Anyone who provides me with information that makes my life more compelling is an intellectual. There has never been a void. There has simply been a shifting figurehead for Blacks in America. Black folks are the inhabitants of the Matrix and the greater society supplies us with The One. We accept it and those of us who don't know how to look for information accept The One without questioning. That is the way it is and the way I think it will always be. I always return to the same spot in these conversations...Real solutions happen at the grassroots level and while West and Coates may describe what is happening and keep Whites happy they ultimately accomplish very little for the people who need it most.

You know, Troy, the longer I live, the less impressed I am with people who I am supposed to put on a pedestal and regard with awe, and I am even less fazed by the self-appointed critics who tell me I should put such people on a pedestal and hold them in awe.The words of Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Cornel West, TaNehisi Coates are supposed respire with brilliance and wisdom and expertise. Or are they just the dense verbiage of the anointed literati passing off their opinions as fact? Cornel West cares about the poor. Does he put his money where his mouth is?. What is the narrative in regard to the black experience, which is very diverse. Who are the "people"? Them or us? What is control and is it better than chaos? Do black lives matter? Or do they degenerate into anti-matter? Who knows? Words words words. Meaningless sounds and syllables which if repeatedly uttered, morph into gibberish. So, screw Morrison, Baldwin, West, and Coates, et al. Their garrulous angst and analyses don't solve problems. Problems solve themselves because life is a state of flux and nothing stays the same - except change. Tuesday, August 18th will be my 82nd birthday and, to me, America is a toilet, Americans are pissed off, and I don't give a shit. Can you say Existentialism???

I'm dying laughing at the number one book once I clicked through.

I finally get what you are saying here. I agree that all of this is a response to the overreaction to Morrison's statement. It is good banter though!