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OMG! Tell me it ain't so Cynique! It would not be the same without you. Seriously. I remember those days when I first came to the forum. I came kinda late but it was so much fun back then. There was a very dynamic nature with the original board. I recall the epic battles you had with Kola. Oh yeah! And there were so many colorful characters, alliances, rivals and pyrotechnic debates and challenges. Damn! What happened to those days? When bro Troy converted the forum format -it was like someone pulled the plug! Done deal! Many of our dynamic and ridiculous comrades never embraced or adapted to the transition. I used to go back and review the archives Troy had established for nostalgia and recreation. TROY -WHY DID YOU ERASE IT?? Dang! It's all lost forever. And now one of the most prolific contributors and consistent writers is bailing out??? OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sara (everyone) click the link and check out the actual lists. The lists were created by Dr.'s Ben-Jochannan, Clarke & Van Sertima; I simply compiled and shared them. The Destruction of Black Civilization by Dr. Chancellor Williams is included on Dr. Ben-Jochannan's recommended reading list.

@Pioneer1, your reasoning is predicated on some questionable assumptions, one of which being a family structure based upon genetic makeup as a differentiating factor between Black and white people. Given the fact that there is no such thing as race the whole premise is flawed. Even if we were to buy into the assumptions (which I don't) the conclusion don't follow. For example; "Some men have very high sex drives but because they are limited to only one wife they begin to cheat with other women married and unmarried producing "outside" children in dysfunctional families" This assumes that men are like animals and unable to exert any influence over their own behavior. It also assume that the only way to relieve this urge is to impregnate another woman and that that woman brings the child to term. What happened to masturbation, prostitution, or just using a damn condom? The results you describe, simply don't natural flow as you've described. Does this mean that the situation you've described don't happen? No, of course not for these situations clearly do happen, it is the causes, as outlined that, I disagree with. Though I'm probably with you on the religious dogma part for that has wrecked havoc over the last 2,000 years. @Xeon, I watched a lecture, just the other day, given by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, in which a Black woman asked him a question about the African origins of mathematics. Neil responded by saying that he was not aware of that, and more on to the next question. I was taken aback by his reaction, because he dismissed it without even considering it. I know Tyson's biggest hero is Issac Newton, someone he argues is perhaps the most brilliant person to ever live, inventing calculus to use as a tool to predict the motion of planets among other things. I say this because I thought it was common knowledge that much of what europe knows, about mathematics, religion, science, was built upon information obtained from Africa. Galileo was persecuted for relating information about the how are solar system was oriented--information that was known and recorded hundreds of years before by Africans. Europeans believe the earth was flat when Africans had already circumnavigated the world. But the specific of Calculus I do not recall reading about. Tyson should have asked her the motivation behind her question. But Tyson would never be confused with being an afro-centrist, so I'm sure he did not care. I would encourage you to read some of the titles on the Ben-Jochannan, Clarke & Van Sertima’s Reading Lists which help you understand why Africa has degenerated to the state you see it today.

"He doesn't say anything revolutionary and that's because he isn't able to do anything revolutionary." Man that is it in a nutshell! I hate to say it, but you don't get very far in mainstream corporate America, as a Black man, doing anything revolutionary. White people have the luxury of being revolutionary. OK Cynique, you mean token in the traditional sense. I know the term very well--i lived it. It is the experience of being the only one, or one of a few, in the room, who were hired simply because we had to be hired, sure we were qualified, but we were also there to fill a quota. Of course this quota stuff led to all the handwringing about qualified white people who were not hired to make room for supposedly under qualified Black people. As far as I know the days of quotas are over, so white institutions (schools, corporations, etc), like to tout their diversity, to come across as not racist. But "diversity" has not served American born Black people very well. "Diversity" has served white women far better than Black people. Consider the photo of the HuffPost editorial board, that room could be considered very diverse, you have a range of ages, probably a couple of lesbians, people from Asia, maybe transgender people, who knows what else... HuffPost, I'm sure is celebrating their "diversity," because on paper they are. Because Coates has been embraced by so many different white, and Black institutions, I would not consider him a token. But I'm sure Coates was embraced by a few of these institutions as a token. He is the default Black guy white institutions to reach out to when they need a Black person. Chris, a few weeks ago, I was walking down St. Nicholas ave, on my way from Staples to the supermarket, when I walked past a church and saw a flyer for a lecture (that started 30 minutes earlier); the speaker was M.K. Asante. There were maybe 10 people in the audience. It just reminded me again of how hard popular and successful people work to get to where they are. It also reminded me of how many talented people work even harder and are destined to remain relatively obscure, because they will never get the increasingly elusive white cosign. But many of these Black folks are not looking for, or feel they need, the white cosign these tend to be the most admirable Black people I know.

Hi! My name is Marcus Haynes, also known by my pen name of M. Haynes. I am a author, blogger, instructor and a bunch of other stuff here to talk about my debut novel, Legend of the Orange Scepter. Legend of the Orange Scepter is the story of four young Elementals, people blessed with the power to control the various elements, and their brilliant inventor friend trying to save their world from an evil android dictator. De, M, Rod, Mo, and Don have had to live under A.G.'s rule for three months, and after much training its finally time for them to take a stand and do what Elementals are called to do. My novel is a fantasy novel perfect for a YA audience and features a number of characters dealing with their own issues all the while learning how to save their world. I encourage you to check out my book for sale on Amazon and Kindle and my website where I discuss the book and its characters in greater detail! Great summer read!

Actually, I believe that the introduction and acceptance of non-African scientific theory and religious dogma contributed to the degeneration of sub-Saharan African culture. Can I prove it? No. Who CAN prove ancient history But just as one particular CULTURE of bacteria can change SWEET CREAM into SOUR CREAM or spoil it all together....I believe practicing a foreign CULTURE can take an advanced African people and turn them into self-destructive scientifically backward barbarians. For example if the Dogon people of Mali had a science that promoted astronomy, particular herbs for healing, and had ways of communicating with the spiritual realm that effectively solved their problems.... but adopted a Christian or Islamic culture that told them all of these things were either wrong and/or of the "devil" and then began practicing ritualized prayer and quotations from "holy scripture" to solve their problems. - that would collapse their society very quickly. Infact, just adopting a FAMILY STRUCTURE that is foreign to your people and goes against their very genetic make-up can prove disasterous. For centuries most African family structures were based on a type of polygamy that allowed men to have as many wives as they could AFFORD. But marriage wasn't required, nor was their a limit on the number of wives a man could have. The higher his status, the more wives he had....and he could take care of them and his children because his high status allowed him to afford it. Men who couldn't afford wives had to pay local/village prostitutes for sex. Now replace that with an religion that: a ) REQUIRED a man to get married whether he could afford to or not and b ) Limited him to only one (or in the case of Muslims 4) wife. Now this causes turmoil and social instability in a number of ways: 1.Some men have very high sex drives but because they are limited to only one wife they begin to cheat with other women married and unmarried producing "outside" children in dysfunctional families. 2. Children who grow up as "outside" or "illegitimate" feel unwanted and are often ostracized by the community. 3.Some men have plenty of money and married but are actively PURSUED by other women in the community who are single and need a man to provide for them which produces conflict between his wife and the other women. 4. Men who don't want to get married or aren't financially able to take care of a wife are forced to anyway by religious obligation and when they can no longer support their wives and children they often abandon them make more dysfunctional families. Now imagine the impact on society that will come from so many "illegitimate" children growing up in dysfunctional families! -Increased aggression from the anger of being thought of as "unwanted" growing up -Not being able to hold certain positions in government because of one's family status -Continuing the cycle of out of wedlock births Can you now see how just this one factor of adopting a foreign practice can lead to chaos and the eventual collapse of your society and send you into a state of backwardness? And the family structure is just ONE aspect of a culture, imagine what the outcome would be when the ENTIRE culture (diet, language, morality, ect....) is replaced by a foreign one as has been the case through out much of Africa.

Would you say that Coates is a token? There's seems to be a tradition of a black writer who is singled out to become the darling of the white literati. He's reminiscent of James Baldwin.

Oscar Brown is a "favorite son" of Chicago. He was in the vanguard of black theater here..