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What I didn't hear (actually "read"..lol) anyone mention is the ECONOMIC difference between the 50s and today and how blue-collar working class jobs paid far more when you adjust to the cost of living than they do today. And that's if a Black person can even GET a blue collar job outside of going though a temp-agency. Yes you got married in your early 20s, had children, and raised them. But you could raise them and maintain a home because chances are that Black husband had a job (usually with benefits) that paid well enough that he could support himself AND his wife (whether she worked or not) and his children. I can be corrected...... But it's my understanding that most Black men were able to earn enough money to provide atleast BASIC NECESSITIES for their families. Now if the family wanted to get more of the "finer" things in life like new cars, bigger houses, televisions, ect....miss lady might fry up that hair practice up on her grammar and look for a part time job to bring in some extra money, but it's not my understanding that most Black wives who went to work in the 50s did so just to keep the lights on in the home. Ofcourse much of it was cultural. However Black people were able to live close to how White people lived in those days. Now I it seems that MONEY more so than morals is the biggest determining factor as to whether or not one is able to maintain a traditional nuclear family. Now I'm not naive into thinking the problems didn't exist in the Black family at that time. A book I'm reading now about the relationship between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X talks about how Muhammad Ali's father would get drunk and physically abuse him and his mother. But atleast the economic situation was better off for MOST (not a gifted educated few) Blacks in those days than they are for most today. There was a plentiful supply of good paying low skilled factory and other blue collar jobs for most Black men who lived in the city as well as plenty of farm land and agricultural jobs for Black men who still dwelt in the rural south. I believe the DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION of the United States is the single biggest factor that has contributed to the dissolution of the Black family today as compared to the 50s.

Fun to be reminded of what life was like in the 50s since today, June 9th, would've been my 60th wedding anniversary. Rest in Peace, Babe. We had it all.

Well, Troy, you asked me whether it was easier to raise kids 60 years ago than it is now, and - you know what happens when you pose a question to me… Back then, kids were kids. Having a baby was just a routine part of life. You got married in your early twenties and in a couple of years started a family. Children were kept in perspective. You had em, you raised em and tried to teach em right from wrong. You often made sacrifices for them. If they were ambitious enough to want to go to college, you got a second job and sent them off to an institution of higher learning. You might have even exhausted your bank account to give your daughter a big wedding. Then, you cut them loose, dutifully assuring them that you’d always be there for them, hoping they didn’t take you up on the offer. There may have been a lot of stay-at-home moms among white folks back in the 1950s, but once black moms got their kids in school they usually went out and found jobs in order to make ends meet or provide the little extras or to accumulate the savings necessary to buy a home. Under the watchful eyes of extended families, kids were expected to do their part by looking out for themselves as much as possible, and time spent with their parents was more about quality rather than quantity. Unless you had mental or emotional issues, you patiently played your role as an authority figure and your sullen children went along with your program until they were old enough to get out of the house and do their own thing, which may or may not have entailed becoming a black militant or a radical hippie. As time passed, however, and prosperity boomed, and attitudes changed, there became an increasing tendency for folks to spoil their offspring, providing them with all of the things they had had to do without. And that’s how the trouble began. This sentiment gradually escalated to the point of children taking center stage as their doting parents over-indulged them, giving them an inflated sense of self-esteem, insulating them from the real world while America became a culture of child-worshippers. Women fell in love with their children, making them the center of their lives, many even neglecting their mates in the process. Before long, as we know, babies became trophies and accessories! Having one was on every woman’s to-do list, - with or without a husband. Pregnancies reached fad proportions, - the naming of a child a project, the more unusual the choice the better. Leading the charge were celebrities showing off their baby bumps, giving boring details of breast feeding to talk show hosts. Black folks, especially those in the ghetto, were just as caught up in this as everybody else, the term “baby daddy” fast becoming co-opted by the mainstream. And of course there was The Internet - the enabler of every bizarre facet reflected by today’s society. Was it easier to raise a child in the 1950s than it is now? I think so. Why? the family dynamic has changed, and the pace of life quickened. Thanks to parents who got their priorities mixed, today’s children are the embodiment of an arrogant sense of entitlement. They merely tolerate adults and care little for what can be learned from the past. They are bored by current events and their attention span runs no longer than the time it takes for the next rapper’s album to drop, or the newest video game to go on sale Their heroes are millionaire sports jocks, their idols flash-in-the-pans musicians. The books they read are mostly limited to street-lit or vampire tales. Of course these are generalizations and there are parents who are trying to provide their children with a good set of values but it’s hard for them to compete with FaceBook. Peer pressure reigns supreme and drugs are rampant. Raising a child in this environment is a monumental challenge. Back in the day kids were not bombarded with media hype and had to rely more on their imaginations, something which stimulated their brains in a positive way, making them more curious about the world they lived in; always a good thing. Now, the idea of a good thing to today’s parents is to keep their daughters “off the pole” and their sons “off the pipe”.

In general, during the 50s black blue collar people and white blue collar ones were never on a par. Everything that was skimpy about white people, was worse among blacks. Middleclass blacks were not as well off as middle class whites. Black children did not have the same privileges that their white counterparts did. Jobs were available but promotions weren't so easy to come by because of racism in the work place. Benefits on the job were not always free and houses were not that easy to get mortgages for. The 50s were, after all, the era when the civil rights movement was fomenting. Back then, what got black folks over was indeed their culture. They did their own thing within the confines of their communities and managed to find a way to survive and even enjoy themselves.

I understand @Mallah-Divine, increasingly many authors starting out don't have a web site, instead opting to go with Amazon and social media as their main web presence. Ultimately however, you'll need to establish your own web presence. This will make it easier for you to communicate and control the engagement with your audience. Simple things like building a mailing list is much easier from your own. And of course your website is not limited to people who have accounts on Facebook. If you are interested, I can help you get started. Would you be willing to share a sample chapter from your book here? The main reason I ask is that it is will give potential readers and book reviewers a sample of your writing style. This is really important because you are not a known author and this is your debut novel (as far as I can tell). Also, and please take this as a critique intended to help, your bio on Amazon while filled with superlatives, communicates nothing substantive to demonstrate a skill in writing (i.e. awards, education, workshops, etc). This is another reason why an excerpt from your book is important in your case. I also suggest your register a domain name; both mallahdivine.com and mullah-divine.com are both available. Once you register a domain name, you can easily setup a website, or I can show you how to associate it to pages on AALBC.com.

I saw the video. All that talk about the history of credit and currency, it looked like a clip from "Loose Change". I was waiting for him to talk about the World Trade Center and building 7....lol. There is some truth to the claim that giants like Facebook are sucking up too oxygen because so many Black people have abandoned their own private business and social websites just to sign up with Facebook...it's shameful. But I don't think it's the internet that's creating the BIGGEST problems for small businesses. The biggest problem is the OVER REGULATION that comes from the federal, state, and local levels. And this is coming from a LIBERAL...lol. Most people are turning to Amazon, eBay, and even Craigslist to push their products because it's easier and cheaper to trade on-line than to open up a 4 walled brick and mortar establishment. Not only can they avoid the constant property inspections from local and state authorities, or avoid paperwork that can be damn near as thick as a phone book, but you cut down on the amount of employees who thanks to more government (all 3 levels) regulation often become harder and harder to keep anyway. I remember being in Time Square a few years back and saw so many talented brothers...Black men who could take a piece of crayon or charcoal and draw your picture in 3 or 4 minutes on a sheet of cardboard and were only getting $5 or $10 and had to do it quick and run off before the police caught up with them because apparently it was illegal. It made me so angry that in a nation that prides itself on economic freedom, something as simple and benign as drawing a picture for a few bucks on the street has now become illegal. Take away the excessive dictatorial regulation that tends to frighten people away and over burden those brave enough to take on the challenge of entrepreneurship....and I gurantee you that businesses will flourish.

Be my guest, Troy, if you want to "re-publish" my rant. I love the responses my essays elicit from you. It's like I pass the baton to you, and you run the next leg of a relay that tracks the course of the black race.

This is classic Cynique y'all! Cynique with your permission I'd like to republish -- this is great. "...hoping they didn’t take you up on the offer." HA, HA HA! "The Internet - the enabler of every bizarre facet reflected by today’s society." - Deep! I OFTEN think about the things I do for my children that they are unaware of and/or take for granted -- things that my parents would not have dreamed of doing for me. I'm sure the kiddies benefited in some respects but I think they may have placed at a disadvantage in others. My kids have been to more places, acquired more processions and experiences by 16 than I did by 30 -- no exaggeration! Net-net this is a good thing. I'm fortunate I had the resources to provide this for them. However part of me wonders how they will react when times are hard. Well they reflect on the good times, continue to work hard, confident things will improve; or will they fall apart unaccustomed to going without the luxuries to which they've become accustomed. "children taking center stage as their doting parents over-indulged them" this seems so true -- especially in upper middle class families. Some of my buddies have given up their entire weekends shuttling kids from “play dates” to baseball practice to piano lessons. They spend lavishly on sweet 16 parties, Christmas, vacations, camp, schools, cars, salons, clothing, etc. But even lower middle class parent do the same thing spending a ton of money on sneakers ("tennis shoes" for you southerners), jewelry and clothing. Speaking of sneakers I was a teenager when the real pressure to get the latest sneakers started. If you got the $100 Air Jordans you was the man! You could get by with Puma, Addias, Converse or maybe Pro-Keds -- anything less and you were the object of ridicule and scorn. There was no surer indicator of how poor you were if you stepped outside with rockin' some no-name brand sneakers ("skippies"). The mentality persists into adulthood and the cycle continues... ...and we are seemingly becoming a nation of spoiled brats unable to instill discipline into our children -- because we never had it.