Leaderboard

Sara Sounds like a plan to me. Just tell me when to stop! Only thing is.... When we're finished, you're going to have to give me a few minutes before I can start peeing again.

Peace and love to you Cynique Congradulations for gracing us another year with your presence! I'm no prophet or soothsayer but something is telling me that with the way things are going on this planet right now....within another 5 or 6 years there may be some events coming up that we'd all be eternally grateful to have lived long enough to witness.

Troy I'm not sure if you were joking a bit with your question, but perhaps they didn't feel the public would be familiar with Chicago's neighborhoods enough to know what or where Hyde Park was. Plus there's something to be said about the psychological effect of the wording of the title. You know the term "South Side" like "Harlem" or "Watts" evokes all types of images and perceptions of Blackness and Black culture. If you're just meeting me and I told you I came from Chicago's SOUTH SIDE you're going to assume certain things and look at me in a certain way that you wouldn't have if I told you I came from...say...Chicago's Roger's Park. Sara More to your point about Black people having been such great swimmers in the past. My father was from the deep South and used to tell me that almost all the Black boys growing up down south in the rural areas could swim. It wasn't until he came up North that he found so many Black folks who couldn't swim....lol. As you probably know, they've been systematically REMOVING swimming pools from many innercity schools (and removing the schools themselves in many cases) and no longer teaching Black children how to swim. Like they've been removing music, art, and other activities that contribute to a more well rounded education. All they're focusing on in many urban schools both public and charter are STATE TESTS....that's it. So while they're learning swimming, diving, lacrosse, fencing, and all sorts of other activities out in the suburban schools......the inner city schools don't even have swimming pools anymore. 　 Speaking of the success of our sistas at the olympics............. That Simone Biles is one fine little lady! Deceptively fine.....because I know she's probably as strong as a lion and could probably rip the average boy her age to pieces. A friend of mine gets at me telling me that I shouldn't talk like that about her because she's young enough to be my daughter. I tell her.....yeah....but she AIN'T. I'm trying to figure out what's up with her and her "crush" on Zac Ephron. All those muscular fit brothers running and doing gymnastics and she's jumping up and down over some cat named "Zac"??? Although it hasn't been talked about in the media, I'm almost sure that Biles' success as well as her looks and popularity is making Gabby feel some sort of "way". 　

When I was in my 20s I was convinced that there was NOTHING about the "old way" or older eras of America that should be brought back. I thought it was all slavery, lynching, and oppression. Older Black people used to tell me that things were better back in the 40s and 50s for Black people (atleast in Detroit) than in the 90s and I didn't believe them. I thought they were confused or something. But after having lived through atleast 2 generations and seeing the difference between society today and society 30 years ago, I can agree somewhat that overall a lot of things have deteriorated. Older Black people told me about all the businesses Black folks used to have and I wasn't around to see it in the 30s or 40s but I DO remember parts of the 70s and 80s where there were more Black businesses that were more successfully ran back then than there are today. I do believe we can walk a fine line between bringing back some of the good of the "good ole days" of America while leaving the worse behind. -More good paying blue collar jobs. -More intact Black communities where the poor and middle class lived next door. -Good music without the lyrics the promote violence and mayhem -Easier relationships between males and females and stronger families Just simpler times in general where people of average intelligence could navigate easily through society with no legal, financial, or social problems. I think society has gotten far too complicated. Troy How do we know that the Willie Lynch letter was a "lie"? We know slavery and the management of slaves weren't an isolated event, the slavers HAD to have conspired together to not only import slaves but maintain a system to keep them under control. I'm not saying that I know the letter is true, I have no proof one way or the other....but what proof is there that it was false?

I think we have to separate the discussion of perception from the discussion on the reinforcement of stereotypes. If this was purely a discussion on the reinforcement of stereotypes you wouldn't have this back and forth from me at all. I am in complete agreement and I have been for over 20 years. When I was in grad school my professor told me I had to cut myself off from the story and just let the story be. I told him, Black people can't do that. When I write I represent the majority by default. My statement, which I created and I've seen everywhere since I've said it, Black people do not have the privilege of anonymity. The group is the person and the person is the group. Is it fair? No and it shouldn't be this way, but it is. The person who is able to distance themselves from their art and create has more opportunities. When you realize the power of your creations and you write with that in your subconscious, unfortunately it can constrain you and limit your reach. We are in agreement on the reinforcement of stereotypes, but perception is what it is.

LOL @ the end of that other thread. Man...I LOVE women. Cynique I concur with your observations as best I can given my age and experience. Like most cities with large Black populations, Detroit had a strong Black Elite. But as society started pushing for more integration and wealthy Blacks started moving out to mingle with White folks (who often had less wealth and even less class), these societies and organizations became less relevant. My family wasn't very highly educated, we were more working class and lived in a working class neighborhood, but my father had a lot of friends in the Black clergy. Going over their homes was like visiting royalty. Seeing how their wives would handle silverware (real silver) with white gloves. Seeing paintings and sculptures decorating the house and China cabinets and funny rugs...lol. Children talking about how their parents "laid out" their clothes for school and then laid out another set for playing or going to "communion" because they were Catholic or Lutheran where as most of the children I grew up with were Baptist or Methodist. Negroes weren't born Catholic but converted just to be "different" from the other Black folk. Boys who had never been in a fist fight....lol. These kids were Black but I had less in common with them than some of the White kids I knew growing up. A common belief is that the Black elite were all mixed or very light skinned, but I saw quite a few dark skinned people in upper class Black neighborhoods; but they almost always have light skinned wives. Another thing that I found interesting as I got older was that although most of these men had light skinned wives, most had dark skinned mistresses....lol. Or there first wife was dark skinned but they ended up divorcing them and their second wife was very light. CD It's not my belief that Leslie is creating a NEW generation of loud and foul mouthed women any more than gangsta rap is creating a NEW generation of criminals. Ofcourse these things already existed in the Black community as it has in EVERY community since time immemorial. But movies like Precious, Menace 2 Society, obnoxious Black comedians, and gangsta rap are used to tap into that negative elements that already exists and PROMOTE it in the Black community and PROLONG it's negative effects in order to cause social instability. When you see Black men constantly engaging in criminal and shiftless behavior or Black women being obnoxious and shameful, t not only kills the respect others have for you... It kills the respect and regard our people have for themselves. . What woman wants a man she has been led to believe is a criminal? What man wants a loud mouth woman with a foul attitude for a wife? We no longer want to work and live around eachother and seek to get away from eachother and find comfort around those we deem more appealing. And this is how many Black communities fall apart. Those with ambition and a desire to improve themselves.....leave. Think of the culture of a people like the culture of bacteria in a glass of milk. That glass of milk contains dozens of types of bacteria....some good....some bad. ALL the bacteria may be present, but depending on which type of bacteria is PROMOTED....it can make the difference between that glass of milk being fresh and drinkable, spoiled, turn into cheese, or turn into yogurt. It's the same with any community. All communities have all types of people in them, but depending on which element you decide to promote you can turn that community into a stable environment where people handle their problems indoors....or a violent ghetto where everybody is out in the street cussing and fighting while a few of the good people are hiding inside waiting on the first opportunity to move out. The media seems to like promoting the negative "bacteria" in our community to create social instability and economic stagnation.