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@TroyI've forgotten Claude Brown and what an admirer I became of him after reading "Manchild in the Promised Land". This book was required reading for all of us budding activists back in the early 1960s and really had an impact. Especially for those of us who knew nothing about the lifestyle he described growing up on the drug-drenched, crime-infested streets of Harlem. The cigarette-smoking, the reference to black people as "negroes", and the government as "the power structure", the white interviewer's condescending attitude really dated the video. But Brown's message remains current and relative. My book review of "Man Child" won first place in a contest sponsored by the Sunday literary section of the Chicago Sun-Times. My prize was another best-seller back then, entitled "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask". I don't remember anything about the contents of that book. I do remember feeling sad upon hearing of Claude's death in 2002.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has arrested and charged former police officers who were responsible for the raid and firing shots that led to Breonna Taylor's death. It took almost 2. 5 years to bring these killers to justice but better later than never. I hope AG Merrick Garland brings a solid case against them. Breonna Taylor's family has already won a civil suit. Putting these murderers behind bars would bring justice full circle. 😎

I’m gonna give the white guy who shared this YouTube video the benefit of the doubt given the title of this video. I assume disparaging title was crafted to attract viewers. It popped up in my YouTube feed and I was amazed to learn it was a young Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land! I have never seen a video of Claude Brown. He grew up in Harlem and I could relate to his story. for a kid his 20’s I think he handled the interviewer well. He was right the about Moynihan report. The interviewer kept pressing about out of wedlock births, while completely ignoring the reasons for those conditions. Interestingly the rate in Harlem back then is the United States rate today. I wonder what Briwn would think of Harlem indeed this country today.

@Stefan, the US doesn't *need* China for anything. It's a relationship built on greed. There was a point in time that Made in the USA meant something. There is no shortage of labor, skill and talent stateside. American companies left factories high and dry. Plenty of well-paying blue collar jobs flushed down the drain. Greed is the only reason the US is sticking its proverbial hand in a lion's mouth that is now China. It's cheaper and more profitable to have goods made in China. Same goes for getting oil from the Middle East. A handful of wealthy white folks are using the US military as a security force. Don't get me started on Africans allowing foreigners to pillage the land and take natural resources.😎

You generally don't kill your biggest customers . It's Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD.

Hey Greg...we want Cynique back immediately. 🤣 I'm curious to know what the cautionary tale is and how her behavior was reckless. None of this happens under difference circumstances i.e. no dust up between Russia and Ukraine and the US providing support. Otherwise, sista Brittney has no issues traveling back and forth to Russia with her cannabis oil weighing less than a stick of gum and hooping to make extra bread in order to feed her family. Besides, it's not like she was smuggling nuclear material into their country and/or stealing secrets from them. In the grand scheme of things, the crime is totally ridiculous. The punishment based on man-made *laws* and in this case political pressure, is a complete miscarriage of justice. If I were to consider this a cautionary tale especially for athletes and entertainers...petition American employers to pay enough money for your talent that there is no incentive to leave the country in order to make money elsewhere. The WNBA should be paying its players enough money so that they don't have play overseas to make ends meet. That's the fight sista Griner should take up when she gets back home.😎

Trump stays in the new because he is news. He is still the de facto leader of the Republican party. No poitical pundits have written him off as a 2024 presidential candidate. Office seekers still seek his endorsement. The right wing lunatic fringe is alive and well, and they are who perpetuate his relevancy. His appearance at rallies still draw crowds also. He is a figure to be reckoned with and has yet to be dethroned. Hate him, but don't write him off.

Look, the the correlation between illegitimacy and poverty is not causal. This is what you (and Greg) failed to see. The conditions that cause poverty are the same ones that cause illegitimacy. Also just because a child is born out of wed lock does not mean there is no man -- even the father -- in the home. The movie Claudine illustrated this quite well.

No. I certainly understand your vitriol for the right wing as well. I'm saying (writing) that we keep the clown relevant by mentioning him. But, he's going to crash and burn soon enough. His followers are getting weary. It's probably a good idea to start sharpening that sword against that clown in training Ron DeSantis. 😎

Unfortunately, she did not beat the rap. Her guilty plea and apology makes her appear to be some damned big time drug dealer atoning for a huge seizure. But it's what Putin wanted. Will she be traded for that arms dealer? And whomever else the Kremlin wants freed? I hope so. I ain't gonna rag on her. She does not deserve it. She had a prescription for the cannabis oil, probably as a stress reliever. When Brittney was in Russia, she apparently stayed aboard the yacht of super rich oligarch Roman Abramovich. Maybe he assured her that his connection to Putin would mean she would have no problem. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and everything changed. We may never know. She's an American whom many in the U.S., including LeBron James, have spoken up for. Putin knows this. She's a bargaining chip.

Well, this video is over 50 years old and nothing has drastically changed, including your fixation on black unity,

I actually don't think the interviewer SHOWED condescendance....whether he actually FELT himself superior or not. He simply carried himself in a way he thought would be more appreciated by the community. What I found more concerning was Brown's frank admission that he and his friends WANTED to be bad, break the law, get in trouble, etc....as an act of rebellion against their parents and the older generation. Also I didn't care too much for how emotional and contrary he was getting when the interviewer tried to get him to see the link between "illegitimacy" and poverty. Brown kept trying to brush it off as it not mattering. If I were a middle class White man this would be ammunition to justify why I wouldn't invest waste more money into the ghetto. ....and NO this ain't Greg talking, lol.

So are you saying we should not get vaccinated? The questioner was disingenuous. Assuming Biden made the statement he is taking one man's statement suggesting that we were being lied to by scientist and health leaders, which is just stupid and dangerous. Dangerous because is sowing doubt. As far as I know the medical community never said you can't get Covid after being vaccinated the advice has always been get vaccinated because it will help you avoid the worse symptoms, hospitalization, and death. Still you can died from covid after being vaccinated but the probability is MUCH lower. Covid, like the flu, is constantly mutating. Apparently they have not found epitopes that are constant across all mutations or that protect all people from the most harmful effects of the virus. The fact that the world has done so much to protect as from Covid is actually commendable given how fracted we are. More than 6MM people have died globally -- more than 1 MM in the United States, a relatively alarming number given our wealth. Then again given a sad health care system and media we probably got off as well as can be expected. The number of deaths the US experienced is more than it should have been. Lives were lost unnecessarily. The guy doing the questioning in the video above is sowing doubt and this is killing people as a result... Still as with the flu vaccine you are safer getting vaccinated than not getting vaccinated -- don't you disagree?