Leaderboard

The Legendary actress Bette Davis was one of the others who took credit for this Academy Award nickname, claiming the statue reminded her of her Uncle Oscar. Maybe Oscar Micheaux was her uncle. Who knows?

Yeah, I just read that year-long conversation that states 23 years ago! I pose the question to kick the conversation off and didn’t really express my personal opinion until a while into it “Hi Ruby I don't buy into the concept that Black people are attempting to mimic white standards of beauty. Black women do so many different things to their hair. Many of the styles, textures and colors used don't belong "naturally" to any racial group on this planet. Nor do I buy into the concept of self hatred. Simply because, as Cynique pointed out several months ago, white people also go to great length to modify the natural color and texture of their hair. However white people are not accued of self hatred to the same degree as Black people and they may go to greater extents to change their natural hair. A great many people (Black and white) are victims of consumerism. Marketers have figured out an way to make many women want to change their hair -- often on a regular basis, at significant cost and time. In much the same way that someone figured out how to convince women that 50 pairs of shoes is not too many to own, someone has convinced women changing their hair style is just as important. Men are increasingly victims of this as well; more and more of us are spending too much time in beauty salons, jewlery and shoe stores.” After almost a quarter of a century, my opinion on this matter has changed a little: I think we need to take more responsibility and how we are so easily manipulated by marketers it’s not just a matter of buying things we don’t need or doing things to ourselves that aren’t necessary like getting butt lifts. Today It’s a matter of letting others tell us what to think. Manipulating what people think has always been around, but it became more aggressive and more pervasive as social media became popular, which wasn’t the case 23 years ago. Now, AI promises to put this on steroids. Today we have reasonably intelligent people who believe vaccines are bad or who believes it was a good idea to vote for our current president. I don’t think this could’ve happened 23 years ago, so my opinion has changed.

The l8te great Dick Gregory was a brilliant comedian. He said a lot. Some of it was for effect. 😎

As @Troy mentioned...it's great that you're taking AI for a spin. @aka Contrarian...in your use case, AI is an excellent tool. It's not putting a human being out of work. Enjoy.😎

You want to make things better around here? I say bring back Cynique's Corner! ......and put her IN it, lol.

The city of Tampa recognizes National Black Bookstore Day.