ProfD

Not really. I was mainly responding to your comment about people over 40 years old but it could apply to wealthy women too.

@Stefan and @richardmurray, while it's not my place to mediate, I'm always hopeful that folks can find a common ground of constructive dialog.

Only if the pool is restricted to peers. Eligibility increases if an individual is willing to cast a wider net in terms of age, demographic and expectations.

Gaddafi was a threat to racism white supremacy. A united Africa and uplifting Black people is the last thing they want on this planet.

I started a similar thread yesterday regarding the GOP and House Speaker. The dysfunction is hilarious.

@Chevdove, thanks for the excellent identification and background on the Pointer Sisters. The Pointer Sisters thrived in the 1970s which was a great time for Black music and arguably its best decade. There were so many groups, bands, artists and musicians. The downside to the 1970s music scene was alcohol and drug use was rampant. No surprise the sisters had their struggles. Amazing to live through and talk about it. Here is my favorite Pointer Sisters song. It was written and produced by the late great, legendary Allen Toussaint from New Orleans. I'm grateful the best of Black music has been recorded. Even when the artists are no longer relevant musically and/or with us on this side of glory, we still have their music.

It's been 100 years since the last time the party in control of the House had a hard time electing a Speaker. The GOP has a narrow majority in the House and Rep. Kevin McCarthy wants to be the Speaker. Yet, McCarthy is about 20 votes within his own party short of getting it. So far, over 2 days, he has failed 6 times to secure enough votes. Congress decided to adjourn until noon tomorrow. Then, they will resume wasting taxpayers dollars.

Awesome dance routine. Those young ladies did it. The music of Soul Brotha #1 James Brown is timeless. Hard not to move when the beat drops.

Sure. There will always be exceptions. The lower status man is usually a wealthy woman's eye candy or boy toy. Paris Hilton spent a number of years running around with people below her status.

Brotha Marcus Garvey was on the right. Too bad he couldn't get buy in from his intellectual contemporary WEB DuBois. Garveyism could have unified Black folks of African descent and along with his contemporaries among African leaders made Africa a powerful continent. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was thinking along the same lines as Garvey with his United States of Africa. Of course, that's why they killed Gaddafi. Him unifying people and countries was a threat to the system.

Reading the speech it's easy to see why the great Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey had issues with certain aspects of Booker T. Washington's ideology. Self-reliance is critical to independence. But, trying to cozy up to white supremacists especially in the South was the equivalence of making deals with the devil.

The fact that the bill didn't gain any traction on POTUS Obama's watch is a testament to the fact that the issue of reparations is a non-starter among Americans. OTOH, the Anti-Asian Hate Crime bill passed through Congress with flying colors. Nevermind that there are less than 20 Asian-Americans in Congress. Reparations will take a massive movement in order to become a real issue for America. The system of racism white supremacy won't allow it. White folks are playing the long game and letting the clock run out. They know time will wash away the history of slavery from future generations of AfroAmericans.

Whether it is physical possessions or digital data, some human beings have an attachment to their stuff. Yet, unless that stuff is of some value, significance or importance to someone else, it becomes junk or trash when that individual to whom it belongs Is no longer around. In other words, one person's trash is treasure to another or vice versa applies. It's a good idea to manage physical possessions and digital data in such a way that it can be consolidated or discarded quickly. Hard drive technology has made data storage cheap enough to keep data secure offline. To Troy's point, being able to retrieve and access it could be a challenge. That goes back to how important is that stuff in the grand scheme of things. Im acutely aware of my mortality. As a result, I'm a minimalist. I purge often enough so that when I die, there won't be a whole bunch of my stuff to keep or throw away.

Think I have an understanding of your idea of black unity from reading your posts. Black unity will never include all or a majority of people. But, it can still benefit those who need help. Every culture has ties that bind the people but there are still differences among them too. Having a tie that binds is code (principles, rules, values, etc.). Code is the 1st step towards unity. From there, dynamism within the group can attack the agenda i.e. issues of importance and concern in all areas of human activity. That's why there are different organizations and religious denominations and political parties, etc. Unity requires leadership. Someone has to step up to plate who has the intelligence, personality, charm and charisma capable of galvanizing a movement. Black folks haven't seen such a figure in several decades now. It's probably gonna take a miracle. But, it's not the blonde haired, blue-eyed dude hanging up on the cross.

Since the beginning of time, men have used some form of money, power, influence, etc., to attract women. Conversely, it is unnatural for a woman to take care of a man financially. Women don't need money, power or influence to get attention from men. Most women become wealthy through inheritance or marriage. Self-made wealthy women have only been around a couple decades. There is no benefit to a wealthy woman establishing a relationship with a man of lower status.

Celebrate is relative. B'day is my personal holiday. I don't work that day. Family and friends know not to ask me for sh8t unless it's a dire emergency. I celebrate my b'day every year in self-reflection and only doing whatever I choose to do. Otherwise, there's no party bash for this old man. Haven't had one of those since I was 7 years old.

Scientifically, we know the Earth is billions of years old. It's on schedule to last another 5 billion years. Humans will not. Human beings aren't billions of years old. At least, we have not found any evidence. Of course it could be argued that as we're recycling fossil fuels... but I digress. Human beings have spent the better part of their existence trying figure out 1) the best way to survive and 2) how we got here. Humans eventually started using various methods and means of keeping track of their time on the planet and events. That's how we ended up with calendars, dates and times. These are markers and placeholders of our existence on the planet. Date and time could be construed as an arbitrary construct. That would take the joy and fun out celebrating birthdays, holidays and other milestones.

The direct answer to your question is that a part of AfroAmerican culture should be encouraging and promoting healthy relationships which extend from family to community. There was a time when a man was forced to marry a woman he knocked up. Out-of-wedlock births weren't cool or normalized. The entire village had a hand in raising children and insuring the well-being of the community. It was a relationship. The lack of solid relationships eventually leads to the breakdown of families and communities. It's the root cause of disunity.

New Year isn't a conspiracy bro. Winter isn't the same all over the country or planet. For those of us who live in colder climates, the delayed beauty of spring gives us more time to get right in the New Year. Happy New Year AALBC fam. Wishing you all the best in 2023 and beyond.

We've already established there are several reasons for it. The bottom line is that if folks don't build solid relationships early in life they will either up alone and/or in a dysfunctional situation-ship.

Ignorance is definitely a cause of unfounded fear. I believe the main cause of fear is not wanting to deal with the punishment or outcome. Folks run away from a fight because they don't want to get beat up or worse. They want to go to heaven but don't want to die. That 400 years of slavery has inflicted a PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) on AfroAmericans that has yet to be fully comprehended. But, the conditioning has resulted in a latent fear. White folks have consistently shown their willingness to kill opposition and die fighting i.e. go to war. There are no Black folks on the planet who really want that smoke from white folks. One could argue Black folks are smart enough to avoid it.

The natural order of things is that folks gotta leave us. The Pointer Sisters made great music. Their legacy has been recorded for posterity. May our sista Anita Pointer RIP.

Facts. Every now and then, the universe will send monsters otherwise known as devils among us. There's no shortage of evil folks of all stripes throughout recorded human history. They are responsible for dysfunctional behaviors. However, the evil that is racism white supremacy is unprecedented.

My brotha, I'm always going to push back on the indictment of AfroAmerican intelligence or the lack thereof. IMO, AfroAmericans aren't lacking intelligence moreso than they are paralyzed by fear. I'm sure you all remember those days when it wasn't cool to be smart. Intelligent folks would tuck their intellect like a chain to avoid being confronted about it. AfroAmericans have to get over their subconscious fear and let their intelligence hang like a pair in order to thrive.

IMO, the media has nothing to do with older folks being alone. It's the natural arc of life. Ideally, human beings find a partner with whom they can grow old. Well, as Biggie said, somebody's gotta die. If it works out, they won't be too far apart. Senior citizens who have invested in family and community should have enough folks around them to avoid loneliness especially if their spouse has passed away. However, as offspring, family and friends have their own lives to live, there's a point at which older folks will be alone. That's why it's important to invest in healthy relationships built on friendship. Getting old isn't all fun and games.