ProfD

Disagree. It would be asinine to re-elect a narcissistic clown who instigated a whole riot. Personally, I have no desire to live in an autocracy or worse being run by a bat sh8t crazy old man. Economically, the ship that is America can get back on track if/when it stops catering to special interests which only enriches a handful of people.

That statement could swing both ways like barn doors. Neither party seems to be doing much about high gas prices, inflation and supply chain shortages.

OK. I'll shut up and write less if you all come back and participate. Seriously, @Delano, @Cynique and @Mel Hopkins, I really enjoy reading you all.

Bingo. I suspect a bunch of *illegal* firearms and ammo get shipped to countries filled with unrest so that they can...you know....kill each other. After all, it's not like those countries are manufacturing their own firearms. Yeah, that $63B gun industry has legs that grow exponentially when factoring in external *sales*. Sometimes living in our own heads in this best place on the planet.

Hieroglyphs was a formal writing system created by the ancient Egyptians (northeastern Africans) over 4,000 years ago. It is the basis for every other writing system (Greek, Arabic, Latin, etc.).

Karen is a term referring to white women who use their sense of privilege or entitlement against black people.

@Mel Hopkins, no doubt that violence is one of the reasons Americans are leaving the country too. Some of us just move to the suburbs. Depending on where we shop, work, play, etc., it feels like we're in another country.

@Troy and @Pioneer1, I usually stay outta grown men business but I feel comfortable here to add my cents. I know you're both intelligent so disregard anything remedial here. Human is a species of Homo sapiens. Every person on the planet shares that classification. The concept of race as a social classification was started back in the 1700s...Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid, American Indian and Malayan. Racism has been a by-product of this ideology for several hundreds years now. The US Census has racial categories. Human is not one of the boxes we get to check. Ideally, it would be great if the Census form only had 2 boxes on the form, male or female. But wait...they're trying to expand that sh8t to include pronouns too.

@Delano, based on the knowledge you have shared here, I figured as much regarding your background. Excellent. No doubt, there are very sharp people out here playing the game and winning in a major way. The checkers players putting their chips on the Chessboard are just in the way.

According to the articles, Just as immigrants arrive in America seeking a better quality of life, many Americans leave for the same reason...economic. None of the articles mention violence as a reason for Americans leaving. I'd be curious to know how many of those people were foreign-born who came to the US in order to "make it" and left to return to their home country or another one. Same goes for the # of US-born folks who decided to pick up and go elsewhere. I know quite a few folks who are only here taking advantage of the opportunities America provides with the ultimate goal of leaving and going back "home".

@Mel Hopkins and @Delano, you both share a great cursory insight into how money works. Finance is definitely an education people should learn and teach early in life. Understanding it is important.

Brittney Griner is not a thug by any stretch of the imagination. She was raised by her mother and father. Her dad is a former sheriff and a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam. No lack of family structure.

The United States of America (USA) has always been hypocritical from a geopolitical perspective when it comes to gun laws, human rights, extremism, terrorism and everything else. But, the USA is the #1 super power in the world which equates to "do as I say and don't worry about what I do". For all of its warts, there's a reason why people from all over the world still want to come to the USA. The state doesn't matter. Folks just want to get here. The gun industry is worth $63 billion. That's a whole lot of money. There are about 20 thousand people killed in gun-related homicides annually. That is about 0.005970% deaths out of a population of 335 million people. From a human perspective, those deaths are preventable. Very few people want to deal with a family member or friend getting shot and killed. From a money perspective, it's apparently an acceptable amount of loss in the course of doing business. Otherwise, the gun lobby wouldn't be so adamant in protecting it. Japan averages less than 10 homicides per year in a country of 126 million people. There are less than 350 thousand guns in that country. America has to decide why it's necessary to have 393 million guns floating around.

I'd be curious to know what you think about how they came up with 1 million dead folks and more than 1/2 of them under the former POTUS.

@Troy, we start out listening to our parents music. For most, the soundtrack of our lives is the music created by our peers. As we get older, our taste in music becomes refined and we gravitate towards music that appeals to us regardless of the genre/style and whether it is old or new. That's how we eventually end up listening to a variety of music across time periods and genres. There are folks who were diehard Hip-Hop heads back in the 1990s. As middle-aged adults, they're listening to Smooth Jazz and R&B and they can't stand the Trap music and Mumble Rap their children and grandkids are bumping.

If the FBI knows who's committing violent crimes, they should do a better job of coordinating with local law enforcement to stop it. But, I guess it's no different than the FBI knowing who could potentially be a mass shooter. They don't stop them either. Crime fuels the American economy. Law enforcement, courts, hospitals, prisons, etc., benefit from it.

@Cynique, it's awesome that you were able to attend your school's reunion and be recognized too. The drum is the genesis of music. Strip away every other instrument including vocals and as long as the beat goes on, we're good. Soul brother #1 James Brown understood, embodied and emphasized the beat to perfection. James Brown laid the blueprint and heavily influenced black music from the 1960s and beyond. That's why his beats were heavily sampled too. Chicago's House and DC's Go-Go music grew are great examples of a beat keeping folks entertained for hours. The Whispers knew it to when they sang....and the beat goes on....

@Troy, AfroAmericans may never get reparations for slavery but we should never stop talking about and pursuing it either. For 246 years and counting, on July 4th, America lets Great Britain and the whole world know it's the land of the free and home of the brave. There's no statute of limitations on collecting a debt owed especially when it comes to human rights. Even if the children of the fathers have to pay it.

@Pioneer1, bro, you need to listen to more music. You definitely cannot rely on mainstream media to hear it. There's no shortage of black folks past through present who've mastered every instrument ever invented. The *problem* is black folks don't have enough outlets for our music. Those that do exist choose to play the flavor of the month. You're not going to hear a trumpet virtuoso behind a Trap song. The entertainment business is only interested in pimping, er, selling the McDonald's version of music. Facts. We haven't stopped *selling out* yet. After Motown, I really thought n8gglets would take the lessons learned and make Hip-Hop a black-owned businesss. Nope. As soon as record companies dangled big checks, nigglets cashed out like they were at a casino.

@Pioneer1, I torture myself by watching those political conventions on both sides of the aisle. I could only shake my head when I saw and heard Herschel Walker sounding like a an ex-slave or punch drunk boxer: Reminded me of this scene from Harlem Nights.

Sh8t...I hope you're not working for Herschel Walker. That n8gglet is leading in the polls.

@Delano, you're right...beliefs are harmless. It's when folks start acting on their beliefs that all h8ll breaks loose and they go broke or hurt themselves and others and/or enrich others too.

@Pioneer1, AfroAmerican leadership was neutered when MLK Jr. was assassinated. The Civil Rights movement was the last thing resembling an agenda that a large number of AfroAmericans could rally around. Once they gave AfroAmericans affirmative action and a few trinkets making it easier to assimilate into society...folks breathed a sigh of relief and walked away as if the crime scene had been cleaned up. As mentioned here, there's no shortage of intelligent AfroAmericans. I believe we have been socially diluted and strategically dispersed and left to chase other sh8t that has little or nothing to do with building an AfroAmerican infrastructure.

@Pioneer1, it really helps to know the history of Hip-Hop in order to understand sampling. Might help with perspective too. Hip-Hop was built on cats rhyming to records being spun by a DJ i.e. breakbeats. They didn't have a band. Musical instrument technology allowed DJs and music producers to record (sample) those breakbeats into a computer and loop them. The funny part is that the inventors of the sampling technology had no idea that it would be used that way. They just figured musicians would record drum sounds and other instrument sounds into a machine to program and play them. The creativity that is black folks took the original concept of that machine to another level. We turned a machine into a whole band and invented a whole new style of music (Hip-Hop) and influenced electronic music production. Of course, black folks do not get credit for it.

As you all have probably gathered by now...music is a huge part of my life. I know enough about black music to write a book but I'm just a musician. Black music has always documented our plight...peace, joy, happiness, love, sorrow, sadness, despair, etc. Music reflects the environment and conditions in which it was created. Listen to black music from any period of time and you'll get an idea of how they were living and saw the world around them. Once music became a profitable form of entertainment, capitalists scoop it up and eventually dictate the narrative according to what they believe will sell. Every generation believes music is *worse* than the soundtrack of their lives. But, the reality is there's always been *good* and *bad* music. I remember when older folks thought 1990s Hip-Hop was a bunch of noise being made by n8gglets who couldn't sing or play real instruments. Today's music isn't any better or worse than the music of yesterday. It's just reflective of the environment in which it's being created. No shortage of talent either. For example, Kendrick Lamar is a throwback to early Hip-Hop lyricists. The older we get, the further removed we are from the folks creating music. The folks whose music we listened to have gotten older too. They have branched off into other aspects of entertainment. It's harder for Ice Cube to make gangsta records now that he's a multimillionaire. His environment and circumstances have changed as well.