Cynique

@Pioneer1 200,000,000??? I don't think so.You are quick to discount Obama's substantiated record but continue to rattle off a litany of all the vague miracles that Farrakhan has performed. Whatever. The black community is in crises and the plight of young black inner city men is worse than it has ever been. Farrakhan's influence has no longevity and he fiddles while the ghettos burn. His legacy doesn't seem to have legs. The black kids who are doing the best are the children of the middleclass where islam and its leader have few in-roads. i am, however, aware of that many people share your and Troy's great admiration for Farrakhan but, truth-seeker that i am, i remain skeptical of slick, silver-tongued, charismatic cult leaders who live lives of luxury and rule their sheeple with an iron fist that is reinforced by a core of henchmen. They're a lot of these false prophets out there in the religious community. (right, harry brown? ) So, in keeping with my alienation from the country you revere, i really couldn't care less about the minister you you idolize. He just provides me with another chance to be an iconoclast.

@Pioneer1These are your usual, eccentric ideas and generalizations that you sit in Starbucks, and dream up after a few observations that you are compatible with. Women are very hard on each other when it comes to judging each other's looks, not to mention being jealous and catty, and they are not that keen on lifting the self-esteem of their peers who are potentially their rivals. You look at the world through pioneer-colored glasses. Whatever. So, do you think only .women and gay men can judge the looks of men??

My point is results speak louder than claims. Not all missions are accomplished.

Excuses, excuses. Foolishness is in the eye of the beholder and you are so blinded by your undying love for amerika that you can't see straight.

I don't think Gabourey is ugly. she is just obese. Her oval-shaped face is rather cute; she has nice features and smooth skin and pretty eyes. IMO.

Sheeze! Didn't i say that i have never not called myself an American Does that confuse you?? This American is "me". Read the last paragraph below from the other thread and maybe you will get what i'm saying. "I know you may get a lump in your throat, and feel an urge to put your hand over your heart when the flag goes by or somebody is singing the national anthem off-key but I, who am an American by virtue of being born in the country of America, do not like the geographical location that has the name America and is the home of a bunch of bigots and bull shit. i like my friends for their personalities, and their being Americans has nothing to do with it. "

Eloquent rhetoric. Farrakhan and i are both the same age. He better hurry up and complete his mission before he croaks- or i do. Doesn't look like he's made a lot of progress. LOL

I have NEVER not called myself an American. Check all of the threads. You only see what you want to see. And i am rather puzzled as to why my not liking this country is such a big deal with you. Why do you care? Why do you need your view about America validated?? You love this place so that should be all that's important to you.

I gotta feeling Mel will vet those remarks you made about Gabourey. LOL

I don't think Farrakhan hates America. He's in a position to leave and go to Africa if he so desires. i just think he claims to hate Americans because this resonates with his guilible followers.

SMH. i give up on arguing with people who are totally off my wave length, I hope Mel shares her thoughts on the opinionated post above.

@Pioneer1Well,.i'm not exactly impressed with your subtefuge and ad hominem arguments. It's ludicrous that you reprimand me for not validating your beliefs. You seem totally incapable of processing anything that deflates what YOU consider sacrosanct. You're losing your cool because i am not impressed with the leader who you continue to extol with words and not examples. it's breaking your heart that i and a lot of other people put Farrakhan in perspective and shatter your icon. You're the one who needs to get a grip. How ironic that you are the epitome of the cognitive dissonance that you accuse others of. SMH

@Pioneer1Nothing either one of you say can convert this American to your way of thinking about the "land of broken promises". You, in particular apparently can't even offer an alternative argument and take into consideration that you think of America in the intangible abstract and i think of it in the tangible reality. So your arguments just roll off my back just like mine roll off yours. So be it.

@Pioneer1LOL.. You won't answer my remarks about Farrakhan because can't answer them. You're rendered so helpless by your hero worship and emotional involvement with this slippery vacillating man whose M/O is "don't do as i do, do as i say do" that you can't come up with a coherent rebuttal. And the date that you assign that video to, is questionable. Can you imagine the head of the KKK playing jazz piano and extolling the virtues of Duke Ellington. No, because it would be a travesty for him to be an exponent of black music. Engaging in rational objective behavior is inconsistent with leaders of both black and white nationalism who preach contempt for the opposite race. Could it be that Farrakhan is really a rabble rouser full of hot air???

How about Canada? I could concede that America is the best of the worst. That doesn't mean i have an obligation to live in a constant and humble state of gratitude and admiration when i see all the bad that neutralizes the "good" in a country which is a sterling example of how fucked-up the world is, a country where an idiot like Donald Trump and his lackeys thrive and his spineless opposition is rendered almost helpless in their patriotic duty to respect the office of the president, an office that is being besmirched by an inept, mentally-disturbed egomaniac who has legitimized bigotry and elevated lying to a new level.

Well, Farrakhan is who instilled a hate of white people into the herd mentality of his following with his inflammatory rhetoric, which is aimed at the emotions instead of the aesthetic. Trashing the white slave masters who stole black people's identity and robbed them of their pride was an ongoing theme of his rants. The implication of this violin solo is that the work of white composers is the epitome of classical music and we must appreciate and play it in order to elevate our status. A reasonable motive but not one consistent with him being a black cheer leader. It's almost like him dying his hair blond and putting on blue contacts to pay tribute to the paragon that is white civilization. I think he probably wanted to show off his skills in order to inspire the admiration and validation of white people. But this sends mixed messages, because the black masses are his audience. It's like him saying "don't do as I do, do as I say do." As for the million man march, I think it's presumptuous of anybody to assume they know the motivation of 100,000,000 black men. If someone had gone among the crowd gathered for this event and taken a random survey asking if Julian Bond instead of Louis Farrakhan had organized the event would they have still participated in it, i tend to think that the answer would've been "yes", because it wasn't about the messenger, it was about the message Obviously this march was an idea whose time had come. Give Farrakhan the credit for seizing the time, but it was black men who mobilized themselves and made the march a success albeit a hollow one, neutralized by the long, rambling, irrelevant speech Farrakhan ended up delivering, a performance that apparently wasn't a motivating enough send-off for these brothers returning to the circumstances they were unable to make significantly better. So, yes, we have to agree to disagree.

That's a good question, Del. Playing the music of a white classical music master is kind of out of character for a someone who rants about blue-eyed devils. Just like i always thought it was kind of inconsistent that Muslims have their women wear all white, a color they apparently associate with goodness and purity - except when it comes to skin, i guess.

Well i think it was Freud who did an extensive study on female sexuality and reached certain conclusions that feminists eventually challenged, declaring that no man was qualified to speak about the female orgasm! Most women can bring themselves to orgasm with vibrators and sex toys, devices which make men feel insecure because they are a "hard" act to follow.

As far as the Million Man March, you hero worshipers do realize that the first march took place 22 years ago, so to say that nobody knew who Julian Bond was back then is a statement that can be challenged. And 22 years ago, the NAACP still had some relevancy. Plus the fact, there was as broad cross section of a million men in the march, not just dumb, uninformed ones. And i beg to differ that all black kids today know who Farrahan is. Especially since he's an 84 year-old sickly man who keeps a low profile.Or do i think the black Muslims have a great impact on the black community any more in Chicago. . They're from another era like the Black Panthers and their hey day is over. Their 2015 million man anniversary march was less well attended and, like the first one, just a vessel for Farrakhan's hot air. They supposedly had voter registration booths there, then their fearless leader ends up telling his followers not to vote in the last election. Chicago's inner city continues to be crime ridden with a high murder rates. Jobs would help alleviate this situation but the black Muslims are invisible in this area. This doesn't bode well for their released prison converts.i remain unimpressed. Jesse Jackson and the corporate sponsors of his Operation Uplift organization have a visibly better record. BTW, Mel, Farrakhan also used to also be a calypso singer back in his young days when he lived in New York. And i have heard Farrakhan speak,plus he used to be a regular on the talk shows in Chicago back in the day when they were TV staples.

@Pioneer1 I'm tired of arguing about this subject: TIME magazine did not take the picture of Viola. A free lance photographer hired by Time did and it gave him free rein. We have later learned that this photographer and Viola consulted and came to an agreement about the art concept he wanted the picture to illustrate and her make up was part of this concept. The artist may very well be racist but that doesn't let you off the hook for ridiculing and criticizing black women who don't adhere to your standards.

@Pioneer1Cognitive dissonance, indeed. (the latest psycho babbo circulating around the internet. Frantz Fanon would be proud, i guess) but i don't agree with your usual blather that consists of the world according you, much of which is not based on fact or figures but a carefully duped-out scenario that you become fixated on. What is your source for what you have decided is true??? I obviously don't find your contention any more valid than mine. America is a country with a location on a map in an atlas or on a globe. It is also known as the United States of America. The people born in this country are Americans. They are a plural noun, as in people, place, or thing, they being people. America is a proper noun as in people, place, or thing, it being a place. Going to war is a policy. Those who participate in a war are people fighting under the flag of the place where they may or may not have been born. Getting rich and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an old adage that has no nationality. Being a victim of racism is what happens to black people living within the territorial parameters of a place where racism exists,- a place named America.. I know you may get a lump in your throat, and feel an urge to put your hand over your heart when the flag goes by or somebody is singing the national anthem off-key but I, who am an American by virtue of being born in the country of America, do not like the geographical location that has the name America and is the home of a bunch of bigots and bull shit. i like my friends for their personalities, and their being Americans has nothing to do with it.

Who asked about female Ejaculation???? i meant the erogenous zone known at the G-spot that sets off the bells and whistles and gongs when located. In my era the highest compliment a woman could pay a man was to say that he found her G-spot.

Is there such a thing as a "G" spot? Just curious, in case, i make becoming a cougar an item on my bucket list.

@Mel Hopkins i am amused by your calling racism a "social construct", which figures in to my arguments with Troy, to wit: if race is a social construct than how can you have racism?

@Troy Julian Bond was the National President of the NAACP with an impressive civil rights resume. (It wasn't just young black men who attended this event) Jesse Jackson could have just as easily organized this march because it was something black men were "up for" and it took on a life of its own. So it didn't matter who the leader was.No corporate sponsors were needed. How much did it cost to put it on? Everybody paid their own way. Al Sharpton or even Tavis Smiley could've probably pulled it off. All Farrakhan had to do was show up and take advantage of a captive audience for one of his boring, self-serving, marathon speeches. And black men who were always whining about not being supported by their women, stiffed them on this occasion because chauvinist Farrakhan discouraged any participation on the part of women who wanted to be represented by groups showing their support, - and this created a rift. When all these black men returned to their home bases, did Farrakhan and the black Muslims do anything to address and resolve their grievances. Nothing changed. You and Pioneer can extol this guy all you want, but you'll never convert me to being a fan because i dislike the grim,furtive, misogynistic islamic religion and the men who bask in it while exploiting their followers in general and women in particular..