Cynique

Bow-Wow!

I would agree that my perceptions are simply what I see. But I have an open mind about what they indicate.. I can't decide whether being shown all the places you mentioned by someone with an ulterior motive, wouldn't be a form of manipulation..

No, i didn't. I keep telling you that what you describe does not appear on my screen.

@CDBurns But be advised, that I am not always unaware that I am being manipulated, Because I derive a certain fiendish delight from provoking people, that's the price i pay. For instance: I play a game with Pioneer and the "dog" he patted on the head and who is now licking him in the face. And I should think it would be obvious by now that I am an argumentive person. @Troy I ask myself how much impact does any manipulation have on me and my lifestyle, and I can honestly say, not a whole lot. i have no intentions of not watching TV or not posting on social media or not eating or buying what I want - or not engaging in petty bickering. It ain't that serious. And if you will recall, I recently declared my declaration of independence from being black. It requires too much trouble to always be on guard. Those, of course, are my idiosyncrasies. Finally, I really do appreciate you two for allowing me to manipulate you into posting on this thread, and I would regard this as an example of the good that can emanate from manipulation. Your responses were very thoughtful and full of insight. Thanks for sharing.

Nice try, Suck-up Sara, but no cigar to go with the booze you been swilling. You're bush league, so stupid that you can't figure out, that you could avoid intrusions from me if you had the guts to rise above the sly sneakiness that prompts you to make veiled references to me while pandering to Pioneer. Add this to your being a font of half-truths and lies, and you make a perfect target for anybody who can read. As for me considering you a threat, get real! I don't want to monopolize this board. I wish more people would post so I could focus on somebody other than you and your vapid, paranoid self. Then I could comment on their threads instead of writing essays. if I wanted a solo gig, I'd start my own blog, Dummy. And I'm still trying to figure out why all the lurker fans you imagine are hanging onto your every word, don't step up and support you and enable your dream of a hostile takeover LMAO. Melanin deprived, huh? Now we get it. You undoubtedly have an overload of melanin which is why you're so evil and resentful. Trying to distance yourself from Leslie Jones, wishing you looked half as good as she does. Attempting to compensate for being a shadow of the people you grew up around, - a reject shunned by the "in crowd", pathetically trying to compensate for being a cast off by earning a degree, - probably from an online college. ROTFLOL. Ol Saranwrap, transparent and clingy.Take her, Pioneer. She's all yours. Arguing with this hood rat is really a waste of my time.

I would like to have my perceptions about the America's black dilemma analyzed because as a senior citizen, I like to solicit opinions from the younger generation in order to broaden my perspective. These are some of the images that my retinas capture, and they dwell in my head, begging to be interpreted. Take the evening news, for instance: When watching it, It's routine for me to see a staff of well-groomed blacks appearing on my screen: an anchor person, a weatherman, a sports reporter, all giving a credible accounting of themselves in the public eye. And on the same show it is also not unusual during the course of the latest news, to see a microphone thrust into the face of an inner city black woman, tearful and soft spoken, lamenting the death of her child by black thugs or white cops. There will also be an earnest black brother, decrying the violence terrorizing his black community. Neither of these 2 are loud and obnoxious, but just everyday folks trying to make it. The blacks reporting the news are in the company of other ones prominent in the various media outlets. Those whose records are topping the charts, and whose sports feats are exciting their fans, celebs whose activity is captured by the paparazzi and discussed by the hosts of magazine tabloid shows and social media outlets. TV actors starring in first rate movies,prime time dramas and situation comedies, many of which are directed by blacks. Just recently Blacks have been making names for themselves in the Olympics, their accomplishments being well publicized. When I make my regular excursions to WalMart, whose $!0-an-hour black employees are liberally sprinkled throughout the departments, stacking shelves, tidying up clothing racks, busily manning the check-out lines where I am greeted and serviced by black females resplendent in their long silky weaves or elaborate braided extensions, often blond or red in color, their fingernails artfully manicured, their noses pierced, their false eyelashes glued into place. Some are animated, other reserved, all are competent and polite. There will also be young black males in the mix, sporting their wild, spiked hair styles, respectfully addressing me as "Maam" - a collection of black folks who seem to be remarkably adjusted, all appearing to be anything but down and out. Yes, driving while black is hazardous to black males especially felons who. when stopped by cops, flee the scene because they have warrants and sometimes guns, all of which puts them at risk for being murdered into martyrdom. Equally hazardous is living while in an inner city neighborhood where intended targets and innocent bystanders alike are regularly shot dead by thugs aiming to avenge personal "beefs". These scenarios are the heads and tails of "the black lives matter" coin, a movement crippled by its empty slogan. And do black women really hate themselves? Ghetto sistas are very confident. They don't stress over their weight, and don't give a shit about what others think. Just ask them and they'll tell you. As for their flamboyance, they like to embellish their appearance the way tribal African women do. Middle class black women are returning to natural hair styles, carrying themselves with dignity and good taste whether thick or thin. Some of these women may use products to even out their spotty skin tone, as opposed to trying to whiten their skin. Most of all, I question whether black women of any class admire white women to the point where they hate themselves. IMO, they reserve their negative sentiments for those black men who prefer white women. Enlighten me, however. Tell me how my perceptions are being "manipulated" as so many critics like to declare. And are such accusations an attempt, themselves, at manipulation?

Ol Suck-up Sara really has a problem with Cynique taking the lead on a site named Cynique's Corner.. If she had her way, i would be a furtive lurker like her, trying to weasel her way into a discussions on a new thread she was miffed over me starting. SMH. And this wanna-be offers a predictably contradictory argument about the myth of black superiority when she is someone who thinks entry level secretaries are "superior" to bag-slinging postal workers. LMAO. And Middle class black people do occupy a superior position to those in the deprived underclass who lack ownership and money.

When did you start thinking?? You seem incapable of doing anything other than suckin up to Pioneer, pathetically seeking him as an ally. LMAO. We know you're disappointed that he made a reasonable decison to post on a new thread since the other one was turning into a marathon. And nobody said the black elite represented "power". All anybody did was acknowledge that a segment of the black population who fit the definition of the word "elite", exists and - does possess more privileges that the underclasses. Implicit in this entire thread is the contention that blacks on all levels lack real power elite: A group or class of persons considered to be superior to others ...

Yes, I was responding to what you refer to as a "misunderstood" statement. And I must say, I was a little surprised by what you offered in your follow-up explanation above. Surprised because you are always so upbeat and say how much you love this country. What you wrote sounds like the words of an unpatriotic cynic like me. LOL I actually think that there are just as many white people who admire black style and panache and coolness and even try to imitate it as there are the blatant racists with a low opinion of blacks. Then there are the whites who are in denial about blacks being as lady-like and gentlemanly as they are. But like you imply, no point in dwelling on the subject. @Troy Guys like you and Chris and probably Pioneer are black "Horatio Alger" characters; you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and became successful, but never lost your common touch. This is what makes you authetic and admirable. A long time ago I read the book, "Manchild in the Promised Land", Claude Brown's coming-of-age book about a young black man growing up on the mean streets of Harlem, and that was what introduced me to how the "other half" lives. I have always maintained that the black experience is diversified. I realized that the idyllic little interracial village where I grew up and whose self-contained community thrived while co-existing with the white majority, was atypical. And I've always considered my years at the Post Office equivalent to a finishing school, providing me with a test case to practice the observational skills I'd learned during my 2 years at the Univserity of Illinois, - educating me in the things that you don't learn in college text books. The local postal branch where I worked was a facility that was a microcosm of black life. Women who acted like Leslie Jones were quite common among the Labor force, and woman like Michelle Obama filled many of the clerical positions in the Management division where qualified black men were also prominent in the chain-of-command. And this dates back from the 1950s to the present. So i am not blind to black life in all its forms especially since I witnessed how my currently predominately black hometown fell on hard times and became rife with drugs, unemployment, petty crime, and even murders - all of which is why I have moved away to continue living my life of leisure in the tranquil environment I've grown accustomed to. As for music, I consider it the glue that holds black people together. When all else fails we still have a broad selection of sounds to renew our spirits. Rappers put black women down, but sistas still have their Marvin Gayes, and Maxwells to pamper their ears and soothe their souls.

How do we know the "evidence" isn't based on what people do, instead of what they think? Folks indulge their guilty pleasures and just because something is wrong or stupid doesn't mean they won't do it, especially when they want to believe something. That's why I feel that, deep down inside, most of Trump's follwers know he's full of BS, but they don't care because they don't like how things are Comments like: "aw, they just tryna fool somebody", and "that's just a set up" and "you cain't trust the media", and "that's some crazy shit" and "they just tryna sell you somethin," and "it's all fixed" and "don't believe the hype" are every day phrases in the conversation of everyday people, along with routine references to a ubiquitous entity known as "The Man" or "They", or "Big Brother" - sinister forces in cahoots with the political parties who are the 2 heads of the same dragon and who are all out to control and exploit you. Of course, there's a sucker born every minute, but there are just as many suspicious people out there who aren't naive. They just don't make a lot of waves because they go with the flow. They are, in a word, "apathetic". IMO And considering that misconceptions have always been around, what is the trickle down effect of them? The more things change, the more they become the same. I've just become philosophical about a lot society's pitfalls, To me, Life, itself, is a big con game. You just have to watch your back and keep on truckin'... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well, I noticed that the headline of your post reads: Misinformation On Line: One of the Main Treats to Humanity. I assume you meant "Threats", not "Treats" - unless this is a Freudian slip clueing us to your subconscious belief that online misinformation is a treat because "ignorance is bliss". It's also ironic that the absence of one letter in a word can distort the context in which it appears, so it's important to correct typos and proof read to maintain credibility in regard to being detailed-oriented. I can only speak for myself, Troy, so to me there was nothing shockingly revealing about these articles to a person like me, a natural born skeptic who's been around a long time, and who questions everything. On line, if anything sounds too fishy, I go to Snopes.com and get the lowdown. I've always dismissed conspiracy theories and I take infomercials promising miracle cures with a grain of salt. On social media I consider the source of articles and videos and check to see if they are from "Onion" or a liberal or conservative publication I recognize. I even click on the icons of suspected trolls and go to their homepage, where you can often spot red flags about their impartiality. This is one of the reasons I've never taken seriously what the Hillary Haters post about her because they are contrived half-truths. As a long time reader of the Tabloids like The Enquirer, I know how headlines are sensationalized, and this also applies to The Net where articles and videos never live up to their hype, and memes are just scatter shots. So my cynicism keeps me on guard. Furthermore, "online misconception" is not a subject I'm passionate about because, as was noted, rumors and urban myths and gossip have always been around; the net, as also noted, just spreads them faster. I still have a little faith in people having common sense and that they are not totally bamboozled. I think they choose to gravitate toward what piques their curiosity rather than what challenges their logic because they seek an escape from the real world. As for FaceBook, it may not be a portrait of black culture, but it is a snapshot of it.

Pioneer already suggested that a new thread be started in a earlier post because he felt he had hi-jacked Troy's post. And I'm sure he doesn't need a ventriloquist to speak for him especially since you're the one who is the Dummy!

This post was originally titled "The Leslie Jones Factor" but I've re-named it because I think we've done Leslie Jones to death and she deserves a break from being picked apart by strangers. She is who she is; more power to her. In another post, on another thread, dated August 10th, CDBurns wrote: ..."Name me any point in the history of us in the US where we were considered respectable, lady like, and gentlemen." Come on, Chris, there has always been a black affinity for what was ladylike or gentlemanly dating back to slavery times when there was a difference in the demeanor of the field hands and the house help. In the ensuing years after slavery "ended", a unique black culture began to evolve, and after the great migration began in 1915, huge numbers of blacks came North, settling in the urban areas where there was always, within the black population, people who adopted middle class values attempting to mimic that lifestyle. Church-going folks and those employed as maids, chauffeurs, Pullman porters, civil service and postal workers exemplified propriety and shunned the unruly niggas who were referred to as lowlifes and riffraff. I understand there was a very elite set of well-to-do black people who occupied Harlem and Washington DC in the early 1900s. Also, in the south, there was a black caste system where the preachers and teachers and doctors and lawyers, raised their children to be mannerly and cultured. They were who sent their children to the HBCUs.. Beginning in the 1920s, my hometown was typical among the suburbs of Chicago where blacks moved to and settled in. Where I was born and raised. there were civic and political groups, Masons, Eastern Stars, an American Legion Post, social organizations and clubs all existing in a polite society apart from the neer-do-wells hangin' out on street corners, swilling cheap whiskey and acting drunk and disorderly, (But enough about my family. ) Anyway, white people acknowledged the differences, and liked non threatening well-behaved negroes. And, of course, we know that the black middle class is still around, doing their thing, acting like civilized people. You just don't hear that much about them because they aren't edgy or exciting. It's hard to pinpoint when the bad behavior reached epidemic proportions but some say in the early 1940s, the final wave of migrants from the south were from the lower class, black sharecroppers who brought their crude country ways with them and settled into the inner cities, merging with the existing population of shiftless people. Well, you get the idea. Finally, I do think Rap music was instrumental in giving black women a bad reputation. On the threshold of my 83rd birthday, these are my reflections. Chris. As a man in your 40s, why do you think differently?

@Troy I did not contend that FaceBook could be "used to assess public opinion". I said it reflected black culture. I did concede that black folks may be "fronting" on FaceBook, but I added that I did not think they were faking their opinions when it came to the upcoming election.

Chris, there is one statement in your post that i would like to respond to but i will do it on a new thread because this one has gotten is too long and goes off on tangents. I will entitle the thread. The Leslie Jones Factor Pioneer, you might want to post your response to Chris' opinion on that thread, too.

Well there you have it, Pioneer. The sly, sniveling Sara is at it again, using you as a conduit to vent her frustrations and delusions as she doles out her instructions on the proper way to conduct yourself if you want to keep her favor. So be advised to just flatter and humor her or she'll cuss you out like she did CDBurns and taunt you like she did Troy and snipe at you like she does me. Leslie Jones has nothin' on this shrew. Meanwhile, I've been relegated to envying her because - um - humm. Well, I'm sure there must be some obscure reason why I would ever envy this mundane mope. To dear ol forlorn Sara, I will remind that you, too, once promised to leave this board, but you're still here - through no power of your own, still loitering around, feigning disdain for AALBC, yet desperately seeking the conversation and approval of the regular crew and, best of all, - still amusing me! LMAO

LOL. This from somebody whose grammar I had to correct, leaving you to sputter about not "editing" your mistake. Yeah, right. This discussion on education vs intelligence has been going on for quite a while and during the course of it, Troy, Chris and I all sided with Pioneer while you were blubbering about a college education being "devalued". Once you open the door with your sneaky oblique remarks about others, butting into the conversation is fair game. It's the consequence of your being too cowardly to be upfront.( an example of the slyness that is second nature to you.) BTW, I never said you went to northeastern. But I'm sure if, wherever you went, was a school of any note, you'd be crowing about it all over the board about. (You really do come across as a Chicago State alumna.) And, as usual, you have to channel the words of others because you never had an original thought in your life. Take note that Haile Selassie didn't say anything about the fact that everybody has intelligence; it just comes in different degrees, - something that would never occur to a dolt like you who is so stuck in the mire of being "educated" that you're incapable of critical thinking. Interesting, too, The Lion of Judah made no acknowledgement of people who are naturally gifted, those who occupy the realm of the aesthetic, sans education: musicians, and artists and scribes. Believe me, if I wanted you off this site, you would've been gone. But I love having you around to poke fun at on a slow day. You're such an interesting sub-specimen of a paranoid humanoid. I got such a kick out of you bleating to Troy, telling him to just "cancel my account" when you imagined he was picking on you. ROTFLOL @Pioneer1 I think ol Sara has a crush on you. Keep stroking her and maybe you can "turn her around" - if you get my drift.

No, Sara. it's not about seeing what I want to see, it's about seeing you as you are because you're unbelievably transparent. Intelligence, educated, whatever; you are so inconsistent, and contradictory that you don't fit the description of anything other than an addled-brained blotter who soaks up what others say, then claim it as your own. People on this board were making a distinction between intelligence and education while you in all of your educated pretensions were prating about what a college degree represented. And Google is, indeed, your friend because without it, you would be practically mute. Too bad you didn't make your mark at the prestigious Northwestern University instead of northeastern whatever where you worked your way up from file clerk to a secretary, echoing what employers told you when you gave your second-hand advice to grad students lacking in problem solving skills. You models of mediocrity deserved each other. LMAO. It's still a mystery to me why you, with your inflated opinion of yourself, continue to post on this site. (I suspect it's because this is a step up for you.)

LOL who on this board besides an unoriginal thinker like you who exists in a cookie cutter world, does not read critically or think outside the box? You're the only one who disagreed with Pioneer on the subject under discussion. And your advising youngsters to dutifully go to college is as about conventional and unimaginative as one can get. But it is nice that you've condescended to pander to Pioneer by appreciating his being unorthodox. I also find it amusing how adamant you were about relegating high school graduates to dead-end lives doing hard labor, ignoring how many are able to work their way up through managerial ranks of the companies where they're employed and achieve success, something which you are suddenly patting yourself on the back for. Flip flop, back and forth.... And anyone who considers themselves informed should be aware that there are many top-rated high schools who do provide their students with good black grounds in Math and Science and English composition, subjects which enable them to bypass the remedial non-credit courses a lot of matriculating Freshmen from inferior high schools have to take. Not to mention there are a bunch of second-rate colleges out there, that award diplomas to students who are not conversant on any subject other than the one they majored in. (Sounds like the caliber of graduate students who don't know how to present themselves to employers, and need a lowly secretary to lecture them on this.) tsk-tsk. .

Well, Chris, SNL bills itself as "not being ready for prime time" which is why it comes on late night. I concur with everything you say, but I reserve the right to be my natural hypercritical self. Last night, figuring I could catch the Olympic reruns later, I chose to watch ABC's Sunday evening fare, which is a 3-hour run of updated versions of the old game shows, Family Feud, $!00,000 Pyramid and The Match Game. Coincidentally, Leslie Jones was one of the celebrity panelist on Match Game, and I was glad for what I hoped would be a chance to see her out of character. No such luck. If Leslie does play a character, the character she plays is herself. All through the show she was loud and overbearing, in and out of her seat, doing a pratfall, walking off the set, mugging and bucking her eyes, giving an answer to one of the questions that had to be bleeped out, because it was probably "pussy". She was also being all touchy-feely with the white male panelist sitting next to her, who was very receptive, I might add. Yes, the other panelists, who were all white, were also animated and anything but reserved. Interesting enough, one of the contestants was a black guy, who completely ignored Leslie, focusing on the 2 white female panelists, claiming to have a secret crush on one of them and he was so elated at winning that he did a wild dance. What can I say? This show is a free wheeling bash that's quite entertaining. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, I found Leslie's over-the-top, attention-seeking antics to be annoying. She's too hyper and, in the final analysis, I couldn't forgive her for committing the cardinal the sin of - not being funny; just silly and disruptive like a lot of insecure folks of all colors who go into comedy. That's show biz.

No such link currently appears at the bottom of my screen. And hasn't for a long time. @Pioneer1 You're a dirty ol man. MEOOOOOOOOOW

In regard to the necessity of attending college debate, IMO at the crux of it is the subjectivity that permeates the exchanges. When certain people who have degrees are told that being college-educated is not synonymous with high intelligence, this deflates the pride they take in themselves for having achieved a degree, The idea that their accomplishment is met with indifference rather than admiration fills them with indignation. When other people who don't have degrees are put down and told that they are not equipped to better their circumstances, they cynically refute this with anecdotal examples of self-made successes. These personal sentiments overshadow the main issue. Taking an objective stance provides an obvious conclusion. A college degree is a status symbol that opens doors in the workplace and is a gateway to a better existence. The other side of the coin is that uplifting one's station in life can also be achieved with the ingenuity and innate abilities that college doesn't teach. Both contentions are valid and don't devalue each other. When seeking one's fortune, to each his own. Broadminded individuals see the merits of both points of view. These opposing approaches hark back to what put W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington at odds, and the after effects of this controversy still linger.

This is something I've never been clear about,Troy. When authors go on Thumper's Corner and request book reviews, what happens next? Are they accommodated with a review and do such reviews automatically appear in AALBC's monthly newsletter? Also, you have said that pictures can be uploaded into a post. But I see no search engine for doing this.. How is it done? Also, as a courtesy, why don't you use the "Edit" feature once you post what I assume are responses you key in a hurry or from your iPhone? This would eliminate the distractions of typos. And are opinion pieces that appear on this site copyrighted by AALBC? MEOOOOOOW.

@Pioneer1 Smoking is not so popular anymore, not since the American Cancer Society and AMA bad mouthed it over 25 years ago. And it doesn't get a lot of media exposure or ad space. Nowadays nicotine addicts are not considered cool, they're considered defiant, and die-hard (pun intended) smokers complain about being ostracized. @Troy I am not promoting or defending FaceBook. It is a pass time that is a waste of time. Yet, not only is it a facet of social media, it is also a sociological phenomenon that lends itself to being observed because it has permeated our culture, and exerted a lot of influence on Society. It is a force to be reckoned with and can't just be relegated to being frivolous. And for the black masses being clueless about the surreptitious media, back in the day black TV viewers complained about not seeing people who looked like them on their screens, so producers came up with a lot of low brow black comedies, and black viewers complained at the way they were portrayed by buffoons like Jimmy Walker on "Good Times", so they came up with the Cosby show and black viewers complained that the Huckstables were super negroes who were nothing more than carbon copies of the white middle class. Before this, was the era of the Blaxploitation movies with pimps and 'hos, feisty black sistas and cool black dudes who black audiences soon recognized as caricatures. Then movies about the trials and tribulations of slavery started appearing, and folks complained about these depressing narratives being turn-offs because they always depicted black folks a victims. The latest media breakout is "Empire", an overnight success that's all about the bling and black folks controlling there own show biz turf. Still, a lot of blacks feel because its producer Lee Daniels is gay, that he is using this series to send silent messages about the normalcy of gayness. I continue to believe black folks do experience gut feelings about the ulterior motives of what they view but they just accept it for what it is. Who wants to go through life full of suspicion and paranoia, restricting your viewing to PBS, when you can find an escape from your humdrum existence by watching things that entertain and engage you? @CDBurns Sistas, like all women, do maintain facades, showing different sides of themselves on different occasions. This is how women roll. They reserve their sweet, coy sides for when they are in a seductive mode. As you imply, men need to polish their images, and realize that they have a lot of nerve demanding certain behavior from a woman if they, themselves, don't look like Denzel or have their act together, - not to mention that element of black men who have no problem hooking up with goofy, fat, white cast-offs.

The whole world is filtered through the eyes of individuals, so who is to say what's authentic and what isn't?