Cynique

@DelSo are you saying that on the anniversary of meaningful events in your life, you can recall them at a certain hour of the day and experience an emotion? And, no, my friend and i have not been shaped significantly different by where we lived. She retired to Georgia but before that where we lived had little bearing on how we evolved. Yes and, incidentally, I never considered myself as having a career. I was employed 30 years at various clerical positions at my local post office, jobs that allowed me to collect a pay check for doing the least amount of work exerting the least amount of effort. When i retired in 1992 from its Registry division and turned over one of the two keys in existence to the vault containing valuable mail, my hobby kicked in and i wrote and self-published 4 books just for the fun of it.( During the 1970s I was a regular contributor to the Op-Ed page of one of Chicago's major newspapers, - which is now defunct. My other calling would probably be my proclivity for appreciating good music but i never made a career of this.) Currently, i consider myself a creative nuisance on internet forums and have recently been elevated to the troll status and welcomed into these ranks by Mzuri, AALBC's resident Retrumpican troll. Sorry, got carried away...

@MzuriYes, I am. And lavender is my favorite color! BTW, i just got out of FaceBook jail.

Rolodex of time does provide a visual for me! To me Spring is green, and Autumn is gold. No, we are very much in sync and we really enjoy reminiscing.

@richardmurrayDuring the 1930s black people also lived in midwestern little towns as a result of the great Northern migration. My folks certainly did. From old photograph albums and my memories, they dressed very much like the characters in the movie "Passing". The town i grew up in is a suburb of Chicago, and there were black venues comparable to the Apollo theater there. Langston Hughes dismissed the "new negro" reference to that era, saying that the negro literati had always been around and were not "new", - that they were just not recognized. Passing was a choice some people did make if they could back then. Obviously one drop of black blood was insignificant, no matter what a racist society decreed.

@DelNot surprising, the color is "gray". i think if you used another term to describe this phenomenon i might have an epiphany. Being word-oriented, to me "time marker" is a vague phrase, BTW, You suggested I be on the 11:11 look-out on January 27th. That was yesterday and it was the 89th birthday of my last surviving childhood friend. i called her to wish her a Happy Birthday. She now lives in Georgia which is an hour ahead of me. i noticed that time i called her was 10:09 By the time she answered it may have been 11:11, her time. She was very glad to hear from and a very pleasant chat between us ensued.??????

@ProfDI like that in you. LMAO i knew I'd get a rise out of you.

Times have changed in 50 years in many cases for the better. But certain obsessed blacks are stuck in the hypothetical mode that is tainted with a paranoia that drives them to waste most of their time imagining conspiracy scenarios that, even if true, cannot be thwarted because "blacks" are not now and never will be a unified force. Being a moving target is their defense, ironically. @ProfD Over the years, I haven't heard a formula for black liberation any different from yours. This is what prompts me to agree that projecting the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, is insanity. The black race, if not totally crazy, is neurotic, and it will never be anything but an elusive, multi-faceted dysfunctional family. Only as individuals will they be on a par with white success. The race as a whole seems doomed to just keep waking up on Ground Hog day, convinced that the deep state is plotting to enslave them; the perpetual suspicion of those who think they are too smart to be fooled.

What wealth does the black race have?

Give me an scenario of what black people would be doing if they were not being controlled?

@TroyWell, explain them to me because I'm still a little confused about the concept.

Scrolling through the comments on this thread, I was struck by the unanimous acceptance of the idea that art and entertainment are two different categories. As if art cannot be entertaining and entertainment cannot be art. Art is made up of genres and "art imitates life" is an apt quote. If a black exploitation film is done well, as in being well-produced, well-acted and well-plotted it can become a classic. All art doesn't have to be highbrow. Comedy and tragedy are 2 sides of the same artistic coin- a familiar depiction in images of smiling and crying masks. White Charlie Chaplin was considered a comedic genius, as was black Bert Williams a popular performer during the 1920s. Black character Step 'n Fetchit was later given his props as a comedic actor, as opposed to previously being branded the epitome of an Uncle Tom, a role he was portraying as an actor during the times when those were the only parts available to blacks. Similarly, Amos 'n Andy were eventually re-evaluated because their 1950s TV series featuring black actors rather than the white ones who played them on radio, was simply a sitcom comparable to the ones about white ethnic types. And, - it was funny! As a matter of history, I was around when "Gone with the Wind" first came out in 1939 and have seen it at least 50 times over the ensuing years. greatly appreciating Hattie McDanial's acting skills. i don't know now many time i have seen her Oscar acceptance speech in film documentaries, and among my contemporaries it was common knowledge that she was the first black person to win a best supporting actress Oscar, preceding Dorothy Dandridge who was later nominated for her starring role in Carmen Jones, a contest she lost.. In my circle, Sidney Poitier has always been referred to as the first black male to win an Academy award. So it just depends on where you are coming from when you make observations about black film. BTW, there is a film written and directed by black women being streamed on am*zon Prime and is entitled "Passing". It is based on the book by Nella Larsen, who was a Harlem Renaissance figure. It takes place during the 1930s and is an impressive recreation of how black films looked in this era- very much in the vein of Oscar Micheaux.

@Stefani agree with your assessment of these black carbon copy conservative trolls who spam this site, and you are doing a good job of keeping them in check. I also agree that the so-called "woke" progressive Democrats will be the reason why the Retrumpicans will make gains in the upcoming election. America has become a nation at odds with itself. Democracy is becoming obsolete. And so it goes...

@Mel Hopkins I miss you, too! @ChevdoveGlad you still show up occasionally to disperse the pollution @Troy i'm glad you haven't lost patience with me when it comes to my squaring off with my female antagonists. @Del and ProfD. i appreciate your two having the broad minds to keep things in perspective. 'Hope my reappearance annoys the right wing lackeys who slither around this forum.

Aw, c'mon, Fellas. Everybody likes a good cat fight. BTW, Cynique is a variation of "cynical", something I claim the privilege to be at the ripe old age of 88 - which when reversed is 88. I suppose this board does need a Polly Anna presence to balance things out. Whatever. I'm about ready to go into hibernation. So talk amongst yourselves. zzzzzzzzz

@DelAs a matter of fact, i am seeing 11:11 fairly regularly.

@MzuriOh put a lid on all the warmed over disinformation. I said Biden is doing the best he can. And he is. Anybody but a right wing parrot and purveyor of propaganda and subterfuge like you knows that no one person or party is responsible for all the problems in this country as you remain in denial about how the Retrumpicans are sabotaging democracy. You are totally under the thrall of the Big Lie and all the other untruths that are the underpinning of that alternate universe you are trapped in. Go somewhere and sit down. @ProfDThat makes too much sense for Mzuri to accept. Cognitive dissonance has claimed her and her fellow fanatic,Nels.

@MzuriThere you go arguing with yourself again because i never said things are better now that they were before. i said these are difficult times. And you with all of your multiple personalities have never come up with a convincing argument that the Retrumpicans would or could be doing a better job of running things as you try to deny this is political when all you do is blame the Democrats and try to sanitize all those right wing Retrumpicans who have infected your mind set. Talk about a lack of self awareness, in your attempt to gaslight me, you don't realize how crazy you are.

@MzuriBlah, blah, blah. Biden is no worse than black people who ridicule white folks and rake them over the coals. Racism is as American as Apple Pie. In the final analysis, Its not about what people say, it's what they do. These are difficult times and he's doing the best he can under the circumstances. Republicans, on the other hand, are doing everything they can to make matters worse so they can reclaim the presidency and install somebody who would be no better. There are no heroes in America's current scenario and nobody is a bigger fool than someone who thinks Retrumpicans are the solution to this country's problems.

@nelsThat being the case, why have you responded to my post? Couldn't resist trying to do damage control, huh? Mission unaccomplished. @nelsIf the shoe didn't fit you, you wouldn't be trying to wiggle out of what clearly describe you. tsk, tsk. What would humanity do if it didn't have paranoid prophets of gloom and doom to take the joy out of living - prognosticators like you who will be disappointed if, Heaven forbid, things work themselves out and Life goes on its merry way. Cheer up, Chicken Little. Maybe one day the world will take you as seriously as you take yourself. Hard to imagine, however, about somebody who thinks the party of Libertarian white supremists and thick skulled Neanderthals is the answer to America's dilemma. Liberals and Conservatives will never successfully co-exist and the obvious resolution is for those of like minds to hook up and go their separate ways. The United States is done but you are too busy beating your breast to realize this.

While illegitimate regime head and presidential impostor Joe Biden destroy's America's sovereignty, black and Latino America seem more interested in who is going to the next Super Bowl and World Series. What a malicious misleading headline contrived to secure a captive audience for the purpose of spreading the narrative of the conservative Retrumpican community of fascists - oops i mean "patriotic" Americans resentful of immigrants. These chronic whiners, along with the growing number of Americans who wouldn't be caught dead doing the unskilled low paying jobs these fugitives from poverty and terrorism will gladly do, are too short sighted to accept this simple reality. So much for the country that once bragged about being a nation of immigrants. Let's hear it for the testosterone crowd of real men who are able to compartmentalize their lives and take time out from the cares of the day to anticipate the entertainment of the Super Bowl and the excitement of the play-offs that precede this thrilling event. Screw the kill joy wussies. Let the games begin!

Do you 2 dedicated Democrat bashers actually call yourself critical thinkers? You seem incapable of wrapping your brains around the truth about today's Republicans being the heirs to the Democrats of yesteryear whom you villainize. Party membership switched in the 1960s. Southern Democrats resented their party being supportive of the Civil Rights movement to abolish Jim Crowism, and they eventually deserted their party and became Republicans because they were more compatible with Richard Nixon and his cohorts. Today, the southern, red-neck confederate-flag waving civil war sore losers, and northern white blue collar workers who were once the type that made up the rank-and-file pf the Democrat party, are now the base of the Republican party. MAGA hat wearers, Proud Boys seditionists, Oath Keeper domestic terrorists, and Neo Nazis are who have revived the KKK, which also counts white cops among its members and they have all found a home in the Republican Party, welcomed by the lying law breaking Senators and Congressmen who are making a mockery of democracy You chide black Democrats and expect us to just blindly accept your smug implication that all of the black people of character and intelligence who are Democrats are duped and crooked as opposed to the tight-ass, boot-lickin black Retrumpicans who you identify with. Puleeze, You are deluded if you think Martin Luther King and Malcom X would be on the side of the party that reveres Trump, the guy who discriminated against black tenants in his hotels and once took out a full page ad calling for the prosecution of the Central Park 4, a group of black juveniles who were later found innocent of attacking a white female jogger. You are also myopic when it comes to politics whose corruptness does not limit itself to one party. Like you, I can also cherry pick. Democrats are who passed all the Civil Rights legislation back in the 1960s. Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democratic president is who appointed the first Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. LBJ might've been a racist but he later changed his stance. And nobody was more of a racist and elitist than Republican president Ronald Reagan whose trickle-down economics victimized black folks for years. Fun fact. Biden was who headed the committee that absolved that Republican lackey Uncle Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill hearings. This is 2022. Most forward-thinking blacks judge Biden not by his past sins but by what he is now doing, and did do when he served under Obama as Vice President. In the present, his staff and cabinet are filled with people of color. You 2 Retrumpican shills can believe what you choose, but you are just as bamboozled as you think others are. If you'd crawl out of that rabbit hole, you'd realize that Democrats are no worse than Republicans.

Cabin Fever Serenade

@Delano Wassup, Del? I slipped below the horizon but have momentarily surfaced. I'm reminded of you every time I notice an interesting sequence of numbers on my digital clock at which time I always take note of how i feel.

@ProfD We cool. I always enjoyed our exchanges both the verbal and musical ones. I appreciate that you "get" me, and understand that I tend to be a polemecist. I'll be coming and going around here. With me, it's always just one day at a time. Check ya later.

@Mzuri'Says a lot about your mental stability that, having branded me as the cat lady, you suddenly accuse me of acting like a dog. At least your delusions about my frame of mind are consistent. Whatever. Pardon me if i don't pick up the towel you just threw in. But be advised that having exposed you as the loser that you are, my usual nice day will be even better.