Cynique

Being employed is not synonymous with earning a living wage. And the drop in black unemployment is simply the culmination of a trend that started during the Obama administration.

@Pioneer1Spare me your insipid reprimands about my prerogatives. I've noted with disdain how Muslims, Hispanics and Asian are not our allies in the black struggle and just because you can't recall this, means nothing - like everything else you drone about. (It's really presumptuous of you to think i have to justify to you why i don't like snide African interlopers who I have personally heard ridicule native born blacks. But thanks for providing me with an opportunity to tell you that i don't give a damn if my sentiments about immigrants offend you.) And speaking of ignorance, your saying that just because Trump satisfies his followers proves that he's not dysfunction is ridiculous inasmuch as how he functions results in the government malfunctioning. Furthermore, even the inmates who are running the white house insane asylum are aware of Trump's psychological disorders, and they either humor or correct or overrule his idiocy. He's accomplished very little and the only reason those who put him in office are satisfied is because, like him, they are dysfunctional. More mansplaining pearls of wisdom plucked from a dollar store string of fake beads.

@Pioneer1Maybe Troy was being sarcastic or - more like you put your own spin on his words. I suspect that he has never really taken sides on this issue because he, like everybody else, has better things to do. You're the only one who keeps belaboring the point, ignoring semantics and multiple definitions in your desperate effort to confine a flexible word in the cage of your opinion - and to provide yourself with the validation that will enable an erection. my facts aren't hard...

@DelI hope you are right. But i don't believe Donald Trump is going anywhere. I really don't think there will be enough substantial evidence to convict him, personally, of anything, or that a Republican senate will impeach him. His uncanny luck will hold out, unless he dies in office. BTW, what are you basing your predictions on??

@TroyThe main reason i harbor resentment toward African immigrants is because THEY have a condescending attitude toward native born black Americans. I do try to keep all the superficial praise heaped upon these Africans by the white media in perspective. The underlying implications of blacks presenting a united front against whites in a global setting strains my imagination. But, - that's just me.

@Pioneer1i wasn't aware that Afro-Americans were snubbing African immigrants to this country. I was of the opinion that i belong to a small minority in my hostile attitude. And holding this opinion, i am under the impression that most Afro-Americans have no problem with African immigrants. And why do native-born black Americans have an obligation to welcome Africans into this country? They have a perfect right to be indifferent toward these interlopers. And in being dysfunctional, the black American community has a lot of company, the most obvious example being Trump and his supporters. Not to mention the spine-impaired Democrats. The "me too" war between misbehaving white males and finger-pointing white harpies is a prime example of a dysfunction family. Now go back to mining more of the "gems" of wisdom which you glue together from the fragments of broken rot-gut whiskey bottles.

@Pioneer1 Naturally, i disagree that what Troy said supported your position. He was merely observing that Del had a chance to support your position but didn't do it. And apparently the reason why Del didn't do this was because he supplied so many different definitions of knowledge that all he could do would be to give his personal preference.

@Pioneer1 Oh give it a rest! You can't tell me what i can't do or have to do in your effort to support your argument which is dependent upon how you personally define information and knowledge. i can likewise tell you what you can't do when i am interpreting my pov. (The first rule of a debate is to never argue with anyone who supplies their own definitions or criteria.) Knowledge has many definitions as Del illustrated, and it all boils down to debaters cherry-picking which definition applies to their contention. As obvious as this is, you can't even figure that out. In answer to the same old stupid repetitive example you persist in giving is: I am aware that what you have written is a series of letters which i cannot translate. This is comparable to having knowledge about what i see. i do not know what the foreign words mean because knowledge is not necessarily synonymous with comprehension. Knowledge is a multi-faceted word. That's my final say on the subject. So take it or leave it. Sheeze.

I confess that i harbor a resentment for African immigrants who come to this country with their condescending attitudes toward the slave descendants with whom they share little history, - with their taking advantage of all the benefits they don't deserve because they haven't paid their dues. As soon as i see or hear an African-sounding surname, i am turned off by the accolades the bearers receive in their adopted country. i've never been impressed with the very ordinary, overrated Lupita Nyong'o who, for some reason became the anointed darling of the entertainment media, and i was disapppointed when goofy-lookin, red-eyed Daniel Kaluuya received best actor nominations for the movie "Get Out", benefiting from the tokenism that could've just as easily been bestowed upon an authentic, more talented black American actor. I did admire Nelson Mandela because he stayed in his own lane. So sue me. i'm prejudiced. Donald Trump has made it okay for me to be this way. Who knew?

Did anybody contest these definitions Del provided, or object to the use of the word "gang' as applied to a group with a common bond? I made reference to fraternities being gangs, and specifically accredited the black ones with having the goal of uplifting black men....

@Pioneer1Fraternities are "gangs", too. And they are well-represented in black society by the Kappas, the Alphas, the Omegas, and the Sigmas, all large nation-wide organizations which have been around for at least 100 years and which focus on uplifting black males and the black community. There are also the Masons. America's black male population is not exactly bereft in the area of leadership teams.

@DelI don't know that the definitions you supplied supported your assertion any more than they do mine, and that's an example of you supplying me with facts and info and me not being able to apply this knowledge when it comes to how it is supposed to prove your point. A lot of this debate is about interpretation, etymology, and semantics. Anyway, I am burnt out from going back and forth on the subject which seems destined to remain at an impasse, so I will simple quote what i said to Pioneer in another post about this subject. "In my book, knowledge per se is not comprehension; it's being aware of, or knowing the components(facts and info) about a subject, and this may or may not lead to comprehending what this data indicates. So you can have knowledge without comprehension, but you can't have comprehension without knowledge. (Wisdom is how wisely you apply what you comprehend.)" And i will sign off by saying we have to agree to disagree.

IMO, this eye-catching headline has the potential to be offensive. It could be construed as your saying that you publish books from these countries because it doesn't matter to you that they are shit holes. This makes you look almost as bad Trump because you are reinforcing rather than reprimanding his choice of words. If it was meant to be a joke, it's a bad one. What if a white marketer used this phrase?

That's debatable. Check out the definitions of knowledge. And substantiate your assertion.

Trump has grunted out his latest verbal turd and referred to Africa and Haiti as shit-holes, - rich and famous white women are on the rampage, taking no prisoners in their belated accusation about sexual misconduct - a flu epidemic is sweeping the land, - a murder one is infecting Chicago's inner city, false warnings of missile attacks caused a real Hawaiian panic attacks, - mud slides buried California, frigid temperatures are crippling the South, net neutrality is endangered, immigration reform is turning dreams into nightmare and - Egads! Oprah is being urged to run for President as the USA stumbles forward on a mission to emulate The Roman Empire before its fall, a self-implosion which in the long run may be a good thing . The territory formerly known as America could rise from its ashes and re-map its geography so that like-minded people could gravitate to a common ground and, like Europe, form their own little countries that would respire with their own national image. This could go a long way toward squashing xenophobia. Diversity would remain in tact because the foundation would about abstract ideals not physical appearances! Each country would represent its own version of Utopia where no polarization or discrimination would exist! Monolithic Denmark would look upon these principalities with approval - and envy! Paradise would be found! Jusssst kidding. The more things change, the more they become the same.

@Pioneer1It's useless for me to engage you in debate because semantics are not your strong suit. And how you process language may have something to do with why you transposed the letters in Michael's name and incorrectly spelled it Micheal. (Seems like you should've been able to look at it and detect this. Just like you went through life totally unaware that you were spelling a common word like "definitely" as "definately".) Our definitions of knowledge differ. In my book, knowledge per se is not comprehension; it's being aware of or knowing the components(facts and info) about a subject and this may or may not lead to comprehending what this data indicates. So you can have knowledge without comprehension, but you can't have comprehension without knowledge. (Wisdom is how wisely you apply what you comprehend) Since this doesn't square with you, we have to agree to disagree. I suggested this before but then you decided that we did agree. (Does anybody really care? I guess you do since you seem to imagine that you are playing to a vast audience of lurkers hanging on to your every word, and that you have to give a good accounting of yourself so they'll be on your side. Your making a public announcement about your persecution on this site would seem to attest to this.)

@Pioneer1As usual, you are substituting your opinion for fact. Thank goodness there's nobody around who'd pay you to write all of the drivel you express in your self-appointed role as the mouthpiece for black men. The difference between you and me is that you don't know that you aren't brilliant. You are convinced every foolish thought your brain spits out is profound wisdom, instead of silly saliva.

this is a good example of how your mind works. if you can't see that what i said is not the opposite of what you said, then you can't think straight.

There's a line of T-shirt now on sale, emblazoned with the word "NOPRAH". I'd consider buying one!

@TroyI'm not brilliant. I am just a natural born skeptic. This is not an acquired trait; it dates back to my childhood. i never believed in fairy tales, And i was always suspicious about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and was well aware that my parents were the tooth fairy. I rejected religion early on because i soon discovered that most of it called for having blind faith in what someone told you to believe or - God would get you. As a free thinker, this was a form of oppression i could do without. By the time i reached adulthood, the first question that always popped into my head when people were adamant about their views, was to say "but what if"? This made me a thorn in the side of both friends and foes, who were usually hard pressed to defend their views. (It was amazing that i had as many friends as i did.) Yet there was also many who were able to give credible rebuttals to my arguments and this was an education in itself. So I learned from being a polemicist. I'm an old lady now, and i find it amusing how many folks there are who want everybody to get along and for people like me to just shut up in order to keep the peace. But i never met a debate i didn't like. Buddha says "question everything" and i do. Not surprising that in my search for the truth it is, indeed, the journey that enlightens on the way to my elusive destination. i thought Shelby's article was very incisive and exemplified that old saw about "the truth hurting", especially when he dissected the motives of this generation of black protesters and how abstract freedom is. i also found that he and i were in sync about what knee bending accomplished. It did shake up the NFL establishment, and did make white Americans uneasy to have to acknowledge that their beloved flag was part of the problem not the solution. They showed their true colors by ignoring this, and freed themselves from pretending to be concerned about black grievances. I wasn't aware of how high the number of shooting victims is in Chicago. But it figures since not a day goes by that some black or hispanic person doesn't shoot or murder another one. White people pretty much restrict their killings to family disputes. Oh well, winter is here.

@Pioneer1Oh, quit taking bows and cherry pickin. Long before you insisted on equating knowledge with comprehension and subsequently offering your example, i gave the example of me knowing all the exponents of Einstein's E=MC2, but went on to say that i did not understand it! I contended from the beginning that having knowledge about or being aware of something does not necessarily means that you comprehend its implications. And i noted that a mystery is an example of this.

Donald Trump made it permissible to be a racist again, when he ran for office in 2017. Before then, the stigma of being labeled a racist, which did date back to the 1960s civil rights era, inhibited whites from bursting the black bubble. Now all of the racists are coming out of the walls, publicly displaying their bigotry, and blacks are left to fall back and re-group. BTW, as a black man, why don't you agree with Shelby Steele??

@Pioneer1Get outta here! Mel and i did not verify what you were saying all along which was that knowledge was synonymous with understanding! I said that knowledge encompassed facts and information but was not the same as comprehending what this data meant. So i don't agree with you when it comes to what knowledge implies. You are really a die-hard, still refusing to think your ideas through lest doing so would prove you wrong and leave you with no choice but to admit that your entrenched beliefs might be incorrect. One thing is sure, a whole generation of white Europeans killed each other during World War I. And just because a relatively few number of men of color participated in Word War II, does not negate that the majority of those fighting against each other were white Europeans. You're always crowing about the 2 Million Men marches organized by your messiah; wasn't that a display of black men unified? And didn't white men from the Union and the Confederacy fight and kill each other during the Civil War? Puleeze. I deleted a previous post expressing my opinion that you are not a critical thinker because i didn't want to keep piling on you, but i reinstate that sentiment now.

@DelDoes the article say racism has ended? I think the gist of this commentary is that freedom is relative. I captioned this commentary "If truth be told" and "truth" is the operative word. The truth is also relative.

If your compliment was inspired by the article above, Jason, the accolades go to Shelby Steele, the black conservative columnist who wrote it, - not me. But thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!