Cynique

@Pioneer1 Too bad you can't understand standard English. Just what part about my saying the reason i have contempt for this country is because of its unsavory history and blatant hypocrisy, don't you understand??? How many times do i have to reiterate that it is my contention that black people have come as far as they have not because of the American legacy but in spite of it! I'm not the only person saying this, Many have reached this conclusion over the years. It's essentially what James Baldwin, and Malcolm X and your hero Farrakhan said, what Ta-nehisi Coates and Toni Morrison write. What LeBron James and Colin Kaeprenick and even JayZ are realizing. Even white truth seekers acknowledge it. And it is what people who are coming here to pursue the American dream are now finding out. This country when left to its own devices evolved into a haven for white people couched in their skin color, and the richer they are the better they thrive. Donald Trump personifies America at its worst and he is the president. But even the poor whites maintain their status and Trump is their idol. Everybody else is on their own, and lot of those fall through the cracks, especially black ones, - victims, yes! But if it makes you heart beat a little prouder, yes, America is the best of the worst. Now go wrap yourself in the flag, stick your thumb in your mouth and take a nap.

The word "jive" came into prominence among blacks in the early 1940s among black musicians, who had a colorful lingo all of their own, a lot of which was incorporated into black speech over the years, i'm pretty sure "solid" as in "solid, Jack", originated with them as well as phrases like "gimme some skin" being a request for a handshake. This is just colorful creative speech! Black people have a very special relationship with the word "be". Maybe because it assures them that they really exist. So, - they "be", he "be" and do she "be"? "Aks" is commonly substituted for "ask" by black folks, supposedly because black tongues have a hard time negotiating what it takes to pronounce "ask" correctly. It's really just careless speech and a tell-tale sign that no matter how far you come, you still don't correctly pronounce a 3-letter word.

@Pioneer1 And the way you flip-flop and bitch about places like Flint, Michigan, and white cops all going free after executing black people is not exactly out of line with what I'm saying. Not to mention taking leave of your senses if called the dreaded "n-word" by a white person. Bottom line, you love this country and i don't, and nothing you blubber about changes my mind because i'm about the truth not about a lot of masochistic schmaltz that has yet to disprove that black people succeed in this country in spite of how the odds are stacked against them because of their color. "Victimization" is a code word, used by white folks and boot strap black ones, in an effort to neutralize the reality that black people are victims, scarred by the slave legacy that has spawned the double consciousness which makes them neurotic and sometimes dysfunctional. While browsing through a copy of ESSENCE magazine, i just happen to come across an article headlined "The Shame of a Nation" about a newly-released, scathing, well-researched book entitled "The Price For Their Pound of Flesh" written by a black historian named Daina Ramey Berry. Why would i be impacted by your isolated examples when there are people out there who, when it comes to this bull shit country, know whereof they speak when they expose America's terrible history, as opposed to apologist slave descendants like you, jes happy dat dey they allowed some of us negroes to eke out a livin in dis glory land where our free labor helped build some roads and buildings in a few states.

@Pioneer1Ohhhh puleeze.You and your generalities based on anecdotal evidence that stems from what you heard or somebody told you. "Most this, most that",most, hell!; Never any proof. How's this for some anecdotal evidence. i grew up around many people who were around during the 20s and they were not functionally illiterate. You need to get your time line straight because there was a substantial black middleclass in that era both in the north and the south where preachers and teacher and doctors and lawyers were the ruling class, their society centered around the historically black colleges. You're the one who's absurd. Just because illiteracy was true of the losers corralled by Elljah Muhammad doesn't mean it was true of every one. i don't know why you keep holding this lecherous con man up as a paragon of virtue and wisdom. Incidentally i knew a preacher and his wife in my hometown who adopted one of the children he fathered with a young girl. Using your methods, this is proof enough of him being a con man, - something Malcolm eventually discovered. Marcus Garvey was around during the Harlem Renaissance and the artists and intellects who made up this movement were his peers. Black preachers in their pulpits back then weren't all calling blacks the seed of HAM, some were talking about Egypt being in African and Egyptians being the original blacks, - kings and warriors and stone masons. i've been hearing about ZULU warriors all my life, not to mention claims of Cleopatra being black. . The black experience differs from person to person, region to region, city to country, north to south, so stop all your assertions that don't pertain to everybody. .

@Pioneer1Glad you finally realized that you're not qualified to set yourself up as a role model for me. Too bad i had to make this point for you because you were obviously incapable of making it for yourself.

@MAFOOMBAY: What pushback? The Republicans have only their own ineptitude to blame for any set backs. The Democrats are pathetically disorganized and ineffective, standing around reacting instead of acting. Or would I characterize the Republicans as a cornered animal. They effortlessly do as they please and get away with it because everyone is at a loss as to how to deal with their arrogant disregard for political protocol. The Supreme Court nominee? It's not about the process, it's about the nominees and you can believe they will be right wing conservatives who will shape policy for years to come. As for your formula for success, talk is cheap. I've heard all the rhetoric before and things have gotten worse rather than better in this capitalistic republic. This is why i'm so negative. Black unity is an empty phrase, whose reality is not viable. Something more than essence needs to be brought forth. You need tangibles, not abstracts and slogans. Unfortunately blacks who need to be taught the most, are those least interested in learning, too inured in what "XEON", a poster on this board, refers to as the "baby-mama culture" that perpetuates a dead-end life style ripe for violence and the racist criminal justice system, and is aided and abetted by the poor parenting that makes the job of schools more difficult. But you are young and you don't need the endorsement of an old woman like me. i suspect you will find a comrade-in-arms by the name of PIONEER who is also a poster on this site. He is your audience. Others who post here, like TROY, DEL, MEL, and HARRY might offer you their constructive insight, also. What am i doing to help the ambiguous black struggle? Nothing. Looking forward to the Eclipse coming up on August 21st. This is a phenomenon i can watch that has a basis in reality.

No amount of awareness or empathy will eradicate racism in America. Especially with Trump in office. He is at the vanguard of a trend that is making racism acceptable again as the tide slowly turns, and he is who will appoint judges to fill the Supreme Court vacancies with right wing conservatives which, in turn, will undo and prevent any further progress when it comes to women, religion, - and race where, incidentally, the lines are becoming blurred. Welcome to 2017.

@Troy Carbondale is where the campus of Southern, Illinois University is located and the town is expecting crowds from all over the midwest to converge there for this event. Hotels and motels are all booked, the university has rented out all of its dormitories.This will be no small event. The highways might even be jammed. i'll just have to watch it from my Chicagoland vantage which should be fairly good.

This is something i am definitely hoping to witness - again. I saw a solar eclipse in 1970, through my special glasses, altho it was slightly different from this one according to reports. I don't know whether it altered my life or not... This one will occur a few days after my 84th birthday in August and if i'm still around it will undoubtedly be the last great celestial phenomenon i will ever see so i really hope I get to watch it. That is life altering in a way, i think. Another one of the best viewing places in the country will be Carbondale, Illinois, where it will be perfectly visible for the longest amount of time. i won't be venturing down state to see it, and the Chicago planetarium is sold out but i'll stand in my back yard and look on as nature takes its course.

Maybe the rumors about JayZ being affiliated with the IIlluminati are true!

Isn't this the album where JayZ's raps also take the form of asking Beyonce to forgive him for cheating on her and explains the incident in the elevator when Solange attacked him? Sounds like 4:44 covers a lot of subjects.

The reason black people didn't know their history was because they didn't read what was written about it. The knowledge was there, it just had to be pursued. During the Harlem Renaissance, back in the '20s, the black literati knew about African civilizations, especially about the Moors.

Quite a lecture coming from somebody who blows a gasket when he's called a nigger". But not quite on point because my cynicism has been mostly about the sullied history of America which it tries to white wash. When your litany includes Reconstruction, Jim Crowism aided and abetted by sharecropping, lynchings, and most recently hoping that "acting like an American" will count if you're "driving while black" or expecting safe drinking water, then I'll take you seriously. As it is, i always suspected that you were a closet Trump fan and now i know because your are simply giving a black spin to Trump's battle cry. Only difference is that making America great again doesn't apply to you. But rant on. And you have the gall to talk about a slave mentality never taking into consideration that "slave" is the operative word here, and that everything wrong with black people can be traced back to slavery and what it did to their psyche, and how it elevated the white psyche entitling it with the inbred racism that still permeates this country. Black people deserve credit for coping and advancing as far as they have in spite of, not because of this bullshit country, a phrase that sticks in your craw because you're so stuffed with your second-class patriotism. Of course, anybody born in America is technically a citizen of this country and, as such, you are entitled to believe what you want about where this places you in the scheme of things. But you are not qualified to tell me that i should emulate you and love and revere this country where equal justice under the law is a myth and where the system is stacked against the poor and underprivileged, and this mean black folks;it also means the black president who white Republicans blocked at every turn and who was the main reason angry white bigots elected your boy, Trump. We don't agree on this subject and i suggest you leave it at that.

@Pioneer1 I would further add to what Troy said by declaring that not only does this despicable country not belong to your people but that for 400 years your people belonged to it; they were chattel, property, goods and services bought and sold for the sole purpose of making life easier for white people. Unlike the immigrants who came to this country, the progeny of blacks were not absorbed into the mainstream but became objects of scorn in the eyes of the children of the immigrants whose white skin allowed them to move up, while your people remained at the bottom where they remain to this day. You are a nothing more than a foster child of America, and all of your breast-beating will not change this.

@Pioneer1i have never downplayed Africa as being the cradle of civilization and the originators of all the things that the Greeks and Romans co-opted and took credit for. I didn't need Elijah Muhammad to tell me this. I learned it from my father long before i ever heard of Elijah Muhammad. And my father learned it from his forebears because black people always believed they were descended from kings and warriors. I've also always said that history is written by conquerors who revise it to make themselves look good. Or have i ever discounted that diet and climate and DNA are unique to different species. My input as always been that you can't apply a standard rule for people of color because they are hybrid and made up of different ethnic bloodlines. Your generalizations have always been what I've disputed. So, stop taking bows.

@Pioneer1 Your gratitude is misdirected. Troy's action was a calm decision motivated by propriety, not rage. And I made it very clear that when Sara called me a nigger bitch this rolled off my back and didn't bother me. So seek exoneration elsewhere.

@Pioneer1 We're all entitled to our sentiments about this country. I'm not trying to sway you to my way of thinking and you have failed to change my mind, especially since black people are still at the bottom of the totem pole of the country which their free labor helped paid immigrants build. You're the silly one to think that black people have any say-so about white people embracing, as their own, the country that they also fought for in the military that treated your ancestors as second class. America does not belong to you. That 's your foolish dream.

Very interesting. Raises many questions about truth and fact when left to the interpretation of conventional thinking. Kind of shakes your faith in the arrogance of the scientific community which tends to regard itself as infallible. But down through the ages, the mavericks who think outside the box, prove them wrong. I watch the Science and National Geographic channels "religiously", and they have series devoted to theories about primitive life forms being imported to earth by way of comets and asteroids, and that we are descendants of these alien entities whose origin is somewhere in outer spade. I think i'm an alien.

With me, it's about hypocrisy, about America claiming to be something that it isn't. Yes, if you can get by on being thrown a few crumbs to placate you, then America is better than most places. But i do not feel obligated to love and respect it and swell with pride when i hear that irrelevant national anthem that was composed by a slave owner.

@Pioneer1Yes, i allowed Sara's wordS that made up phrases that were different during each exchange to provoke responses from me and i did the same to her. But no one word set us off. These were specific insults and the subject matter ran the gamut from A to Z, making up whole paragraphs sometimes. We were 2 females engaged in a vicious cat fight. In the very end, she called me a "nigger bitch" and Troy pulled the plug, in spite of the fact that i told him that word didn't bother and that, as far as i was concerned, she could stay. My gripe continues to be that a 6-letter 2-syllable utterance should not be so powerful as to hold an entire race of people in its grip, sentencing them to a lifetime of simmering rage just waiting to ignited by any capricious white person who so chooses to use it. But this is the case and there is no sign that it will change. I am retired and my pension is administered by the Post Office which has been privatized

@DelEvery black american can fondly recall growing up in their own little enclaves and neighborhoods during different eras associated with special memories in regard to music and styles of dress and popular dances and what constituted coolness. Black folks have always managed to cope and find ways to enjoy life within the confines of their communities and culture. We have done this not because of America's history but in spite of it.

@Pioneer1Well, maybe Hillary and Bill, in all of their white entitlement and privilege, humbly decided that it was best to listen to the counsel of a meek black president when it came to the most important decision of her life. i still don't give any weight to articles that appear in obscure right wing publications. Why wasn't this information about Obama ever released on Fox News, who never passes up a chance to besmirch both Obama and Hillary. And , surely, CNN wouldn't keep quiet about this charge if it was actually accurate.

@Pioneer1What happened between Sara and me was real life inasmuch as we were real people. You think our run-ins were fiction? Guess so. (You always did have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction.) What was going through my mind back then was a lot of devilish laughter and a challenge to come up with a better insult some of which from her were worse than being called nigger - a word you can't get past because you are enslaved to it. Accusing you of fuckin your mother, or being the son of a female dog just rolls of your back apparently. But let a smug white person push your buttons by calling you a nigger and your bowels explode. As i said, if this dynamic could've been nipped in the bud, people like you wouldn't be seeing red at the sound of a meaningless taunt. But after years of fueling the word nigger with emotion, it is so inflammatory it can start a riot which no one will win in the final outcome. Now go some where and salute the flag of the country you are so beholden to, but to whom you are just a nigger who wants white folks not to devastate you by calling you one.

@Pioneer1Have you vetted the obscure sources of these reports that sound like fake news. I never heard anything like this on the regular newscast after the election. Do these articles say why he advised her to concede and is it clear whether she was seeking his approval about a decision she herself decided to make as opposed to following his orders..

@Pioneer1 So you think that a white person calling a black person a nigger is the gateway to them becoming violent toward black people. You don't say. A black person can ignore this spoken epitaph, but they certainly aren't going to ignore physical aggression and a white person knows this. That's why they're afraid of black people. Cowardly calling a black person a nigger is a taunt used in lieu of a weapon because it has the same effect as one. You disarm a white-name-caller if you don't grant them this power. There is nothing silly about this approach and if it had been adopted early-on, the word would've have picked up momentum and gained the ridiculous amount of power that it now has. i must say your description of your reaction to this word makes you sound like a mindless bull who somebody waved a red cape at. Just what goes on in your head when you react this irrational way?? Why does it affect you more than motherfucker or sonofabitch or cocksucker? It's a conditioned response that you have succumbed to.