Pioneer1

Well, the U.S. is not a democracy anyway. I'm not sure if we want it to be one. Under a so-called democracy, the MAJORITY has the absolute power to make the rules and the MINORITY has next to none. Women might fair better than men...lol...but the White race would have absolute authority over the others. I

Ok, I can easily understand that because it sounds kind of like me. Although neither of my Parents smoked. I actually did smoke for a number of years...but out of boredom, not addiction. I was told by an older person to quit BEFORE I got addicted to it and eventually I just walked away from them without the least bit of desire to go back. But as I've gotten older, I'm less judgmental of those who do drugs and alcohol on a regular basis because you never know what they're going through in their lives that these addictions are the only thing keeping them from jumping off a building. I now say do what you want, as long as it doesn't negatively effect me. Now when you start ROBBING folks in the neighborhood to feed your addiction, now it's time for a talk....lol.

ProfD Have you ever tried alcohol, cigarettes, or even coffee....lol. I ask these questions because I've met so many people AFTER highschool who have told me they've never done these things but when I was in school, it seems like nearly everybody was doing them or atleast tried them.

I'm puzzled. That's obvious....lol. But I'm here to straighten you out. As far as my issues with DEI....... For one thing, the term is too vague. It diverts the attention of AfroAmericans away from what we should focus on...which is our community's economic, social, and political needs...and focuses us on helping "everybody" or atleast all disempowered people. I'm not interested in helping "all" disempowered people because some people SHOULDN'T be in power. I'm not interested in helping racist Arabs or racist Latinos get more power and wealth in this nation, just so they can turn around and get with White folks and help THEM practice more racism against my own people. DEI...like the term "Affirmative Action", "Diversity", and "Minority".....are terms too vague and can be used to mean almost anything and include almost anybody. Infact...the term "Civil Rights" is too vague in my book. It should have really been called "AfroAmerican Rights" or the "AfroAmerican Freedom Struggle". Whatever they wanted to call it, they should have made sure it specifically applied to AfroAmericans. The Civil Rights Acts and other legislation that was passed in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, should have been SPECIFIC to helping and empowering AfroAmericans ALONE. Let those other groups fight for their own benefits like our people had to.

So I have to ask the same questions I ask whenever I hear about Black celebrities and other AfroAmericans of high profile in legal trouble..... Where are the Black Judges and Black Prosecutors in all of this? Surely there are some Black folks in shot calling positions to "oversee" what's going on. At my job, there are about 7 or 8 major ethnic groups that nearly all of the 1,500 employees fall into..... AfroAmerican, Ethiopian, Latino, Anglo American, Congolese, Italian American, and a few others. Right now we're in the process of organizing a system to where if anyone of in the AfroAmerican ethnic group is called into the office for some sort of disciplinary action....there would be an AfroAmerican "steward" or representative to oversee the situation and make sure they aren't being screwed over. Me and some other AfroAmerican workers put that together and when those other groups heard about it then they wanted the same representation for their own people...LOL. In this world, you better have somebody.....somebody of importance...looking out for you! Too many Black folks get these positions of authority and instead of exerting what little authority they DO have they sit up there like dummies occupying the position but not using it to empower their people. I know what you'll say ProfD...lol...they didn't have a lot of REAL POWER to begin with. Well, what little power they DO have...many of them aren't using it. Back in the 40s and 50s Black folks weren't in these positions at all, but after a lot of cussing and fighting we got into those positions in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Those positions must have carried SOME power because we were able to protect and promote Black businesses. Black Mayors and Judges around the nation were helping eachother out from their positions! So they couldn't have been totally powerless. Look at what your boy Marion Barry was able to do from his various positions in his political career! Nah....some of these niccaz are just plain lazy and selfish and refuse to help other AfroAmericans DESPITE being in a position and having the power to do so. They got it. Like SNAP....they got the power.....they just ain't using it.

Cynique I:'ve always been about expanding my mind! Have you considered dropping LSD or popping a few Molly pills? I've heard they really "expand" the mind....lol. except for those with narrow minds who only want to reinforce what limited knowledge the have stored in their memory and are deluded enough to believe that they already know everything there is to know. So...when do you plan on breaking out of this vicious cycle?

Never? You mean you've never even TRIED weed or other drugs?

Troy Lol...I know you saw my question.

Dr. Umar Johnson chopping it up with a successful young brother and scolding him over smoking weed.... I find it interesting that Umar Johnson smoked an entire joint and nothing happened. I find this interesting because I've had a few similar experiences myself and it one of the reasons I DON'T smoke weed. I've tried weed a few times in highschool and a few more times in my 20s.....once in my 30s...and left it alone. On each occasion (except one where I believe the weed was laced) absolutely nothing happened. I got the same effect as smoking a cigarette. And what I really found interesting was that I was told on multiple occasions the same thing Dr. Johnson was told, that maybe you're too intellectual to get high....lol. I was told that I "thought" too much and didn't "release" enough to get high...lol. I do realize that I don't like the idea of losing control of myself...especially in public places...and some say this is the issue. Regardless of the reason, it seems as if Marijuana either doesn't have an effect on me or I need MORE than the average person to produce an effect (which I wasn't willing to do). Have any of you had similar experiences?

In the real world, whether I'm at work or on the street....if I'm talking to somebody and I'm trying to remember something I often will ask them or give myself a while to try to remember it myself. Some people ask, why not just look it up on your phone? Because I don't want to. I like the feeling of REMEMBERING certain things and I'll sometimes wait a whole day trying to remember something and use the internet only as a last resort. I like using my brain. I usually don't use calculators for the same reason. I'll grab a sheet of paper and do it with a pen. A lot of younger people under 30 will crowd around me in amazement and wonder what I'm doing and ask me if I'm playing some sort of game....lol. It's the same online. If I'm having a conversation with somebody, I can easily flip to another window and look it up but I don't care too much for doing that in most situations. I like the idea of either remembering it myself or the person I'm communicating with remembering it. It seems more "realistic" that way. And a bit more "fair" not to go running to Google for everything.

Yeah...... I forgot about that charge of racism he leveled at some company. Was it a liquor company? I thought it was something else. I could easily look this shit up but for the sake of internet conversation, I like to ask my brother online...lol.

ProfD Middle East. Scandavia. ???? Are you sure most of the people in those regions don't have to work for a living??? This is the first time I'm hearing this bro, lol. The operative phrase is they don't have to work in order to meet basic needs. In the Middle East, I'm not sure about that. I think most of them have to work longer and harder than they do in the United States...lol. In Scandanavia, they have an extensive welfare system so...no many people...a large percentage...don't HAVE to work to have their basic needs met. They will be able to get SOME food, clothing, and shelter. However: 1. That's not the majority, only a certain percentage of them could live off the system like that 2. If the MAJORITY tried to live off the system like that, it would eventually collapse, and pretty quickly because not enough people would be working to support it. Foreigners are allowed to do jobs the citizens may not feel like doing because they don't have to work. Foreigners aren't simply ALLOWED to do those jobs, they are NEEDED to do those jobs...lol. The foreigners get to come and work to make money for themselves and their families back home. Just like here in the US. Yes, I understand. The government requests for them to come to keep the economy going. As jobs are being phased out by technology, the US will have to come up with a UBI (Universal Basic Income). Glorified welfare. Yeah, we'll see how that one pans out...lol. The UBI will allow humans to consume at a certain level. They will have to find some kind of work to make extra money. What they DON'T tell you about UBI is who will and won't QUALIFY for it! It's not like EVERYBODY will be eligible for UBI. They may start off with everyone being included but soon they'll start excluding segments of society like felons, people who owe child support, students, ect. Which will force people to engage in more underground and illegal activity, which will give them more excuses to lock people up. And ofcourse those who are already incarcerated will probably be excluded and will be FORCED to work...and they will make up a larger and larger percentage of the population. Many stores are going to self-checkout. And look how "convenient" that has become...lol. Now that they've gotten rid of most of the cashiers and got all of those self-checkout lanes, they need 2 or 3 attendants to manage ONE self-check out machine because of so many errors and mistakes made either by the machine or the customer. Also they've had to hire more fraud and loss prevention associates. Folks pump their own gas in most states. No cashier or attendant. Drive up at 3 a.m. Pay at the pump and gas up and go. True. No more full service at the pump. But it's been replaced by whole convenience stores inside the gas station itself...lol. And ofcourse you have 10 or 12 people working inside these gas stations selling food, beer, lottery tickets, etc... Everything EXCEPT a damn map....lol The work week will be reduced. Unemployment as we know it will be different too. I've heard them kick around the idea of reducing the work week. Again, as is the case with the UBI....this is directed at MIDDLE CLASS PROFESSIONALS. THEIR work week may be shortened. But those driving trucks, flipping burgers, factory workers and police officers aren't going to see a shorter week but probably MANDATORY OVERTIME more and more.

I don't know if Puffy (I don't call him "Diddy"...sounds too much like titty...lol) is guilty of everything or even most of what he's being accused of, however I don't like this. I always thought the IMAGE Puffy put out was a pretty good role model for Black youth. Always clean, well dressed, successful. Plenty of women. Flashy...which is what most of us like Keen on the streets. And he didn't LOOK LIKE he got it from selling dope or doing anything illegal but from wheeling and dealing in the music industry. The Bad Boy brand and image was and still is a power to be reconned with. But these charges and accusations.....man. For one thing, it looks suspicious to me how he seems to be getting hit with one thing right after another. It's not like all of the legal problems are happening at once. Or spread out every 5 years. It's like they hit him with one thing....he manages to get out of it.....so they throw something else at him...he get clear of that.....then they try something else. Or they'll dig up something from 20 years ago to throw at him. Whatever we can find to stick....let's throw it. Let's accuse him of having freak parties with TD Jakes Let's accuse him of sexually harassing some dude in the studio. Now let's get him on something else. And it also seems as if the racists take the temperature of Black America to see what they will or will not tolerate and when the "time is right" they go after the celebrities like Cosby or Puffy. Also, with all of those illegals they're letting in at the border down there but they aren't sending the Feds after THEM. Again, I'm not sure if he's guilty of what they're accusing him of whether it's law enforcement or rumors in the entertainment industry. But I don't like how it looks. If people can learn anything from this, they can learn that all of this talk about "color don't matter all that matters is green" garbage is just bullshit. Racism trumps money. Look at Bill Cosby and all the "green" he had. It didn't keep him out of jail though. Nor did it keep O.J. out.

The only good thing about the mainstream media NOT highlighting successful Black communities and their frequent achievements is that it offers less of a chance that racists not familiar with a given community won't know about, get jealous, and try to attack it in multiple ways. Other than that.......... It's our responsibility to establish our own media in ever community we operate from television to radio to internet channels and service to news papers. 100 years ago nearly every Black community in the U.S. had it's own news paper and even Black SCHOOLS had their own little news papers with editors and sellers! So many of our people got lazy after integration. Every major metropolitan area in the United States should have atleast one independent AfroAmerican television channel. Places like Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta should have 3 or 4!

ProfD Don't need a paycheck as long as basic needs are met. True. What modern society functions like this, though? What nation can we point to as an example where the majority of people (not a wealthy few) are getting their basic needs met without working for pay? Sure. They've imported them the same way white folks allow immigrants to work here. See...there you go. They need workers so they are IMPORTING immigrants to do the menial and manual labor jobs. Now how do you think that will work out in the United States? Especially for AfroAmericans? That's by design especially in capitalistic systems. Well, show me a nation with a system Socialist, Communist, or otherwise where most of the people of that nation DON'T have to work for a living. It may be ideal, but I'd like a living example to KNOW it works. The economy is predicated on people spending money. Doesn't matter how they get it. Part of it. The other part is producing goods and services for people to spend that money on. Even if everything is manufactured OUTSIDE the U.S., someone still has to drive the trucks to move the goods, open up the stores to sell them, and operate the gas station to fuel the cars and trucks that move them. A whole lot more than 2.8 million people live beyond comfortably well with less than $10 million I agree.

ProfD Black folks didn't benefit from the New Deal nearly as much as white folks if at all. What DO our people benefit as much as White folks from in this nation? Take your pick of the institutions: Healthcare? Law enforcenment? Real Estate? Education? One thing is for sure, if Roosevelt DIDN'T enact the New Deal, Black folks wouldn't have benefited AT ALL from it and would still be living in the squalid conditions so many were living in before it. A whole lot of older Black men are enjoying that Social Security check to trick off on young ladies, liquor, and Cadillacs, thanks to Franklin Roosevelt POTUS Lincoln didn't free the slaves and plunge America into a Civil War because he loved Black folks True. However we benefited from it regardless of his intent. Whatever FDR did to help AfroAmericans economically wasn't enough to build wealth. Actually, it did help more AfroAmericans achieve YOUR DEFINITION of what it means to be "rich"...lol.

frankster True....but the US is not the only so called first world power that has problem with Migrants and Drugs I told you, in the U.S. it's not a "problem" for those who orchestrate it. It's a strategy. It's like saying the U.S. has a "crime problem". It's a problem for the VICTIMS but not for those who orchestrate and benefit from it. ProfD Africans are afraid and wary of us because they have been fed a narrative that AfroAmericans are lazy, ignorant, violent, drug abusers, etc. Unfortunately, AfroAmericans have no control over the propaganda that goes out into the world about us. Much of it comes not only from what they hear from White folks who go to Africa but from what they SEE when they come to the United States. They don't have to watch the news to realize that there is dysfunction in the AfroAmerican community; all they have to do is go to nearly any major city and SEE it live and in flesh. We have SOME control over it by improving ourselves as a community as well as taking ownership of major media depictions of us around the planet. I've toured my African brothers and sisters through the streets on which I grew up to where I live in the cradle of AfroAmerican affluence. Education is priceless. It is a key to shared understanding and eliminating ignorance. And this is what's needed on a larger scale. Not only do we have to clean up the dysfunction of our community but we have to produce and control OUR OWN narratives and what the rest of the world sees of us. Both are necessary.

ProfD As I mentioned above, work becomes an avocation. The people are still doing those jobs. They just aren't what we define as low income or poor. They can afford to work for free. For how long? How long you can go without a pay check also defines your socio-economic class. What I've heard and read is that many if not most of these menial and service industry jobs are being performed by FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS from places like the Phillipines, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh. The Saudis or the Arab families of Dubai themselves may be rich, but they aren't the ones slinging the hamburgers and mopping the floors in the country. It's false to believe that people have to be low income or poor or have a carrot dangled in front of them to work. You think it's false? I think it's human nature. Most people need a good reason (like a pay check) to wake up early in the morning, punch a clock and be told what to do and yelled at from time to time....else they wouldn't do it. There is a difference between lazy and industrious people. I agree. Most people are somewhere in between and need an incentive to do most manual labor jobs. Industrious folks like to build and fix things or be of service to others. They will work regardless of money. That almost always means that their needs are being met ALREADY by other sources besides the occupation they are engaging in. Old Percy Earl can afford to come by your house and spend the day working on fixing your old central air unit because he's already retired and getting social security...lol> Most adults around the planet don't have that luxury of having their needs already met so they can engage in their favorite hobbies...lol. IOW, an adult should not have to work as a janitor in order to feed a family. Well, not necessarily as a janitor. But I do believe the economy should be structured to where most people HAVE TO get up and work to support themselves and their families. If you want to keep the economy and society strong. However, some folks enjoy cleaning up. They would be perfectly happy pushing a broom or mop around in a a luxury hotel. Get off from work and change clothes and jump into a Mercedes-Benz to to go and kick it with the family in their nice home. Sounds like an episode of "Undercover Boss" to me...lol. Depends on how one defines rich. I define rich as having all basic needs met (food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and peace). Accordingly, everybody on this on this planet can be rich. We disagree on the definition of rich. What you described, I would call "comfortable". In my opinion, in this society rich would be a worth of atleast $10 Million or above.

It was meant for us too. If it weren't they would have easily barred our people from receiving it. I think some of that is Black Republican propaganda to try to divert attention from the fact that with the arguable exception of Lincoln.....a Democrat Roosevelt did more to benefit AfroAmericans economically than any president before or since and that's why so many switched over from being Republicans in the 30s. Eleanor Roosevelt was said to be a firm proponent of Civil Rights for AfroAmericans and was a strong influence on her husband Franks policies.

Then I take it you don't believe everything is pre-determined either.

Well, it's good to see that Africans can indeed unite around something besides not liking AfroAmericans....lol.

Clearly they are 2 sides of the same coin. I'm not exactly sure how long they've been that way and when the switch happened but I do believe at one point the Democrats were sincere with their agenda. Sometime around the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt and a short time after I believe they were sincere about pushing their agenda....some good and some bad, but not as bad as the Republican agenda. A lot got done for us. By the Reagan Era, clearly the Democrat party wasn't what it was during Franklin Roosevelt's time.

ProfD Black gold aka oil has made the United Arab Emirates wealthy. The people do not have to work for a living i.e. in order to survive. Work is an avocation. There is no poverty. And I find that highly suspicious. Who is doing the construction work? Who is keeping up the infrastructure like the plumbing, sewers, stocking the grocery stores, etc.? Who is cleaning the streets? These jobs are usually done by poor and low income people. If everyone is living luxuriously, who is doing them? If African countries were allowed to fully exploit the wealth from their natural resources, they would be in a similar position as the the United Arab Emirates. Perhaps. However you will always need a working class MAJORITY to maintain a viable properly ran economy. I wouldn't sell the idea to our people (here or on the Continent) that you could build a society in which they don't have to work or do manual labor. That's selling them a dream or false hope. Wealth (passive income) is built on natural resources and/or using someone else's labor. I think proper investing can also lead to wealth, though I can't say this from personal experience yet. The city of Detroit was built on an auto industry that was owned by white folks. Their wealth was built on the labor of others. Facts. Active income through labor allowed Black folks to make just enough money to live comfortably. True. But let's not shit on it, because it's a lot better than what many if not most of our people in the U.S. have available for them today. We can shake our heads at people putting on a work uniform and "slaving" at a factory for $25 an hour. But atleast they ARE working and making money. Compare that to so many of our brothers and sisters who are in and out of jail, on the streets begging, and stuck hopping from one fast food job to another for $12 an hour. It's almost impossible to become wealthy working for someone else Yes, but you CAN make a living. Which is fair to ask for since everybody can't be rich. I'm going to say whether White folks are in charge or Black folks are in charge....the majority of our people will NOT be rich.

I haven't been to Dubai to label it a paradise....lol. I've heard a lot of nice things about it, but I'm probably going to have to visit it myself one day to see how great it really is. Many societies can put up a good front.....for a while. I also wonder how many people LIVING in Dubai have actually made their wealth IN Dubai. It may seem next to ridiculous to compare Dubai with Detroit; however Detroit used to be the city where poor Black folks from the South could come up and actually MAKE a lot of money and improve their standard of living and live nicely in the very same city. Compare that to a city where things are very expensive, manufactures very little, but features a lot of millionaires who made their money ELSEWHERE and have just decided to flock to the city like a flock of flamingos to enjoy eachother's company.

Right-wingers are good at making strawman arguments and subversive tactics to push their agendas. I mentioned this before, on this very site...years ago....so I'm not sure if you remember or were here. I said that certain Republicans had went on a convert operation to join and sabotage the Democratic Party. When Black folks dominated the Party..... or atleast had more power in it than we have today. ...like say the 60s, 70s, 80s, and early 90s..... For the most part the agenda of the Democrats were pro Civil Rights, pro Abortion rights, weapons control, and workers rights as well as an increase in wages. Sometime in the late 80s and early 90s a new breed of Democrats began pushing an LGBTQIA agenda and equating it to the Civil Rights movement and also introducing a lot of other weird ass extremist views like open borders into the agenda that most people would obviously find repulsive and lacking in common sense. I believe this was done on purpose.