Pioneer1

Gretchen Hello, and welcome to the site. I haven't lived in Indiana but I'm from Michigan and used to drive through it quite a bit on my way to Chicago. The state is racist as hell. And the further South (away from Chicago and Gary) you go the more racist and redneck it seems to become. I remember driving through some part of Indiana on my way back home from Colorado and I stopped in some town and saw the most Conservative plaid-shirt wearing "straight out of Happy Days" looking people I ever saw East of the Mississippi river...lol. The narrator of the audiobook is WHITE. That is a big deal to me. I don’t think Richard Wright would appreciate that. I couldn’t even listen to it. It just sounds..wrong. I wish I knew who chose him, I wish I knew how to rally to get that changed. It’s disrespectful as hell Is there not more than one narrator for that book? You can correct me if I'm wrong but I thought audiobook was just the recorded verbal reading of a book....not an OFFICIAL publication. I would think a book like that would have several recordings of different people of different races reading it, including Africans.

Another Black man beaten to death by a pack of racists. Unfortunately this is not new. Infact, I think they are showing it more and more to "normalize" it in the psyche of the public to TRY and get then used to it. As far as the situation in the so-called Middle East............. That land belongs to neither the Israeli people NOR the Filusteeni people. Both groups are migrants who migrated to that land in different periods of time to occupy it. There were many others who did so also, like Greeks, Turks, Romans, ect... The ORIGINAL people of that land were a Black people called the Kena'ani people, and many of them STILL live on that land in various pockets. The Bible records them as "Canaanites" and talks about the Israelites coming into their land, slaughtering them, and occupying it.

Chev You've presented no reference at all. I presented the Septuagint which you admit was written by Greeks, who were Caucasian. This is what you believe, yet you've presented nothing about Black 'ancient' contributions to script. Because that's not the subject of the discussion. The discussion is about Caucasians writing the Bible, and that's what my focus was and is on. No, it's not "made up", that is a legal term. imo, you should not be allowed to attack 'Black Christians' and again, this is my opinion. Perhaps your definition of "attack" is skewed. Please give us THE definition of "attack". Or perhaps you're confusing "attack" with "critique" and criticism in general. Of course, you respond to a thread that attacks BLACK CHRISTIANS I saw nothing that Harry wrote (in this thread atleast) that "attacks" Black Christians or anyone else. If there was an attack...please point it out. I say this while I await your presentation of THE definition of "attack". But, no one should be attacked and that is the gist of this initial thread. Could YOUR accusations against us be considered an "attack"? If a person criticizes a book, or an ideology -and someone comes along and criticizes and even starts name calling THAT PERSON doing the critique.....could that be considered an unwarranted attack?

Chev I put the reference and you have blatantly ignored it. You didn't post the rest of the DEFINITIONS, you posted the ETYMOLOGY. There is a difference between a word's DEFINITION and a words ETYMOLOGY. This very topic was my thesis in college. Well if you went to college you should know the difference between a DEFINITION and it's ETYMOLOGY...lol. Part of the confusion surrounding the word “ruddy” is that what is being taught has it’s origins in British Israelism. And part of YOUR confusion around the word "ruddy" is the fact that you don't want to accept it's actual definition. You don't want to accept the fact that it means reddish and blushing. You want to concoct YOUR OWN definition of it to fit your narrative of making Solomon and the other positive figures of the Bible as Black/Brown folks. This is a Strong's Hebrew Lexicon Search Results for the word Adam: I should have posted those results at the beginning of our conversation. Strong's expert research on the meanings of Hebrew and Greek words makes it CLEAR that ruddy is the same to to make red or "blush" and it's also the same as the word Adam. Ruddy = to become red = blush =Adam

You're welcomed

No And the fact that you even asked this question tells me you ALREADY know that answer to it and are just asking conversational purposes only, lol.

Alice First of all, if you're going around calling yourself "Alice" you don't have tell most people that you're white...lol. Second, you said: "I was wanting to bring back my beloved dreads, but my sister insists that white people can't have dreads and that I will offend people. I've tried to look up the topic and it seems very divided. I don't want to be disrespectful, but I truly love dreads. What's everyone's opinion?" Based on what you've just written, I sense a problem that you may have that's DEEPER than how you'd like to style your hair. You just said you wore locks for YEARS and got nothing but positive reception from the Black community. Infact, you even said it was a Black man and woman who DID you locks in the first place! .....yet you would disregard all of that positive PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and instead seek the OPINION of others, which often times is not only wrong but tends to be all over the map of confusion. Well Alice...you may not WANT to be disrespectful but you are. You are disrespecting YOURSELF. Because you're placing more value on the opinions of OTHERS than on YOUR own direct experiences.

Afro i am assuming you are a black hetero male? Yes sir, I'm a heterosexual AfroAmerican. Sorry if that's disappointing...lol what type of skin tone would u say he has? He is what we would call "brown skinned". Like this brother: Not light skinned or dark skinned but in the middle.

Hey Troy this happened in your current neck of the woods............... BLACK MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER SHOOTING WHITE BURGLAR IN OKLAHOMA A report from the Atlanta Black Star confirms that a veteran and father of five is set for trial for first-degree murder after he fatally shot a burglar trying to break into his marijuana business. 34-year-old LaRue Bratcher fatally shot 42-year-old Daniel Hardwick back in May 2020 after Hardwick attempted to break into Bratcher’s grow operation for the second consecutive night in a row. “He was trying to break in when the business owner, who was inside the business at the time, apparently opened fire with a handgun, striking and killing the man who was breaking in,” according to Master Sergeant Gary Knight. Bratcher called 911 after the attempted robbery, but the police checked in with the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority and found out that Bratcher’s license was expired. This not only got Bratcher charged with growing marijuana without a license, but the district attorney came back and decided to charge Bratcher with first-degree murder. Even though Bratcher acted in self defense, the district attorney argues that Bratcher’s actions were felonious because his marijuana license had expired. The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority recently changed its policy to allow cardholders to use their expired license while waiting for a new card to arrive. Bratcher remains in jail until his trial is set to begin later this month. TheSource.com will update this story as it develops. Black Man Charged With Murder After Shooting White Burglar In Oklahoma (thesource.com)

Afro he actually has a black heterosexual friend who told him that he wants a girl who has hair like him. lol i thought it was weird I'm not sure what race or ethnicity YOU are, but that desire is pretty common among Black men....especially in the Western hemisphere. That hair is called "loose curls" which is a mix between wavy and curly, considered an attractive feature for most Black women to have. They even have a hair texture number for that type of hair but I forgot what it is. what do u think of what was said? Based on my limited knowledge of West Indian culture, the term "coolie" is an insult for Indian and Chinese immigrants and their children. It's not a term I'd use. Maybe you are, but if you're not very familiar with Caribbean culture you should be extremely careful who you use that term around. The reason I'm giving you this advice is because some Black folks have a habit of talking reckless and saying things out in the open that most people say only behind closed doors or simply don't say at all...and it ends up getting them in trouble. Some of it is done out of simply being too stupid to consider the consequences...for example KNOWING that "coolie" is a derogatory word but simply not caring. But much of it is done out of sheer ignorance...for example you grew up hearing your father or friends use the term in over and over so you didn't realize how derogatory it was until you called an Indian man that and he went upside your head, lol.

A good example of CONFUSION they play on the general population are images like this in the media: In news websites and papers around the nation over the past few days you see and hear them ask the question is the MIddle East or the land of Israel about to go to war or are they on the BRINK of war, often times with a question mark at the end. Either they are stupid (and they are not) or they think much of the general population is too stupid (and much of them are) to recognize and realize what they are seeing with their own two eyes. When buildings are blown to bits and people are slaughtered and injured by the hundred and thousands you are AT war. It's no longer a "brink". It's no powder keg "waiting" to go off....it's GONE OFF. Now ofcourse the war can expand and involve more nations and become more severe, but as to whether nor not there "will be" a war is a silly question. It's already in progress. But depending on the words they use they can confuse people into thinking things aren't as bad as they seem.

Mel You asked for EVIDENCE! The debate ended there as far as I’m concerned. That usually DOES end it, lol. One of the reasons fights....even wars...about religion often last so long is because neither side can produce actual EVIDENCE let alone PROOF for what they believe. So the disagreement doesn't get settled. Seriously, why don’t more of us ask for evidence in situations that can impact our lives and perspective. I can tell you what definitely changed my way of thinking to the point I started re-examining my BELIEFS and separating them from my KNOWLEDGE (which was and still is quite limited). I started listening to a man named Neely Fuller Jr. For over 50 years has been teaching methods to counter the concept of White Supremacy. In fact, he actually mentored Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. He taught that racists have been able to dominate much of the world through their ability to CONFUSE people by displacing their actual knowledge with lies that are constantly re-enforced. Neely Fuller Jr : THEY MASTER THROUGH CONFUSION This is why it's important to VERIFY the information you receive as much as you can before accepting it as true and passing it along to your children. When I started doing this re-examination I realized how much I and other people did NOT know and were confused about. Something as simple as the fact that people call the language Espanol "Spanish" instead of by it's proper name is an example of how lies and misinformation have been engrained to the point of general acceptance.

Chev Anyone can see the rest of the definition for the term 'ruddy' that you left out. You only put "1." of the Webster definition. WOW!--You want to be right so badly that you are being deceptive. Well, if you think I'm being deceptive then SHOW US the rest of the definitions from Webster's Dictionary. Let's see if it contains the word "brown" in any of them. LOL! So WOW again, you are implying here, that people of African descent and/or BROWN people cannot display a 'RED' hue, only White people. It's not about what African people can or can't display, it's about the meaning of the word RUDDY. It clearly means REDDISH or BLUSHING . Anyone can understand the definition of 'bushy', 'nappy', 'wooly' hair, but yes, many people may believe too, the Bushy hair is 'bad'/unkempt hair. Nevertheless, White Caucasian people do NOT have naturally 'bushy' hair. Everyone on this earth, however, can have 'unkempt hair'. Thanks for the cosmetology lesson, but it was unnecessary...lol. The only thing we are concerned with here is does BUSHY = NAPPY. And it doesn't. And you haven't proven that it does. As for the term ruddy. Again, it means reddish or blushing....period. The definition is clear. And to make it even CLEARER if you go to the Hebrew Bible and look up the verse in Hebrew itself for the DIRECT TRANSLATION you will see that it's talking about WHITE and RED mixed together. Awdom (Adam) means red, ruddy, pink, blushing......which is the color of most Caucasians (white people). You can either accept it or reject it, but the truth HAS BEEN presented to you.

Chev The Septuagint was a written Greek TRANSLATION of a more ancient Hebrew script Well if it's a WRITTEN Greek translation then that means the GREEKS WROTE IT. You're kind of admitting yourself that Greeks wrote the Bible. If you believe that White Caucasians wrote the Bible; Who are you referring to? Just like the the Greek Caucasians translated the ancient script, the Latin Caucasians translated the Septuagint into the Latin Vulgate, and the English Caucasians translated the Latin Vulgate into the modern English Bible we have. Either way...regardless of who wrote these "ancient scriptures" you speak of....CAUCASIANS (White people) wrote the actual Bible. A Religious Bully is defined as in reference to someone who attacks another persons religion and religious beliefs. Both you and this Harry person, should not be allowed to do this, imo. Well I think you just "made up" that definition of out thin air because you don't like what's being written. However your last sentence was very interesting. You said we shouldn't be "allowed" to do this. In other words, neither I nor Harry threatened you or called you out of your name but because we said something you didn't like you thought we should be censored and not allowed to speak freely on the subject. ________________________________________________________________________ This EXEMPLIFIES a point I've been trying to make to @Troy for years now as to why so many women love social media and are no longer attracted to message boards. I've told him for years that most women (of all races...it's not a Black or White thing) don't feel comfortable in an open space. I'm not sure exactly what it is but it's been my observation that most women like sites where they can go "tell" on someone or get the moderator to punish or banish another person they either don't like or who attacked them. I'm not sure how we as a community will rectify this situation because it's pervasive across racial and cultural lines. I think it also leads to a lot of fighting among men who will try to take advantage of this desire among most women and engage in unprovoked conflict with other men to satisfy it. ________________________________________________________________- Chev I'm not surprised that you feel this way, I'm a little taken aback that you ADMITTED to it....lol. But I'm glad you did because again it helps to illustrate something I've been telling Troy for years. As far as our conversation about religion..... Lol, girl why do you continue to engage with me on religion when you KNOW how angry you're gonna end up getting over it? You KNOW there's a bunch of hungry lions laying around in their den chilling, yet you STILL hop the fence to stand infront of them preaching and shaking sticks at them....LOL

Mel Africans are all over the place, both as immigrants AND as natives. Most people don't realize not only were Africans in the Americas but we were also in Europe and China for THOUSANDS of years before Caucasians and modern Asians arrived in those places. Caucasians aren't the native Europeans, they FOUND Black African people already there when they migrated FROM the mountains of Central Asia, and consequently slaughtered and displaced most of them. You know when an African couple opens a hair salon in Beijing They're definitely about that life lol I like to hear Africans are making inroads into the Asian economy, especially since so many Chinese are in Africa buying up land and resources. However I have to wonder if the Chinese and Japanese aren't contributing to the brain-drain that the United States and the West already engages in. I'll never forget how somebody explained to me years ago that when Black people move to non-Black communities (nations or even just a neighborhood) and do great and impressive things, often times history records it as "that community" doing great and impressive things instead of distinguishing the Black individual who accomplished it. So the entire nation/community get's the credit while the negative image of the Black nation/community that produced them remains. I have a good example of what I'm talking about..... Right now you have a girl who is an up and coming tennis star winning all types of championships named Naomi Osaka who is half Black (Haitian) and half East Asian (Japanese) but because her parents raised her in Japan for much of her life, JAPAN is getting the credit for producing this wonderful sister instead of Haiti. I hope they will before it's too late. Well you can rest easy because I don't think it will ever really be "too late" for us because I believe Black people are "immortal". What we don't do in THIS round we may do hundreds, thousands, or millions of years down the road. However like you, I want to see it in my lifetime where I can enjoy it. I would love to buy land and invest in an African nation like Rwanda which is supposed to be one of the cleanest and most peaceful on the planet now.

Both of them have the same shaped forehead.

I wouldn't have thought this because most Dominicans don't have a "look" different than most AfroAmericans. I haven't met enough people from Trinidad to determine if they have a particular "look" or not.

Troy Man I TOLD you that girl in the picture hugging on that dog didn't live in your complex! Infact, I TOLD you she was just a model used in that picture to sucker men into moving to Tulsa! But you didn't wanna listen to the ole Pioneer..... I bet NOW you'd rather be back at your old home in Florida by the window with those gators in your backyard looking up at you grinning...lol. "Did ya miss me much?"

Mel If this is true of African immigrants - why isn't the entire continent of Africa host to the wealthiest countries in the world? I'm not asking this to debate - I genuinely believe this to be the case too. Without looking up the statistic, I get the sense that African Immigrants rarely sell their labor. Instead, they produce. Also, the percentage of African immigrants with professional and doctorate degrees outnumbers even white Americans. American Blacks and Latinos don't even measure up in that comparison. So why are some of the African countries so poor or in debt? As I write this, It appears to be the same reason that blacks don't collectively support social networks, lol. Most Africans that I know be they immigrants or children of immigrants are EXTREMELY smart and resourceful and very BOLD/AGGRESSIVE compared to other immigrant groups which also helps them socially. For some reason African men don't seem to mind putting their hands on complete strangers while communicating with them. I haven't been to any African nations (yet) so it's hard to give an educated answer as to why Africa is in the shape it's in but if I had to SPECULATE based on the limited information I have so far I'd say there are atleast 2 major reasons: 1. Outside of Nigeria and South Africa, most African nations are ruled by Western backed DICTATORS who's shameless nepotism and crony policies ensure that the most UN-qualified people occupy positions of authority keeping these nations in a constant state of economic mismanagement and political chaos. 2. For the past 50 years the West (especially United States, England, and France) has been draining Africa of most of her educated and ambitious youth who yearn for more religious and cultural freedom and more financial opportunities. Probably one of the biggest mistakes African nations made when they achieved their so-called "independence" from European colonialism was continuing to MAINTAIN those same political and economic systems they were ruled under. These systems weren't designed for sovereign nations but were specifically designed for exploitation of human and natural resources. They were literally designed to maximize profits from cheap human labor. African nations should have gradually shifted to more practical "Afrocentric" political and economic systems of government.

Chev The term 'white' in the KJV is italicized!!! The term 'ruddy' means 'reddish-brown'!!! Let's go to the dictionary to see what the word means then: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruddy As you can see, the term "ruddy" is another term for red or reddish in complexion Which is the actual color of most Caucasians or people commonly called "white". The word "brown" is no where in the definition, stop playing.... There is no such human on this earth that is both White Caucasian with NAPPY [BUSHY] hair!!! White people don't have nappy hair! Bushy means thick and unkempt, no more...no less. Not "nappy". You're adding words again. But this one, this black skinned virgin, Abishag, is the basis of his entire book of Songs of Solomon. Is the name "Abishaq" even IN the book Songs of Solomon? If not, how can you be so sure this is the woman who it's about? We want to enter an era of TRUTH and FACTS, Chev. If you can't PROVE it with sound evidence then sometimes it's best not to mention it, lest you CONFUSE the people.

Chev But if you believe that then, please put the reference [1] to the Grecian origins of the Bible being written in Greece; and [2] the Caucasian authors you are referring to. What language was the Septuagint written in? You are a Religious Bully and that is wrong. Define "bullying" please. So, you don't believe that Black people were smart enough to write anything in ancient times? You attribute all of our scholarly contributions to Caucasians? You are trying to put words in my mouth and attribute assertions to me I have never made. And THAT is wrong.

Mel I didn't know Black Planet was still operating...lol. Issa Rae is an EXCELLENT businesswoman. A real boss. ....like most children of African immigrants. AfroAmericans are great at marketing their own INDIVIDUAL brands. Issa Rae, Puffy (he'll always be Puffy to me), Beyonce, Perry...are just a few that come to mind. But when it comes to the marketing for the COLLECTIVE....that's when the jealousy kicks in. I don't blame Rae or anyone else for capitalizing off of social media to the fullest. However at the end of the day AfroAmericans must be willing to SACRIFICE a certain amount of time, personal fame, and even temporary profit if we want to build our own platforms and have some sort of semblance of independence. Troy I know you use social media to advertise AALBC, ever thought about kicking out $10,000 or $15,000 for a couple of billboards in some strategic spots to promote this site? There's some sort of Critical Race Theory movement going around in AfroAmerican academic circles that you're probably aware of that you can really capitalize off of.

According to my mother we have some Mehicano ancestry. Many AfroAmericans with roots west of the Mississippi River have Mehicano ancestry given the history of Mehico and how far that nation actually reached BEFORE the battle of the Alamo that vastly reduced it's geographical size. As I said on another thread, most AfroAmericans have varying amounts of Native American ancestry whether it's documented or not. Most of the Mehicanos we speak of were actually Native Americans racially.

Harry Well rest assured you can sleep tight tonight, because we didn't write the Bible. The Bible was put together in Greece by a group of Caucasians.

I don't know a lot of Black men (and NO Black women) who use the word "cunt"...lol. For some reason when hear that word it makes me think of breakfast sausages or patties.