Pioneer1

Have you noticed that most of what Obama has done in the past 5 years seems to benefit the Republicans and other right-wingers who hate him more than the people who actually voted for him and put him in office? Now, he came on television yesterday and introduced 23 executive orders. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/01/16/list-obamas-23-executive-actions-on-gun-violence/ And if you read them, NOT ONE of them actually bans any guns! They're all superficial orders that at best support laws that already exist and should have been enforced in the first place, but doesn't go any further than that. Those much talked about assault-weapons they said were a major part of the problem are still legal. And the high capacity clips are still legal and weren't even addressed in any of the executive orders. So as usual, he managed to further piss off and unite those on the right who don't trust or like him anyway while doing nothing to benefit his liberal supporters.

Troy To suggest that meeting hundreds if not thousands of people from a particular group doesn't give you the right to judge them or come to any type of conclusion about them is out of the realm of human social interaction. If everyone actually did what you suggested was the proper way.....very little would get done because everyone would have to start all over again with everyone they meet. When you meet a person for a business transaction and shake thier hand you do it because you've done it dozens/hundreds/thousands of times before with other people. You've made a PRE-sumption that this is the proper way to greet. You don't show up to a meeting and just stand there with glazed eyes looking at people waiting for them to make the first move, you came smiling with a hand stuck out because that's the stereotype of business. New York has a large African and Carribean population. If you saw a Black man walking front of a bus with his head down reading a paper would you first ask him what language he speaks before you shout, "Hey playa....look out!" I asked you to give me a number of people in a given population do you have to observe to make a proper judgement about them and you still haven't given me an answer. If MOST of the Italian Americans that I've seen whether in the Midwest or MidAtlantic or Canada tend to like gold jewelry, chase women (if they're men), and have dark hair....and that's not a big enough sample to come to certain conclusions about them, then how big must the sample be?

While I think there are too many laws on the books at the Federal, State, and Local levels....I think they should start enforcing more of the key laws that really matter. But from what I've observed, most of the violence in the ghetto comes from 2 sources: 1. Repeat offenders. They repeat because they aren't properly punished the first time. It's usually the same gangstas who are well known in the hood who are doing most of the dirt. People know who they are but don't tell on them because they can't rely on the police to protect them from retaliation. You want to critize people for not snitching, but hell....you couldn't or wouldn't protect duke who just got popped last night. How are you going to protect some single mother who has to walk to work day and night with her children on half-lit or unlit streets? Criminals need to be PUNISHED for thier violent crimes, not just warehoused. 2. People with untreated mental disorders And by mental disorders I'm not only talking about the classical ones like schizophrenia or bipolar; but if you have a drug or alcohol addiction.....in my opinion you have a mental illness. A person killed by someone in an alcohol induced rage is just as dead as one killed by a paranoid schizophrenic. Instead of locking them up and giving them the treatment they need, most White people with mental problems are just given medication and released on the street so the state doesn't have to feed and take care of them. But a lot of Black sufferers don't get ANY treatment except a hot bullet from the police or thrown in jail if they attack somebody. They need to start building more hospitals to give people the proper care they need. Addressing just those 2 things alone would cut violent crime in half. Plus we need far more cops on the street than we currently have. Detroit cut it's police department down to a 1/3 of what it was 15 years ago and the police stations actually CLOSE AT 4:30 PM! And now city officials are scratching their asss wondering why crime has skyrocketed. In most cities in the United States, we need atleast 3 times more police officers in the neighborhoods than we have currently and they need to get out of the cruisers and start walking the beat again.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Like so many young Black from the big cities of the North, I went through the "Maaaaayne, ah-mo go down South where isss warm an isss some jobs!" phase, too. I spent time in Atlanta and Charlotte...both are nice cities. Most Black people who moved down south didn't just move because of the weather. They moved to get away from the crime, social segregation, poor public educational system, and lack of decent low skilled jobs of the major cities of the North and East Coasts. Problem is when you go down South with a ghetto mentality, the problems you try to run away from will follow you there and now places like Atlanta and New Orleans are having to deal with the problems of crime, poor schools, and homelessness too. I made up my mind that rather than running somwhere else looking to escape the problems of my own state, I'd stay and address them. As AfroAmericans we can no longer run from our problems nor can our people afford to continually search here, there, and yonder for jobs. More and more immigrants are moving to America and they feel no obligation to give Black people or anyone else jobs just to "be fair". They're coming with an agenda to build something for themselves and are going to hire THERE PEOPLE first. At some point we're going to have to dig in....literally dig into the land...and make build some structures and make some jobs for ourselves and our children.

Nah'Sun A If it seems like I was unfairly targeting Spike Lee and hyping Tarantino, that's certainly not my intention. My point was simply that Black directors shouldn't be so quick to criticize how White directors portray AfroAmericans when so much of THIER work doesn't portray our people in the best light either. In accordance with it's title...the subject of this thread is NOT about Quentin Tarantino the man or all of his movies, it's about one particular movie: Django Unchained All of his other work in the past, present, or future does not and should not take away from the value of THIS particular movie. B Well, maybe you can see the deep meaning behind it but outside of entertainment purposes (and it was a very entertaining movie) I'm not sure what other purpose Spike had for making Do The Right Thing. If he was trying to address the need for Black ownership and economic empowerment....... Instead of showing Italians getting special favors from the Mafia or city officials to open thier pizzaria or showing Koreans getting special tax breaks that Blacks can't get; Spike chose to show hard working Italian and Korean families owning stores and trying to maintain while the Black and Latino residents are too busy hanging out drinking, cussing, and playing their music loud to buy property and engage in productive commerce. If he was trying to address the problem of police brutality........ Instead of showing the police using racial slurs while targeting innocent Black men and women, he chose to show Radio damn near choking Sal to death in a rage with the police having to pull him off of him and that's when they put him in a choke hold and kill him. Most people with basic reasoning skills will not see the non-Black characters of the film as the villans. Any attempts to clearly and articulately portray racial oppression in the film was totally obscured by the hilariously stereotypical behavior that the Black characters themselves played that often invited thier misfortune. C To be honest I haven't seen Clockers in years. I remember certain parts of it but I don't recall every scene. But if showing a White cop saying he wishes he could blow up the projects (and doesn't even refer to Black people specifically) is the best Spike can do in attempting to portray the racism that we KNOW is so pervasive in the NYPD......maybe he needs to sit down and interview a few BLACK officers on the department and they'll school him on some of what really goes on, lol. D A superhero slave?????? Lol, now see....this is a perfect example of why I strongly believe people should observe things for themsleves instead of just taking other people's words for how things are and running away with it. First of all Jamie was only a slave for the first 10 minutes of the movie, after he was freed he went on to play the role of a Black savior! Before I saw the film for myself (twice now) I heard all kinds of crazy stuff about it being this, that, and the other. Talking about all Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington did in the movie was grunt and act like docile animals. Man Kerry was speaking German and Jamie was kicking ass left and right and came through the end not only alive but with his woman and barely a scratch on him! See the movie bro, lol. Don't be like Spike Lee, criticizing and condeming the movie and haven't even seen it yet. E I agree with you about covert racism being just as dangerous as overt racism. Infact it's often more dangerous because people often fall victim as they let their guard down and can't recognize it. However as I said ealier, that doesn't apply to the movie Django in my opinion. The movie is ABOUT racism in early America, but it's not a racist movie. By the way, I think one of the main problems in our community is the victim mentality that's got Black people constantly seeing themsleves as separate from "America". If you check history, just about every place White people settled on this planet after they left Central Europe they claimed it as THIER land. Whether they called it "istan" in the Middle East or an "Estate" in the Americas. They have an ownership mentality that makes them feel like they belong where they are. Black people have been in the United States over 400 years and most Latinos have been here for decades and still don't see America as thier country, lol. I'm an American, this is MY nation. From my perspective, "America" isn't racist....there are just some racists IN America that need to be dealt with.

I figured that myself. Actually, when you made your statement on predestination I thought I may have been in reference to genetic predispositions like intelligence level, addictions, physical abilities, ect... that determined people's desires and behaviors and thus their future.

Cynique "Hummm. How strange is this, Pioneer? I thought I had included a paragraph on parallel universes in the post I made last night. But I guess I decided to delete it - or somebody or something decided it for me..." "Speak your latent conviction. . . Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.” -Emerson: Self-Reliance "When it comes to parallel universes, I went a little further considering the multi-verse theory, which holds that our earthly personas are constantly shifting into different spheres, each one the location of the resulting scenario that comes with the decisions you make. There was once a Twilight Zone episode based on this idea." Just to keep it accurate from my perspective......... I use the term Parallel Universe initially for peope to understand what I'm talking about. I actually believe there is only one Universe with multiple (perhaps an infinite) number of realities/realms within it. But I understand what you're saying and I often thought about it myself when I think about things that have happened in my past and how it shapes my life today. For example what if I had chosen to drive to get something to eat at Taco Bell instead of walking to Subway 10 years ago, would that have made any difference as to where I am in my life today? DID I choose Taco Bell already in another realm? -I've never hit anyone with my car, but if I did choose Taco Bell did that other person hit a pedestrian crossing street? -Did I meet a rich person at Taco Bell that I might have struck up a conversation with and eventually became a business partner with making me a rich man now? -Would I have decided to sit down and eat there and in walked a woman I fall in love with and now I have a wife and 3 children? Or would nothing have changed besides maybe wasting 15 or 20 extra minutes to drive over to get the tacos as opposed to just walking around the corner to Subway? Years ago I went to New Orleans to become a police officer but then changed my mind at the last minute. Years afterwards they had the flood where a lot of officer's homes were destroyed and some even took their own lives. By the way, it's things like this that lends credance to what Troy was saying about predestination which is why I believe SOME things are predestined. But if there ARE multiple destinies and multiple realms where other things have taken place other than what happens in your current..... If there are multiple "tracts" of separate lives that each decision can lead to..... Then ultimately, there would be a way to access these "tracts" of individual reality at will. Rather than trying to change the course of our life, you can change into a different life itself! In a world where over 75% of the universe is said to consist of dark energy, I believe that there are multiple realms. But different "parallel" destinies are also very possible. Infact, it is possible that somewhere..... Somewhere in another time in another space.... You're actually a submissive little Catholic nun who finds the greatest joy making and baking the daily bread for the rest of the Convent.

Weather didn't seem to matter much to the millions of Black people who left the warmer climate of the South to come up North and get good paying factory jobs. But I suppose the factories were already built and the jobs were already there to apply for. I really believe that success will happen whereever we choose to MAKE it happen. There is so much Black talent but it's diluted and dispersed all over the nation; it needs to be pooled into a particulat location and concentrated like the Harlem Renaissance

Nah "I think it’s a lot easier for white writers, directors, and producers to get away with movies like Django because Black folks in general don’t expect much from them except to be entertained It’s like how people at the Apollo wouldn’t boo the white singer who shows a little bit of “soul” in their voice when they’re really average, whereas they’ll rip apart someone who looks like them when they come half assed on stage" I agree, I think I mentioned this in another thread. Black people too often give White people credit for just showing up and giving any type of performance. I remember when we used to "cap" and "roast" in school. The one or 2 White kids who even dared to participate would say some of the lamest shit but just the fact that they'd get in and try to talk about somebody would win them some ooohhs and aaaahs. However with Django....having seen the movie for myself, I'd have to say this is not the case. Tarantino really laid it down in this one, along with the actors/actresses in the film. "As far as Spike Lee… I disagree with your assessment about his portrayal of the “crazy” Blacks in contrast to “innocent” whites in his movies The movies Do the Right Thing with the racist pizza owners and Mo Better Blues with the shiesty club owners rip apart that opinion" He shows more of a variety of Black characters than a White director/writer will, but most of the characters are still stereotypical and often negative. Let us use Do the Right Thing for example............. The entire show revolves around a hardworking Italian family who tries to maintain a pizza joint in a predominately Black Brooklyn neighborhood and eventually gets their pizzeria burned down in return. Almost every negative interaction between them is the fault of the "crazy nigggaz" who come in his establishment acting up. One is complaing about no Black people on the wall. Another playing his radio too loud. Another begging to sweep to get some money and buy a beer. Pino is the only character who Spike portrayed as a racist, and even HIS racism is shown to be justified trying to deal with the stress of the 'hood. Then some white guy with a bike is harrassed by a crowd of irrational Black youth. And why is Mookie yelling and throwing trash cans through the window of the place he worked when it was the police who killed RR? Now Do'Da Right Thang was a good movie as far as entertainment goes, but it sure didn't portray Black or Puerto Rican people in the best of light. What was his entire point in this film besides showing the world how quick Black people are to riot (and we really aren't) over the most trivial of matters? The 2 movies of his that I found the most uplifting was Malcolm X and Miracle at St.Anne. These were excellent films where Black people were portrayed in very positive and uplifting roles. But Jungle Fever with Flipper and 'em.......((shakes head)) Crooklyn was a good movie, but even there the little White guy who stayed downstairs was portrayed as an innocent victim who was harrased by the kids in his building and eventually beat up by the crazy Black vet. ....and Clockers??? Come on man. I can't remember ANY White people who were portrayed in a negative light in that movie. All of them were cops trying to keep order and solve crimes among violent Black projects. The movie started off by showing dozens of bodies of dead Black people with Stevie Wonder in the background. What was the psychology behind that? "I have no interest in seeing Red Hook Summer, just like how I don’t care too much about seeing Django" You haven't even seen Django yet???????? "I think it’s unfair to say that Spike paints a negative picture about the Black community when Tarantino subconsciously does the same thing in his movies; Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown That goes back to my comments about Blacks letting white folks slide when it comes to certain expressions of art " Hey, I'm certainly not trying to defend ALL of Tarantino's work. I just give credit to where credit is due. This is a very enteraining film that I personally didn't see as racist at all. There is racism IN the film, but the film itself wasn't racist in my opinion. "What “Black” secrets are you referring to? White folks know more about Black folks more than we do… LOL They hide certain historical information about us from us, and study us every second of the hour…hell, how do you think they were able to destroy Black progressive groups with the use of COINTELPRO in the 60s and 70s in the first place?" I believe certain Whites who have taken the time to study our people for specific purposes certainly know more about our people than even most of us tend to. However 40 years ago there were still things (often vices and bad things) the general White population knew applied to THEM but they assumed didn't apply to us. They didn't think Black people were homosexual, not anymore. They didn't think Black people molested children, not anymore. They thought Black people were unshakably religious and believed in God, they now know that's not necessarilty the case. We used to brag that WE weren't the ones shipping the dope in for the little brother on the street to sell, American Gangster cancelled that argument out, lol. Again, I don't see the benefit in exposing to the world how members of the Black church molest children. "America today is just as racist as it was in the past…ain’t nothing changed but the weather Don’t believe the hype just because we have a person of melanin in the White House " I believe America was far more and violently more racist in the past, then things got better in the 60s and 70s, but in the late 80s and 90s after Reaganomics, crack, and gangsta rap....racism began to increase again. And this time it's not just Whites by themselves. Often times they'll have Asians, Arabs, and others on thier team. But I don't think America is anywhere near as racist as it was during the 1800s, lol. How many White men are kicking down Black men's doors raping their wives and snatching their children away from them for slavery? The only thing close to slavery today is the overrepresentation of Black men in prison. Don't get me wrong, racism is real and it certainly exists; but much of the racism Black people in America experience today is as a result of THIER silly behavior that just about anyone of any race with good sense would object to anyway.

TEXAS THREATENS TO ARREST ANY FEDS WHO TRY ENFORCING NEW GUN REGS Texas Proposal: JAIL Any Federal Officials Trying to Enforce New Gun Restrictions in the State (1200 WOAI) A Texas lawmaker says he plans to file the Firearms Protection Act, which would make any federal laws that may be passed by Congress or imposed by Presidential order which would ban or restrict ownership of semi-automatic firearms or limit the size of gun magazines illegal in the state, 1200 WOAI news reports. Republican Rep. Steve Toth sayshis measure also calls for felony criminal charges to be filed against any federal official who tries to enforce the rule in the state. "If a federal official comes into the state of Texas to enforce the federal executive order, that person is subject to criminal prosecution," Toth told 1200 WOAI's Joe Pags Tuesday. He says his bill would make attempting to enforce a federal gun ban in Texas punishable by a $50,000 fine and up to five years in prison. http://nation.foxnew...ng-new-gun-regs

Del LOL @ listening to Public Enemy and quitting your job!!!!! Was it "Fight the Power"? But yeah I hear what you're saying, music sets the mood. It gets the emotions going. Infact, the opposing factions in Liberia said that their soldiers listend to Tupac and Biggie to hype themselves up to do battle with eachother. But if you're a young Black man living in the ghetto with no other people around except those who look like YOU, and you're constantly pumping warrior music into your brain...then who are you going to war against? Admin "Pioneer, in the elaborated context I fundamentally agree with you. However I still do not believe Rap is the CAUSE of our problem -- more a REFLECTION of them." Gangsta Rap in and of itself is both a SYMPTOM of an existing problem and a CAUSE of more problems. Much like a fever is a symptom of an infection but if it lasts can lead to other complications outside of the original infection. Yes the rappers were rapping about the crime and violence and other dysfunctional behavior that was going on in their neighbhoods already and had been going on for decades. No, THAT wasn't their fault. But the way they rapped about it......glorifying it, bragging about it, and telling it from a 1st person narrative clearly implicating that THEY were guilty of some of it....led to another problem of young impressionable minds wanting to emulate their gangsta swag. Most young men tend to be more attracted to strength and confidence than intellect. So an entire generation of Black youth many from decent middle and upperclass families began abandoning those values and adopting the values of a rutheless ghetto gangster, selling dope when they didn't have to and going in and out of jail needlessly trying to gain a repuation. So while these rappers didn't cause the original problems the Black community faced, they certainly are guilty of glorifying and expanding it. I'd also challenge misogyny and violence selling better. Not necessarily disagree, but just "challenge" it a little. Perhaps among a certain demographic it may..... But what about rap geared toward women, would misogyny sell better with them? What about rap geared towards college educated young Black men, would violence sell better with them? People loved Public Enemy, KRS One, Kam, and Arrested Development. Not everybody. You still had those with a mouth full of gold "toofez" who couldn't get down with all that pro-blackness, but you had a larger pool of Black youth who loved it and supported it. Elijah Muhammad used an analogy of giving people a clean glass of water next to the dirty glass THEN letting them make thier choice. If they are only given dirty water and they're dying of thirst.....ofcourse they'll drink it. "Your point "The beats and music was just a way to hypnotize your brain so the violent self-destructive lyrics can enter into it and possibly on to your subconscious". Is worthy of research. I believe there is something to this. " Yes, psychologists and psychiatrists have known this for over 100 years. And ancient Africans and Native Americans also knew this which is why rhythmic drumming and different beats at different intervals were so essential to divination and religious ceramonies. Once the emotions are tapped....the mind opens....and information can be downloaded in.

Troy "Pioneer, Del, that may be true, but it still implies that we actually have free will; which is not something I'm not convinced that we actually have. " Well, I believe some behaviors and thought patterns are determined by our genes. Certain drives, certain predispositions, certain tastes for foods or the lack there of. I read somewhere that Black and Latino people tend to be "supertasters" meaning we tend to have more active taste buds in our mouth than Whites which is why we tend to like spicier and more seasoned foods. I know I've always been able to taste the alcohol in any alcoholic drink no matter how small the amount. I believe some things are predestined, especially on a global or universal scale. But I believe humans usually have choices to make concerning much of thier lives. Whether they know what those choices are or what choice to make is a different matter, but usually there are choices. It's a matter of properly educating oneself. "There is an increasing amount of information about the way the brain works that suggests our conscious self is merely an observer and sophisticated story teller to rationalize our behavior ." Well if that is the case, then THAT suggests there may be someone/someOne/something else besides "us" who/Who/that may be guiding our thoughts and behavior! If we're just an observant passenger, then who/WHO/what is driving the vehicle? LOL. All I've had over 15 years of experience in sales. If I had believed in predestination I wouldn't have made it past 3 months, lol. Most people who got into sales believed too much in "luck" or being a smooth talker and when things didn't go the way they wanted it to, they figured they weren't DESTINED to make it in sales and dropped out. Me.... In just about every sales job I had in the past I didn't rely totally on "luck" or how good I could speak but on focusing my efforts and that's one of the things that almost always paid off for me. The concept of predestination...while some of it may be true...is quite dangerous. It can trick some people into believing they're doomed to stay in thier lowly condition. Del and Cynique talking about rivers, paths, and streams got me to thinking about another concept that I've been studying of late. Has anyone studied up on the theory of PARALLEL UNIVERSES?

Self-Destruction and We're All in the Same Gang Lol, those were the jams. I also remember they had a "no cussing" movement for a minute, lol. I think Heavy D and Naughty By Nature were pushing it. But you know, even when many of these rappers are trying to be "positive" it just doesn't come off genuine or "right". They seem insincere as if they're just waiting for something to set them off so they can beef with somebody. But more so than the violence that was promoted so much 20 years ago, it's the promoting of an uncultivated brutish type lifestyle that I'm seeing in much of the hiphopworld today that I'm really taking issue with. No more dressing nice, now you wear baggy pants and long dirty t-shirts. It's ok to be sloppy with a big beer belly at 17 years old. Tatooing your body and face like some devil worshipping freak out of a slasher film. Take Lil'Wayne for example. Now I've heard this dude on several television shows being interviewed. He's not stupid, he's quite intelligent and articulate when answering questions. But you listen to his music and you can barely understand a damn thing he's saying. He has tatooed his body and face to the point that even HE probably doesn't even know what parts of himself are dirty and what parts are clean. And when he and many of these other rappers of today perform, notice how they rock around from side to side and bounce and grunt out sounds like apes and monkeys! No more style, don't know how to dress, can't dance anymore because they're too out of shape.....just garbage. Even a lot of very young people are rebelling against this garbage and thanx to the internet they're digging up music from Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Dj Quik and even going back to the Commodores and the O'Jays to find good music because of the drought that exists today. My little 14 year old cousin told me she was listening to some Guy the other day while she was exercising, lol. I said "what Guy" were you listening too? She said no....GUY...the group. I had to ask her what did she know about Guy??? She said she came across them on youtube and couldn't get enough of Aaron Hall's voice.

As I said before, I believe there's something to Astrology regardless of how watered down and bastardized it has become in the West. From what I've not only studied but actually observed and experienced , Astrology doesn't necessarily tell you what your future is but it tells you how you should act to get the most out of life. It gives you a blueprint of how your personality SHOULD be in order to reap the most rewards. In other words, if YOU want to be successful you have to act this way. You can't act like he does or follow her script to get the same results, you were born under a different sign so you must behave this way.

If any of you have taken a look at the link below my posts, I'm trying to put together a think tank of those who....like myself....desire to make the Great Lakes region a center for Black progress in the Western Hemisphere with Michigan as it's epicenter. An active academic community is essential to any type of progress on this planet whether it's technological progress, medical progress, or overall social progress. While I think our major focus should be on learning technological trades and agricultural skills, we also need to build and maintain a Black Intelligencia in our community and I think it's easier to do this when efforts are concentrated in a particular location. Seeing as how the New York-Boston area as well as the Los Angeles-Frisco area are both saturated with writters who have flocked there from all over the world. What I'd like is for you to consider converging to the Great Lakes area (preferably Detroit or Grand Rapids but it could be Chicago, Minneapolis, Indiananapolis, ect...) and set up a community of Black publishers, writers, study groups, ect.... A community to inpire, promote, and distribute our own work as well as maintain certain traditions we hold dear. What would it take to convince some of you and your colleagues to undergo a project like this?

Troy "See, to me, this seems like a outlandish exaggeration. So I'll ask, why do you believe this to be true? I believe their combined contribution to the state of Black American families is so negligible that it can be ignored. If anything, the contribution of people like Tupac, one could argue, has been net positive. But destroying lives and Black families -- come on man you can't really mean that." Now Troy, You may not know me that well but you've known and interacted with me long enough to know that I'm a man who says what I believe and believes (often times quite strongly) what I say. Cynique pretty much sumed up (if you can believe that.....lol) much of the problem I have with Tupac and his so-called legacy. The man was beloved by many in the Black community and has passed away so I'm not gonna jump on him too much but........ Let me preface this first by saying Tupac was not only an excellent rapper, he was clearly intelligent (yet often foolish) and had what is called "charisma". People tend to underestimate that word "charisma" but it's a real gift. That blessed gift to charm and influence people into loving you unconditionally and following your lead in just about whatever you do. I knew he had it the first time I saw him in his "When my Homies Call" video. And like Biggie, the powers that be knew he had this and they immediately set out to manipulate Tupac's charm with the youth so that it may be used negatively. Like so many young Black men who grew up without a father (and especially a decent one) he got "took to the cleaners".....so to speak. When he first started rapping it was about pointing out the social ills that existed in the Black community. Then the money and fame came and he was too young and inexperienced to know what the hell he was getting into and a lot of people manipulated him and took advantage of him and his weak morality. Slowly he started rapping more and more about drug and alcohol use leaving the positivity behind. Again, not having a father, and growing up in an unstable household he didn't have the discipline to know what to do with the fame and fortune he got and ended up going in and out of jail for stupid shit. Once Suge Knight got him out and signed him on to Death Row and that's when the "thugging" really took off with him on television with AK's, wearing bullet proof vests, beefing with Bad Boy, hyping the West Coast against the East, ect..... Rather than checking himself and examining where he went wrong, he dug himself deeper and deeper getting more depressed over his situation and you heard it in his music. Now I didn't know Tupac personally, maybe you did. My problem isn't what was going on in his personal life but with that violent and immoral psychological destructiveness he was selling to the Black youth of America. It's because of Tupac that tatoos have become so mainstream in the Black community today. It's because of Tupac that the word "thug" is so popular in the Black community today. Willie Lynche could have learned a lesson from Tupac on dividing Black people the way him and Ice Cube's "Westside Connection) set West Coast rappers against the East Coast. Again, he wasn't the only one guilty of this madness, there were others like Biggie (who rapped about liking them young fresh and green with no hair in between) and most of the members of NWA who routinely talked about getting drunk, high, and slaughtering other Black people in a violent way. I admit, listend to the music when I was younger and enjoyed it. But even then I knew something was wrong and hypocritical about what they were doing and I would examine and question a lot of the lyrics while my boyz were hung up on the beats and flow. The beats and music was just a way to hypnotize your brain so the violent self-destructive lyrics can enter into it and possibly on to your subconcious. Mark my words carefully..... At some point in the near future some of these same rappers and other entertainers who are guilty of CONCIOUSLY (they knew what they were doing, they just didn't give a damn) promoting the criminal and immoral lifestyle that has lead to so much bloodshed and confusion in the Black community WILL BE CALLED TO ACCOUNT over what they've done before a national if not world wide audience.

"My only issue is that it seems like Hollywood are only allowing Caucasians to direct or tell our stories with a large marketing and promotional budget (Amistad, The Help, The Color Purple, etc.) even when they are labeled as historical fiction" -Nah Sun "Tyler Perry and Bob Johnson are not too concerned about how Black are portrayed in the media and have focused in entertaining folks and they have become exceedingly wealthy as a consequence. But they have also borne the brunt of harsh criticism from the Black community." -Troy "That's the problem Negroes always wanna be entertained instead of enlightened...LOL When you're entertained too much, you lose the point behind the laughter" -Nah Sun Both of you brothers make excellent points! Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Black directors and actors often complain about their people would rather be entertained than educated, but perhaps they should put out more educational work and keep flooding the industry with it until a change is FORCED in the minds of most of our people. Racists in the media FORCED a mental diet of foolishness on our community with all these movies showing Black men as criminals, buffoons, down-low homosexuals, ect......along with these racist talk shows that are on several times a day seemingly doing the same thing unchallenged. So in order to change that mentality another diet has to be FORCED back on them going in the opposite direction. I have to say that outside of "Malcolm X" and "Miracle and St Anne" I've been quite disappointed in much of Spike Lee's work. Most of the movies he's directed seems to be "hood" type movies that...granted....tend to have more realism to them than the average hood movie, but still exposes too much of the negativity of the Black community without giving the audience any real solutions to the problems. He may seem pro-black on the surface, but if you really analyze much of his work most of the Black characters in his film are crazy and criminal/immoral and most of the White characters are innocent "victims". Also, he seems to be introducing "secrets" of the Black community into the mainstream. I saw a movie called "Pariah" that was produced by Spike Lee a couple years ago and it was about a young Black girl's experience in the lesbian community. Then he has a movie that is supposed to come out (or maybe already has) called "Red Hook Summer" that supposedly shows preacher molesting a little Black boy. Why would HE put crap like that out? Why can't he work on a movie...like you said about the Haitian revolution, or about Nat Turner; why does he have to be the one to show the world what's happening in the hood? There's enough directors and authors both White and Black ready and willing to expose the immorality found in the Black community, we need Black directors to be the vanguards and standard bearers of Black progress. Like I said before, I LOVE Django. I think it was a good movie that finally showed a Black man in a MASCULINE role. Jamie Foxx was a straight up and unapoligetic MAN in that movie, and that's what we need more of in my opinion. I really wish it had been written, produced, and directed by a Black man. Unfortunately too many Black artists (including Black male artists) don't seem to be comfortable expressing Black masculinity on the big screen. They limit THEMSELVES by claiming "America" doesn't want to see a real Black man kicking ass in the movies. They need to be reminded that "America" voted for an Afroamerican MAN to be president with the HOPE that he would kick more ass! They impose these foolish limits on themselves. America was much more racist and hostile in the late 60s and early 70s than it is today and Black men boldy put out films that THEY wanted to put out like Shaft and 3 the Hard Way, not just what they thought would sell the most. Not only did these movies bolster the selfesteem of our people at the same time but the actors still made money.

Excellent commentary!

I haven't heard any Black men say that Eminem raps about the realz, lol. That usually comes from other White men. He raps about hating his mother-n-law, killing people in bizzare ways, and taking a shit while getting blow jobs......things I haven't heard too many Black men rap about, lol. Every now and then he get's political, but most of his work is just crazy and loony representing a working class young White culture. I think Biggie was a good rapper just like Tupac, but I think the media hyped both of them up a little too much and made them the "poster children" for the golden age of rap. Both of them share SOME responsibility for much of the thuggish lifestyle that has destroyed the families and even lives of so many Black people in America today. Tupac's mother being in the Panthers doesn't make HIM positive or pro-black. They...along with many other rappers including my favorite Ice Cube....helped to make crime and immorality seem acceptable to too many Black youth. Public Enemy was my favorite rap group, but I've always been somewhat political. In my opinion, Ice Cube is the best rapper so far. Gotta give it to Cube...lol. But I also must say that him along with the rest of NWA was part of the problem to, hey.....the truth is the truth. At some point all of the rappers who contributed to the crime and immorality (and obviously there were many others besides them) of the Black community MUST be held to some sort of account for thier words and deeds.

The only reason a person would use such an uncommon word as "erudite" in a conversation is if they were trying to be just that, lol. Delano I personally don't find any inspiration in criticism. I often find it CORRECTING, and don't necessarily dismiss it.....but someone else's critique doesn't necessarily inspire me to any new ideas. Regardless as to the REASON someone may do it, whenever someone criticizes me or something I've said/done I've learned to first examine their critique to see if there is any truth in it. If there is....I try to correct it. If not......I decided whether to ignore it or launch a counter-attack.

Troy Absolutely First of all, anyone familiar with the Detroit area knows that 8 Mile is not the "hood", lol. It's a boulevard that divides the city of Detroit from it's northern suburbs. The only place White people can be found in large numbers in Detroit is downtown attending sports games. The rest of the city is a Black as Nairobi Kenya, lol. Again, Eminem is not from the city (and neither is Kid Rock). The movie was basically a fictional one which he even admits he bases "loosely" on his life designed to give Eminem some "street cred". And again, I acknowledge that Eminem is a good rapper. He definately has talent, I wouldn't disagree with anyone on that. But just like when it comes to a White man who can dance, or sing, or knows how to dress just a little bit better than what we're used to seeing.... It seems that if a White man shows any type of talent some of our people want to worship him and call him the "best". They cheer him on like that character Eddie Murphy played in Coming to America, "Gotdamn dat boy can sang!!!" I've been seeing this since I was a kid in school. Whether we were playing basketball or the dozens, if a White boy just showed a little bit of talent you'd hear "oooohs" and "aaaaahs". "Man that White boy can get down!" If a Black kid were to give the exact same performance....... At best he'd get an "Yeah, he aaaight" or "So what, my little brother can do that shit." A lot of our people want to really see White people actually "be better".

Cynique After reading some of your other posts and seeing how that (( R )) rattling peanut you call a brain operates, I have a pretty good idea of where you're getting YOUR "inspiration"....and what brand you're using, lol. ((As the back-n-forth between Pioneer and Cynique tips the balance from more logical than emotional - to more emotional and down right immature; I feel it's a good time to leave that foolishness behind and continue the march forward towards enlightenment)) Where Does Your Inspiration Come From? I asked where does your inspiration come from. Let us look at this word: INSPIRATION It was brought to us from the Latin word "inspiratio" Meaning to literally "enter the spirit" or fill with the spirit. In reality, all TRUE inspiration must come from an OUTSIDE SOURCE. You don't inspire yourself, nor does your inspiration come from the mechanics of your own brain. If it is inspiration, it must come from a source(s) outside of you.

Administrator ((Pioneer takes off his glasses and rests them on the desk and sighs.....)) Ok..... I said that Italian Americans tend to share more characteristics with AfroAmericans than other Whites.....and you argued this. I say AfroAmericans tend to favor loud colored clothing and spicy foods....and you argue this. I say females tend to be more self-concious about their body image than males....and you even argued THIS. Now, that's enough to make even Dr Phil sit back and stretch his eyes in amazement. Man, are you just trying to be contrary or something? You're disagreeing with things that are commonly known to MOST Black Americans over 30. Things that certainly no other Black person I'VE talked to disagreed with me about. Who goes through life making absolutely no generalizations or assumptions about anything? When you first met your wife, did you first ask her was she "straight or gay" before proceeding with any relationship? Certainly a prudent brother like yourself who doesn't like to make presumptuous generalizations about anyone or anything wouldn't just ASSUME the woman you found attractive also found men attractive. You most certainly had to ask her THAT question didn't you?

"Brandy" certainly is a fine girl ain't she.....lol But you really should ease up on her. Anyway, a clip of the brother on Bill Maher's show:

Eminem is a talented rap artist, no denying that but he's nowhere NEAR the "best rapper", lol. DJ Quik, Chuck D, even Nelly would eat his behind alive. My problem with him is he claims to be from Detroit when he's not. He was born and mostly raised in Kansas City and moved to the SUBURBS of Detroit when he was 13. He's a White kid from the suburbs who just came to the city to learn rap from Black kids and profited off of it.