Pioneer1

I appreciate our brother doing this for the students. However I think that the money he's pledged to pay off their debts would have been a MUCH better spent if he would have guaranteed the same amount of money to each student toward their OWN BUSINESSES. Or atleast gave them the option for that money to go towards debt payoff or towards businesses. I think this would be more of an INVESTMENT than simply paying off debt because it would generate far more money for them in the long run.

Troy Few can recall something from Ebony with the same level of fondness Perhaps Ebony should have become a Black men's magazine the way Essence caters to Black women.

Chev I can still remember as a kid going out with my family to Sunday dinners (often after church) to different Soul Food restaurants around the city. There were so many to choose from. My father would take us to different ones and you didn't have to worry about people cussing, fighting, or act a fool around you and your family. In many AfroAmerican communities today there are no or very few actual "sit down" restaurants PERIOD whether you're talking about Soul Food, Chinese, or fast food. Most of them are designed for you to walk in or drive up, place your order and pay, get the food, and LEAVE. The message they're sending the customers is: Get your shit and get up out of here.....Lol. Most of the sit down and relax, customer service oriented restaurants today are only the fancy restaurants like Ruth Chris. I think most AfroAmerican youth (25 and under) are missing out on a LOT of amenities that used to be taken for granted in our culture. Most of them don't know what it's like to go to a Black establishment and get waited on by Black people with a smile and eat food cooked with love from ANOTHER Black person. I still remember the old greasy spoons in Detroit that were Black owned and Black ran. Early in the morning as early as 6am or 7am Black folks heading to work in the morning would stop in these joints for a full breakfast of grits, eggs, coffee, pancakes, ect.....and meet up with eachother. I'm getting hungry just THINKING about them! I don't know if you remember but there was movie back in the 80s called the BLUES BROTHERS in which Aretha Franklin portrayed a waitress in a greasy spoon while performing the song "You better think". I remember Black waitresses like that who would call everybody "baby" and put a lot of SOUL in serving their customers. You don't see that today. You see Black youth walking around eating pizza or chili fries most likely made by someone who does NOT look like them or give a damn about them.

Are you telling me that in the scientific community today moons and planets are considered STARS? That would be amazing because this is the first time I'm hearing this.

Mel this is exactly how I felt - and see, you did understand. Some how I had a feeling you knew exactly why I responded the way I did! And yes, I understand why it struck you as irrational - because "love" is irrational and to actually have love for all living things equally is probably something you don’t come across on a daily basis. It wasn't that hard to figure out, you pretty much said it plainly. When you say "love for all things equally" I don't NECESSARILY consider that statement irrational because I realize the word "love" is just one English word that is used to describe MULTIPLE different types of feelings, many of which aren't even related to eachother. I think Greek attempts to separate it with words like "agape" and "eros" ect.... I would guess that the feeling you're calling "love" that you feel equally for everything is a deep caring type of feeling which is a separate feeling than what you have for your children and both of those feelings are different than the type of feeling you have for a lover or spouse....but most people will call all of it "love" for lack of a better term in English.

Mel 　 Out of all the things I wrote correcting Troy you chose to focus on "people" - why is that? It stood out for me because all the other reasons you gave for objecting to how he described you seemed rational (despite my not agreeing with your objections to a couple of them), but your objection to being described as "loving people" and declaring that you don't.....only to turn around and describe this as being too reductionist and that you actually love ALL living things seemed a bit irrational. I can understand your objecting to it if he said outright or implied that this love was reduced to ONLY people instead of all living things, but this was neither said nor implied. It just wasn't expansive enough to your liking. Imagine walking into a pet shop and asking an employee, "Since you work well with dogs, could you give me the best advice on how to train mine?" ....and they rebuke you by saying. "Actually I DON'T work well with dogs, I work well with ALL animals!" Perhaps it was just the wording. Maybe if you had added a "just" in your objection it would have seemed more rational TO ME. For example: "I don't JUST love people.....I love all things" Out of curiosity....... Although you didn't say it outright, do you think for a man to call you smart is a bit "condescending" ? Do you take that compliment from a MAN the same way a Black person would take it from a White who called them "articulate"?

Chev That also means that some of our own people are a part of our self destruction for this cause of White Supremacy and so, what do we do about that!? You're abolutely right. Infact a LARGE PORTION of our people are guilty of self destruction in the community. What has worked for me and most other AfroAmericans I know who seek to improve themselves is to SEPARATE ourselves from the self-destructive elements. When I say seperate I'm talking both physically (moving away from and avoiding known trouble makers) as well as separating ourselves mentally and culturally (not listening to self destructive music, engaging in self destructive behavior, or watching movies that promote crime and murder in the Black community....Empire comes to mind) and seeking the company of those of like minds so that we can build among eachother. Ideally, the goal should be to CLEAN UP the community and rid it of those criminals and savages who engage in grossly self destructive behaviors like gang banging, pedophilia, rape, and theft. The problem is the Caucasians in Law Enforcement often times protects those who are engaging in this behavior in our communities or keeps it contained in AfroAmerican communities in an attempt to keep it out of theirs. They actually enable most of the bullshit you see going on in Black neighborhoods. If it were totally up to us without any outside intervention I believe decent AfroAmericans would have organized and ran out the drug dealers, murderers, and pedophile from our community a LONG time ago.

Out of all that he said to you I'm focused on the "love for people" portion of his statement because I was a bit puzzled for the reason you gave for objecting to it. Is accuracy the issue here, or specificity? It seems to me that his statement was not incorrect, but your issue with it was that it was too narrowly focused or "reduced". BTW, I prefer a healthy balance of compliments-accuracy-criticizm. Too much of either without enough of the other usually doesn't lead to the best results.

Del It just occured to me that this "new era" or change in my attitude has occured one day AFTER the May 17th date you made mention of.

Troy Easy, the laws of physics have not changed. Which is also why we know how the planets were aligned Yes I understand this but the question isn't whether or not the planets as they align today is the same as how they aligned millenia ago because I believe they do; the question I have is how does it confirm or verify the EVENTS that were alleged to have occurred during their alignment? In other words to illustrate my question............. The summer soltice occurs around the same time each year. Correct? It may not occur on the same DATE each year, but occurs during the same TIME FRAME each year meaning after every threehundred and sixy something days we pretty much know we will get a summer soltice. Now if I'm a great general in India and I won a battle during the summer soltice of 1935, how will people in the United States in 2019 be able to determine that this took place or verify that it happened simply by how the planets or stars align with eachother? Does this alignment give them a vision of past events like a time machine?

Now wouldn't this "all" also INCLUDE people? The man is giving you a compliment, why are you giving him a hard time....lol.

To me, knowledge is MORE than just tweaked information but it's also information that is TRUE. You can focus on piece of information, but if that information turns out to be false it could lead to bad results.....and shouldn't be passed along or passed down as a body of knowledge. Troy You mentioned in a post that if it were your choice you would have kept Jet and scrapped Ebony, I'm a little curious as to why? Was it the debt Ebony was in that would have made it dead weight fiscally? BTW..... I still remember going to barbershops as a kid and going through all of Jet magazines checking out the "Beauties of the Week", LOL.

Troy So... you have no problem with walking on water, resurrection, parting of the seas, etc.... this is what gives you pause? Actually I don't believe any of this took place. I could be wrong, but how can I prove or disprove something that happened so long ago? This is why I'm asking Chevdove how can it be proven through astronomy and the study of planetary movements. She's trying to explain it to me but I'm clearly not her best student...lol. Del You're correct that "Beta" is Greek for the the 2nd letter of their alphabet. I should have made it clearer that when I said "Beta" means "house of" that's what it means in GE'EZ which is a Semitic language of Ethiopia similar to Hebrew.

Troy Obviously I don't know the details of the matter, but you certainly don't sound like one who has EVER been morally deprived nor even like one who would have had a habit of making grossly irrational and irresponsible decisions in their youth. I'm sure you did what you felt and thought was the best thing to do at the time so you shouldn't burden yourself with the past. The important question is did you raise the children YOU DID bring in this world correctly or atleast as best you could? Del You're correct that creating life is different than sustaining it. It's a difference most conservatives don't seem to "get" nor do they want to. They'll fight like hell for a human to be brought into this world but don't show much interest in keeping them here once they've arrived.

Zaji I see being a part of the AmericaS and being AmericaN (U.S.A Citizen) as different. All those places can be a part of the AmericaS, in fact. But not be AmericaN. So it really depends on what is meant. Based on maps online, the attached is what is actually, in modern times, considered The Americas Welcome back to the site, I missed your input. Yes you're right that the most common term used in refering to the Western Hemisphere is the "Americas" (plural) and for the most part it's the term I also use; but because of the misinformation and confusion that leads so many to believe that ONLY the U.S.A should be called America....I often use the term "America" singularly for shock value to initiate conversation. For example, I'll call Mexico or Brazil "America" expecting disagreement which will then lead to me correcting them and as it follows a conversations will usually open up over the matter. 　 Del Expertise in engineering does not make you an expert in statistics. Doesn't both fields require you to think logically and in terms of numbers and mathematics? If so, I would think the same basic intellectual skills that lay at the foundation of both careers could be used by one field to understand the other. Similar to how an expert in Espanol would atleast have some familiarity with Italiano since both have their roots in the same Latin foundation.

This is the beginning of a new era for me on this site. I will TRY to be more understanding of other people's views and more appreciative of the knowledge and information other people are presenting. Some may ask what has caused me to seek a change in my demeanor. Well......Del, Troy, and Cynique have been advising me for quite some time to "expand" my thinking and not see things just from a narrow selfish perspective but it wasn't until I reviewed Mel's African American Culture thread....OVER AND OVER AGAIN....and how adamant I was in my error that I realized how embarassingly foolish and down right irritating it may have seemed to others. Another thing I noticed about my conduct was that as much as I liked people supporting my views and giving me positive "likes"..... I almost never did it for others. So as I've said I will try to be more appreciative and infact this appreciation will start with the owner and Moderator Troy. Thank you bro for providing me and others with a platform to express ourselves...the good and the bad...as well as a safe space for up and coming AfroAmerican authors to promote their talents and intellectual gifts.

Come on man....you know most websites are monitored by those in the government. And also many Black sites are monitored by White nationalists (I no longer call them Supremacists) looking for information on members. That's part of that "lurking" audience. This is one of the reasons I don't put out my picture and other personal information out on the internet. Sure the government has ways of getting information but as far as these little white trolls.....they only know as much as you tell them.

Correction: Beth or more correctly BET = House (example = Beta Israel is House of Israel) BAB/BOB = door/gate (example = Babel is Gate of El) Troy and Chev 　 First of all the Bible calls it a STAR....not a planet (Saturn is a planet regardless of how it "looks"). So is the Bible incorrect in calling this planet Saturn a "star" or are those who call that star "Saturn" the ones who are incorrect? Both can't be right. Secondly..... Are you telling me that you believe a literal planet (or star) way out in space came down to Earth close enough for the Magicians to see it, lead them to a particular spot, and then STAND OVER the spot as it says in the book? This sounds more like the typical UFO than any star or planet.

Lol....and how would you even KNOW that a man was in love with me unless YOU were da' man????

Troy Lol @ the way Cynique kept saying "you guys" and snapping on YOU TOO even though you didn't even say anything......LOL. She just tossed you in the pile with me....COMRAD. But yeah, AfroAmerican women actually WILL "get down" and THROW DOWN with eachother! They just have a code not to do it with eachother when a BLACK MAN is around because many of them have been trained to see the Black man as their enemy or the one they should stick together to challenge. If this was a typical female site with a female moderator there would be beefs and fights left and right that would make the fights between Cynique and Sara look like choir practice....lol. Cynique  and just for the record i like Del a hell of lot more than i do you I didn't say you didn't LIKE Del or that you LIKED me more than him. Those weren't my words.....lol. I said you weren't ATTRACTED to him like you are to us for the simple fact that he doesn't give off masculine energy vibes. There's nothing wrong with him being like that; he's just more observatory or neutral......like warm water or kool aid with no sugar. Some people's gender or sexual identity is mild while others is so strong it "burns" through even online. Troy doesn't have to post the fact that he's a man or show his picture, the way he writes and how he puts his words together is clearly masculine. Chevdove on the other hand is the complete opposite and doesn't have to show her picture for you to know she's a woman. Now just picture some big muscle bound DUDE calling himself a "dove" and chatting away about how he took some cold medicine, put on some pajamas and went to sleep....LOL. .....infact, one of the reasons I "lol" so much in my posts is to take some of the masculine "edge" off in my delivery. If I didn't "lol" as much as I did.....my strong opinions and statements would seem much harsher than they probably already do.

Lol.....are you "homophobic" now?

Many people aren't going to like what I'm about to say. Infact I can predict the reactions of a couple. Troy probably doesn't care one way or the other but something tells me Chevdove (one of the two people I STILL get along with here....lol) will NOT like this. But I support the right of women to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Although I consider it KILLING...I don't consider it MURDER. Murder is the unlawful or unjustified taking of a life, but if you are broke and can't take care of yourself in my opinion you have no busines bringing more lives into this world. Many of our people use the excuse that "God will make a way for them somehow" but a lot of the times it's just an excuse to be lazy and irresponsible for their behavior. Can God make a way for them and anyone? Absolutely! The Supreme Being can do ANYTHING for ANYONE. The issue is WE aren't the Supreme Being and because of this we DON'T KNOW what The Supreme Being will do so unless you get a guarantee directly FROM The Supreme Being that the children you have will be raised properly and taken care of - you should use the common sense The Supreme Being gave you to plan your life and family in the best possible manner. Some people should just NOT HAVE CHILDREN.....plain and simple. Many children are unwanted and they KNOW they aren't wanted by their parents and society and wish they had never been brought into existence. Many of these children go on to raise hell, destroy the society that has rejected them, and eventually self destruct through a life of crime and drug abuse or directly through suicide. Not all.....but too many. I've mentioned this before that I prefer QUALITY over QUANTITY and I believe Black people should focus on improving our intelligence and morality as a way of improving our selves and our communities instead of just having baby after baby after baby with no means or plans or even knowledge of how to properly raise these children and turn them into productive members of OUR society.

I've been to Soul Food places in Detroit and Atlanta WHERE I USED TO LIVE (...lol) and there were a few decent ones, but most of them I went to these past 10 years or so were as I described. I have to admit I haven't been to any actual Soul Food places in New York. The only "Black" restaurants I've been to in New York were Caribbean places that served jerk chicken or beef patties.....lol.

You can SEARCH whatever you like (well....almost whatever) but you can't really SAY whatever you like. You have to actually long onto a forum (like this one) and in most cases register with an account like Twitter to either speak your mind or post an ad or notification. I don't know of any place on the web that is totally regulated where anyone can get up and rant all day saying whatever the like a public park or the old fashioned public squares. That would be TRUE freedom of speech.

---RANT ALERT-- This is going to be a long one....lol I think the author is right to lament the lack of Black economic and social unity in the community but I think he may be a little misguided in where he's placing the blame or what the problem is. Many will not like what I'm about to say but this again goes back to the same explaination I had for why so many Black magazines and book stores have gone out of business. For the past 50 years or so the intellect of AfroAmerica has declined dramatically. In other words, for the past 50 years or so AfroAmericans have gotten dumber and haven't functioned on a "community" level like most other groups because of this intellectual decline. Because of this intellectual decline they aren't opening up REAL businesses (4 walled establishments) as much as they used to, and those they DO open up aren't being properly operated or maintained. The intellectual decline has lead to laziness, apathy, poor sanitary conditions, poor customer service skills, not keeping up with the paper work, and many other problems. Let's just take the Black barbershop for example................. Go into most Black barbershops today and many of these young brothers aren't even practicing the basic cleanliness and customer service skills that older Black barbers were practicing for decades before them with less education. Infact, most don't even say hello or good morning to you when you walk in. They just stare at you to let you know you're next to get faded. You sit in the chair and without even giving you eye contact ---"Ahiight....whachoo need mayne?" Starting off hard and indifferent. These young clowns are using the SAME BRUSH on everybody's head and ain't even using those ultraviolet sterilizing lights or alcohol to sanitize the tools they're using! Just spreading germs from one person to the next. And if it's 2 or 3 of them cutting, they're smelling like weed and having a conversation with EACHOTHER about bullshit....not with the customer in the chair they're cutting. They have their boys and lady friends hanging out at the shop taking up space and doing nothing but instigating and gossiping and taking more of their attention away from their work and their customers. And unlike the old barbershops where men had intelligent discussions with a little jazz playing in the background......today if you don't know anyone in that shop you better keep your mouth shut! Not the type of environment you want to take your little sons to. And after all of that they want to charge you $20 for a half ass cut and then EXPECT and in some cases DEMAND a tip! And don't get me started on the soul food joints today. Where are the sit down Soul Food restaurants today? Most of them are places where you go up to the counter, ordrer the food, get it...and take your ass back home. ".....because WE ain't going to wait on you or clean up being you or serve you drinks and napkins." Evn the person behind the counter looks like she or he really don't want to be there but just "got a job" because their cousin or nephew who owns the business hooked them up. Now clearly this isn't the case with all AfroAmerican businesses, but what I just describe is indeed the reality for too many. Our people need help. Intellectual help.