Pioneer1

Troy You must also appreciate that both what you know and believe do not have to be true. Indeed you've demonstrated that numerous times on this forum. For example, you do not believe in man-made climate change or that there is only one one human race, despite both of these things being true. I don't recall giving an opinion one way or the other on man-made climate change, but for the record I believe that climate change is BOTH in part caused by human beings as well as a natural cyclical occurance. As far as what I know and believe not being true. I'll accept that many of the things I BELIEVE may infact not be true. I BELIEVE they speak Mandarin in China....because hundreds of people have told me this and I've read it in numerous publications. But I haven't BEEN to China to confirm this for myself....so I don't KNOW it. However when it comes to things I KNOW......the criteria I use is so strict that while it is POSSIBLE....it's highly unlikely. You see...... I don't use drugs, I don't have mental illness, nor do I have a history of delusion or hallucinations. So what are the chances that things I've either experienced or witnessed with my own sober senses may actually be false? So experiencing a spiritual event lets me KNOW a spiritual realm exists. However most of the details of that realm still sits in the BELIEF category. Actually the fact that doctors can stimulate the brain in such a way to create the NDE experience we so often hear about; the feeling of happiness, the beckoning bright light, etc is one of the things that make me skeptical about those NDE accounts being other worldly Now do you KNOW that doctors can stimulate this based on them doing it to you or seeing it first hand? Or do you just BELIEVE that they can do it based on what you're read in a publication? Because that's what I mean about separating BELIEF from KNOWLEDGE. Besides...... Doctors may be able to produce light and feelings of happiness by altering chemicals and structures in the brain....but are doctors able to produce the 3 dimensional realer than real life interactions of these people with their long deceased family members and other loved ones that they often experience while having an NDE? And if doctors are producing some of these NDE's in a laboratory, who's in the person's head producing them on the street or at the scene of the accident where they die? See a true skeptic must be a skeptic on BOTH SIDES of the issue....lol. You must be just as skeptical of these doctors who claim they can produce it as you are of those who claim to have had it! Cynique Matter is matter, is it not. Are you saying the physical world doesn't exist, that it is just a figment of the mind? And what "experience" are you talking about? Ones that tell you not to drive your car into ongoing traffic or you will be in a collision?? Along the lines of spirituality..... Some would say...and I tend to BELIEVE....that the material world and so-called solid matter are just particles of energy vibrating at a much slower pace than those in the more spiritual realms and that's why they appear more solid. We know even based on Western science that so called "solid" objects....once they are heated or their atoms/particles are excited and began to vibrate faster they being to change in structure from solid to liquid like metal.....or from liquid to gas and vapor like water.

Well I feel rather flattered that I'm considered an "alpha male".....lol. I don't think it's fits me totally because I don't HAVE to be number one, I'd settle for 2nd or 3rd place as long as my voice is heard and my ideas are considered. Actutually I've turned down roles of leadership offered to me in a couple organizations in order to take the "advisory" role where I felt my talents would best serve the organization. Besides...... Brute stength and domination gets you much further ahead in the animal kingdom than among humans where intelligence and social manipulation tends to be just as important for success and getting things accomplished. But make no mistake about it, WE NEED alpha males because they are the protectors of the community and push the community towards progress by having the courage and boldness to buck the system. We need men who are competitive, but competitive in the RIGHT way and for the RIGHT reasons. One of the complaints I have about a lot of young Black males today is that a lot of the smartest ones tend NOT to want to lead or be alpha and dominant but would rather be passive and "chilled" and layed back.....which allows more aggressive men with less talent and intelligence take their spot. And a lot of the REAL alpha males never even make it to college because they end up in jail as a result of doing something brave but illegal.....or end up dead from conflict with OTHER alpha males! Black men need to understand that they are in a COMPETITION in this society for money, women, and other resources. I apologize to Cynique, Mel, and the other women who are reading this who may have gotten offended by my saying that.....but it's the TRUTH. If Black men aren't out here trying to secure as much wealth and women as they can....even to the point of polygamy.....you can be DAMN SURE White men are out here scheming a way to do it. I'm seeing more and more White men with not just White and Asian women but Black women too! What people think movies like 50 Shades of Grey and 50 Shades Darker are all about? It's promoting the image of the alpha White male! Say what you want about aggressive and dominaneering men, but I know FEW women who really find passive-ass men with no ambition or desire to own or control anything attractive....sexually. They may like that guy as a FRIEND (as in fellow girlfriend) but the thought of "cuffing up" with a passive man with no ambition and no desires turns most women I know off. BTW...... Trump is DEFINATELY an alpha male. Whenever you check the dictionaries and even wikipedia for the definition of what an alpha male is his picture should POP UP right next to the word Obama in my opinion was NOT an alpha male. Some say he was alpha but just stealth and quiet in his moves...but that's not alpha. He was intelligent and I'm sure had ambition.....but his lack of aggressiveness neither personally nor in his political life disqualifies him from alpha status. Infact, he's a perfect example of why a man need BOTH intelligence and assertiveness in order to be successful.....because if you're just smart without being bold enough to push your agenda you're still likely to go down as a failure. Because he wasn't aggressive enough with Trump and the Republicans while he had the opportunity....there's no telling WHAT will happen with him as a result of these wiretapping accusations from Trump.

Troy Further, when a blond haired, blued eyed, light skinned person says they are Black, your racial categorization of people based upon what they look like becomes meaningless. Doesn't it? No. It says they are probably miseducated and confused about their identity. Most people with blonde hair, blue eyes, and light skin....if it's all natural and not fake....is more than likely WHITE racially speaking despite what they have been TRAINED to consider themselves. Oh they may have some non-White ancestry. Their mother or father may infact be Black or Brown....but THEY are White in my opinion racially speaking because their genes for dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes didn't come through. Secondly..... NO you didn't mention ethnicity, but you made reference to "African American"...which is an ethnic group. You said: "Look, the typically African American is a pretty genetically diverse lot. So much so, that a Black person can have more in common genetically with a white person that another Black person (but I'm repeating myself). They way we look is a complex combination of ancestry, genetic makeup, gene expression, and environment. " And you're right AFRICAN AMERICANS are genetically diverse....because we are an ETHNIC GROUP, not a race. Just like Latinos are an ETHNIC GROUP....not a race. And just like Latinos, we as AfroAmericans are made up of MANY races. The predominate race is BLACK/AFRICAN but we also have a lot of White and Native American racial genes in our pool also which is why so many people in our ETHNIC GROUP don't look Black. It's because genetically speaking they AREN'T BLACK. Again, the faulty racial categorizing system in America makes anyone with ANY Black ancestry Black and THIS is what causes confusion. Not necessarily the concept of race and racial indentity itself. If you chose to group people based upon their phenotypes, fine. Just don't; attribute those differences to race. Lol...but that's what race IS. It's grouping people based on phenotype! Saying we can group people together based on their phenotype and how they look but don't call it a race is like saying you can eat baked bread with cheese and tomato sauce slathered all over it....but whatever you do just don't call it a pizza, lol. Saying that there is only one race...the human race....make about as much sense as saying there is only one sex....the human sex. Totally ignoring the differences between males and females. Ofcourse there are no "African genes" or no "European genes"....just like there are no "man genes" or "woman genes". But guess what? Just like there ARE genes for testicle production Just like there ARE genes for breast production and ovary production. There ARE genes (alleles) for dark brown skin. There ARE genes (alleles) for curly hair There ARE genes (alleles) for thick lips And just like displaying a pattern of certain genetic traits gets you labled male or female, when you display a pattern of other genetic traits it gets you labled a member of a particular race.

Troy So tell me @Pioneer1 , was Mel's statement the thing that convinced you that people can die, transition to the afterlife, and come back to tell the tale, or did you previously believe this? If so why? Well, as I've said in the other thread, I've been studying near death experiences and out of body experiences for over 20 years so YES I believed in this well before hearing Mel's story. Her story was just more evidence for what I already BELIEVED. But to give you a small window to peak into my thought processes....... I separate what I KNOW from what I BELIEVE. My body of KNOWLEDGE consists of what I've personally experience and/or personally observed to be true. My mere BELIEFS consist of information I accept as credible (to various degrees) based on the amount of evidence for it bounced off of my own judgement. Having said that..... 　 I not only BELIEVE but I KNOW the spiritual realm exists because not only have I received plenty of evidence and information on it from various sources through out the years but I've exprienced it first hand. However when it comes to Mel's and other people's NDE's I can't say that I KNOW it happened because I didn't experience nor did I observe what they did. But not only do I BELIEVE that she actually had one but I believe it strongly because so many thousands (probably millions) of people from all over the world have said similar things after dying and coming back or even being near death. Also thousands of indigenous religious systems that existed in ancient societies as well as most modern societies that haven't had the monotheistic religions imposed upon them also say similar things about the spirit of the ancestors having died but return from time to time involving themselves in the affairs of the living.

Delano You may be interested but your tone is condescending and off putting. You may not mean it but it is. Well I AM interested in magic and estoric knowledge, but I'm only interested in the TRUTH of it. I'm not interested in tricks, lies, and psychological games that merely take advantage of the gullible. I'm not accusing YOU of doing this, but I'm saying there are a lot who DO and it CLOUDS the subject and dilutes the truth in it so much that it becomes harder to tell legitimate practicioners from the frauds. Secondly...... My approach to you and your claims is not condescending because I'm not "looking down" on you in any way. My tone and my perception of your claims is SKEPTICAL and quite frankly a little SUSPICIOUS because of the same claims from others who could not or would not prove them. People can talk about and bash America and even Western civilization all day, but when you compare it to a lot of other cultures where all social beliefs must be accepted and can't be questioned in any way without penalty of social ostracization or even death.....atleast we're allowed to question things and get to the truth of the matter. Time out for blind faith and blind belief. 　 You also claim i have not demonstrated any fresh esoteric knowledge. That is a personal opinion that clearly isn't universal. How do you know how many Black people I have read or offered esoteric advice. I don't know what you've done for others or how impressed they are by you, they are not me and I can't base MY knowledge and MY beliefs on what OTHER'S have experienced. I haven't met you personally and don't know what you can or can't do. I don't know about "readings". Studying a person's birth day and telling them general things that anyone with a basic understanding of human psychology for a particular demographic...you can give all sorts of vague advice that may or may not be true. It's a hit or miss. The only thing I can think of right now that would prove your skills is if you: 1. Produce knowledge that can't be found online that I can TEST and discover is true. Like giving me a formula to mix substances together to produce a particular effect. OR 2. Producing some sort of information about a future event at a given time and it actually comes to pass on or very near that particular time. Outside of that......why should me or anyone with common sense believe? BTW I don't think ignoring me or anyone else you disagree with is the way to go. It rarely works and leads to built up frustration. It's better to disagree respectfully from time to time than just plain ignore eachother. But that's just MY opinion. Cynique @DelanoI'm curious and amused how you and Troy were always so impatient with me for not ignoring Sara's attacks instead of retaliating with my own insults . Now both of you aren't the least bit reluctant to exchange personal slurs with Pioneer during your differences of opinion. Why do you think this is? I don't think Troy is slurring me. I think he's a little vexed because I don't see eye to eye with him on the race argument. I think Delano IS annoyed with me because I'm challenging him and he's probably not used to people challenging him on his craft. What was going on with you and Sara was pure unbridled dislike of eachother if not bordering on hatred....lol. Both of you were/are opinionated and strong willed and neither of you wanted to give. BTW.. If you'll recall I warned you to leave that girl alone but you insisted on having your fun. Until she started getting nasty and talking about your titties and your teeth. Then it wasn't fun anymore was it....lol. Further more, I know how far to go with both Troy AND Delano before it gets into slurs and insults. Besides the true and natural respect I have for Troy, I'm always aware that this is HIS SITE....HIS HOUSE....and no matter how much you trade jabs with a man you never disrespect him or show animosity to him in his own house for obvious reasons. Besides not having any animosity towards Delano as a person but just skepticism of his claims, I also keep in mind that Delano is Troy's personal friend of many years.....certainly under his protection....as they would say in the mafia, lol. Troy has made it clear that he's fond of both of us, so why put him a positon where he would have to choose sides to settle a frivolous dispute? Really, this is an exercise in Black people getting along together. Which is why I don't think Delano and I should ignore eachother. It's one thing to ignore someone you disagree with online, but what do we do in real life with people we live and work around all day whom we don't agree with but can't move away from? Black people are going to have to learn to get along with and live with and around eachother at all costs. But again that's just my opinon. 　

If you noticed.....I haven't used that feature on ANY post. If I went around "liking" every post on this site that I found interesting or agreed with I wouldn't have time to do anything else. I like most of them and disagree with few. Believe it or not, I don't disagree with MOST of what YOU write and tend to like a lot of it....lol. It's just not a feature that I use. But you DO make a point, perhaps I should start using it more. As far as you "sharing".......lol. How do we know what you have to share is even WORTH sharing if you haven't demonstrated it's value? Again, if you have the ability to predict future events then we should expect an accurate demonstration to verify your claims, this is only common sense. If we can't verify what you say, how do people know that what you're sharing isn't just useless or false information?

Del You are demonstrating your ignorance and arrogance Well, atleast SOMEBODY is demonstrating SOMETHING....lol. I've been asking YOU to demonstrate your skills for quite some time now and all we get is more talk and sorry excuses. BTW....there seems to be TWO Delanos with two clearly different writing skills: One who speaks abstractly and can barely post a legible and understandable sentence. And another who is quite articulate in wording. Between the two of you sharing that computer it seems like you both could have came up with SOMETHING positive to demonstrate your knowledge of the craft.

Troy I'm not aware of anyone who has made it to the "other side" and has come back to tell us anything, at least nothing revelatory. You've been talking to atleast ONE..lol. Remember MEL and the experience she related to us in the other thread about being on the other side?

I'm seeing a lot of misunderstandings and crossing of wires between all three of us. As Cynique has pointed out concerning some of my posting, we actually agree on a lot but seem to be emphasizing and exaggerating what we disagree on to the point of erroneous projection. Because I tend to think in a linear fashion, let me state my positions on this matter LINEARLY: 1. Yes RACIAL CLASSIFICATION indeed IS an artificial man-made construct. Infact ALL classifications are man-made artificial constructs because it's used by the human brain to help catagorize things and keep our societies relatively organized. This isn't necessarily a bad thing although it is often USED for bad purposes. Different nations and cultures have different classification systems to describe the physical differences that naturally occur. In English culture ONE DROP of Black blood makes you Black. In Spanish culture ONE DROP of Spaniard blood makes you Spanish regardless as to how dark you are. Which is why you have so many Puerto Ricans and Dominicans who are clearly Black racially speaking but insist they aren't and call themselves "Latino" or "Spanish". The color and races of the people haven't changed, but it's how they're classified that differs. 2. Race itself is NOT a construct but a genetic reality. These two boys clearly have different genes and would be of different races whether we classified them as such or not. Their physical differnces are NATURAL....not ARTIFICIAL or man made. How they are CLASSIFIED is artificial and man made and can fluxuate with time, but the genes that produce them are REAL. 3. There is a difference between RACE and ETHNICITY and that's one of the problems I think YOU Troy are hung up on and it's one of the vortices of your argument. RACE is genetic and it has to do with skin color, hair texture, and facial features....phenotype. ETHNICITY is cultural and it involves language, food, dress, family structure, and other non-physical factors. When you talk about AfroAmericans you're not talking about RACE, we are an ETHNIC GROUP. We come in many different races but the predominate one is BLACK. Some AfroAmericans racially speaking are White and others are Native American and the only thing that make them AfroAmerican are the trace amounts of Black ancestry that barely and sometimes NEVER shows in their physical traits. That's why RACE seems to be so confusion and you refuse to accept it's reality. Because you're looking at it from the U.S. definition and classification which is FLAWED and constantly changes. Look at it from a natural more phenotypical point of view of how people actually LOOK despite what they are called or even choose to call themselves.

Yes I agree, we DO need allies. But the alliance must be MUTUAL and understood. It can't be one sided where everytime Arabs and Latinos face discrimination Blacks come running to their defense, but when WE face discrimination and prejudice they sit back in their enclaves and remain silent or brush it off as just a problem between the Blacks and the Whites and mind their own business. We also need to study the cultures of many of these people and understand how deep racism and colorism exist in their homelands BEFORE then even come to America. Here you are thinking you have another person of color who is an ally against racism and THEY turn out to be even more racist than the White man in America....lol. Like Tariq Nasheed said, it's time for these other immigrant groups and people's of color to "hold their own nuts". Meaning it's time for THEM to stand up and face the brunt of racism and challenge White America like Blacks have been doing for so many decades and earn their place in America.

Perhaps..... But according to information I've gathered regarding the spiritual world, many individuals who've made to the other side STILL show an interest in humanity and especially the conditions of family members and other loved ones still left behind on THIS plane of existence.

I don't know about the "magic" part, but I KNOW astral projection is real because I've left my body before. That's how I know a spiritual world exists Delano Mel's post does fit under Magick as I defined it. I find it interesting that you correct someone that has knowledge and experience in a field of which you are ignorant. Its a thinly veiled attempt to exert your perceived expertise in a topic, that you don't understand as practitioners do nor those who are curious. I guess you got THIS erroneous assumption from your cloudy "crystal ball" like you've gotten the OTHER erroneous assumptions, such as me being too lazy to read a book...lol. ....no facts to solidly back up your accusations. ....just nonsensical jabs and innuendos here and there. What Mel related was a SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. It had little to do with YOUR definition (as if you're qualified to define it) of magic, astrology, lucky charms, or froot loops hanging from her neck. Furthermore, YOU sir should be careful who you accuse of being ignorant about the field of spirituality because...... 1. If you'd bother to READ my posts and try to understand them instead of just looking for a an opportunity to slander me......you'd read where I've studied NDE's for well over 20 years. I've studied the material from various researchers as well as listened to personal experiences from those who've had them, so I'm not completely ignorant to this subject. 2. YOU have yet to prove YOUR skills or abilities be it in spiritually OR in the field of magic. I've asked you repeatedly to prove you skills by giving us verifiable information about events with dates that will happen in the future and instead of doing so you've repeatedly provided us only with flimsy excuses for not doing so while regurgitating often outdated information you've gotten from White magicians and occultists of the past. For example you latest post......... You just claimed that it IS possible to remote view and see the future.....so why don't you PROVE IT? Go into the future and bring us back some verifiable information to show that you know what you're talking about.

　 Cynique Many Latina women do resent being labeled as "hot-blooded spitfires", just as blondes hate to be characterized as "dumb airheads", and big-chested women prefer men to look past their bosom. Why? Because such perceptions make a caricature of them. And i repeat black women don't like being arbitrarily viewed as loose and lusty. You're focusing on the women while completely ignoring the masculine side which sees benefit in having a powerful powerful sexual reputation. Most Latino MEN are proud to be considered macho and most Black males would rather be dead than lose their sexual potency One of the worse things for a Black male to be seen as in the Black community is weak, or a coward, or a punk. A common complaint of black men is how unaccompanied white women are instinctively uneasy around them. I'm not sure how many Black men told you this because as a Black man I've RARELY noticed that women of ANY race is uncomfortable around me....thus I don't have this complaint. Sure I've experienced a few incidents through out my life but for the most part I've had not trouble with White or even Asian women feeling "uneasy" or showing "uneasiness" about me. It reduces them to a subhuman level. Also, I think intelligent black men would rather be judged first by their intellect rather than their overrated sexuality. We're not talking about measures of intelligence, we're talking about basic MANHOOD and one of the worse things for a Black male to be called in the Black community is weak, or a coward, or a punk. A man's stature...especially among average working class men....is directly tied to his ability to defend himself and be sexually potent. No mention is ever made of how many books a man has read as a determination of his masculinity. Further more, being assertive doesn't have anything to do with a large penis and an accelerated sex drive. And most self-respecting black women don't stick with a black man if he doesn't have anything else going for him but horniness. All such males are good for is stud service via a booty call. What's wrong with THAT? Some men and women have a TALENT for sex, so if that's their way of contributing to the relationship and it makes their partner happy I say let them do what they do best! I know a few brothers who don't work and their women do have good jobs and bring home the money; their job is to defend the home from intruders and make sure she's happy in the bed room. It's worked for some of them for 20 and 25 years! 　 Also i don't agree that an authentic black man can be feminized. Those that come across as effeminate are probably in the closet. I don't know what you mean by an "authentic black man". The processess of feminization doesn't start with the man as an adult, it starts with BOYS during childhood where his teachers and often times his own mother encourages him to act more like a girl and be less aggressive so as not to appear threatening and this advice is constantly drilled into him all through out his growing up. Troy @Pioneer1 ignored Britanny's post because there was really nothing he could say to reasonably refute what she wrote. No..... I didn't respond to her post for two reasons: 1. So many of you were happy as hell that she disagreed with me and begged her to stay and support your argument that I didn't want to take the chance of driving her off with direct confrontation. 2. Because she's not even registered and posts as a guest, I don't like entertaining "flash in the pan" posters who pop up and challenge other people's positons only to disappear back into the cyber world never to be heard from again.....or appear only once in a blue moon. I could have easily refuted her flawed argument and quite frankly erroneous projections about what I said about culture and genetics with just basic common sense and logic.....but I didn't feel like it. 　 What I don't understand about Pioneer's position is that he is consistently arguing against facts. Pioneer, you seem completely unwilling to accept the fact that race is an artificial construct. Look, you can find many instances of me using the word "trace" but that does not prove that race is a genetically meaningful term, it is a social construct and I use it becaus, unfortunately, it is how people view the world. No, I was not "offended" by Rachel Dolenzal's claim of being Black. I couldn't care less.. Apparently, the people who selected her to run their NAACP chapter did not care either, until it became a farce in the media. Two, I have no way of proving her claim one way or the other. Again, I thought we'd already ascertained that you can't look at someone and determine their race. Surely you are aware of the practice of "passing" in this country, right? I'm not sure why you want to deny the science in this regard Pioneer, why are so fixated on using race? Deny the science??? Deny the facts??? Man.....I'M THE ONE who presented YOU with scientific evidence for the existence of race from the photos I provided of people who are clearly of different races as well as provided medical and scientific references supporting the reality of race: 　 Again, The New England Journal of Medicine (science) put out this article: Since Medicare was established in the United States nearly 50 years ago, disparities in health outcomes between whites and blacks have persisted,1 with only limited improvement in the past decade.2 In 2008, life expectancy was 5.4 years shorter for black men and 3.7 years shorter for black women than for white men and white women; cardiovascular disease and diabetes accounted for 38% of the racial gap in mortality among men and for 54% among women.2 Higher levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose among blacks with hypertension,3,4 cardiovascular disease,5,6 and diabetes,7 respectively, contribute to substantial excess morbidity and mortality from myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and kidney disease. Similar disparities in risk-factor control have been reported for Hispanic adults with those conditions,4,5,7 but reports on Asian or Pacific Islander adults have not been included in most national studies. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1407273#t=article Again, this is a SCIENTIFIC journal, yet they talk about race and uses terms like Black and White! The American Red Cross said: Different ethnic and racial groups also have different frequency of the main blood types in their populations. For example, approximately 45 percent of Caucasians are type O, but 51 percent of African-Americans and 57 percent of Hispanics are type O. http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-and-diversity But instead of ACKNOWLEDGING these science based facts I presented to you, you dismissed them and claimed THEY were wrong.....lol. Science, medicine, even anthropology ALL refer to race and acknowledge it's scientific and genetic reality, but ONE INDIVIDUAL has the power to declare all of them "wrong"....lol. Civil right, laws, and other legislation in this nation include race and racial classifications. Law enforcement acknowledges the realities of race and racial classification. Police officers in the United States have no problem indentifying suspects based on race. When they say a suspect is a BLACK MALE about 5' 7 and 150 pounds....do you think they stopped to observe the suspect's culture and behavior before coming to that conclusion? If you erased all the racial classifications White people would STILL know who THEY are and they'd still know who YOU are.....all they'd have to do is LOOK at you. Your whole argument about race being a social or artificial construct arises out of DENIAL and FRUSTRATION and being "tired" of people talking about it....not with actual scientific FACTS to support your conclusion. You can declare wealth and economic classes "social/artificial constructs" if you want to, but you'd have a hard time trying to convince the IRS or Wells Fargo of that "reality" because they have the hard evidence to prove otherwise....lol. Again, it doesn't matter whether YOU think race is real or not because you have a very limited power to define. Those who have the power to define and ENFORCE that definition say that it IS real....and you must accept it. I won't even get in the racial stereotypes you keep advancing, for they are beyond silly. PLEASE don't..... You can barely maintain the one argument you're engaged in. Try and overcome THAT obstacle first before moving on to bigger challenges...LOL.

Cynique It's funny how I never hear Italian men or women DOWN PLAY the reputation Italian men have for being sexy or sensual.....infact many Italian women are proud of their men. Nor do I hear Latino men or women DOWN PLAY the image of the "hot Latin lover". But just MENTION Black men and sex in the same sentence and people start doing flips! Oh it's OK for OTHER men to flaunt and promote their sexuality.....but don't let that Black men do it! It's all gotta be kept a secret, under wraps, not even a JOKE about Black men having a large penis or being good in bed is acceptable.....it must be challenged and proof demanded!!! So let me get this straight....... Black men are supposed to down play their sexuality and pretend that they're little limp penis wimps with no sex drive at all because White men may find it offensive and lynch them? Going by THAT logic, perhaps Black men should stay BROKE and sell all of their businesses so as not to offend White men with their money, wealth, and power....lest they burn it all down like they did Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma! Gimme a break with all that......lol. You just called me an Uncle Tom in another thread for having the ever so SLIGHTEST concern over how the average White man may perceive Black NFL figures who refused to go to the White House......but now here YOU are sitting up here scared as hell over how White men may react if Black men flaunt their sexuality....lol. It's that same mentality that...in MY opinion....is encouraging so many of our young men to be "femininized" and act gay or "sissyish" in school and in the work place today. They've been told in so many words that it's not acceptable for Black men to be proudly and assertively masculine, so they've reconned that the best thing to do is not act like a man at all! Just act like an a-sexual eunuch with no drive and no penis and if you see a woman either act like her or look in the other direction that way they can along at work and in school and everyone will "like" them.

Too me, there's a difference between the SOUL and the SPIRIT. The spirit is the life force or "chi" that runs through all living things whether they be humans, animals, plants, microbes, ect.... Where as the soul is the essense of that human being or animal....the REAL THEM. And this soul is independent of a body or even the spirit and can leave that body and spirit behind and travel. I believe when people are in comas their body and spirit remains while their soul is gone. Sometimes their soul comes back and they regain conciousness but if their spirit (life force) leaves then the body dies. Troy One of the problems I had with "Heaven" from a very early age was the concept of eternity. An eternity of anything would become a hell for me. Troy you take me as a brother who loves to LEARN. What if you had and eternal amount of time to learn in depth the TRUTH about everything that interested you from the life of Jesus to the Haitian Revolution to what really happened with Martin and Malcolm, ect.....? Perhaps "heaven" and the afterlife would offer you that opportunity. Maybe even get to see everthing in 3D and from the various 1st person perspectives. You could even see how Harlem went from a Jewish neighborhood to a Black one....lol.

Mel Most people claim to see deceased relatives when they visit the other side too. Anyway, I LOVE reading about near death experiences and hearing stories from those who've had them. They've fascinated me for well over 20 years. I've followed Dr Raymond Moody's work as well as PMH Atwater and others. I've said for some time now that we really need to hear more stories from Black NDR'ers. After all.............. Our great grand fathers and mothers were telling stories of leaving their bodies and journeying to the other side and seeing spirits for centuries before it became "fashionable" among Whites to admit it. Perhaps one reason you came back was to help AALBC.com Besides coming back to help AALBC....another reason you came back was probably for the same reason millions of others who've been to the other side and came back to tell it have...to help dispell the lies of organized religion and to usher in new beliefs for a new world. Beliefs that are based on TRUTH and not scare tactics. 　 BTW..... You should have posted this story in the "Spirituality" thread.

I don't think it's so much that Black leaders don't care. Some really don't, but most DO. I think it's just that a lot of Black leaders are afraid and confused about what to actually do about these problems. Don't forget that many Black leaders are preachers, pastors, and ministers and because of the type of Christian teachings most of them ascribe to it has created a state of cognative dissonance in their minds. They don't know whether to fight for justice or sit back and love everyone and let Jesus take care of it all.

Cynique As I said before, the only reason I "went there" with you was for the benefit those viewing the dialouge who may have been interested in how I came to my conclusions concerning Black sexual dominance. I was under no illusion that you would be convinced by what I said and all of a sudden start seeing things my way.....lol...because I KNOW how worried you are about White people's perceptions of Black sexuality. If....scientifically speaking....Blacks are genetically dominant, it seems to me that we would have the POTENTIAL to dominate in all facets of human activity including sexuality. Troy Perhaps the Journal of Medicine and Red Cross are wrong for using racial terms. But what is your reference to judge them by to have come to that conclusion? The scientific community clearly acknowledges the reality of RACE and RACIAL CLASSIFICATION and we just can't make it any other way. I believe Neely Fuller Jr. or one of our great scholars said that power is the ability to define your reality. It really doesn't matter whether race and racial catagories are real or not in actuality. If the White people in power BELIEVE that they are real, and have the power to act on those beliefs....what power do YOU have to re-define that reality and say it isn't so? BTW..... If you think race isn't real but just an artificial construction, then I take it you weren't offended by Rachel Dolenzal's claim of being Black, correct? Infact, perhaps you SUPPORT her claim?

Not sure what others mean by "spirituality" because it's such a fluid term..... But when I say spirituality I'm talking about those OTHER REALMS (because I believe there are many) beyond the physical, beyond time, and beyond space. Some believe believe that even the physical realm (reality) that we're living in is also PART of the greater spiritual whole but just on a slower vibratory plane. 　 Troy But there are people who consider themselves spiritual, who do not believe in a human soul or spirit. I've met people who held similar seemingly contradictory beliefs, but when you really drill them on what they believe you find out a lot of what they object to are the commonly held perceptions of these subjects in Western thought. I've met people who claimed they were atheist, but after interrogating them over a few weeks I find out that it's the Western concept of "god" as an old man with a beard riding a cloud that they object to....not the idea of a Supreme Force or Forces in the universe.

Troy and Mel While reading the exchange between you two I have to shake my head at myself. So much waaaay over my head. It's one of those times that I wish I had gone on to college and gotten myself a degree....lol.

We know that billionaires control the electoral process in the United States and they're using social media to help do it. The question is, what are the masses of people going to DO about it? And lately I've found myself asking should we try to take political control out of the hands of the wealthy OR seeing as how wealthy people have always controled the politics of a society regardless of land or time would a more viable solution be for US as AfroAmericans to seek more wealth and power so that WE are among the political elite, as a way of having more control over our own destiny?

A couple years ago The New England Journal of Medicine put out this article: Since Medicare was established in the United States nearly 50 years ago, disparities in health outcomes between whites and blacks have persisted,1 with only limited improvement in the past decade.2 In 2008, life expectancy was 5.4 years shorter for black men and 3.7 years shorter for black women than for white men and white women; cardiovascular disease and diabetes accounted for 38% of the racial gap in mortality among men and for 54% among women.2 Higher levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose among blacks with hypertension,3,4 cardiovascular disease,5,6 and diabetes,7 respectively, contribute to substantial excess morbidity and mortality from myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and kidney disease. Similar disparities in risk-factor control have been reported for Hispanic adults with those conditions,4,5,7 but reports on Asian or Pacific Islander adults have not been included in most national studies. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1407273#t=article The NEJM is a SCIENTIFIC journal, yet they mentioned RACE and used terms like "Black" and "White". The American Red Cross said: Different ethnic and racial groups also have different frequency of the main blood types in their populations. For example, approximately 45 percent of Caucasians are type O, but 51 percent of African-Americans and 57 percent of Hispanics are type O. http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-and-diversity If race is simply an artificial construct why do so many scientists and medical professionals seem to believe otherwise?

No. Admittedly I DON'T know, but she looks mixed to me. But using someone who straddles the fence of racial identity to disqualify racial categories is like using a transgendered person to prove that sex or gender doesn't exist.

I don't have to cheat because as far as I'm concerned race is just as PHENOTYPICAL as it is genetic. Meaning if you LOOK White....as far as I'm concerned you ARE White regardless of what your parents were. But to answer your question: She looks like a MIXURE of 2 (maybe 3) different races to me. Certainly Caucasian/European is atleast ONE of the races she's mixed with.

Like most 70s television shows, I liked All In The Family (or as I called it the Archie Bunker Show) also. It was one of the few shows....both back then AND today....that exposed the true feelings of working class White men. The racism, the sexism, the anti-semitism, the ignorance, ect........ Like I said, the 70s shows like many of the movies of the 70s were the REAL. Not every story had a happy ending like they started having in the mid-80s. Imagine a television show today where the main character is a proud racist and bigot AND is portrayed as ignorant and wrong as hell like All In The Family. They wouldn't put it on television because too many White men who fit that description would complain about it! I was actually thinking of the Cosby Show too when I presented the challenge. That and Family Matters and a few others. I liked the Cosby Show too, but not because I could relate to it but strictly because of the quality of entertainment it provided. Cosby was funny as hell. Phylicia Rashad was fine as hell. There was a bit of realism in the show with the kids having fades, wearing contemporary clothes....but outside of that culturally speaking like you I didn't have much in common with them. I didn't grow up in poverty, but I certainly didn't grow up with the wealth the Cosby's portrayed.