Pioneer1

I admit, I know very little about official military strategy but...... Why does America invade nations only to re-arm them and re-build their military? Can anyone answer that question?

Listen gal...... Cynique Michael Evans from Good Times said: "BOY" is a WHITE RACIST WORD.

Interesting story.............. I remember when I was 19 I was working in a shopping mall and there was a woman of about 45 who also worked there that I had a huge crush on. She was very professional and educated, and very serious but she was still nice and social when she wanted to be. Now I saw older men of about 40 and 50 flirting with her and she'd smile back at them But when I ATTEMPTED to flirt with her she'd stop me and "put me in my place" with various remarks that let me know that a boy my age had no business talking to her like that. Well.......... Usualy I took her shit and moved on, but for some reason one day I was irritated about something at work unrelated. I flirted with her as usual and said something to the effect of "that a girl". She spent around and looked at me sharply in a way only a Black woman can and said, "Excuse you????" I said something like, "You heard me, you fit the profile of a girl to me....unless you want to pull up that skirt and prove me wrong" I'm not sure if those were my exact words but there were similar, I know I asked her to pull up her skirt if she didn't like what I said. Now for a split second all types of thoughts rushed through like will she report me, will I get fired, will she hit me, will we get into a cussing match. She looked at me for a minute, walked up to me said, "Sheeeeit, I ain't never been THAT easy" and lightly pushed me out of the way as she walked past smiling and finished her business in the store. I didn't expect THAT reaction! I got scared and stopped flirting with her LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!! But from then on when she came around she'd look over at me with a slight smile and a twinkle in her eye. I'd smile back or wave but I couldn't bring myself to flirt with her again because she gave me a reaction I didn't expect and I wasn't sure where to take it from there. All that time I had been hearing that old saying "be careful what you wish for....you might get it", but didn't understand what that meant until then.

Admin ((shruggs shoulders)) If Jeantel was White OR Black.....if she were good looking and articulate there would probably be more POSITIVE things to say about her than negative. And that's just human nature, you can't change it. Well, if you go to court to fight a traffic ticket with a t-shirt on that says, "F*ck the System"..... That SHOULDN'T hurt your case either, lol. But we all know that justice isn't blind...and neither are most judges. Human beings tend to be very bias and easily swayed by appearance and words and how well someone presents thier case, which is why most people hire LAWYERS instead of trying to represent themselves. We also know that defendants who go to court in a suit and tie are exonerated at a much higher rate than those who show up in thier county jail jumpsuit or even in their typical "street" clothes. Which is why Zimmerman is wearing a suit! Because Rachel stands in the position of being Trayvon's "friend" and because society has been taught that birds of a feather flock together....she is seen as an extention of Trayvon's character. Thus how she presents HERSELF has an effect on how Trayvon is seen in the eyes of the jury and the public at large. If she is seen as stupid, thuggish, low quality, ect.....then they will have less sympathy for her or her friend Trayvon and Zimmerman's actions will seem more "justified".

I don't think there is any shame in making sure YOU are safe before you go running to someone else's rescue. An old acquaintance of mind was recently killed at a nighclub after coming to the assistance of a woman who was allegedly being assaulted by a man. He stepped in to defend the woman and help usher the man out and later that night he came back shooting. Like so many homicides in Detroit and other urban areas of our nation, no arrest was made in the incident. Now the brother is dead. The woman is nowhere to be found....probably still frequenting other nightclubs. And the shooter is probably somewhere chilling looking for his next stunt to pull. In this society, "chivalry" gets you nowhere. People don't appreciate heroes like they used to.

This is all the more reason why I've been saying for years we need to have a NEW Industrial Revolution in this nation. Too many people are going to college and coming out expecting a cushy job where they can sit on their ass and play with computers and cell phones instead of actually doing physical work that builds and produces.t The bubble has to burst at some point. What we see going on in the Western world today could be considered an ECONOMIC GENOCIDE of sorts. Just like tearing down the housing projects without building more affordable housing was a signal that instead of focusing on erasing POVERTY, they decided to focus on erasing THE POOR THEMSELVES. On the economic front....., Instead of producing enough decent jobs for the millions of low skill and unskilled who are already unemployed and the millions more on there way, hey have now decided to simply ignore them and forget about them all together. A lot of young Black professionals have foolishly bought into the hype many other young and less experienced professionals have bought into that if they work for free or or "bust thier ass" for peanuts that somehow one day the executives or "corporate" will recognize thier value. The older generation of Blacks failed to teach them the tricks and traps of the corporate world. The bottom line is the only thing that counts and they'll use anyone stupid enough to present themselves for free labor. Many young White professionals are catching on to this pimping game and are now suing many of thier former employers where they worked for free as interns. Maybe this is a good thing............. Truth be told, there are too many people "blogging" and using social media anyway. It's taking away too much valuable time and energy that could be used for the rebuilding of society. Maybe some of our youth will become so disenchanted with trying to make it in the artificial cyber world that they'll trade in their Docker pants for a pair of overalls, move to the country and learn how to farm and grow their own food.

Cynique I'm already "straight"...lol. Straight as an arrow, with no sugar in my tank. What do I need with a book that instructs women how to get rid of toxic men. Besides, we all know that "girl" is term of endearment in the Black community. Fact about it..... I don't know the age of the author but I have YET to meet a woman over 25 who has taken offense to being refered to as "girl", lol.

Let the girl make some money.....dang.

It seems that during the 60s and 70s a lot of the more ignorant of Black practices that came up out of slavery, sticking their tongues out when they laugh, and laughing with a "hee heeeeee" at the end. .....but then in the 90s some rappers from the South started resorting to old plantation type behavior to make thier music distinct from rap from other regions. Like refering to light skinned women as "red bones". Or using terms like "what yo name is gul??" or "who dat is??" This old slavery garbage started catching on again with many Black youth to the point now you hear 16 and 17 year olds who talk like they just stepped off a slave plantation. ((Pioneer leans over to catch Troy's conversation with Legaci and hears....)) ((Pioneer quickly leans back the other direction and grabs his cap and car keys)) Ok, well...I'm out out of here, lol. .....good night.

Troy I say "n*gga" quite frequently, almost on a daily basis...lol. Although I pronounce it with the "a" on the end instead of the "er". I admit it's a habit that I grew up with. But just like I believe in double standards for men and women, I believe in double standards for Blacks and Whites. Women can call eachother bitch all day long but a man dare not say it. As far as i'm concerned I can call my bruthaz a "nigga" all day long but I better not catch a White person doing it. I've actually had to tell a few on several occasions to not say it around me even in jest or in reference. I don't want them to get comfortable saying it around me. Black people have intuition when it comes to racism and we tend to know if somebody is using it casually and in an endearing way or if someone is trying to be slick and seeing if they can use it around you and get away with it. If you say it and then look at me to check my reaction, then obviously you know you said something you shouldn't have. My father told me that if they get used to telling racist jokes around you pretty soon they'll be calling you a n*gger and kicking you in the ass. I was a kid when he told me that and I'd laugh thinking he was joking or exaggerating. But like many things that my Pops told me that turned out to be as true as the grass was green....when I started working I'd see White dudes start off telling racist jokes and silly negroes would laugh at them and before long they're saying things like "what's up dawwg" with a sly grin on thier face, slapping them on the back and kicking them in the butt! As far as Fat Joe, I don't mind Black and Brown Latinos using the word. But White ones like Pit Bull and Ricky Martin wouldn't get a pass from me.

Troy No, not really. What good is speaking multiple languages if you aren't speaking them properly? She's 19 years old and just now getting out of the 11th grade. But it's not just her terrible command of the English language, but her overall demeanor. The average 14 year old wouldn't have acted the way she did in court.

As I go back and forth between threads and think about it, a good example of how feminine or masculine behavior can affect a woman's appearance would be our friend Rachel Jeantel of the Zimmerman trial: As much as I rode on her in the other thread about her ghetto behavior and silly statements....believe it or not I see her as a rather attractive young lady. She may not be what I consider beautiful like say a Jennifer Hudson or Kerry Washington.....but despite her looks and behavior she still acts FEMININE. Even with that "mean and fed up" look on her face, you can look at her and hear her and tell she's all girl....lol. Unlike the woman in the first post video who carries herself in a MASCULINE manner.

Cynique Actually it has. At some point in my mid 20s as I began to look around at the problems of society I stopped focusing on hanging out at clubs and trying to attract women and started focusing more on politics and social issues and in the process I became more "interesting" to many women. That, and the fact that I stopped eating junk food that I found didn't agree with my body type. Whether it's looks, intelligence, or even wealth....you may not be able to improve everything in your life but you do what you can and leave the rest up to God.

Cynique The only thing you've "exposed" in this thread was your "white underbelly". Your weakness is the FEAR that you'll appear weak You poooor poooor thing...lol. In other words.....you feed off of negative energy?

I don't know if this is in that video above. I haven't watched the video because I can barely stand to watch this young lady as she makes a mockery of herself and Black people in general with her statements and attitude. But as I was posting I caught a clip of her testimony on MSNBC where a lawyer asked her did people in her neighborhood routinely refer to White people as "crackers". This clearly has nothing to do with Zimmerman and HIS state of mind. The lawyer knows that the media is there and the nation is watching and I truly believe he asked that question just to see how ignorant and foolish this child is. ....and she sat up there with a little grin on her face and said "yes". ((shakes head)) On top of that she can't even speak standard English, the lawyers have to constantly translate what she's saying for the court!!! This is embarrassing. Pure ignorance going and coming......word is bond.

Speaking of the South.................. My mother is from the South and when I was a kid the family used to go down south quite frequently and to be honest, it seemed to me that the Whites down South were friendlier and less racist that the ones up in the North. I'm talking about the 70s and early 80s time period. I saw Blacks and Whites working together, partying together, sitting on the porches and in parlors talking to eachother. I didn't see that up in Michigan! I saw more confederate flags flying in Indiana and Ohio that I did anywhere in the South. The first time I drove to Chicago I saw more segregation there than ANYWHERE North, South, East, or West....lol. Infact, even today....I when I travel I see more Confederate stickers on the bumpers of trucks and hear more Country music playing in places like Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota than I do in Georgia or the Carolinas! The only problem I had with and still have with the South is why they insist on calling cockroaches "water bugs".....lol.

I think Paula Deen has some racial prejudices like most people of her generation. But based on the limited amount that I know of her, I don't think she's a racist. Actually I don't think it's Black people who are making this a big deal. The media is making it a big deal by constantly showing her crying and pleading and apologizing....essentially making HER look like a victim. Her corporate sponsors are the ones dropping her, not Black people. I heard either Barbara Walters or Anderson Cooper earlier today asking the question "When is enough enough....how many times does she have to say she's sorry before she's forgiven?" I'm thinking to myself.....uh...exactly who is beating up on this woman? I haven't heard about Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton holding any rallies or telling people to boycott her products. No one is persecuting this woman, she's just losing money.....but the media seems to be portraying her as a victim of political correctness. I predict in a few years this will be all but forgotten and she'll be back to making money just like Dog the Bounty Hunter, Mel Gibson, and that guy who played Kramer on Senfield.....all of whom used the word "nigger".

Yeah, yeah, yeah...... Well...I'm sorry, but yall know what....facts are facts. And you're not going to change human nature through "political correctness" For thousands of years men of ALL RACES have found certain features attractive in women and neither Black women nor Asian women nor Hispanic women will get a "pass" to look like or act like men just because of historic discrimination. I'm not trying to talk down on this woman. I'm saying this as a man who isn't the best looking man in the world and has been called ugly on several occasions. I've learned that at some point you have to accept reality as it is, not as you WANT it to be. Only then can you change it. Most men like FEMININE WOMEN. When I say feminine, I'm not talking about being light skinned or White or acting like a White woman. That's an excuse too many of our people use as a way to excuse not acting as they should. By feminine, I mean delicate features, soft voice, feminine mannerism......features found in women all over Africa. African woman have NO PROBLEM being dainty feminine women and are just as if not more feminine that White American women. I have to stress this because.....too many of our sisters in America are hurting and they need help. They know something is wrong and they aren't sure what it is and too many people are bs'ing them. You don't help people out by telling them that what's wrong with them is actually "ok"...or really "beautiful". Telling them what they want to hear to make them feel good while the world is secretly laughing at them behind their back. You help them by offering them solutions to their problems! For nearly 4 decades many of our people America have been VICTIMS of very poor diets, poor healthcare, lack of proper physical education in the public school system, ect... This combination has essentially made FREAKS... GENETIC FRANKENSTEINS out of many of them. It has made many of them grossly overweight, sick, genetically deformed, intellectually below average, low energy and lazy, and even in some cases making the men look like women and the women look like men because of hormonal disruption. If you look at how many of the young men are switching and snapping and how so many of the girls are growing facial hair and ighting eachother on television and in the streets like wild dogs.....it's almost undeniable that something is wrong. Instead of "embracing" this pathology.....we should see it as something terribly wrong and look for a solution before it gets worse.

While colorism is an issue, I think "featurism" is more of an issue in the AfroAmerican community than colorism, especially when it comes to women and attraction. I say that because a lot of times I hear women who most men may consider unattractive complain that they are being looked over because they're dark skinned when in actuality it's not thier complexion or shade, it's thier features (nose, eyes, mouth, hair texture, body shape) that men may find unattractive. Cynique Now you know good and doggone well that Black people can be just as violent and bloodthirsty as Whites. Whites just tend to be "smarter" in how they commit their acts of violence. For example...... White men in Europe will organize to invade a nation and rob and kill it's inhabitants for resources and bring those resources back home to build up their own country. Black men in and African community even after being colonized and enslaved for 400 years by outside invaders will still go to war with eachother over little to nothing wiping out entire villages plundering through and taking what's left for their own personal enjoyment and leave the women and children back home with nothing. Both committed murder and robbery, but one was "smarter" in how they pulled off their crimes and how they used the spoils. Just like a man who steals millions from his company's pension fund is just as much of a thief and robber as one who robs a liquor store.

I think her testimony really damaged the case. As if rolling her eyes and acting ditzy and ghetto wasn't enough......... "creepy ass cracker" ?????? The boy was 17....what kind of 17 year old even uses the word "cracker" today? Even if those were his actual words, allowing that statement in the court gives the defense as well as those in the public following the case the opportunity to "flip the script" so to speak and make Trayvon look like a racist instead of Zimmerman....the lawyers should have known that. I can't believe the Prosecution put her on the stand without properly prepping her first. Maybe they tried the best they could....in any case....she should have just stayed home.

Cynique The only reputation you should attempt to escape (and it would probably be futile) is being known as one who routinely takes the original subject of a thread and turns it into another of an entirely different nature. Talk about a "game changer".

Cynique To start with...... My patience in dealing with YOU should be considered a marvelous display of self improvement as well as self control, lol.

Also, I've found a key element in improving oneself is having a PROPER EXAMPLE of who/what is better. Sometimes you don't even know you need improving until you see someone else doing better or being more successful in a certain area then you realize you're a little sloppy with your game and gotta tighten up. Sometimes someone needs to hold a clean glass of water next to the dirty one you're drinking out of to know you need improvement.

This young woman is obviously articulate, intelligent, and may have a good heart while trying to convey a positive message. However..... When I look at how she stands, carries herslf, and expresses herself....it's definately not feminine. It's what I call "manish". This has nothing to do with Black girls accepting themselves, it's about her acting and dressing in a masculine manner and wanting society to accept it. And in my opinion she shouldn't be the one to call herself beautiful. When a person has to resort to constantly saying, "I'm smart and beautiful and everyone likes me" .....it is a sure sign of low self esteem.

Although I haven't always been successful, I can remember TRYING to improve myself since I was a little kid. Working on improving my handwriting. Working on improving my drawing of cartoons like Donald Duck Working on cleaning up my room I believe, self improvement is in the very nature of some people whether they're successful at it or not. I think SUCCESSFUL self improvement though involves 2 major things: 1. The acknowledgement that one has faults that need to be improved. 2. A motive for that improvement Like an alcoholic you first have to acknowledge that something is wrong with you before you can move on to a cure. And in our society, getting someone to admit that something is wrong with them is almost like getting them to admit that they have a weakness. Also, unless you have a strong motive to better yourself, often times your attemps at self improvement will fail because it doesn't pay to go through the effort. I believe this is one of the biggest problems with Black men in our society. Most Black men are getting all the coochie they want and most can manage to scrape and hustle up enough money to do what they want to do in life so there is no real drive or motivation to improve themselves mentally, physically, or morally. If your only goal in life is to find someone to live off of and/or pimp the system so you can get your daily supply of liquor, blunts, and the occasional "bj"......what motive do you have to improve yourself? Your expectations may be low, but you're still getting all you want out of life anyway so why go through the effort to improve? Cynique You just couldn't resist could you......lol. It's funny you should bring that up because on CNN Anderson Cooper (who is gay) has been doing a piece the past few nights on some evangelical group who has officially stopped it's program for turning gay people straight. They said it led to too much emotional turmoil and had a very low success rate. But it all depends on HOW they changed and for what reason. If a person changes themselves voluntarily through for their own positive motives like gaining new insight on their condition, or desiring more success, salvation, ect.....then it's usually a good thing. But if they don't really want to change themselves but are being FORCED to change through threats of violence, intimidation, abandonment, ect..... Not a lot of good will come out of it and as soon as the pressure is off people often go back to their old habits. This is one of the reasons I don't support a "theocracy". You can't really FORCE people to be righteous, they have to want to be. You can institute laws that keep the public safe and protect people from eachother as well as provide them with proper information so they can know HOW to improve themselves....but ultimately the decision is up to them.