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richardmurray

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  1. Third replier American Gods by gaiman, Dark Tower by Stephen King, Moonheart by Charles de Lint is in Canada, The Shannara series by terry brooks is set in a post nuclear war earth and certain descriptions match US landmarks. My reply thank you for your reply. you are the third replier and all three replies have suggested two things. One the fantasy world of the USA must include science fiction, which is in terms of the history of literature, a point. Two, a 1900s and after scenario setting. I will think . IN AMENDMENT Any one can argue that the history of the USA can challenge both of those points. but , regardless of historical assessment, the comments consistency speaks volumes to me. In my mind I thought someone might mention the wizard of oz, but no. I comprehend why not. The 1900s was the century in which the USA's influence outside itself grew to a much larger extent and I think that parallels a key theme in the fantasy of the USA. The wizard of oz is still when the USA is not merely a mostly white european christian but also a isolationist country. many people in the USA today don't realize that the usa's government historically is not into meddling outside the USA in a robust way. To be blunt, the monroe doctrine while clearly imperialist. ISn't like the marshall plan. The monroe doctrine didn't say the USA is the overlord of the american continent and will be responsible for all the people of the america's as a steward. It said the usa is the military overlord of the americas but the americas are simply not to be bothered by outsiders. In the way imperial japan related to korea is what the monroe doctrine is. And thus, why no Wizard of Oz. Even though it is telling Baum welcomed variations on his work as long as they were quality, so he comprehended the future fantasy worlds of the USA and how all fantasy worlds<including those not based in the USA > may have to work in media. Fourth replier Star Wars wars be a globally known fantasy world? MY REPLY hmm thank you for the reply. It is amazing how consistent the replies have been. IN AMENDMENT Again, another science fiction connection. hmmm I have to think. The force is magic , even though it is given science fiction explanations in later tales. And the multiracial composition of star wars, robots/satanic looking species are all citizens next to someone who looks like they are from kansas today. The third replier again dark tower really isn't sci-fi....neither are moonheart or shannara. Even though Shannara is set in a post apocalyptic world that is not part of the story...it is 100% magic not tech. American Gods is also supernatural and not sci-fi technically since the "gods" work magically My reply thank you for giving breadth to your position. I am unfamiliar to shannara series. but I have some familiarity to dark tower/american gods/moonheart. Your points hold truth to me IN AMENDMENT Its the boundary between science fiction side fantasy that must be addressed. The 1900s world of the USA is one where science, especially through technology, is ever present. So it doesn't undo magic, as the unexplained while doable science, but it makes it unanalogous to fantasy worlds based anywhere in humanity before the USA, including pre european invasion American continent.
  2. The first reply I received from somewhere online I think that the USA is still trying to define itself. We're a relatively young country, and we're in a constant state of change. My reply to the reply thank you for replying, you are the first reply, not viewing, but reply across various platforms. I like this question of mine:) ... If I may, your position is the following. The lack of a fantasy world that reflects the USA is built on the inability of the USA to define itself, supported by the age of the usa's govenrment, or the uncommon rate of internal heritage or culture change that exists in the USA? I will say this, if your three points are true: usa is not defined, usa is young, usa has a communal modulation unlike any other in the past. Then it explains the inability of a writer to create a fantasy world that reflects the USA. I will not say your three points are correct in my opinion. But I can say with 100% assuredness, if your points are correct, then it explains why no fantasy world. IN AMENDMENT: let me take apart the reply... from 1776 to 2022 that is 246 years. Now, I didn't include the english colonial period which to me should be included and I usually include in usa history. That would be 1607 to 2022 which is 515 years. But the most recent state in the union is hawaii at 1959. So, it can be argued that the current 50 state usa is only, 1959 to 2022 which is 63 years. so, depending on when you consider the heritage of the usa to start, it can range from 515 to 246 to 63 years. And with each range the idea of the USA being young or historically still in a nascent stage of development is supported or challenged by the history of various other countries in humanity. So in my view, the first two points in the reply: The USA is still trying to define itself plus, the USA is relatively young, are correct, but anyone saying their wrong is also correct. Specificity is mandatory in this situation. The third point about a constant of change is challengable. I have been to the deep south. I can tell you, many places in the deep south have not changed in over 150 years , since the end of the war between the states. I can also say that some places have changed. It becomes not a lie but not a truth. IT all requires specificity. So I argue that the USA has within itself a large enough populace with a clear or certain definition to the USA, is no longer a country that can be deemed nascent, and has enough inconstancy of change in its populace to deny the position by the replier. But then, the question is, if said point is true. Why no fantasy world? The only possible reason can be that, the certain identity of the USA, as a mature country,by a large enough percentage of its populace has already been written but didn't achieve popularity for its truth. The question now is to find the fantasy failures. hmmmm The second reply "Atlas Shrugged" My reply to the reply I didn't think such a book will be deemed fantasy next to lord of the rings. Thank you for your reply. I have to rethink fantasy now. IN AMENDMENT Let me take it apart. Atlas Shurgged is a future world book. It isn't the past, which is usual in fantasy worlds in common. It has more of a scientific, meaning knowledge feel than the unknown knowledge that is magic. But, let's say Atlas Shrugged is a fantasy book. Then, the issue is, the identity of fantasy has to change. Maybe the problem isn't that the USA doesn't have a fantasy world, but that the fantasy world of the USA is not a fantasy world to be placed commonly? I have to think on this. The second replier made another comment It definitely depends upon your definition of "fantasy". MY reply true, but I think it is important point you make. I admit I have a writing agenda IN AMENDMENT Maybe with the USA , going back to the first reply. Maybe science fiction can not be taken away from fantasy with the USA, based on that age of it, from a certain view at least.
  3. Luke Aikins skydiving from 25,000 Feet with No Parachute & landing in a net  

     

  4. The idea of MAKE A STORY is simple, nothing grand, or complicated. One starts a story with a paragraph 100 words maximum, and tags someone to continue. The person who starts keeps track in a post, like this. And, whomever is tagged, tags someone else to continue. The story is never ending. But, it will give everyone in this community a chance to do something positive or functional with everyone else. At the end , all the participants can debate a title:) Ok , I will start In the vastness of space, in a universe whose name is unknown, in a galaxy some of its inhabitants call Isi, orbiting a star system of three stars some call The Three Queens, is the world its inhabitants call Nok. The comet belt, a set of comets with a similar orbit, can be seen on the surface of Nok the entire year; it moves through the heavens, through the orbits of the other worlds around The Three Queens. Two twins look up, gazing at the brilliance of the belt in the night sky. I tag @Troy MAKE A STORY part list @richardmurray LINK @Troy LINK?
  5. ok @Troy I will elaborate on what I meant by a prompt. For example, best romantic sentence this past week. and people can put reply with the most romantic sentence they read this past week, name the book title and author of course. Little things. Nothing that requires grand tools or grand time. I have an idea I will put in the forums and see where it goes.
  6. The article below explains the complexity of immigration. I will say one historical truth. No community that freely immigrated to the USA, which includes all communities in the USA except the native american or descended of enslaved, have aided the communities in the places they come from positively. Nor does their community in the USA have an overall balance internal. 
    The reason being is simple. A peaceful positive community can not be built on individual rifts, and no matter where you run, where a group runs, the individual rifts will destroy the group/race/clan/tribe.

     

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    Photo by Adria Malcolm

    Muslim Killings in Albuquerque Stir Sectarian Ghosts
    An Afghan family struggled for a foothold in a new home in the U.S. Now one of them is charged with killing fellow Muslims.

    By Simon Romero, Miriam Jordan, Ava Sasani and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
    Aug. 15, 2022
    ALBUQUERQUE — Five years ago, Muhammad Syed was eyeing a new life with his family in a new land. They had fled war-torn Afghanistan and resettled as refugees into a small duplex near the airport in Albuquerque. Mr. Syed found work as a truck driver. But then the troubles began.

    Coming from a culture where women largely stayed at home, he grew enraged with his wife as she was learning how to drive, grabbing her hair and kicking her out of the car, according to one of several reports of domestic violence the police were called to investigate. A security camera showed him slashing the tires of another woman’s car outside Albuquerque’s largest mosque, and he was banned from coming back to their place of worship.

    When his daughter enrolled in college, he tried to force her to bring her brother to class as a chaperone. And when she became romantically involved with an Afghan man from a different branch of Islam — a Shiite, while Mr. Syed and his family were Sunni — he attacked the young man and threatened to kill him, the man later told the police.

    “Syed was explosive, violent, always seeking revenge,” said Sharif Ahmadi Hadi, an Afghan immigrant who, together with his brother, opened a halal market serving Albuquerque’s growing Muslim community and knew the Syed family. “We left Afghanistan to get away from people like him. But they followed us here.”

    Now Mr. Syed has been identified as the leading suspect in the harrowing string of murders of four men, including Mr. Hadi’s younger brother, three of them Shiite Muslims, and the authorities said on Monday that Mr. Syed’s son, Shaheen Syed, purchased weapons with his father and may have helped him surveil one of the victims before his death.

    One year after the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the killings, now connected by the authorities to a man who had prayed in the same mosque as the murder victims, have shaken the Muslim community in New Mexico with frightening echoes of the violence many of them had traveled half a world away to escape.

    In Albuquerque, which took in more than 300 evacuees from Afghanistan over the past year after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the possibility that a foundational dispute of Islam could have been a factor in the killings in recent weeks was shocking. Sunni and Shiite Muslims differ in their beliefs over who was the proper successor to the Prophet Muhammad when he died nearly 1,400 years ago. While the historic division has fueled strife in several countries, including Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan, it has been rare in the United States.

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    Mr. Syed was charged in two of the killings, those of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, based in part on bullet casings found at the scenes. The police said Mr. Syed was also the main suspect in two more killings, including that of Mr. Hadi’s brother.

    Shaheen Syed was charged last week with lying about his address when he purchased two guns in 2021. In a new court filing on Monday, federal prosecutors said he had lied to investigators about accompanying his father to gun stores when his father purchased weapons, including on Aug. 1, the day Muhammad Afzaal Hussain was killed.

    The prosecutors also said that on Aug. 5, when Naeem Hussain was killed hours after attending a funeral for two of the most recent victims, cellphone tower data indicated that Shaheen Syed’s phone was in the “general area” of the funeral around 3:39 p.m., but 20 minutes later had moved closer to the area where Mr. Hussain was killed in his car. The data also showed that Muhammad Syed’s phone was in the area of Mr. Hussain’s killing shortly after 4 p.m.

    The filing also noted that Shaheen Syed and one of his brothers, Adil Syed, were involved in a shooting at a Walmart in July 2021. During what Shaheen Syed had described as a road rage incident, Adil had fired a gun once at the car of a man who he and his brother said had also been armed. No one appeared to be charged in the incident.

    Muhammad Syed has told the police he had no involvement in the murders, and lawyers for both him and his son declined to discuss the cases. But the son’s lawyer, John C. Anderson, told the court on Monday that his client should not be detained based on “exceedingly thin and speculative allegations” about crimes that he had not been charged with. He said the cellphone tower data gave no indication of whether Shaheen Syed was 100 yards or five miles from the murder scene.

    The police said they were not sure whether the crimes could be considered either serial killings or hate crimes until they had done more investigating. Mr. Syed’s long trail of violence and interpersonal conflict since his arrival in Albuquerque seemed to defy easy categorization.

    A Friend Goes Missing
    For weeks as the killings unfolded, Albuquerque’s small Muslim community — no more than 10,000 people in a city of half a million — had been on edge. Some families were hunkering down in their homes; others were making plans to leave New Mexico altogether.

    But Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old immigrant from Pakistan who had recently started his own trucking business, made a point of being back in Albuquerque on Aug. 5 to mourn the loss of two of the murdered men: a fellow Pakistani, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, a city planner who had moved to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico, and an Afghan, Aftab Hussein, 41, who had worked at Flying Star, a well-known Albuquerque cafe.

    Naeem Hussain had donned a black T-shirt and blue trousers and headed to the funerals early that afternoon. Afterward, he and a few friends who were fellow truck drivers parted ways and agreed to meet at Naeem’s apartment a little later.

    When Naeem didn’t show up, his friends drove around to the Mahdavi Center, a Shiite mosque, for holiday services, at around 6 p.m. As Shiites, they were observing Muharram, to mark the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

    Naeem never arrived. Later that night, when he wasn’t answering his cellphone or texts, his friends grew nervous. They turned to Zenly, a transportation app that they often used to track one another on the road. It indicated Naeem’s car was parked near the intersection of Truman Street and Grand Avenue.

    At about 11:20 p.m., the men spotted Naeem’s white 2020 Toyota 4Runner in the parking lot of Lutheran Family Services, where he was once employed as a case worker helping refugees resettle in Albuquerque. As they approached, they noticed the S.U.V.’s lights were on, the engine still running.

    Naeem was slumped in the driver’s seat, his blood spread across the front seats. The police opened a fourth murder investigation.

    “My eyes were burning,” said I. Hussein, one of Naeem’s friends, one of several who feared giving their full names for fear that Shiites could continue to be targeted. “I couldn’t go to sleep, the whole thing was coming to my head.”

    He and other Shiite Muslims in the city contacted one another nervously, wondering whether the killer could be not only a fellow Muslim, but a Sunni targeting his victims to coincide with the Shiite holiday.

    The three victims killed in a 10-day span shared variations of the name Hussain, popular in the Shiite community because of its association to the prophet’s grandson. Two of the victims were Shiites, but the realization that the only Sunni victim, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, also shared the name led many to wonder if the killer may have targeted him by mistake.

    Naeem’s friends left town in fear, driving to Virginia to stay with a friend.

    “We came all the way from that side of the world because of this whole situation,” said I. Hussain, referring to the discrimination they suffered at the hands of Sunnis in Afghanistan, “and now they are doing the same thing they were doing there.”

    The mystery of who had committed the crime may have been at least initially answered when the police announced that Naeem’s death was one of the four in which Mr. Syed was a primary suspect. The question of why remained unanswered.

    A Father’s Violent Discipline
    Though Mr. Syed claimed to have fought the Taliban in Afghanistan, no record of military service has emerged so far. After arriving in the United States in 2016, the family struggled to make ends meet, according to an Afghan friend who visited their home on numerous occasions. Mr. Syed, who had worked as a cook for a construction company in Afghanistan, eventually became a truck driver, though it was unclear how often he worked.

    Starting almost immediately, though, police records detail a trail of troubling altercations between Mr. Syed and those around him.

    His daughter, Lubna Syed, then 19 years old, reported to the police in May 2017 that her father had slapped her because she had made a phone call while he was talking to her. One of her brothers, perhaps covering for her father, told the police that she had “imagination issues,” and no one was charged.

    That July, she called the police again to report “ongoing verbal and physical disputes with her very conservative Muslim parents.”

    Ms. Syed told the officers that she had been arguing with her parents after they insisted that one of her brothers escort her to class at the University of New Mexico. Mr. Syed denied hitting his daughter, the officer wrote, but Ms. Syed appeared to have some redness on her arm and swelling around one eye.

    “Based on cultural differences and a statement from Lubna saying that she did not want her father arrested because it would only make their family dynamic worse, we decided to not make an arrest,” the officer wrote.

    But just five months later, the police charged Mr. Syed with battery after Iftikhar Amir, his daughter’s boyfriend at the time, said that Mr. Syed, along with Mr. Syed’s wife and one of his sons, had beaten him after finding him in a car with the daughter.

    Mr. Amir told the police that Ms. Syed’s family did not want her to date him, and he told police two months later that Mr. Syed had threatened to kill him. In both cases, he did not want to press charges.

    Later, he and Lubna Syed were married, friends said; they bought a house together in November 2021. Both declined to comment.

    The police were called back to the Syed home repeatedly: when Mr. Syed’s wife said Mr. Syed grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the floor; when his son said he hit him on the head with a spoon. Friends of Mr. Amir said he felt threatened by his father-in-law because he did not want his daughter associating with a Shiite.

    Mr. Amir had been a close friend of Aftab Hussein, the cafe worker who was fatally shot in late July. Aftab Hussein’s brother Altaf Hussain Samadi, 32, said Mr. Amir told him that he believed his marriage to Lubna Syed had prompted Mr. Syed’s fury. “He said, ‘He should do something back to me, not to others if he has a problem with me,’” Mr. Samadi recalled.

    ‘A Place We Could Feel at Home’
    The first death — one that Mr. Syed has not been charged with, though the police said he was the leading suspect — occurred in November, months before the other three shootings. Mohammad Zahir Ahmadi, the younger brother of the halal market’s owner, Mr. Hadi, was shot in the head while smoking a cigarette in the parking lot behind their business.

    The brothers had made Albuquerque their home after trying out Philadelphia and Tucson, Ariz. New Mexico’s largest city, with its dry climate, monsoon rains and large Hispanic population, “looks like Kabul,” Mr. Hadi said. “The people look like Afghan people. I knew this was a place we could feel at home.”

    With their business, Mr. Hadi said they got to know many people in the Muslim community, including the Syed family. One day when Mr. Ahmadi was working the cash register, his brother said, Mr. Syed came in with four bags of rice he had purchased days earlier using food stamps. Mr. Syed demanded a cash refund, but Mr. Ahmadi explained that doing so would constitute food stamp fraud.

    Mr. Syed was clearly angry, Mr. Hadi said, and came to the store in person to threaten the family on three separate occasions. Mr. Syed would call the brothers “kafir.” The word, intended to be derogatory, refers to nonbelievers who understand religion but opt to hide from it. Popularized in Saudi Arabia to denigrate Shiite Muslims, the term was later adopted by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

    “When we’d tell him to leave, he’d just go to his car and sit in the parking lot waiting for us for hours,” Mr. Hadi said. “We called the police but they never showed up.”

    The police said they had no record of any such calls for assistance. But in February 2020, surveillance images from the Islamic Center of New Mexico showed Mr. Syed slashing the tires of the car Mr. Hadi’s wife had parked outside the mosque there. Leaders of the mosque told Mr. Syed to stay away, and he did so for months.

    Mr. Syed now stands accused of murder in the killings of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, and the police said they were still compiling their cases on the other two killings. Leaders of the Afghan community have said they are relieved that a suspect has been identified, but some have been reluctant to ascribe the killings to sectarian violence; the reasons for murder, they learned after decades of war, are often too complicated to fit simple labels.

    Salim Anseri, a leader of the city’s Afghan community who knew Mr. Syed as well as all the victims, is one of those who is not ready to make a judgment. “Maybe he’s mentally ill, or had personal issues with the victims,” he said of Mr. Syed. “From what I can tell, it was personal issues.”

    For Mr. Hadi, such distinctions matter little. Between fits of tears, he said he still had trouble going back to the spot where his brother’s life ended so abruptly.

    “I still see him every day when I come to work,” Mr. Hadi said. “But he’s dead. Nothing is going to bring him back.”

    Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

    Simon Romero is a national correspondent covering the Southwest. He has served as The Times’s Brazil bureau chief, Andean bureau chief and international energy correspondent. @viaSimonRomero

    Miriam Jordan reports from the grassroots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States. Before joining The Times, she covered immigration at the Wall Street Journal and was a correspondent in Brazil, India, Hong Kong and Israel. 

    Ava Sasani is a reporter for the National desk. @AvaSasani

    Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. @nickatnews

  7. Add something to engage a literary book club? maybe a prompt or some activity.
  8. Title: The Healer Artist/Photographer: Carrie Mae Weems https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2028&type=status
  9. Is the real problem with many fantasy worlds that no place represents the USA? I was thinking on another issue<linked below>, and in the post script a truth hit me. It isn't that fantasy is limited. Anansi/Grimms/Monkey King/Quetzecoatl all show, all races of people have tons of fantasy worlds or characters made totally in their own light. But, it occurred to me, the USA doesn't have a fantasy representation. The USA has science fiction, but not fantasy. Science fiction looks to the future by default. Now you can argue, Star Wars proves me wrong as it is technically an ancient fable. But, star wars isn't fantasy. I use what is going on with the video depictions of Tolkien's or George RR Martin's worlds as clear examples of the dysfunction of trying to make fantasy worlds USA like. In truth, Tolkien or Martin's worlds are not white exclusive. They are segregated, they are common human history. Blacks/Africans/non white europeans are actually in Tolkien's or Martin's world if you read carefully. But, open pulpit, tell me what fantasy world is like the USA in its inception. I am not talking about versions or variations or science fictions that include magic, ala comic books of the usa. Now to this group. I find a large percentage of Black people in the USA, not the world, not all humanity, but the USA alone, seem to want to force fantasy worlds to be like the USA. Why is that? I grew up with Black fantasy that had no one but black people in it, or a few white devils. But, the Black fantasy I grew up with as a child had no multiracial makeup. They were unapologetically black. I have never needed Black characters pushed into white fantasy worlds after such rearing. Is that the key to why so many blacks in the USA want blacks pushed into white fantasy worlds? Your thoughts? https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2029&type=status
  10. yeah, still have time @Chevdove I will always say that if black people in the past, had divulged more of their honest thoughts, not to the book store or for publishing firms, but in diaries or journals for their bloodline, I Think many black people today will have different mindsets.
  11. As a writer in a fiscal capitalistic environment, I am, like all other writers, two thing. I am a literary artist plus a commercial artist. 

    As a literary artist, I am complete. I create literature that I love, that comes from my soul. I make public or keep private what I choose from my creations. 

    As a commercial artist, I am learning. The selling or buying of art involves factors outside creativity or art. Some of said factors are heritage or culture or financial quality. 

    In the modern, meaning current, United States of America a culture made in response to historic heritages in said community has become potent in the media industry. In common history of the USA, the historic heritage, media was over ninety nine percent populated by humans who are male-person born with a penis+heterosexual-fornicate with someone who is born with the opposite sexual organ no hermaphrodites+christian-various denominations+white-phenotypical range+european ancestry. Humans who are not in the stated racial group , composed of additives, were less than one percent present in media across all activities. OVer time for various reasons, the cold war desire of the white power of the USA to be accepted by the larger human populace outside the usa over the ussr being the largest one, media in the USA changed at the impetus from its white owners. But , as ever larger money in the USA started being earned by more than just white christian male heterosexuals of european descent, the desire to impose a new media paradigm grew and grew. Said paradigm was and is aided by the growing financial clout of countries outside the USA that are mostly populated by non european or non white or non christian or maybe even mostly female humans. 

    But what is the culture? 

    The culture brewed state two position. Panracial integration is mandatory. Those in the stated group <white/male/christian/hetero/european ancestry> are blockaded from depicting those who are not while those who are not can depict those who are <white/male/christian/hetero/european ancestry>. 

    Why did I make this post?

    Not for anything I said prior. Everything I said prior was or is common knowledge or should or shall be common knowledge.

    I made this post to state a dysfunction in said culture.

    It mirrors the same dysfunction in Brown vs Board of Education. 

    Can human beings of different races, any racial category, coexist peacefully or functionally? the answer is a simple, historically proven, yes. Multiracial bodies, any racial category, are common throughout humanity.

    But, history proves something else. Humans beings can also thrive segregated from each other. Peaceful/functional/positive monoracial bodies, any racial category, are common throughout humanity. 

    The question in media is? If Valinor doesn't have any Black people , are Black people harmed/injured/insulted? The answer is a simple no. 

    The tales of Anansi don't include any whites or europeans. Grimms fairy tales don't include any blacks or africans. Neither story collection is lessened by their reality. Neither story requires unrepresented races to be forced through new characters or stories. 

    The answer isn't how to push black students into a white students only school to get the resources of the white school to be accessed by black students. The answer is to increase the resources of the black students only school to be at least equal to the white students only school. 

    Was media in the USA an industry that blockaded those who were not male+white+european ancestry+christian+heterosexual? yes. 

    But, is the wisest response to that past a modernity where said media is forced by external powers to share its resources OR where media that is not owned by male/+white+european ancestry+christian+heterosexual people have greater resources? 

    As I said in years past, why do Black people not have their own film awards? or moreover, why do Black people not emphasize their own film awards? Miss Juneteenth has began decades ago, but Black women in miss america is still a symbol. Is the goal to have white side black women or is the goal that black women have their own pageants just like white women? 

    A thought experiment, if every Black college student in the USA never went to any college but a historical black college or university <HBCU>, what will today's collegiate landscape look like? will it be bad in your mind?  I argue that Harvard+ Yale +MIT+ Stanford will not be lessened or destroyed or evil if they didn't have black students. In parallel I argue that HBCU's lost their momentum or positive possibility having to compete with the resources of more fiscally potent schools. 

    Is segregation evil? Is integration good? I argue, the USA or the british colonies preceding it has always been integrated while never segregated. From the first whites of Europe appearing before Native Americans who sadly didn't know what horrors these immigrants will bring to them through white slavemasters houses built on black families bodies or reservations the native americans left alive are forced to live in to NYC today in all of its christian babel likeness, integration has always been in the USA. Segregation has never been now at any time in the USA. 

    The key is how are the people integrating. Usually it is one master while the others slave or one alive with the others dead. In modernity, one is in power, while the others are not as powerful. 

    But, the image of power is always most dangerous, when it is a lie. The NAzi's saying they hate everyone else wasn't a lie. It was negative but not a lie. And the USA media lives with lies. We are all equal, we are all a family, a set of loving ones, in the USA... but then we are not. Your white cousin can't portray you, but you can portray them ala Hamilton stage play by mirande side Angelina Jolie playing Mariane van Neyenhoff. Black people of fiscal wealth say they want black unity against white oppression in the usa but  most of them finance relatives or friends to go to non Historical black colleges or universities. Lies are dangerous. And media promoting lies leads to greater problems. 

    In the art world, this means we artists have financial limitations on our craft based on the messages in our work. We artists always have, and always will I think. But, in the USA it is more narrow than in the past, even with a globally connected media. 

     

    Discussions of the Blackwood LINK

     

    Post SCript: I will love to write a story about Harad in the lord of the rings universe or Sothoryos in the Song of Ice and Fire universe. The writers to either of the mentioned worlds did include black people, asian people, all people in truth, but they only focused on writing about one part. They didn't have to create a USA in their story. 

     

     

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. richardmurray

      richardmurray

      FAT EXCUSE from Maher

       

    3. Troy

      Troy

      Fat acceptance to fat celebration is not really ne.  It has been around for a long time -- perhaps longer in the Black community. The idea that you can be obese and healthy, which we have accepted today, seems dangerous.

       

      Not a battle I have chosen to fight as people can do whatever they want to do and I'm not prepared to to tell people to exercise and eat well.

       

      I'm not sure this change in our culture is something a person under 40 can relate really appreciate.

    4. richardmurray

      richardmurray

      @Troy hmmm, well, in the history of the USA I argue fat celebration is not common within the indigenous, black descended of enslaved, or white descended of slavers communities. The oldest three communities in the USA. whites suggested the large black mammy warranted celebration or acceptance <ala the black mammy in birth of a nation whipping black union soldiers with a broom> but that wasn't the opinion of blacks themselves. And if you ever see photos of said three communities in the past, being obese or fat wasn't nearly common. Only rich people were fat. I think fat acceptance or fat celebration in the USA are both creations of the 1900s USA, when the USA's wealth and consumption based culture started by the firms took hold. So, is it new? not in my opinion. Not from a larger historical view, in my opinion. Is it standardized in modernity? I think yes. 

       

      Communally accepted obesity from before the time of the USA, in Europe for example, was heavily accepted in the arts through european opera. 

       

      Yes, it is healthwise always unadvisable to suffer consumption. We forget greed or consumption as words originally referred to unwise intake. 

       

      Well, I think your position is in line with the cultural trend that has brewed in the USA since its inception, which is individual accountability. The problem with individual accountability when communities/races/groups battle is individual's problems do not reside solely onto their own actions; they reside with the friction between races. But in modern USA, the personal accountability that was in terms of financial or legal or governmental scenarios dysfunctional or misplaced has true presence in modern USA. In modern USA the hierarchy of races/groups/communities still exist. but, through a complex set of historical reasons, individual accountability is not merely a false strategy that is conveniently uttered as in the past, it is a functional reality. In modern USA, if you are black, you have the individual ability to do. If you are a woman, you have the individual ability to do. If you are indigenous, you have the individual ability to do. IF you are online , you have the individual ability to collate honest news sources. If you are an artist, you have the individual ability to sell and financially profit off your work. If you have any health condition, you have the individual ability to learn and manage your health. 

      Is anything easy? no. Is anything fair? no. Are some things hurdles beyond your control ? yes. But in the usa, while bias will always exists like throughout all humanity. The reduction of communalism/tribalism/collectivism and the adherence to a mass accepted individualism has occurred in the USA. 

      Sequentially, your desire not to tell others what to do is part of that mantra, that way of life that more people in the USA adhere to. 

      And many more people under 40 comprehend this than you think. I am sure of it. 

      I will end with a strategic point. The great dysfunction in personal accountability was and always will be the reality that communal/racial/tribal disparities will always influence the lives of individuals of the single person and thus, a person can never be totally accountable for the various negative or positive factors in their life. But, how does a populace that in majority accepts and allows for personal accountability handle when a person isn't? 

  12. end2.jpg

    Happy 22nd birthday Deviantart- the activity sheet base was created by @Issabolical
    https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Deviantart22invitationalcomplete-925899450
    Unused page
    https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Deviantart22invitational-925899379
    coloring page
    https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Deviantart22coloringpage-925899210
    #FourEveningsAtFellas 

     

    My first adoptable- based on an open base from @Sindonic - it refers to the llama of Deviantart
    https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Llama-Adoptable-01-925900347
    #dallamabase

     

  13. Nichelle Nichols by SHawn Alleyne.jpg

    Title: Nichelle Nichols
    Artist: shawn alleyne  < Pyroglyphics Studio > OR < https://www.deviantart.com/pyroglyphics1 >   
    Prior post
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1996&type=status
    Shawn Alleyne post
    https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=shawn alleyne&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=or
     

     

  14. now1.jpg

    @almighty.street.team blank cover sketch. 
    Model: Fiance of  @seantate_seanime
    Www.PyroglyphicsStudio.com
    FB: Pyroglyphics Studio 
    T: @ShawnAlleyneArt
    B: www.ShawnAh-lean.blogspot.com

    Prior post
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1996&type=status
    Shawn Alleyne post
    https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=shawn alleyne&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=or
     

     

  15. now1.jpg

    congrats🙂 Get Out/US/Nope 300 million dollars ,well done, glad his art meets the audience well done

     

    Post with Peele

    Searched for 'peele' in Status Updates (aalbc.com)

     

    Post script: Keke Palmer is taller than Jordan Peele plus Kaluuya ? She must be on a platform, I hope she is:) 

  16. now3.png

    Well, no lie 🙂 but why? if i own a global media firm, what do I know. The USA is not the biggest financial region. The biggest is far east asia. CHina+Japan+ Korea+ taiwan+ singapore and add India, which is central asia, is the most affluent region in the world. I also know that money no longer is confined to USA plus Western Europe. Money exists in LAtin America/Africa/The juncture between Europe/Africa/Asia commonly known as the middle east. Russia has money. So, what is the global standard of beauty that my firms products need to adhere to , to make money? Is it, the natural look? No. Skin Creams in India or Africa, Eye jobs in East Asia, Full body work in East Asia, enlargments in LAtin America. The money, the audience outside USA+western Europe is addicted to body manipulations. The reason why is the after effects of European global imperialism which I will not go into . But, the USA has a larger percent of its population that likes/promotes/adheres to the natural look than most other regions in humanity.

  17. HAPPY 35th street fighter fanartfriday https://www.deviantart.com/team/status-update/This-FanArtFriday-let-s-celebrate-StreetFighter-925725887 quarter-up gallery of ggmattb https://www.deviantart.com/ggmattb/favourites/80281300/quarter-up Banner Art or Art below is entitled CHun-Li creared by EyYoJimbo
  18. An artist I am acquainted to is recently married and wants to buy a new home. If you are able or want to help share the following links from the artist. GOFUNDME page Fundraiser by Courtney Collier : Help Us Buy Our First Home (gofundme.com) A Journal from her explaining her situation GoFundMe + Covid by Musashden on DeviantArt
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