Chrishayden

Again, the only way Black boys will be saved is when there is a cultural shift in this country making if possible.

"This is America. EVeryone is not SUPPOSED to be saved. You have winners and you have losers. From what I can see, a Negro does good saving himself, and then it is usually a screwed up job, because of self hatred.

By the way. You're black. You're saved. What are you talking about? There is nobody on this list that needs such saving. Who are you talking about? How are you going to save somebody in LA, Chicago, Miami?

Isn't this just self loathing bushwah?

No, black boys will be saved when (and only when) Negroes take full responsibility for the children they create. All the whining, belly aching, pontificating, finger pointing, projection, excuse making, millions man marches and state of the black union carnivals mean absolutely nothing. Until there is a collective effort by black people to mentor, parent, take control, protect, set the example and discipline their male children, the so-called American Negro will continue his spiral into oblivion. But consider the odds. Not good…….

SLAVE MENTALITY: EXHIBIT B

So let me see. Are you needing saving? Did someone fail to take responsibility for you? Let me ask you, are you in need of saving?

This is America

EVERYONE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SAVED

There are winners and there are losers. The Slave feels it is his fault if some other slave fails somewhere, even if said person is thousands of miles away and he can do nothing about it.

This is an ongoing debate because Negroes like to feel bad about themselves--its themselves they feel bad about the fact that they have to look at their OWN BLACK FACES in the mirror every morning--but of course, such self loathing, if taken to its logical end, would mean suicide.

But most Negroes are afraid to do that.

SO, all this bellyaching about someone needing saving and how someone else is failing to save them.

Let me ask you, have you done anything to save anyone else?

I needn't ask. Of course not.

You are going to have plenty of opportunity to try and save yourself in the next ten or so years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/media/

Troy.

I tried to be with you on this. I dressed up in a black leather suit and started strutting around like Shaft. I smoked a big cigar. I drank too much and talked about sports. I held my self between the legs and stood around doing the Chrishayden Sag, where you keep your pants up but let your drawers hang down.

It really bugs the establishment.

I saw a guy on a motorcyle and projected an image of myself on a chopper wearing a chrome Nazi stormtrooper helmet and some iron crosses.

Nothing worked.

I gotta say

YOU CAN'T BLAME THIS ON THE WOMENFOLK!!!!!

I have several young adults coming to the store requesting the Urban Lit and / or the erotica fiction. NONE of them have ever requested the likes of McFadden or J. California Cooper or Ellison or Yerby. Isn't because these authors are not talented or relevant, but because the drama. The baby-mama drama, but not stories of espionage or secret spies; the under cover / down low preacher, but not the story by an expatriate of Judas and Jesus having similarities. The covers are enticing and the drama is exhilarating. These books are a rush similar to reality television!

What we have to pay attention to isn't simply the context, but our behavior toward reading. Some customers will be introduced to a book and immediately say, "I will wait until the movie arrives." Really?!?! You would rather forgo a damn good story to wait for production? Patterson (although not black fiction) writes his chapters like 20 second scenes from a television show. People prays him for that style, but his characters show no growth and are very predictable - yet he is a great writer. It's fiction for goodness sake. . . .

Again, look at our reading behavior. In an age of INSTANT plots, summaries, and marginalized character growth, maybe our literature is languishing because we are wanting our story lines solved NOW. If Tyler Perry stories were in print would they fly off of the shelf? In comparison, would Spike Lee's stories do the same or better? Are we tired of reading the black experience? OR are we not expanding the black experience in our literature to go beyond what is being currently printed (sex, booties, hood, threesomes, drama, down low)?

I do agree with Angela when she stated that we must DEMAND better in our literature. But when we discuss what we read, bring the writer's talents to light. Bring out what captivated the reader so quickly or what it was lacking. DISCUSS the book, not just the context of the drama.

Oh yeah . . . Cynique, excellent post regarding the distinction in fiction types. Thank you.

have several young adults coming to the store requesting the Urban Lit and / or the erotica fiction. NONE of them have ever requested the likes of McFadden or J. California Cooper or Ellison or Yerby.

"They start getting these in High School English. The American Education Establishment has--yielding to the portion of our society that sees everything as a sadomasochistic excercise--rendered even great authors of the canon dull. When you hear the very name of Ellison, Morrison, Walker or Homer, Shakespeare or Byron your mind immediately says dull and if you don't need some facts about them to pass a test which you can get from Cliffs Notes or Classics Illustrated Comics, you forget them.

Imagine how, years AFTER I had received a graduate degree--I found that Moby Dick, the Iliad, and Portrait of the Artist as a young man were damn wonderful books.

Let me ask you a question. Do you just rent documentaries at the movie rental, hmmm?

"I will wait until the movie arrives." Really?!?! You would rather forgo a damn good story to wait for production?

"Frankenstein" is drudgery, "Dracula" is dross, and "Forrest Gump" was a dump next to the film versions. A movie is different than a book--most likely you can get the idea in two hours or less. American gives his life blowing up a bridge behind facist lines during the Spanish Civil War--"For Whom the Bell Tolls".

All ficition books save those that deliver a jolt a page are in danger"

I do agree with Angela when she stated that we must DEMAND better in our literature.

"Demand all you want. It is a business. Now that people are forsaking print media the booksellers have no patience for anything that is not making money. Print has a notoriously thin profit margin. Mostly it has to be subsidized by advertisers.

Think. In a magazine, a magazine with just paragraphs for ariticles and page after page of pictures and picture stories, you got may 70% advertising.

The newspapers are almost reduced to advertising circulars.

You GO girl! Finally a Negro with BALLS!

(Why is it most often a WOMAN these days?)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_usda_racism_resignation

I cannot believe you are a Leo. We are such kind, compassionate, thoughtful sensitive people usually. I would have thought your Astrological sign would be some sort of crustacean or vicious predator--

Oh yes, and

Nappy Birthday.

Shown below, is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old woman.

The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times.

Dear Sir:

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month.

By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it..

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and letters, --- when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an OFFENSE under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact which I require your chosen employee to complete.

I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.

I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further.

When you call me, press buttons as follows:

IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALLING, PRESS THE STAR (*) BUTTON FOR ENGLISH

#1. To make an appointment to see me

#2. To query a missing payment.

#3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

#4 To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping

#5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

#6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home

#7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required.

Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that Authorized Contact mentioned earlier.

#8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.

#9. To make a general complaint or inquiry.

The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.

#10. This is a second reminder to press* for English.

While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year?

Your Humble Client

And remember: Don't make old People mad.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

"I come to realize that I'm wasting way too much time on here. The real movers and shakers aren't on here, just us everyday working joes. I want to be a mover and shaker. It's time to get my hustle on, so I will only be checking my FB once a week to post any signings or dj gigs I might have. FB is keeping us from making any real moves, it's a drug and I need to stop being a junky." --Anthony L. Wallace

Is he right?

(I have been telling you that since the first. At least you did finally figure it out.

NOW HEAR THIS--

The Internet has slack capacity. Facebook--Twitter, and whatever these fiends come up with next are created to soak up that capacity with meaningless drivel. The makers know that the average web user is an egomaniac who thinks he is a genius for figuring out how to use the computer and who thinks that his every utterance is worth posting.

Welcome back to the Land of the Living, Mr. Johnson! Go forth and sin no more!

You people are in the Ozone.

How many young black males you think you had graduating high school in 1950? In 1970?

More Young Black Males graduating high school than any time in history.

And anyway, what jobs they got for them now? What they got to look forward to?

Everybody is not a book reading dilettante. The high school I went to was plenty of young WHITE males either did not graduate or could not read a lick when they did.

They all did well--went to the auto plant, the steel plant, the munitions plant.

Now here this:

EVERYBODY IS NOT ABLE TO WORK WITH THEIR MINDS. YOU NEED JOBS FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN WORK WITH THEIR HANDS. DON'T GIMME THAT CRAP ABOUT THEM JOBS IS GONE AND AIN'T COMIN BACK! THEY BETTER!

Keep on playin. I heard the Taliban is providing work for such people over in Afghanistan--

IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!

Junot is hip to this pimpgame--I remember when I met him at his reading back in the 90's here in Da Lou.

He had just been selected one of the Most Promising Writers in the Universe Under 40 by Granta Magazine. I started giving him the old soft soap about it. He stopped me.

"Most promising writer on the basis of one story?" he said. "C'mon. I don' pay attention to that sh*t. All I want to do is teach my classes and deal with my students."

Hip young man. He will go far.

This don't help none

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/16/hamas-leader-mosque-near-_n_682945.html

Chris: Oh and this one is just priceless "Literary Fiction is dead. Couldn't have happened soon enough in my book. All it provided was a means for some slackers and slugs to stand around who couldn't tie their own shoes to go to parties and act like they were better than somebody else"

Really, Chris, Really? My how soon we forget. I seem to remember a novel titled, "A VAMPYRE BLUES: THE PASSION OF VARNADO" Would you like to tell the people who wrote that book, or should I? *eyebrow raised* Oh, that's OK, let me do it. The, now how did Chris put it, the person who wrote the novel A Vampyre Blues: The Passion of Varnado is none other than our very own CHRIS HAYDEN! The he-can't-tie-his-own-damn-shoes, lazy slacker, with an (and I simply can't stress this enough, with no amount of exaggeration) extremely over inflated ego. Well, you know what Chris, if this is how you see yourself, I couldn't agree with you more! You know I'm with you when you're right! *LMAO*

(Thank you for all the wonderful compliments. When I form my network of fanclubs, you got a lock on President of the Naptown chapter.

Knowing all this, ye know then that I know of which I spake)

http://www.houseofduza.com/index.htm

http://www.houseofduza.com/bio.htm

http://www.houseofduza.com/books.htm

The man really does not understand what it means to be President of the United States. You cannot make offhand comments. You cannot speak and be guaranteed to be taken in context.

You cannot get involved in controversial LOCAL issues when your ratings are slipping and members of your party are about to go on trial for ethics violations and you are looking at getting slaughtered in the mid term elections.

But let's say you did it?

Why then start flip flopping the very next day, looking like either an idiot, a coward, or a crass politician?

The guy wasn't ready for it--which was part of his charm I guess--all I know is I would feel a lot better about this if Hillary and Bill Clinton were up here getting slimed like this.

Come on, 2012!

Is America ready for Coal Black?

http://www.theroot.com/views/free-black-looney-tunes?page=0,1

It is too late for Whites to wrest back complete control of this country,

(What if they don't realize that?

What if they realize that and don't accept it?

Out this way the Teabaggers are talking armed revolt. They include in their number members of the military and police who show up at the rallies packing weapons and talking about not cooperating with the government.

You East Coast New York brie cheese and wine sippin Volvo drivin folks ignored their parents and grandparents. before during the late 60's and early 70's. They were the hardhats. They were the George Wallace people. They got in in 1980 and are responsible for what you see now.

I have spoken to some of these people. They say they would rather see the country in ruins than let it be run by non whites and women. And so it goes...

As I returned to my apartment for the evening, I chanced to come across some new tenants a woman and her small children sitting on the porch.. All three of them, even the little kids (especially them) looked as though somebody had "whupped them with an ugly stick"

I spoke to them. They all looked at me evilly.

Hmphhh, I hmpph entering my crib. They didn't look too friendly. I likes my colored folks happy and smilin'. Must be mad because they woke up black this morning. Probably blaming all their troubles on the white man. Probably the woman's fault. You know how Black women is, those dusky servants of Satan.

I was going on about this when another tenant of the place stopped by. Told me about this terrific windstorm that had blown up. I was in another part of the city and it rained, hard, but that's all.

Trees down. Power out. Lighting struck the building or damn near. Huge tree down right across the street (that I had ignored getting in they beeswax)

I guess I would have been a little standoffish, too eh?

Do I owe them an apology?

To me, literary fiction exemplifies literature; its style being as impressive as its subject, its narrative making imaginative use of language, its story adhering to the tradition of a novel illustrating how events transform people.

(Literary fiction is what the Literary Establishment SAYS it is--and that which it has been promoting for almost 20 years stinks.)

Junot has experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat--from one of Granta's most promising new writers of the 21st Century to one of the Most Overrated in ten years--I bet he don't give a damn, though.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/the-15-most-overrated-con_b_672974.html#s123717

What is Obama up to?

Afrofuturism?

http://www.africom.mil/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Africa_Command

http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no9/2.9_The_United_States_Africa_Command.pdf

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2530358,59hours-chicago-shooting-072410.article

And, all those who scream about lack of community cooperation with the police, first answer these questions.

1) do the police snitch on each other?

2) do politicians snitch on each other?

3) do white folks call out white racism?

4) do Italians snitch on the Mafia?

And so it goes.

What "We Want Our Country Back" Really Means

White Citizenship

By MARGARET KIMBERLEY

The founding fathers made one thing perfectly clear when they ratified the constitution in 1787. Full citizenship rights were meant only for white men of property. Over a period of nearly 200 years, people’s movements guaranteed that those rights were extended to everyone regardless of race or gender, but the fact that the struggle literally took centuries should not be forgotten. It is tempting to snicker at the sight of today’s Tea Party members, grown men wearing knee breeches and three-cornered hats. Yet their costumes tell an important tale. They evoke an era still seen as the high water mark of American society, the days of the enslavement of one race and the extermination of another. This movement has captured the Republican Party outright and leaves even some Democratic politicians and pundits in a state of fear and/or awe.

The pull of that early history is ever present for many white Americans. No matter the degree of progress made, the adherence to the evils of America’s early days are never far from the surface. Simply put, there are too many brown faces for the liking of a majority of white people. Even the president has a brown face. His very presence has been a shock to the country’s system and to the mythology which says that only white people are truly American.

For decades, the presence of undocumented foreign nationals has been an accepted fact in the United States. Estimates of their presence run as high as 11 million. In the very recent past that presence was considered positive, a proof of America’s attractiveness to the rest of the world and a boon to industries dependent upon their labor.

Under the guise of concern for integrity of our borders, and stemming illegal activities, that presence is now being called a threat and a danger to the nation. Republicans like former presidential candidate John McCain have bowed to pressure from the Tea Party wing and moved from advocating a path to citizenship to producing nonsensical campaign videos to “build the dang fence” and prevent Mexicans willing to pick fruit and bus tables from entering the country.

The guarantor of citizenship since 1868 has been the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which grants automatic citizenship to anyone born in the United States. That amendment and its guarantees are now under direct threat. On a daily basis pundits and politicians rear their ugly heads to say that the children born of undocumented persons should no longer be given American citizenship.

Arizona legislators, the go-to group for turning white supremacy into law, have proposed denying birth certificates to anyone who can’t prove legal residence. Flush with the nationwide popularity of SB1070, which turns Arizona into the “show me your papers” police state, they are now drunk with the possibility of keeping the dark skinned people in check and away from what they hope to make an oasis of whiteness.

All of these proposals are masks for a simple proposition. Citizenship rights should only be extended to white people, just as in the barbaric days of the golden age of whiteness. All but the most unrepentant racists will deny this intent. Instead we hear lunatic tales of beheadings in the Arizona desert, non-existent kidnappings and birth tourism terror plots to make sleeper cell American citizen babies.

Black Americans should be the first to denounce these bizarre schemes to undo constitutional protections. The 14th Amendment was a means of protecting the rights of the newly freed population and of over turning the infamous Dred Scott decision which nullified the very concept of black citizenship.

“We want our country back” is not just an anti-Obama call to action. It is a call to revive an idea which ought to have been firmly discredited by now, that America should belong only to white people and that they alone should have a voice in how it is run. It would be a terrible mistake to see these citizenship proposals only as anti-Latino based bigotry. They are surely that but they are also a means of keeping the non-white population under control and depriving them of any rights which a white person need respect.

Margaret Kimberley is a columnist for the Black Agenda Report. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com.

I’m going old school this summer. I’m reading All-Night Visitors by Clarence Major. Somebody should have warned me! I have to be careful who’s sitting behind me when I’m reading this on the bus. Wouldn’t want anybody to think I’m a dirty ole woman. This fool spent 8 pages describing one particular act. 8 pages!

I also read Sarah Phillips by Andrea Lee. Both of these books are in my time zone so I could relate. More to Sarah than Eli.

Hey Thumper – I’m thinking of giving your boy F. Scott Fitzgerald a play during my winter wonderland reading.

Crystal

F. Scott stinks save for "The Crackup" and "The Great Gatsby"