Troy

I do not believe 45 is a billionaire. I believe 45 is a bullshit artist. I would not liken 45 to PT Barnum, because Barum provided entertainment and never killed Syrians to distract us from his own BS. 45 is indeed a child in a fat, orange, old man's body I do not believe 45 is a genius or a brilliant marketer. I believe 45 has been bolstered by brilliant marketers, starting with the people who made him "relevant" again. I believe 45 will serve until the end of the year. It is highlighly likely he will complete his 4 year term -- unless his health or some nut takes him out first.

This young lady (the one on the right) is extremely talented. But you will never, ever see her in a Beyonce video. Perhaps she'd have a chance with straight blonde haired weave Speaking a hair colors. Our sisters have taken to wearing their hair on all the colors of the rainbow. I mean unnatural colors, for hair, like red, blue, and green. I've seen a number of young women with weaves that had the texture of yarn. The prospect of any woman wearing the hair "naturally" seems highly unlikely. I does not matter what Black men think about it. There's too much money in women's hair and marketers are far to clever and greedy. I see boys in high school rockin' hair doos that would put grown women to shame. It seems crazy to me that a 16 year-old would put that much time, and money, in their hair, but they are doing it... Oh yeah big up to Kendrick

Well you have me beat in the age department, but now understand the source of the optimism. As Kalexander said, your perspective is welcomed.

{sniffle, Sniffle} I don't believe it Pioneer and I agree on something. In the background I hear angels singing and see the clouds parting to reveal the sun and a beautiful rainbow. Strike the in every race bit and we'd be in 100% agreement. I did not know that you were white @Tanny in another post I suggested that you were a younger to explain why you were less pessimistic. But but whiteness would explain it as well. The reality is that young white people have a lot more to be optimistic about in these United States.

Hi Tanny, I suspect that you are less pessimistic because you are probably younger than the Brothers you are conversing with here. I could be wrong but I doubt it. As a result, we have witnessed and experienced more. In fact we probably have studied the subject longer and perhaps know a bit more. But that does not mean we, at least not I, have given up all hope. I continue to fight in my corner of the world, but it is really hard. I just listened to an interview I did about my website back in 2001 and things cautioned back in 2001 have only gotten worse. We have lost so much that younger people don't even realize it, because as far as they know the internet has always been controlled by a handful of large corporations and Black people have only made money due to the largess of these sites. Young people are excited about the opportunity to go viral on Twitter, while I lament that fact that we have lost what we owned on the web and are at Twitter's mercy, accepting whatever crumbs they throw our way. Do you see why someone older might be more pessimistic @Tanny

As part of my ongoing website upgrade I stumbled across an interview I did on the Talking Books Radio program from back in 2001. The radio show no longer broadcasts indeed it problem stopped broadcasting over 15 years ago. During this time there were many more programs of this type. It there are any running now. II'm simply not aware of them. If you know of any radio programs dedicated to Black books please reply with information about them During the program I cautioned listeners that, “We, as a people, need to get beyond the point where we are just taking information off the internet. We need to contribute more…” https://aalbc.com/authors/home.php?author_name=Troy+Johnson#audio2 Today the call would be much more urgent and I would also add that we need to make these contriubtion on Patfroms that we own. When do Black folks begin to share in the great wealth being generated online? Even the commercial breaks during the interview provide an interesting historical context of the state of Black literature when was the last time you heard a commercial, on the radio, for a Black book?

Sure what you wrote @Kalexander2 is nor implausible. Maybe it is wishful thinking on my end.

@Tanny you ignored my question about how would we distribute the money to so called Black people. I assume that you think that issue poses no difficulty. The free education I propose would be free for everyone. Please forget about white folks or anyone for that matter rigging the system in favor of anyone else besides themselves. This has never happened and there is no indication that it ever will. History teaches us this. If Black people want anything we have to take it. Standing around with our hands out waiting for someone to give us something has never resulted in anything positive over the long term. We have to take control of our communities, education, businesses, and our dollars. But as Del said our biggest problem is ignorance --and this is not a Black problem. For example, I could talk until I'm blue in the face (and have) about the problems Facebook pose. But even in the light of all the shit Facebook has been shown to have done, people still don't care! This is largely because we don't know enough to understand why we should care. Facebook is just one example, one could go on all day with examples. Tanny you are right, the economic game is indeed rigged, but it is rigged against anyone who is not super wealthy -- which is effectively everyone. Finally the reason education is so important is that I can guarantee you a huge percentage of people we give money to will waste it. Look at how many How many people gave their money to school like Trump university a failed businessman with a reality TV show...

QueenX, I wonder if you would feel differently if Bill drugged and sexually abused you, or your daughter, or your mother?

Tune in this Saturday, April 14, 7:30 pm (EDT) or Sunday April 15 at 10 pm (EDT) to Book-TV. Black Classic Press founder W. Paul Coates discusses the history of the Press - one of the oldest independent Black publishing companies in the US. To find your local air times check C-SPAN. Black Classic Press is celebrating its 40th Anniversary in May! Please join us. Visit their website for more information and to purchase tickets

Saking of Black Lives Matter; BLM activist Patrisse Khan-Cullors had a book that came out this year, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. I published Kam's review of When They Call Your a Terrorist. Please read Kam's the review and let me know what you think of it. Do you think Black people or people from the BLM movement would be, or should be offended?

The more generations that are created post slavery, the more we mix and mingle with each other the less likely reparations will happen.I suspect the majority of people who have has ancestors in the country for more than a handful of generation are descent from enslaved africans -- including many so called white people. I did not believe reparations will ever happen as it is already too late to practically and fairly distribute any money to the right individuals. Fighting for reparations, I think, is a waste of time. @Tanny for example how much would Barack Obama get 1/2 a payment? Maybe he gets zero because he is not descendant from enslaved African. How much does Obama's kids get? What about all the so called Black people who are currently passing? When they come out the woodwork to collect how much should they get? How much would Canbliasians (sp?) like Tiger Woods get. Should rich people like Oprah get a check? Do you see what I mean? I think free education for everyone is a better goal. @Pioneer1, does have a point in that it can't be the same education that were have been assaulted with. Right now our focus is on STEM with the apparent goal of getting more people to work for Google and Facebook. Our best and brightest are now desperate to work for Facebook or Amazon which is a colossal waste of your intellectual capital it you ask me. The liberal arts including history are treat like a waste of time which I'd argue is why many of us are so gullible and fall for the rhetoric of 45 or are so easily enchanted by a comic book character called Black Panther.

Yeah unless you are making rice and beans and eating that all week, doing some serious coupon clipping and price shopping; 125 bucks does not go very far. I'd hate to think how a person with dependent children do it.. Well the Republicans will be voted out soon. perhaps some this damage will be undone before too many more lives are destroyed.

Aw man there will not be an apocalypse. Sure they'll bomb the heck out of a small defenselessly nation, but neither will risk mutual annihilation.

@Delano, I see you are now agreeing with @Kalexander2 about @Pioneer1 being "funny."

As I said I hope you are right Del but I predict 45 will still be President on December 31, 2018. Even if Pence becomes president because 45 is booted, he will definitely not hold the office. Any warmed over democrat (except a woman, other than Oprah) should easily win the whitehouse.

Yeah 8 of the "divine nine" were at my under graduate school (Syracuse), but I did not have a clue what a fraternity was when I got the college. A buddy of mine asked if I was gonna to the Alpha party. I had no idea what he was talking about. I asked, "what is an Alpha?" He told me it was a fraternity and that confused me more :-) The brother ended up becoming an Alpha, but he did not graduate. My introduction to fraternities was seeing the guys go through the pledging process (which seemed crazy to me), the Q-Dogs branding themselves struck me as even more bizarre behavior. But I can see the benefits, being part of a club, enjoying the comradery, and the network. No, I did not pledge. In hindsight, I'm not sure I had the grades and I differently did not have the money. I also know I did not have the temperament to allow myself to go through the long pledging process. I was in Mobile AL a few years ago and saw the build pictured below. What stuck me was the obvious Egyptian influence -- in the deep south no less. I later learned it was originally built to serve as the meeting place for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Today it is a catering hall. Black folks seems we borrow from white folks who in turn "borrow" from Africans. Why don't we just skip the middle man and go straight to the source? This is another thing that confused me about Black folks joining, creating and promoting "Greek Letter" organizations. Why not do the same for traditional African cultures? Perhaps the Black fraternal organizations do this... I just don't know enough about them to say. But it does not see like they do.

Foine as hell. Aw man, that what I'm talking about

Hi Tanny I don't think this is a good idea. First $100K is not very much money and will not cover the costs at a decent 4 year college, let alone K through 12. Sure it sounds like something is better than nothing, but if everyone has an extra $100K to spend with on education, schools will just raises their tuition because so much money is available. Now if people could use the money for anything they wanted, I might be in favor of it, but then I'd want to know who would qualify to get the money. Also, what about the people who are already born and burdened crippled by student loan debt they can never repay? Who is going to pay that off? The student loan crisis is a much better problem, that is being ignored. Allocating resources to future generations while continuing to ignore people who are alive is a serious mistake. If you are estimating that it will cost $60B Sergei, Mark, and Jeff could pay that by themselves and still be multi-billionaires, but these folks are very greedy and are not going to get up off anything without a fight -- a fight they have the resources to easily win. A better solution would be to make education through college free, the way it used to be, and figure out how to help the people suffering under crippling debt -- often for degrees never received.

QueenX please consider creating an account, so That I do not have to manually approve you posts. Thanks!

Why Native Americans do not separate religion from science The knowledge of the medicinal qualities of these plants clearly grew out of a process of observation and experimentation. She learned how to distill the essential elements of a plant to create an extract of its medicinal properties. In fact, her refrigerator was filled with bottles of extracts. However, some of these plants also had mythological stories that spoke of their origin in the supernatural realm. These stories instructed the Blackfeet how to communicate with the plant, to care for it, how to protect its ecosystem, restrict knowledge of the plant and its over-harvesting. My grandmother believed that a powerful supernatural being, “Ko’komíki’somm,” gave humans certain plants to use as medicine. She also understood, based on their scientific properties, that a plant was indeed a medicine. The Spirituality of Africa Indigenous African religions refer to the indigenous or native religious beliefs of the African people before the Christian and Islamic colonization of Africa. Indigenous African religions are by nature plural, varied, and usually informed by one’s ethnic identity, where one's family came from in Africa. For instance, the Yoruba religion has historically been centered in southwestern Nigeria, the Zulu religion in southern Africa, and the Igbo religion in southeastern Nigeria. "African spirituality simply acknowledges that beliefs and practices touch on and inform every facet of human life, and therefore African religion cannot be separated from the everyday or mundane." For starters, the word "religion" is problematic for many Africans, because it suggests that religion is separate from the other aspects of one's culture, society, or environment. But for many Africans, religion can never be separated from all these. It is a way of life, and it can never be separated from the public sphere. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death.

@Pioneer1, you a gay mason? All jokes aside what is the deal with being a Mason anyway? Is that a negative thing? If so, why?

Well @Delano thanks for the support. This thing would be impossible without folks like you. I like to think however that we support each other. I like to think I get the same thing out of it that you do. It is not like these forums have ever made me any money Pioneer, stop thinking like a "Westerner." It is not about cross contamination, it is about cross support. I participate on Lipstick Alley from time to time because people from there come here (they have not posted, but I can see the traffic). If folks from some of the other forums came here from time to time, that would be a good thing.

I change my position from time to time and find it interesting to read a different perspective. Even if I don't change my position I find the alternative view points interesting. I'm one of those people who can sit on a bench and find it interesting to just look at different people walk by. I think people and their stories are fascinating. @Pioneer1 was actually asking to see if she was available. I need a passive woman who will do what I say, keep the house clean, cook, take care of my needs, and not give me any lip; you know a traditional woman Seriously, I did not think her personality was suited to being in a marriage -- at least not one she was not being walked all over. Is she cute?

@Pioneer1 those observation are one of the few times I've almost agreed with your observations and resulting opinions. LOL! I've exchanged a coupe of emails with the Sister from Lip Stick Alley (still Black owned). I gather she more aggressively moderates her site than I do this one. As a result women seem to be all over it. I too enjoy engaging with other Black people. I'm disappointed there is not more action here. All of the folks that would be active here, and have been active here, have mostly gone to Facebook. But as far as "...a balanced male and female harmony where both groups can be themselves..." I'm not aware of any sites like this (@Pioneer1 won't share the ones he knows about.) Just today someone emailed me about an effort to provide more support for bookstores. This is something that I have actively done for as long as I've been running this website. But they want to have the conversation on Facebook. I'll invite the group here. We'll see what happens. I'm not participating in any group on Facebook. Our problems are never solved by trying to use the very thing that is causing the problem. as a solution or a tool to remedy it. Come back soon @Cynique