Troy

Thanks Mel your words are inspiring.

What about an older man and a younger woman?

@Pioneer1, You are probably right. @ProfD, i hear you, but I’m glad you decided to share your wisdom here — thank you.

Some people want to ban TikTok:

@Pioneer1 as you get older I assume your desire for older women has changed to younger women. When you were 25 you may have lusted after the 50-year-old Sista in the video. I assume this has not continued to hold true, as that would mean you would be lusting after 80-year-old women today. I suspect you are probably now attracted to women close to or age or younger rather than older women. Is that true? I watched the first 60 seconds watching the rest of video does not interest me in the least.

LOL, no one is a cap (tooth broken in high school) and I have three veneers to match the cap and close a gap and correct my bite. Apparently, unlike Twitter, the 'Gram and Facebook, people actually use TikTok platform to discover books through "booktokers." I have never discovered a book that way, but everyone is saying that it is a great way to promote books. I think my newsletter blows anyway TikTok. Time will tell. Again, I do not mind being proven wrong. I could use a free what to promote my brand. Speaking of YouTube, has anyone noticed how shitty is it becoming. They bombard the videos with ads -- Increasingly I can't even watch videos for enjoyment anymore. I assume you can control the volumes on your device to control the volume of the videos.

Good idea Mel!

Wow, this is incredible news @Mel Hopkins -- thanks for sharing! I have not read the article yet but will get to it. I believe this may make Sanyu the most senior Black person in Publishing! This reminds me of a conversation from 5 years about when I posted an article, published 10 years before that conversation, sharing the people behind Black books: We talked about how publishing was dominated by white people. Sanyu's promotion is a step in the right direction 🙂 This is a change that Random House did not have to make. I was not previously familiar with "All Ways Black," but I'm not active on Instagram... Though I did start Tiktoking (is that a verb?) a few minutes ago 😉

Okay, I just broke down a begin my first foray into TicTok. Everyone is telling me I need to be on the platform. So I'm starting in earnest today. I still can't image it helping, but I hope I'm proven wrong. My goal is to post a short video several times a week. I'm open to any suggestions. The video is raw, I did not bother to shave or wear anything special -- if I did it would be too much work. I figure I could invest 15 minutes a week to post a few sub-two-minute videos to the platform.

As @ProfD wrote @Pioneer1 women are built for this. As a species we are simply following our genetic predisposition to make babies desire the discomfort. Men do go to war and kill each other and I guess on some level we are genetically predisposed to doing this too, for i can’t think of any reason why we do it so often.

I agree. The brother in the video is almost certainly not a teenager.... but with the chemicals in foods today -- who knows.

Well what “Guest nigger hater” wrote was plainly racist and served no other purpose other than to incite and insult people or maybe it was just for amusement at our expense. @Pioneer1, I do think your views on race are racist (I’m not one of those people who don’t believe Blacks can be racist). But your views are a direct consequence of, and in reaction to, white racism which has plagued the planet for centuries. Unlike the white racist whose goal is to exploit and dominate, you are trying to help Black not hurt white people.

Yeah, the Nation would fall into the category of being both fiscally and socially conservative. However they also recognize that there are devils in both political parties. Their critique of the government is an appeal for many, but not enough of an appeal for most to adopt their conservative life style. Black Republicans as opposed to Black conservatives come across as unsystematic to Black people who need the most help. It is also hard for me to understand the ones who support a man like Trump.

@Chevdove don't feed the trolls 😉 I just blocked Kronzee21 Looking back over this thread, I'm not sure why I never deleted Guest nigger hater's racist post. As anyone here ever gone to a website, or social media site, and posted racist comments?

@KENNETH often this argument is simplified into a this or that scenario. There are large groups of Black people who are socially conservative. There are large numbers of Black people who are fiscally conservative. Black people can be in both of the above groups and vehemently reject the Republican party, which never made sense to me. Black people are all over the spectrum when it comes to assessing what is most responsible for our collective and individual successes and failures. If you have the three things below, you will generally succeed in this country: Ability; Drive; and Lucky You really need all three to succeed. That "trifecta" of conditions can be both elusive and fleeting. The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow has diminished our ability obtain some of the lucky breaks white folks enjoy. This of course affects our drive and even our ability. Both of my grandfathers were illiterate. I know other Black people my age whose grandfathers graduated from college. Who do you think benefited more from inherited wealth, educational opportunities, and less familial dysfunction? Who would be more inclined to claim hard work is the way to succeed? I'm one of those people who blame both the legacy of racism and our own behavior for both our individual and collective predicaments. I also believe much of our dysfunctional is a direct consequence of living in a historically white racist country.

I was in the customs line leaving Barbados several years ago and Rihanna was in the line behind me as the line snaked i got a really good look at her. She is average looking. Nothing particularly striking about her in her natural state. We look at the people on the cover of Vogue and make the mistake of assuming that is actually how the person looks in real life. Times have absolutely changed as few men in my generation, or older, would desire that positioning on the cover of a magazine. It is emasculating, but that is considered a good thing today. Let the woman led pulling the “man” along as he nurtures that baby. I’m sure the photo was crafted to stoke that sentiment. I don’t particularity care for the photo, but the baby is cute 🥰

Yep, https://blackplanet.com/Troy

Please elaborate on what “more focused”means and how this was quantified.

English is already has too many exceptions. Even seasoned professional writers need a another professional to correct their writing. Most languages have a formal and colloquial expression which is fine. No need to rewrite rule book, ‘cause those rules will be eventually be broken too. Forget the the double negatives, but adding new words makes sense. i thought “Yo” was already a word. “Ain’t” should be a word. Everyone knows what it means, and many use it. Though i don’t remember what words it is supposed to be a contraction for.

where was this?

LOL, Yep! {pulling Del to the side and whispering in his ear, “man you know that knee grow will never expose the flaw in his argument by saying he ain’t letting his woman get banged by a bunch of miscellaneous dudes every night and have the money go to to his dad and not to him”}

@Delano clearly @Pioneer1 is cool with the women in his life being pimped out — so long as it was their choice. He may not like it but it is their decision he is the ultimate libertarian. 😉 @Stefan i found this thread funny too. 😀

Sorry to read NYC is slashing its budget, but it is probably a bit much to blame it on AOC. I'm not a fan of hers but that is mostly because she strikes me as a kid out of her depth, not an ideal representative for a district in NYC-- but the media loves her... I guess you can add fiscal woes and shitty weather for a couple more good reasons to run away from NYC 😉 Seriously, NYC is a city of immigrants -- always has been. If NYC can no longer assimilate those fleeing persecution and hardship we have really taken a turn for the worse.

Then there are the issues of having a job someplace else and needing a car, otherwise, there probably would be a mad rush. People fortunate enough to have an apartment in the projects are somewhat trapped. When I was a kid it was realistic to save some money and buy a house in "Blacklandia." For those of you familiar with NY City Blacklandia is what I call the "two-fare zone" bounded by the Van Wyck, Grand Central, Belt Parkway, and the Cross Island. It includes St. Albans, Jamaica, Cambria Heights, Springfield Gardens, etc). It was whitelanida originally but as soon as negros started moving in it quickly became Blacklandia. Today, housing is so expensive in NYC that it is much harder for people to leave the projects in Harlem and move even to Blacklandia, let alone Atlanta, Charlotte, or Florida. There are opportunities to move to places like Tulsa (where I lived for 18 months), Bentonville AK, The Shoals in Ll, and other cities where they will pay you to move there. Still, many people can't imagine NYC -- despite the crime, noise, dirt, hyper-policing of Black people, and high cost of living -- they love NYC. NYC does still have some appeal, but I'd rather visit than live there -- and I was born raised, and lived most of my adult life there. This is perfectly reasonable as prior to the hyper-partisanship of today most people held views that were supported by different parties.

Hey @Chevdove are you in the San Diego area? I asked because you've emphasized he text.