Troy

Apparently 10 officers have died during these interactions. The presumptions is that all of these killing were unjustified -- surely some were justified. What is the percentage? The articles says "often" the stops are financially motivated I wonder how they justify making that assertion. Do they know how many stops do not result in fines? Or how many stops warranted a fine. but the violator was let off with a warning? 400 hundred was killed but what is the trend. If it was 200 in year 1, 150 in year 2, 75 on year 3, 50 in year 4 and 25 in year 5 I was call this good news. I don't suspect this is the case, but the trend matters. Read like the article is attempting to depict the US as a bunch of guns crazed lunatics. The case for this can be easily made without bias 😉

Yeah cause we know this will help. One of the white boys Rittenhouse shot (but managed not to kill) had a loaded Glock. He did gun did not help him. In fact it is the very reason he was shot... You want a country where it is cool for teenagers to travel across the country and kill protestors if they feel threated?

@Mzuri I completely missed Pioneer1's taking a break message. I'm glad it was deliberate. I was hoping nothing was wrong physically. I have no idea who Pioneer is in the real world. @ProfD Well if there is no conversation, there will be nothing for lurkers to read 😞 In the last two weeks the site has been inundated with spam posts. I've blocked IP address and deleted posts (I have to approve all guest posts). It is a pain the the butt. @Pioneer would probably say it is racists trying to make my life difficult and bring the site down ... who knows. Still, Amazon is a bigger problem 😉 ------------------ I see @Pioneer1 and OI posted at the exact same time 🙂 Glad you are healthy and housed Brother man! We never "own" any property as long as there is something called property taxes, which you can not control.

@Pioneer1 are you still out there? It is not the same around here without your incorrigible self 🙂 Please don’t tell us you got Covid… It was almost like good old days a few weeks ago with @ProfD joining and @Cynique making a surprise appearance., of course @Delano and @Mzuri and others coming to make things interesting…

It would taken more than insomnia to get me to watch, but I’m glad the honorees past muster with you. Gil Scott was from my neighborhood it would have been nice for him to have lived to enjoy the recognition.

Yes, but the laws are no longer racist, indeed many are anti-racist There are laws dole out harsher sentences for crimes when racism is shown to be a factor. American culture dictates that people always operate to benefit themselves financial gain is the motivator, race incidental. Do you think Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk are motivated by racism? I don’t think racism is our biggest problem today. The biggest threat to my business, and therefore me, is not some Klansman, but Amazon’s and Google’s monopolies. Americans legacy of over racism has definitely had an effect over the generations, but we could make up for that today if we simply stopped enriching the world’s largest companies and marginalizing our own businesses.

The sponsor for this week's newsletter promoted a new book, Calvin, which tells the story of a transgender boy preparing for his first day of school. "Inspired by the authors’ own transgender child and accompanied by warm and triumphant illustrations, this authentic and personal text promotes kindness and empathy, offering a poignant and inclusive back-to-school message: all should feel safe, respected, and welcomed." I have to admit I was concerned that some people might not like this book. So far the reaction has not been strong, either positively or negatively.

That is what everyone says 🙂 also my sentence could use a period: "...the gap band. On Pine street...."

To be clear, I inextricably link the science with the social construct. I don't view the two separately. So the idea that White supremists are the ones who perpetuate the myth of race does not make sense to be. We do not have to believe what they believe. There are no longer laws which subjugate people based upon their skin color, so why should be care what a white racist thinks and factor their world view into our own?

The Gilda Stories (Anniversary, Expanded) by Jewelle Gomez ADD TO CART Publication Date: Mar 29, 2016 List Price: $16.95 Format: Paperback, 288 pages Classification: Fiction Book Description: This remarkable novel begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. After being initiated into eternal life as one who shares the blood by two women there, Gilda spends the next two hundred years searching for a place to call home. An instant lesbian classic when it was first published in 1991, The Gilda Stories has endured as an auspiciously prescient book in its explorations of blackness, radical ecology, re-definitions of family, and yes, the erotic potential of the vampire story.

This past Wednesday I sent a sponsored newsletter promoting a children's book, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, that was born of the 1619 Project, which was conceived by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can read more the project at The New York Times' website. Below are graphics from the newsletter I emailed. The reaction to the mailing was very positive. In fact, I sold more copies of this book in direction response to the newsletter than any other newsletter in recent memory. People where buying multiple copies clearly purchasing them for gifts. I did get one negative response however, and it was just one sentence: “Why are you supporting the middle of African American history…in the water? Quite absurd, don’t you think?” Does the critique make sense to you? I replied asking the person to elaborate on the comment and if they were familiar with the 1619 Project or had seen the book.

No, i don’t think we do. As long as we perpetuate the myth of race it will continue to exist. Worse still is when we ascribe characteristics to people based upon their level of melanin, as @Pioneer1 does by saying white peoples are devils because of their skin color… this as @Mzuri does make him racist. Though some reject this notion Black people can be racist, though we do not have the power to adversely effect anyone with our racism. I don’t think restricting the definition to “white” and “non-white” will make it any better simply because people will never group themselves that way, as it is unnatural. People arrange themselves around shared experiences… culture. A Black American has more in common with their white neighbor culturally perhaps even genetically that they would have with a person from Africa — despite a similar skin color.

I’m still on my phone but could actually find the link on the Amazon page, but they appear to be links in an RSS feed, which appears to be a slick way to get an external link on Amazon’s site. still wouldn’t it best easier if they simply allowed you to put a link to your website in your bio?

There is a mural downtown which includes the gap band on Pine street (the “P” in Gap) av portion of the street has been renamed in their honor. I still have not seen Charlie Wilson… Chuck brown helped to found a musical genre. I clearly remember the first time i heard a go go song that was over 40 years ago 🙂

Enjoy @ProfD and happy birthday. I'm not selling the book directly, just sending readers directly to the The National Reparations Institute's website. Let us know what you think about the book. Also, let me know how many pages it has; I could not find that information anywhere. I assume @Pioneer1 will be all over this too.

It is interesting to realize how many people did not know the victims were white. I always assume the victims are white unless otherwise stated. In fact I assume everything in this country is white, unless otherwise stated 😉 I heard there was a protest, after the verdict, in Brooklyn, NY and maybe a couple of other cities.

Hi @LaShelle Turner if you have a website please feel free to link to it.

For Immediate Release Media Contact: Shelly Muhammad Email: info@nationalreparationsinstitute.org Phone: (404) 464-8904 THE NATIONAL REPARATIONS DECLARATION A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR BLACK REDRESS November 16th – Atlanta, Georgia -The National Reparations Institute published the first ever economic and political document which completely defines and quantifies reparations for Blacks in America, based on a Collective Culture Model and Methodology. As recent events have catapulted the long, complicated, and often brutal history of the treatment of Blacks in America, the impact that history has had on the masses ability to achieve and maintain equity in this country requires a precise, scholarly, and definitive framework for complete reparations. Clearly this research document identifies who owes Black America, why they owe, how much is owed, why reparations is essential and why complete reparations is good for the entire nation. “This study is fundamental to any meaningful discussion validating Reparations. It should be required reading for any governmental body studying the physical and psychological impact of the rape, torture, uprooting and extermination of Africans brought to America by Europe and her allies. Skillfully using well researched data, the authors were able to reveal the systematic economic racism, and the outstanding justice claim debt that the American government must pay if American descendants of slavery are ever to gain “liberty and justice for all”.” William Rogers, PhD. Professor Emeritus, Africology University of Wisconsin Milwaukee “ I have examined many attempts at computational analysis for reparations. The Declaration contains both the qualitative and quantitative elements for determining reparations for Black people in North America and throughout and throughout the African diaspora. It is a document that should be read by all people serious about gaining reparations for Black people in the diaspora”. Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D. Director, Institute for Urban Studies Morgan State University The National Reparations Declaration is available for purchase as a soft cover and eBook at AALBC.

I'll check out The Last Defense -- Thanks

Another reason who people should not be allowed to run around, with weapons like this, in public.

I thought it was unnecessarily torturous to wait until just a few hours before granting the stay. Imagine saying good bye to your family as you mentally prepare to be killed only to be told, at the last minute, that you will be locked up forever... I have not been following the case closely and know about it because, being in OK, it comes up from time to time. My understanding is that the guy did not do the murder and did not know it had been committed until after the fact. You don't have to pull the trigger to be convicted of murder. Often the one who actually committed the murder will be released from prison, while someone else who was present during, or involved with, the crime will be locked up much longer. Often this has more to do with the quality of representation rather than guilt. Yeah, and too many of these innocent victims are poor and Black.

Nov. 15, 2021 For immediate release Contact: Lois Smyth, Baton Rouge Area Foundation, lsmyth@braf.org, (225) 387-6126 Mukul Verma, Baton Rouge Area Foundation mverma@braf.org, (225) 362-9260 15th Annual Ernest Gaines Award winner is Nathan Harris for his debut novel, The Sweetness of Water Seattle writer Nathan Harris’ debut novel, The Sweetness of Water, has won the 2021 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, presented annually by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to an emerging African American fiction writer. The winner receives $15,000 to support continuing his craft. The 15th annual Gaines Award will be presented to Harris at 6:30 p.m. Thursday January 25, 2022 at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts. The award is given to honor the late Ernest Gaines, whose stories gave voice to African Americans in rural areas. "I'm deeply honored to have been awarded the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence,” said Harris. “Mr. Gaines' fiction continues to move readers around the world, but equally important is the impact he had, on a personal level, with communities all across Louisiana and the world. His mission was to promote literacy and a love of literature, and I do not take it lightly that I now have an opportunity to further that mission. I follow in Mr. Gaines' footsteps and the footsteps of previous winners of this award, and that is the greatest distinction of all." Harris’ novel tells a story set in the waning days of the Civil War. The tale is about an unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter their lives, and his, forever. In reviewing the book, the Washington Post called it a “miracle,” particularly because it was written by a young author. Harris is 29. Harris graduated in 2020 with a master’s in fine arts from the Michener Center at the University of Texas. Before winning the Gaines Award, he was a recipient of the University of Oregon’s Kidd Prize and was a finalist for the Tennessee Williams Fiction Prize. Oprah Winfrey selected the winning book for her global reading club, helping it break into the New York Times bestsellers list for two weeks in July 2021. The Gaines Award is determined by a national panel of judges who selected the winner from 36 entries, a record number of eligible submissions. Because of the strength of the nominated books, the judges short-listed six entries: The Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé, The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon, How to Wrestle a Girl by Venita Blackburn, Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin; and The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. Previous winners of the Ernest J. Gaines Award include Everywhere You Don’t’ Belong by Gabriel Bump, Lot by Bryan Washington; A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley; Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson; Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson; The Cutting Season by Attica Locke; We Are Only Taking What We Need by Stephanie Powell Watts; How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu. About Ernest Gaines: Literary legend Ernest Gaines was a native of Oscar in Louisiana’s Pointe Coupee Parish which served as the setting for many of his novels. During his lifetime, Gaines received a National Medal of Arts Award (2013), a MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Grant, and the National Humanities Medal among numerous others. He was a member of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His critically acclaimed novel “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” was adapted into a made-for-TV movie that won nine Emmy awards. His 1993 novel “A Lesson Before Dying” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. About the Baton Rouge Area Foundation: The Baton Rouge Area Foundation improves the quality of life in Greater Baton Rouge and across south Louisiana in three ways. The Foundation and its fund donors 1) grant more than $30 million each year to nonprofits; 2) provide fundraising and management advice to nonprofits; 3) take on projects for civic good, such as reclaiming disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is among more than 700 community foundations across the country.

Ok that is good. I certainly would be stressed living in a place where the crime is out of control -- if I had the resources I would definitely move away from such a place.

....so Obama's lesbians (whoever they may be) gave us gay marriage and the trans things who make you feel threatened in public bathrooms? Do I understand you correctly?