Troy

Well I'm not Muslim @Mel Hopkins and have no intentions on joining the NOI, so my defense of them can only go so far, as I have limited knowledge of them. I never got the impression the NOI only protected "their" Black women to the exclusion of other black women. In any event, Black people of all genders and even class are all largely unprotected in American culture. It is one reason why young people join gangs or frats/sororities. Now we debate who is the MOST unprotected, but it makes little sense given we are all in the same boat. I made this observation too, but I also realize masculinity falls on a spectrum and some guys will think more like a woman than others. There is a notion, which I reject, that suggests that there are no inherent differences between men and women (other than our sex organs). I think the failure to knowledge, understand, and embrace these differences has caused a lot of confusion in our culture. Again we all fall on a spectrum so while the average man is taller than the average woman there are plenty of woman who are taller than men. Likewise there guys who think more like a woman than some women.

OK @Pioneer1, my Brother, carry on.

Hi @VernaPolitics I hope you don't me replying in our forum rather than theirs. My thoughts: if you consider getting stabbed with a 6 inch knife and having it pulled out 3 inches progress. Verna, we are FAR from making a comeback. I know this sentiment is not what people want to hear and goes counter to what you are reading in mainstream media. I'm sorry, but we have lost a great deal and 100 Uncles Bobbies (with all due respect, a coffee shop that sells a few books) will not make up for what we've lost.

No, no these words are not at all interchangeable and it is not a good analogy. SMH LOL! It is like say "water" and "current" are interchangeable. A current, like a wind is independent of the respective medium or water or air.

@Mel Hopkins, I pretty certain I did not put the condition of "muslim" when I gave Malcolm as an example of protecting Black women which was what was asked. In any case that was not my intent. Besides no single Black man can protect all Black women. That would require a collective effort. But to your point of protecting Black women I was thinking from the perspective of the individuals. But if you want to say that as a group Black women are unprotected sure I see your point now. Black men are largely unprotected as well. Neither can protect the other unless they can protect themselves, when I argue we can't. Our businesses struggle more than they should because we largely don't look out for them. We say how much faster and cheaper Amazon is -- ignoring their benefits and without investing in our own businesses. I have support, but not nearly enough to make me immune to Google, Amazon and social media. What support I do have is the only reason I'm here after 20 years but the next 20 are FAR from guaranteed, if our people chase then embrace shiny object white folks dangle in front of us whether it is AOL, Myspace, Facebook,... then that is all we will have. Dag! LOL. No Islam is not for everyone. But they, as a group, protect their women. I also wonder not so cavalierly dismiss the NOI as misogynist -- mainstream american culture is far more misogynist. On of my favorite speakers is Dr Minister Ava Muhammad. Sh ios a power sister, but you read about here in Essence...

Yeah James is an iconic figure in the Book industry. It is hard to believe it is the ONLY Black owned bookstore in Los Angeles, CA -- a city of more than 400K Black people.... Then again NYC have 5 times that many Black people and only has one general interest Black owned bookstore too (if you don't count church book stores). @Cynique james was the Black Pack Party in Chicago that you attended.

@Pioneer1 sorry man the words are interchangable, though as Del suggested assist sounds a more proper or formal You can HELP someone in being a drug addict by giving them more drugs.You can HELP an alcoholic by handing them a bottle. No where in the definition of the word "help" is there a guarantee of a positive outcome. Help or assistance that ultimately turns out to be unbeneficial does not mean help or assistance was not provided.

@Cynique you first hand accounts from the past are always fascinating. @Mel Hopkins, thanks for the quote: Wangari Maathai ALso, the video you posted regarding Malcolm is the reason I cited the NOI and Malcolm X when asked who protects Black women. The NOI are not unique, but they are a visible example. But again the media loves to push the image od weak males. Strong Black males are marginalized to the point of obscurity, so much so people -- even Black ones -- don't believe we exist.

Lol! Damn @Chevdove that was a wild story. Nice opening to a book about a good, hard working man, and his loving, but nutty wife. @Cynique no (wo)man is perfect. But some are more accomplished and inspiring than others. Neither King or Malcolm were perfect or above critique. So I'm with you on that regard. I would put Obama in the same category it got to the point for me was beginning to dislike the man because so many (usually women) treated him like he was the second coming. Any critique was met with hostility. I have no problem being critical of Obama, which, for a Black person, is the very definition if being an iconoclast. I find less to be critical of King or Malcolm that I do of Obama. I tend to agree. If you read my newsletter https://madmimi.com/p/6aaf4d?fe=1&pact=1349867-148415217-8791670882-25c1d2bb2a31c65f5317d9dc825a3cdd220b508e I attempt to provide a variety of information, but I've found, over time, the content reflect what i personally feel is important. In this issue mean works that celebrate Black women activitist, who are iften marginalized in favor of the men. Thanks for the nuanced response to my reaction to your rebuttal to @Pioneer1 and @Delano's simplistic atribution of highly opinionated to your personality. To a causal oberverer we could all be called "highly opinionated" but that is crudely reductionist and does not tell your full story. Thanks for continuing to tell your story. I do too. It does not make us bad.... just human. I grew up in a segregated ghetto, I know my perspective is influenced by this experience.

LOL ain't that the Mother effing truth. On the dating scene now I'm Mister Communication, and you know what even talking to folks I'm was not particularly interested initially in makes them even more interesting. I would not be so quick to dismiss the experience of a single man regarding why women get married. Getting married is relatively easy. Staying married is the hard part. Getting married and the staying married are too different entirely different things. (Wait?! Am I, actually, backing up @Pioneer1 against Cynique -- lawd hammercy!) Right now the focus was in the getting married part. @Mel Hopkins raised an interesting point in that marriage is indeed a business relationship. I suspect marriages thought of in this way would last longer than those that were not. I'm not saying love is not a factor, but if you respect your partner, have a physical attraction, and keep your business cap on the love that can grow from that partnership may be boundless. @Delano can you be highly opinionated and not self-centered? Highly opinionated implies an irrational fixation on one's own thoughts over those of others, which is the very definition of being self-centered? What do you think? Deep. imagine if Malcolm was allowed to continue to grow and develop as a man....

@Pioneer1 I'd previously heard the Hannity and Khalid interview. I thought the Carter interview was more biased which is why I shared it here. It was almost bizarre how Dominic kept putting words in Khalid's mouth. I did not know Khalid was so heavily credentialed. What do you know about his getting booted out of the NOI and his death? I met Dominic once when he was promoting is book No Momma's Boy. Maybe he was trying to overcompensate in this interview. He was later accused of spousal abuse and lost his job as a result. @Mel Hopkins that is what it is all about.

@Pioneer1 Khalid also started in the NOI. Here he makes NY1 reported look pretty weak.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Honored by the National Book Awards in 2016 Publication Date: Apr 12, 2016 List Price: $32.99 (store prices may vary) Format: Hardcover Classification: Nonfiction Page Count: 592 ISBN13: 9781568584638 Imprint: Nation Books Book Description: Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.

Very peculiar... Did you ever view the video on youtube?

See what I mean I had not idea. I thought Tiger married some PWT baby sister. That was the narrative running around social media. I should just get my news from @Mel Hopkins This is deep. As I navigate the dating scene; I say to myself that I want, indeed need someone from a class above my own, but in the final analysis I'm more attracted to women in my class and I believe the attraction works the other way too. The same also goes for intelligence, physical fitness, and spirituality. I'd want a mate in the same ballpark as I am in all these dimensions. Thinking about it a bit more, I don't think an Evie Rich would even consider a Brother like myself. I think she had to marry a white guy. Maybe that is also part of my aversion to her was well @Pioneer1. It was not just her disagreement with Malcom, maybe I saw it as her disagreeing with everything he represented -- including myself.

I think it was the combination of that and her opposition to virtually every point made by Malcolm. Now I know, in the early 60's, many middle and upper middle class black people rejected Malcolm's relatively radical position to white people and white racism. Still, knowing the context of the time, she rubbed me the wrong way -- especially when you consider how things turned out.

Then you are not reading or understanding the availabke information, the Russians exoloited the vulnerability in the electoral process.... I'm rethinking this now. your dismissal of Russian influence in the election is clearly influenced by Facebook's desire to keep you on the platform and even have you vigorously defending it. Well @Delano you were lucky that time, others not so much. Read much climate change denyer propaganda on Facebook today?

Your response was very funny @Pioneer1, but you shoukd reread the name of the topic topic.

You know what @Pioneer1 after thinking about what you just wrote it makes perfect sense. Often the simplest expaination is the right one.

There are plenty of white ones ho Judism is analogous to the Nation. One the Black side there are a few but nothing im aware of the compares in scale and longevity to the Nation. Man back in the day, before conitellpro and that BS nearly destroyed the Nation they were running businesses all over harlem. They embraced incarcerated brothers everyone else threw away. They had a school and an impressive mosque. They identied and trained ministers like malcom and farrakhan and other dynamic speakers included Conrad Muhammad. Ministers who went and inspired the general public to be proud to be Black and to do for self.

I'm glad you shared that photo @Pioneer1 was wondering what she looked like. I wish there was a video of the conversation. She sounded like, and said things that a white woman, would say. I wonder what she thinks think about malcolm now, 60 years later. @Mel Hopkins, oh wait. I thought yall were talking about your run-of-mill white girl. Shoot, if i could get a white woman in the top 1% of wealth to marry me..... sheeeeit, everybody including my deep south fam can kiss MBA!

Of course not. Islam just started it is not even as old as Christianity. As far as successful Black men, I have no idea. It seems counterintuitive; if you are paid, why not share the wealth with a sister? Maybe it is cultural? Maybe it is self-hate. I dunno know. Personally, I don't spend enough time around white women to even have the opportunity. My family would probably trip if I even dated a white women LOL. They ones from the deep south you probably disown me -- they don't pay that shit.

Surely you can come up with some examples on you own @Delano. You should consider watching the video. If fact you don't have to watch it, you can just listen to like the radio. That is how I "watched" it. I found the video because we are planning to review Todd Steven Burroughs, Marvel’s Black Panther: A Comic Book Biography, From Stan Lee to Ta-Nehisi Coates,

I agreed with much of what Malcolm said. The only thing, that comes to mind, is it the interracial marriage thing. People should marry whoever makes them the least unhappy I can't see myself marrying a white woman, but I have nothing against Brothers who do, if that is what floats their boat. Look, Islam has been a very positive thing for a great many people all over the world. However I would marry a white woman before I joined Islam if that answers your question.

This year I lost my wallet twice credit cars, and close to $100 in cash. Once at the beach and once in a club. At the beach someone gave the wallet to a cop and the cop looked me up in a database called my next of kin who called me. I called the cop and he drove my wallet over to where I was. In the club went to the DJ booth and asked him to make an announcement. He did and about 30 minutes later my wallet was return. I'm far from a rich man and I need every penny that I have (one would think I'd be more careful with my wallet), so each time the wallet was returned I was grateful. It would have been much easier for each person who returned the wallet to keep it. Maybe if I have 6 large in my wallet it would have been a different story... I'm also not sure I would have returned a wallet with that much cash myself. But I can't condemn someone else that does. @NubianFellow, remind me never to leave any valuables alone in your prescence