Troy

Again @Pioneer1, this is the point that I'm making. @Delano if someone stepped to you and said, "your mother was a whore" would you beat them up or shoot them? @Cynique, you stole my thunder; your response was the one I was going to give Del. The only time I would get physical with someone is if they got physical with me or there was the imminent threat that they would get physical and I have not other alternative. Getting into physical altercations is a low class activity Pioneer and as you suggested class and education go hand in hand. There is nothing anyone could say to e that would prompt me into a physical altercation. One of the first things you learn in school is "Sticks and stones..." Another thing you learn -- something that has been demonstrated here abundantly -- is that words don't have meaning -- people do. If mere words can get you into a fight, you are easily manipulated.

Exactly, @Pioneer1 your statement is the mentality that I'm talking about. I get the impression that you believe being willing to beat someone up is a virtue, or that violence is an appropriate way to solve problems. Of course an education is a good way to learn to deal with and avoid conflict. Also MOST people are not good at fighting. As a kid I could beat most people I fought simply because I was more athletic than most; but if someone was a trained boxer, a martial artist, bigger and stronger, or had back up from a gang or family -- I would probably get my as kicked. Today anyone can be a bad-ass because guns are easily obtained. Less educated people are more likely to solve their conflicts violence; this is the opposite of a virtue.

K2 if I had more excuses than Ideas I would have already given up. Does that make sense? Of course I love the site and obviously expect more from it. What you are describing as excuses, would be more accurately described as challenges. I'm not angry, I'm just trying to be honest about these challenges. It is hard to help people appreciate the challenges, unless you have built a "conscious" website and tried to make money from it, if is difficult to explain. But I don-t see myself giving up anytime soon -- despite the challenges

There was a study that showed less educated people get more upset by perceived slight than more educated people do. They are measurably more upset. They want to fight if you talk about their mother or accidentally step on their sneakers. These people will literally murder you if you cut them off in traffic. I can't remember where I read this, but there was also something else related about the "honor culture." It is the same reasoning that got all the poor uneducated white people to shoot each other to death during the Civil War. On the other side of the spectrum is the educated politically correct crowd where the default female voice for Alexa and Siri is considered sexist because assistants -- even virtual ones -- should not be female by default....

"Jackson challenged media outlets and owners to be bold and break rules. He warned that mainstream media gets it wrong and cited a quote taken from a 2016 New York Times article that said "The influence of Black-owned media companies on Black culture is diminishing." Jackson said that media owned by Black people is to be considered a gateway to the most influential audience with a buying power of $1.1 trillion annually." The quote is taken from the aritice in the Miami Times' website. After reading that quote I can't help but think these guys have their heads buried in the sand. The New York Times statement is a statement of fact; anything else is just magical thinking. To their credit, the group has formed an organization, The Black Owned Media Alliance (BOMA) who held a symposium to discuss these issues. I just looked up their website a google search shows their Facebook page first ahead of their own website. This is deserved as their website has very little content -- it really is disappointing the very organization fighting for control of our media does not understand the first thing about what is hampering the ability to control our media. Ben Chavis, president of National Newspaper Publishers Association, addresses the audience.

@Kalexander2, Black celebrities, politicians, and wannabees are not trying to engage on an indie Black owned platform. They derive their validation from the larger white-owned corporate platforms. I understand this because success on Twitter, for example -- no matter how elusive -- would be far more lucrative than it would be here. It would take a critical mass of users, over the long term, from that demographic for the real monetary benefit to accrue to them on this platform and they are not going to make that investment. That would be only a bit more likely than Black folks starting their own football league... Now of course if Barack Obama posted here people would come here to read what he wrote, but as far as I can tell he didn't give a single Black owned newspaper an interview, so why would he post here? At the end of the day, even authors who would benefit most will invest energies in the Facebook and Amazon owned websites. This is a mistake, for collectively would could do much better than giving all of our energy and money to Facebook and Amazon, but it is hard to get people to understand this. People are too young to know, or too uninterested to read, about all the Black owned businesses that thrived prior to and shortly after segregation. As far as, "effectively trying every possible avenue," no man, I have not done this I'm doing all I can do just to maintain this site. Portions of it our down right now, so I don't have to the time to try "every possible avenue." I do what I an with the time that I have.

I can't speak to why Del has not answered your question, but the Brother knows a lot about Astrology -- it is not even worth questioning this any further. Now that may not be enough to remove your doubts, but that does not change the facts. As far as credentials I can't speak to Del's but sometimes, often even, one learns much more from study and experience than they can learn in a classroom of some degree granting institution. I, for example, have never taken a course in web development, but I know enough to teach it at the college level. I also know that I could not have gone as far as I have based upon something I read in a book. What I do is too complicated and specialized. I also know that much of what I knew to be true years ago is only now being discussed in mainstream media and still largely rejected in the Black community.

K2 I was working off memory (and Del's statement) if you cited the source great! Yeah the failure to cite sources is a big problem and one of the reasons fake news propogrates so freely on the web ends up on Wikipedia and social media. It is considered the proper thing to do but most people don't do it. Recently their have been a lot of articles saying coffee is good for you. Most the not cite the course (JAMA), but I kept looking until I could find the underlying source and it check it out. You'll discover articles often take liberties with the information from the original study. As Del stated then these sources all copy each other taking additional liberties with 2nd generation material -- it is like the Telephone Gme

...are you serious? Where might one find this racy photo?

Exactly. @Cynique, do you also like to debate or argue in the real world? How has that worked for you? I notice women like this tend to have more male friends than females ones. Is this true for you?

Cynique I guess neither of can truly know what is in the brother head. However as time goes on his value to the NFL declines. He is not more of a scapegoat than a martyr. Even with the book deal, Colin took a big financial hit and accolades don't pay bills. Besides all successful quarterback get book deals, and I'm not sure how will the book will do given the fact white men will probably not support it very well. The long term prospects of the NFL look very good they are looking to expand into foreign markets and revenue growth looks good as well. I'm also not holding my breath waiting for any ad buys on this the largest website dedicated to books written by or about Black people.

@Kalexander2 the post you made which Del called plagiarism was made as if you had written it yourself. That is misleading and generally when one quotes so extensively from another source this they link to it, or at least cite's the original source material. This is considered proper form anywhere on the web. @Delano why are you being so coy? K2, Del is probably an expert Astrologer. He know more about astrology than I do about web development --- and I teach the subject at the college level.

@Pioneer1 When that old poster Sara called Cynique a "nigger bitch," I thought that crossed a line. You were here during that time -- what did you think? Remember, this was also in the context of an ongoing, escalating, and pointless conflict. Kola Boof (before your time I believe) leveled some mighty barbs at Cynique -- nothing compared to what you are complaining about with K2. But Kola was different than Sara (@Cynique what do you think) Sara provided to be irrational and unreasonable. when I checked her she got mad, deleted all her posts, and left. I don't view you or @Kalexander2 the same way I viewed that old poster. You two seem more reasonable -- but like us all, merely human. Pioneer, K2 has already acknowledged that, "We were childish and stupid!!!" But true to your form, you have a justification and rationalization for the insults you hurled at K2. It always takes two to argue. The advice I always give to posters who DM (directly message) me to complain about some other poster (this happens more frequently than you might image) is to ignore the other poster. Interestingly, this advice is rarely taken and usually the offended poster simply leaves. While the advice is rarely taken I don't think it is bad advice. But the alternative is to shut down the "offending" person. Unless they are a straight up troll I'm not sure I've ever removed someone from these forums, and I've been running these forums for almost 20 years.

@Cynique, I agree about the impact of Smith and Carlos, particularly over the long term. I think it is obvious Kapernick cares very deeply about losing his job. He never stopped trying to secure another position in the NFL and he is currently suing them for collusion -- a suit he will likely lose (not surprising since he is a "loser," right?) As far as the long term impact of a draft -- that is just a pipedream on my part, because, realistically, we will never boycott the NFL -- no matter how badly they treat us. @Coach Michael Taylor, the answer is because it is more lucrative. The old saying, If it bleeds it leads," comes to mind. Have you ever observed anyone scrolling through their Instagram feed and observed what they were looking at? This past spring I rode the NYC subway at least twice a week to commute to the college were I teach. I've have had the occasion to observe people on social media. They will spend their entire train ride scrolling through videos, memes, and photos. The content the programmatically compiled feeds, designed to keep you engaged, is being pushed to them and they are just consuming it as fast as they can. There was a time were you would see people reading a newspaper and books on the subway. Today you rarely see anyone reading a newspaper occasionally you'd see some weirdo reading a book...

I was posting a link to AALBC on Facebook at the juxtaposition of the photo of ten-year-old me and the cartoon of nine-year-old old Ronald McNair, the astronaut who perished in the space shuttle explosion 32 years ago, struck me. Ronald like myself used to read about science, like startrek. Ronald, aparrently, was a lot smarter though

@Mel Hopkins I dunno. It is very possible @Pioneer1 read somewhere that morocco is in the middle east. I just have never heard anyone say that but to his point what is the point of debating it "Middle East," is a nonsensical term, and only means something to the imperialists who coined it. I just watched a video where Denzel Washington, who I saw on Broadway on Sunday, said; "If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed and if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." I was like dayam, Denzel has a radial side. I was impressed, cause all this time I thought he was just an actor.

I hear you @Pioneer1. Keep in mind, you don't have to justify to me why you've decided to maintain your privacy -- I get it. I'm glad things are back to normal. Everyone should keep in mind however there have been security breaches galore -- if you do anything online your security has already been compromised. Equifax is a really dramatic example -- that people simply don't understand the magnitude of. Still if you participate on social media, like Facebook, all of your information is available for sale anyway. Cambridge Analytica is one example where the net result on the American public was WORSE than being hacked -- and no one at Facebook was held accountable. It looks like the CDN was the culprit I'm still dealing with the impact of this change. My photo gallery and bookstore are down.... I was gonna send a mailing to promote a deal I'm offering but I can't... It never ends...

People don't like speaking plainly in our PC world world. We used to call able bodied men who pan handled on the street, "bums." Today they are described, euphemistically, as "homeless." If one were to described one of these bums as a loser you'd be considered heartless and cruel. We all know in sports everyone gets a trophy just for showing, when in my day you had to be the "winner." Getting a trophy back then meant something; today it means nothing. Teachers are discouraged from grading papers in red ink or even giving out Fs. They have to give "trigger warnings" to protect the tender sensibilities of the precious little darlings in the classroom.

Another user reported a problem. The site was hacked I'm beginning to think the cleanup process may have corrupted some profiles. I was out of the office yesterday and will be able to look at this until later. @Pioneer1 and anyone else affected it would be helpful if you sent me a screen shot of the problem you are seeing.

For most of my life I considered myself pretty lucky given the years I was I was born. Sure I was raised in a straight up ghetto, but I never came close to being hungry. I've always has access to clean water and air (mostly). I was never at risk of going to war; I was too young for Vietnam (fortunately) and had access to doctors, medicine and affordable housing-- in Manhattan. The country was in the midst of a technical revolution. Gas was cheap and educational opportunities abounded (I did not pay for my master degrees and my BS cost relatively little). You were essentially free to do anything you wanted. I could get in my car and drive 3,000 miles without a visa or anyone's permission. On so many levels, all things considered, me and my contemporaries, really had it made. The idea someone like Trump could become president would have been laughable. On some level, I know there may come a time where making a statement like that could actually put my life at risk... No @Cynique, I do not think you are being hyperbolic. There is cause for profound concern here. When white folks start compiling about the status quo something is SERIOUSLY wrong! White American does not really appreciate how good the actually have it. If a few more of them got a passport and traveled outside the U.S., they might get a clue. Still white folks have been so manipulated by the media they think things was far worse for them they they really are. 45 can tweet about muslims and Muslims are banned from entering the country. He can tweet about MS13 crossing our southern border and we rip families apart and put the children in kennels (this is not really done but the media say this and white people believe it). White people regularly grab a guns and go on killing sprees, the are committing suicide at alarming rates, and OD on prescription drugs. Educationally they lag the rest of the industrial world and their best and brightest work in companies building social media platforms. White people actually have it made and they are screwing the country up for no good reason, other than greed and stupidity. All the rest of us brown folk can do is watch...in horror.

Look, we all know Kaepernick's action will not have any impact whatsoever -- indeed it can be viewed as a catalyst for making things worse. From day one I always asserted that nothing short of a boycott of the NFL will make any difference, but again we will never take this action. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists during the 1968 olympics, a seminal -- arguably a more profound action -- which has resonated for 50 years, but nonetheless has resulted in no significant change. Muhammad Ali knowingly sacrificed his career and risked imprisonment refusing to go to Nam. Kaepernick's action, while commendable, does not rise to Ali's actions. Let's keep things in perspective. Colin was just some dude who got uppity, forgot who he worked for, and was summarily dismissed as a result (@Cynique wouldn't that meet your definition for "loser?") @Coach Michael Taylor, people were already aware of police brutality -- it is constantly covered in the media. @Cynique, sure he agitated the country but his message and goal of his agitation was lost. I was at a sporting event (car racing) recently and some red neck said everyone one here better stand for the flag. Again the meaning of Collins kneeling completely lost. You can not use the tools of the master to effect change -- it is impossible. Colin tried to use the NFL has a platform and they erased him and used the media to pervert his message -- even sending in the VP of the United States to walk out on a game in protest -- taking Kaepernick's protest and twisting it into an issue of patriotism. If we had conscious Black-owned media perhaps the people actually doing things of consequence would be uplifted and celebrated and maybe Colin would still have a job entertaining, and enriching, the white folks who obviously don't give a shit about him or any of us.

Well hopefully you'll never have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Yeah if your compassion is not passive, you would not survive a traffic stop here.

I guess the establishment of an Embassy in Israel is icing on the cake. Are any of the Black folks in your your neck of the woods interested in the royal wedding? Remember, you don't have to copy what I wrote in your reply.

Humm I think I know the video. It was probably because it was a one shot take (basically live) and in those circumstances it is best to have a script. Otherwise one has to be extremely knowledgeable about the books you are discussing and have talent for speaking off the cuff. I was probably a bit more self conscious about what I was saying about those books. I could see how that would come across as tentative.