Troy

Nope not gay just special (seriously no tongue in cheek - honest). It takes all kinds of men to make the world interesting. @Mel Hopkins this is why i have a special affinity for the NOI. They will help you if you are poor, incarcerated, uneducated. As far as the Boule I've heard of them, but they may well be Martians as far as im concerned. Besides most Black people are not "Elite" using your word for what presume mean rich. At the risk of sounding sexist Women are demonstrably better at organizing than men ALL the book related groups and organizations i work with are run by women. Even groups, like churches, which have male leaders are supported by women in the background. Men now if you need something killed like a mastadon, an invading army, a rival gang, an indegenous population of people, men are pretty good at that.

@Cynique I would not judge the the future of Black folks inability to exert control over the environment based upon this thread or our disagreement. I'm definitely open to changing my opinion as a result of what I've read on these forums and have done so. Allow me to clarify: I'm not saying -- nor did I ever say -- that the definition of "integrity" has changed or has been corrupted. What I am saying is that what constitutes integrity is a function of culture and time. 200 years ago owning another human being was a sign of success and did not impinge one's integrity at all. It was perfectly acceptable to impregnate your slave and sell off your own children. Of course today most people would this repugnant. Surely, you understanding the distinction I'm making. I tend not to judge people based upon their cultural -- regardless of what I think about it personally. The only time I have an issue with this is if they try to shove their value systems onto me. The problem we have is that ALL of our values were stripped away from us when we were enslaved. Many of us reject the value system thrust upon us by our oppressor, but we have not clue what to replace it with. SO we either up inventing something out of whole cloth (like Kwanzaa), embrace the value system of the oppressor, or trying to rediscover an ancient African culture. The other problem that we have, one which has gotten FAR worse over the last 50 years, is the fact that were have rapidly lost all of the platforms that we once owned that could possibly help define a Black culture. The vacuous majority culture taking it's place is doing us FAR more harm than good. This is why I can't watch TV, have deleted my Facebook account, and find adult Black people doing a Wakanda salute depressing.

In virtually ALL industries I've worked in this has been the case. Publishing is particularly difficult because Black men are largely absent. I seriously doubt you could find half 62 Black men in big 5 NY publishing. People like me do not count. I do not believe this is a function of age. Most Black men do not congregate. It is not very conducive to success. You really have to immerse yourself in the dominant culture. Where you live, work, and play are a function of and validated by the majority's culture. Of course in mainstream publidhing it is far worse. The sisters are largely supportive. The Brothers are not -- there simply are nit enough of them and less than handful that i could possibly engage with have bever demonstrated a willingness. Honestly AALBC is underutilized by mainstream publishing it is a platform that would only get stronger with more patronage -- which would increase the benefit i can provide. But mainstream publishing is not exactky know for thinkning out the box. Well if there is a similar group for Black male Hollywood writers that is good. I wonder why these groups have to be gender based? When i first started AALBC. There was a group called BWIP (Black Women in Publishing). There allowed men to attend their meeting and a Brother was the treasurer. Years later the group changed its name to Black Americans in Publishing and disbanded shortly after that. Ultimately these "Black" groups were replaced by "diverse" affinity group effectively erasing any benefit to Black people... I could go on and on about the disappearance of pro Black groups in publishing. Sometimes i feel like a dinosaur advocating for Black folks--like some holdover from the Black Power movement.

@Mel Hopkins i seriously doubt the republicans will see another president for a very long time after 45 loses, which is almost certain unless we go to war (read: start another war) or the Dems fail to find a warm body to oppose 45, before the next election. Im not sure Elijah got a "pass" at least not by the genersl public. Personally, i don't know enough about the NOI to pass judgment. They do a lot of things i disagree with like abstaining from pork and liquor -- which would probably be in my best interest. And I have no interest in regularly attending their services or worshiping their God. That said im also not about to reject all the good the have done for Black people -- including myself, and suggest they dont defend Black simply because of one man's actions. ...for the same reason i would not discard all the good the Black Christian church has done because @Delano says MLK engaged in gay sex.

As a tech alum we are both good at math. We all know 45 did not get the majority of votes. That is not the point. No one can not win the office of presidency without major support. Major and majority are not synonymous in this context, or any other context for that matter.

Men need to do this. Would this have gotten any coverage were it not for the Hollywood Reporter covered it? The New York Times did a simmilar photo shoot. The biggest difference was that the women are organized, where these brothers, serveral of whom i know and virtually all i have supported are not. This is a profoundly important difference. Here too, if the New York Times did not do this would it be noteworthy? I priase Del for sharing this article. However, to your point, that is just the way he is wired and It is all good. It takes all types of men to make an interesting world.

The US$ will not be the currency oil is traded anytime in the near future -- that is my prediction. Now, If 45 gets a second term, anything is possible.

Mel of course i know what the word means. I simply don't like using it to describe people. @Cynique says it is a legal term. I don't know if that is true, but it does not matter because I will not describe children that way. This is indeed disappointing. That idea that Del believes he understands the nature of MLK's sexuality based upon shit Hoover produced is shameful. @Mel Hopkins the man was elected POTUS, that is very definition of major support. Is this what we are debating now? Im not sure if anyone here is arguing sexuality abusing children. I'm not. MLK was killed for trying to improve the lives of not just Bkack people but all people. @Delano has questioned MLK's legacy based upon hearsay concerning his sexual activites. The man straight up gave up his life for all of us. Even if the rumors Del is spreading are true, this does not diminish king's legacy in my mind.

Yes, because ALL Black Men are not defined by the actions of an individual or group that you dislike Del No, they are not. Look at how divided the American culture is and aways has been. NOTHING is "universal" when it comes to people. You seem to know a lot more about the feminine perspective. Stick with that. And stop grouping everone who disagrees with you in the same buckets. It shows you are not reading and understanding what is being written and more ficused on winning. I'm not so eager to say this is true. It is a practice that many cultures follow for a far longer period of time. Than we have practiced our form of mate selection based upon superficial things like physical attractiveness. Given our abysmal rates of successful marriages, Americans really should be quiet. Most of the Brothers i know, know their children and raise them. But this sample set is very biased, as is ours im sure. We simply don't surround ourselves with Brothers would not take care of their children 'Nuff said. You can condemn one gender for a problem neither gender is addressing very well. We are FAR too dependent on those who have created the hostile environment we live in -- their media and businesses. This would be ideal, but it can never happen in system were the acquisition of wealth is the primary objective. This makes people too focused on themselves rather than yourselves collectively.

There was never a shortage of Black women for anything. Just a shortage of opportunities. I read about a 5th of the quotes. I'm not clear why being a staff writer, more than once, is bad.

You wanna pay me now? LOL!

Wiley, Delano slippery enough to dodge any question for risk of revealing what he actually thinks? Shooting down what others think is much easier.

@Delano, no I have not been following the "news." I'm certain you are following this story much more closely than I. 45 will still be the President come January 1st, 2019.

For most of us, the answer is yes. Many football players have brain damage and are not completely responsible for their behavior.

What do you think @Delano @Pioneer1, De is not above using tabloids are reference material. I never heard any, other than Del, say that MLK engaged in a honosexual affair. @Delano where did you get this information? Del why disparage the innocent children by calling them "Illegitimate." What does that mean? Again, I don't think you know enough about how they were brought into the world to be so judgemental. You don't even know how many children are involved throwing around ranges of numbers all willy-nilly. Why call the man "Honourable" when it is clear you have so much contempt for him. Do you know how many men and women make babies outside of wedlock? Do you run around calling all these people "Illegitimate?"

Yeah @Delano you spend too much time trying to "win" arguments. So you aren't always forthright, for fear it will weaken you argument. This is the reason you rarely answer direct questions that I pose for fear it will weaken you case. @Pioneer1 always answer questions. He is not so much concerned about winning -- thought he can be less rigid and more willing to change his position with new and better information Often Del there is no winning position -- just differences of opinions on subjective matters. In terms of telling others what their position should be we all do this to a certain extent including you. You were involved in the fruitless effort to help Pioneer understand the "help" and "assist." If you were not trying to tell Pioneer what to think, what were you trying to do? (Not sure why I bothered to ask that question you will not answer it... ) No, this is certainly not true. The very fact that we are so often in disagreement about what constitutes integrity should be proof enough. We often don't have enough information to make the determination about who has integrity. We can about the integrity about of specific behaviors of people, but assessing the whole person is much more difficult and well can reasonably disagree. Neil Degrasse Tyson I heard recently has been caught up in #MeToo. He seemed like a nice guy until we learned more about him... It was considered perfectly reasonable to prevent women from voting until less than 100 years ago. It was concerned a bad thing to kill a baby, now it is considered a woman's right (not a man's). It still is perfectly legal to marry your 16 year old cousin in some jurisdictions while many people find that gross There will never be universal traits for anything relating to human beings. These are culturally defined and cultures change over time.

I still see firefly occasionally in NYC but not nearly as much as I used to -- even in the south. Still plenty of roaches running around though.

@Pioneer1 that was an Interesting video, I've shared it below

Precisely. I think this is a much more important conversation that arguing over which gender if not being protected and who is not doing the protecting. We all need to be figuring out ways to protect each other, for we are all at risk. Interesting point. No I have not. I guess the U.S. does not think it will be a good look right now. They'll probably go in their secretly and get the body... @Pioneer1, If someone could get a DNA sample we could solve the mystery of where they came from in a few minutes.

Again you are speaking for both Mel and Cynique. @Mel Hopkins gave us a beautiful anecdote about a Brother who stepped in front of a speeding car to protect her. On an individual level, many Brothers will lay down their lives to protect women. Why you reject this is beyond me. I can only suspect this is not something you would do and you are projecting. On a collective level however I'm inclined to agree. But I don't think Black men are any more protected than Black women. Indeed on a number of levels from incarceration rates, to educational attainment, to life expectancy one could make a strong case that Black men are LESS protected that Black women. The bottom line is that we can all do a better job of protecting each other. There you go speaking for the Mel again -- allow her to retain her agency please Again, yes, you continually speak for them. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with that, because I think you are trying to be supportive of them. The issue I have is your dismissal of the male perspective, while you are doing it. So says you Del. You are not in the NOI, you do know know the circumstances, you don't know their code of behavior. It is presumptuous of you to arrive at a conclusion based upon so little knowledge. The NOI are their own group and they handle their business the way they -- not you -- see fit. Besides, five minutes ago you were calling Malcolm X a pimp. Do you really expect me to say that the NOI does not protect their women simply because of what you think about the behavior of one man who died over 40 years ago?

We'll it was always, ultimately, going to be a wrap. I just expected it to be on the order of an eon not a few generations. I did notice my car does not catch nearly as many bugs as it once did, and I drive quite a lot. I also noticed that I never see caterpillars in NYC anymore. When I was a kid they were all over the place. I

I'm doing no such thing. You are taking it that way for some reason. I assume you are not questioning my respect for Black women. If you are I'll let me behavior and record speak for itself. If you mean in general, again. I disagree. Again, @Delano use YOUR words and tell me what you mean. I watched the video but you need to explain what you are talking about for the sake of clarity of nothing else. You tell me to ask, but when I do you rarely answer. You speak for others but lately, not for yourself.

Here is a store which sold a terrific assortment of collectible books. The store was directly across the street fro Eso Won, the bookstore featured in the article linked in the Tweet.

I feel l like you are mincing words to make a point, sort of like the "help versus assist" The implication is that once your kid reached a certain age they became independent and no longer need your protection. Are Black women the same? Do they ever reach a point when they no longer need protection from men? If not why not? What makes them different than your daughters?

I skimmed the tweets in the thread you linked to (embedded below) but did not see an article. As you know, i dont read tweets for information -- especially ones that start like this obscentiy laced comment. There is no science to support an out of India theory that @Pioneer1 but who knows...