Troy

@Kalexander2, The law is the only way anything has changed in this country. This is what made the civil right era so powerful, the legislation that was signed as a result. Angry tweets, kneeling, and impassioned speeches don't mean diddly squat if it is not back by legislation. This is a part missing for our game plan. Now as far as Trump is concerned tell me the chain of events that you (or Del) see that will result in the unprecedented action of removing a sitting president in less than 3 1/2 months?

March on Ma, March on!

Again @Cynique it is not just about you. I read what you wrote about Nike. Besides it is not like I expected an 80-something to go out her way to buy a pair of Nikes. Further I'm not even saying EVERYBODY who buys Nikes was manipulated into doing so by the commercial. I'm saying Nike's goal is manipulation and some have indeed fallen for the okie doke. I have no gripe with you or your boy Colin. Finally, I'm saying what I am doing, and in a public forum, the statement was also meant for anyone else reading this.

Kat WIlliams get deep.

@Delano, so is that is your reasoning for preferring to be a poor white man?! Besides, on it face, your statement (below) is absurd. I just now checked: according to the Center for Disease Control, Heart Disease is the leading cause of Death for Black men -- Homicide does not even come close. Still wanna be a poor white man?

@Kalexander2 right now I'm primarily concerned with getting my $50 donation from you. 45 remaining in office beyond 2019 is an entirely different question. I previously wrote and still believe it is an even money bet that he will serve is full term and that there is a greater that 0 probability that he will serve a 2nd term. @Delano saying I don't read the news then assuming I'm in a bubble is ignorance. Your problem is that you consume too much news from a single perspective and it has given you a distorted view of the world. Common sense, and a cursory understanding of the justice system, should tell you that a sitting president will not be booted from office before the end of the year. Don't make me come looking for you at the end of the year for my money.

@Cynique I did not say you said your generation was better I wrote that. I not sure how that got twisted. Cynique this is not about you or I as individuals; this is about us, and our respective generations collectively. In terms of making things safer, I think it is everyone's responsibility. It is everyone responsibility simply because we all suffer the consequences or benefit as a result. We all have, or should have, our respective roles. I grew up in a culture that had more respect for elders. The current culture seems to have much less respect for older people. I think the culture is less well off as a result. It is as if the attitude is if you did not grow up using social media -- what could you possibly know? While people with that attitude can't see how social controls them. Maybe there would be less violence if we paid attention to people with the sense (and good fortune) to have lived more than a few minutes. Of course it is true that not everyone who grew up in a hostile environment runs around shooting others. Indeed most people don't. The problem is far to many people do -- certainly far more that would be the case under more favorable conditions. I agree a more stable family would absolutely help, but then we are back to confronted with the conditions that resulted in unable families. @Delano I was supposed to interpret that as an answer to my question? So does that mean you would rather be a poor white man than a wealthy Black man?

@Cynique I don't know what Colin would have done either -- maybe he doesn't even know, but I don't think he thought he would have been banned from the sport. Cynique, in our system unless you are using sophisticated psychometric tools to manipulate the consumer, you probably can't be competitive Nike is doing what they have to do to remain competitive. That does not mean however that we have sit back and make believe that what they are doing has no negative consequence -- or pounce on the people who point it out. So no, I'm not jumping n the bandwagon and buying any more overpriced nike gear. Other than giving my opinion on the matter, that is about all I can do, as an invisible middle aged Black man 😉

September is 1/2 over and winter is coming. Just have my $50 ready.

As if white people need additional material to use against us... At the risk of lecturing, mansplaining, or whatever you wanna call my expression of ideas, I think the crime in chicago is a combination of a wide variety of things. Obviously people who go around shooting others were not raised properly -- that goes without saying. But we are talking about a cycle of familia dysfunction that was caused and is perpetuated by living in a hostile environment. Maybe your generation, "the greatest generation," was indeed better that ours. But I'm not sure how well y'all would have fared in this handheld-device-carrying, social-media-controlled world we live in today: You had MLK we have Al Sharpton. Y'all have Malcolm X, we have Barack Obama. Y'all had newspapers, we have Twitter. Y'all had bookstores we have Amazon.Y'all had JKF, we have 45 I dunno many of us are doing the best we can too, but it is a different world today. The mental shackles are backed the most powerful computer system invented with machine learning. No one is immune... @Delano, Who is better off in America a wealthy, educated, Black man; or a poor, uneducated white man? Which one would you rather be?

OK lets put things in perspective here. Do you believe Colin would have started any of this if he thought it would actually cost him his job? I don't. I say that because he is trying very hard to get it back. Still he lost his job and it has become a sacrifice. What?! You know I have an MBA and worked on Wall Street right? The role of a financial manager is to maximize shareholder wealth -- I know how it works. However I don't think that we, as a society, are best served with that mentality, thought it has been incredibly successful strategy for most wealthy people including the POTUS. I believe, NIke has had a net negative impact on the world. Exploiting what Colin started does not change this. I'm sure I did not lose my mind over a meme, I've already forgotten about, from Facebook. Maybe Facebook does have a sense of humor and the joke is one us.

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@Chevdove, Unfortunately Colins message was immediately co-opted, because one of disrespecting the flag. When Colin lost his job our reaction -- the reaction of this fellow player -- should have been to shut the NFL down. They have the power to do it. But they won't exercise that power because everyone is more concerned about getting paid. Meanwhile, Colin gets paid, Nike sells more sneakers, The NFL grows richer, and unarmed negroes continued to be gunned down in the street by those sworn to protect.

That is a good point @Cynique. Mental shackles are often FAR more effective than the physical ones. With that in mind, maybe you can generate a little more understanding for your fellow man. Being from Chicago, and having to constantly hear about all the Black on Black shootings, surely you don't believe our treatment in the country is not partially to blame. WHAT?! I completely missed that fact that Oska had a blond ponytail! (What is it with Black women and blond hair) At any rate, I'm compelled to go back to my original sentiment since the cartoon is actually a more accurate depiction of Naomi than I thought. Perception is everything. "We see what we want to see." Deep! I'm actually liking the cartoon more now as it is so revealing...

What?! @Cynique you led this conversation with the Nike ad, then went on to THANK Nike for helping Colin. Cynique you are absolutely hold Michael Jordan to a different standard that Colin. Indeed using your argument I can say that Colin is helping to exploit works by helping Nike. Workers feared for their lives in one incident when 28 people collapsed rushing to escape a fire at a factory supplying Nike. -Cambodia 2017 Nike factory worker shares story of abusive working conditions -- Thailand, 2016 Nike factory worker shares story of abusive working conditions - Vietnam, 2018 Workers at the plant – owned by the world's largest maker of sneakers, Yue Yuen – earn as little as $1.67 an hour making shoes that can sell for up to 100 times as much in the United States. -- China 2014 The gratitude afforded Nike is the notion that I reject, simply because Nike only cares for Colin in so far as he can generate revenue for them -- no different that the master that feeds and provides shelter for his slave. @Chevdove I believe one can support Colin AND reject Nike. I can also believe one can support Colin AND be critical of his tactics. Colin is not sancrocant or above critic -- no one man is. Indeed this critique can help him be more effective... coming from the right people.

@Pioneer1, Forget about celebrity beefs. It is difficult to distinguish between actual beef and marketing hype to attract attention. Also social media, media in generalexaggerate these beefs in order to attract an audience. In the real, World isn't the how most of us handle our conflicts a

@Pioneer1 please reveal the source I'm curious.

@Pioneer1, I don't think this society was designed for anyone other than rich people.

Please. Hyperbole may be compelling, but when used to attribute sentiments I do not homd and have not expressed it is just wrong. My gripe is with Nike and the people who elevate them as is Nike gives a Fu*k about Black people. Why hold Nike at a different standard than Michael Jordan?

I added this book to the site as well: https://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9780996016780 I had not idea Balogun wrote so many books:

@Delano sometimes I think that you just want to disagree. You made a few statement that I did not make (or imply) and that I disagree with. I don't even know where to begin.... However I'll ask you this simple question Del: Who is better off in America a wealthy, educated, Black man; or a poor, uneducated white man?

@Missy, I wonder f the audio book will read the glossary and the notes which were quite extensive and revealing. After reading the book seems nothing that has happened to me, or will ever happen to me, with compare the what Kossola (Cudjo Lewis) experienced.

Man, I was about to dismiss this site straight away as the URL is smh.com, which I initially took that to stand for "shaking my head dot com." before I took a peek at the article which I will read later. LOL!

For clarity's sake @Delano I did not say "poorer," as in less rich than Serena. I wrote "poor" as impoverished. Tell me about any poor white white man's tantrums that get any attention. They have to shoot up some place to get any attention then it is only negative. Both Black and white people came to Serena's defense. Who defends poor white people? We all all just relegate them to the as poor white trailer park trash bucket and forget about them. Big banks take their homes, we send them to die in senseless wars, we send jobs with decent wages to foreign countries and we educate them so poorly that they defend all of the abuse heaped onto them. We don't even think about them until they start ODing on Oxycodone, put 45 in the white house, or shoot up a school. If you are poor and Black in America you have your work cut out for you -- I won't even debate about relative gender differences for poor black people, because they are too small to be of much consequence and there are so many variables; size, darkness of skin, education, accent, geography, age, etc...

Well a lot of authors need to be educated -- they dominated the responses against boycotting Amazon in the survey I took last year. Of course the reason was because they could only sell their books through Amazon?! It is like we are operating in some alternative universe...