Troy

We’ve reached that point already. That is the reason for all the pushback against DEI, critical race theory, or anything that has a whiff of affirmative action. This will get worse as more and more people compete for entry level white college jobs. But they’re always the trades we can become electricians plumbers. Those type of jobs will still be in demand although many of us are using AI to help us with repairs and become more handy around the house so even those jobs aren’t completely immune to AI. There is the gig economy, but that’s more a kin to sharecropping. Creating businesses that can provide job opportunities for large numbers of college graduates is not particularly easy. Besides most jobs are created by the government, not private industry, but when you look at private industry, the biggest employers, Amazon Walmart a lot of these companies are effective monopolies and have crowded out competition. AI itself should help increase entrepreneurship, but I personally don’t see that as a long-term solution. Even in my business AI has helped tremendously, but at the same time AI is using my business to train their models. Ultimately AI may make websites obsolete. Expecting Black people to create large companies that only hire other Black people is a tall order. Most businesses, including Black ones a small. Ultimately, we will need governments and the people to actively deal with the threat of AI in the hands of monopolies. Otherwise, we will have a handful of trillionaire’s and billions of others fighting for crumbs. There are white men complaining about reverse discrimination about illegal aliens taking their jobs. This is an old story and it’s getting worse.

@Phil Lamar I consult on issues related to this, but the fact that you reached out here, tells me that you probably reached out to other groups and that is a good an inexpensive way to get started. How did you find this site? Your book's metadata is much better on Amazon than it is in Ingram's database (which is what booksellers' reference). Who published your book and where did they or you publish it? I suspect Amazon KDP was used. I never heard of Wyatt Outaw, but it is also not realistic to expect someone from outside the region to know who he is. As you know there were just so many men lynched in America it is not possible for anyone to know them all. On top of the fact that much of this type of information is being actively suppressed today. I appreciate and commend you for sharing it here. Most of my ancestry is from North Carolina east you (Nash, Wake, Edgecomb). NC, despite its beauty is about as racist as they come. Your perspective on Wyatt Outlaw's story could be very interesting to me. You were a grown man in the Jim Crow south. You witnessed; and may have participated in racists acts. You very likely know someone who attended a lynching. You quite possibly know someone who owned slaves or were the children enslavers -- indeed you may even be one of these children. This is not ancient history, I know people whose grandparents were enslaved here in America. I say that all to say I don't want to read a book written a white man telling a Black family's story from the Black family's perspective. What I would want to read. possibly, is Outlaw's story form the white person's perspective. Which story are you telling?

Yesh I remember both sounds well. They took a bubble gum pop song and made it gangsta 😆

From the Washington Informer And as is usually the case...

@Phil Lamar You are being coy 😉 According to your bio on Amazon, you have a Ph.D., so you're clearly smart. Judging by your photo you are firmly in the Boomer generation. I took the liberty of sharing more information about your book (BTW your book is fiction, but you gave it a nonfiction BSISAC code, "Family & Relationships | General" you should change this a fiction code, choose three) I presume you are from North Carolina (or at least the south). If so, I'd like to pose some questions about your book and background. The questions will be pointed. If you are up for this, I'll start another conversation and use the Q and A on the site. let me know what you think.

I just discovered this by accident. I went to YouTube to look for something this morning got distracted by the algorithm, forgot what I went to YouTube for, and ended up watching video of the Silver Family on the Groucho Marx You Bet Your Life show. I was curious about the age of Foster (thinking he might be about my age) an learned he died a couple of weeks ago! He is about 6 weeks older than I am and wasn't born when the family appears on Marx's show.

Yeah, completely different cultures.

Danny Simmons, was a Brooklyn based novelist, poet, and artist. I think he is the eldest of the more famous Simmons brother the Rap mogul Russell Simmns and the Hall of Fame Rap Artist Joseph (Rev Run). I would not be surprised if @Delano has seen or knew Danny. You really could not be in the Brooklyn arts scence and not have crossed oaths with him. I did not know him personally, but I've seen him around several times I believe I been to him home one for a fund raiser. One of the hardest things about getting older is losing people. An elderly friend once said it really starts to pick up once you hit your sixties.

This photo hangs in my home. It was taken in my old neighborhood, a version of Harlem I would never really know. At the turn of the century, I lived in a Brownstone like the one pictured, just 7 blocks south. I often wondered what happened to the little boys in the shot. It is a sign of the times to see so many of the musicians posed for a picture holding cigarettes. I saw Dizzy perform once seeing him poking his tongue out does not surprise me 🙂 Taken today there would be more women in the shot. RIP Mr. Rollins.

Wow! As @ProfD suggested this song was not only played everywhere it was guaranteed to people on the dance floor especially back in the day when men and women danced together.

Why is that @ProfD? Don’t you think that is weird for a grown azz man to want to spend his free time having sleep over we’ll young boys and his pet chimp?

Yeah, but would you let your young son spend the night at Michael Jackson’s house @ProfD 🧐

@Pioneer1 You are the first Brother that I know of who has expressed an interest in seeing the film, let alone enjoying it. Well, I'm glad to read that you found some joy in watching the Jackson film @Pioneer1 Are you a big time Michael Jackson fan? I was more a fan of the Jackson Five as a group than I was of Michael as a solo artist.

Yes, this is the problem I'm pointing out. Mainstream media never really covert our stories sufficiently and the vacuum left by the dearth of Black journalism is filled by the likes of Rashad and Tariq I'm sure they are entertaining. But like Roland Martin or Steven A. Smith they are just spouting opinions. Probably better than nothing but not the same as having a newsroom. The Final Call is better than all of the above IMHO, but they have an obvious bias to the Nation's ideals. Period. ...Mic drop. Yeah, I watch Bill Maher as well. But I would never confuse him we with being source of journalism any more than Tariq Nasheed. What Maher does do is expose me to the opinions of people I would not otherwise encounter. He had Mike Pence on recently and I did now know Mike could smile or any semblance of a personality. Maher can be funny, but I'm not sure I would actually like him as a person. I suspect Maher is less racist than the average wealthy white man in American. He seems to love Donna Brazille, Neil Degrass-Tyson, John McWorther, Van Jones, Killer Mike, and others liberals and right-wingers are frequently on the show.

I guess Musk as also dethroned Mansa Musa and the richest person the world has even known. I not sure anyone can truly wrap their brains around just how rich this one man is. It is scary.

Yeah, a lot of people thought that. even believing the series it would go 7 games just to generate more revenue. The knicks have basically restored Villanova's Championship team. Bronson dad played for the last knicks team to make the finals. Such a great story!

Recently @Pioneer1 asked, "Are Things Better Today Than 40 or 50 Years Ago?" One thing that is worse is the lack of reputable sources of news, covering topic important to Black folks. There is no shortage of individuals spouting opinions, but far fewer sources of true journalism. Journalism where verified factual information is collected and presented with as little bias as possible. It is so bad today, people reject facts in favor of anything that comports with their current worldview; even rejected science in favor of their own research typically sources from individuals spouting opinions or just outright lying. I lean liberal so I listen to NPR fairly regularly and I'll get headline from Democracy Now every now and then. I have subscriptions to the Amsterdam News and the Afro. That sadly is about it for me. I really liked Emerge back in the day. Where do you consume news and information important to Black folks?

Really?! OK then man let me ask you think question knowing what you know now would you have let you son of yours spend the night with Michaal Jackson? Agreed about #1. #2 was incidental -- Netflix could care less about his legacy. CLEARLY you have not been on social media -- EVER! LOL! Wait, what?! You do not believe OJ killed his wife? Humm OK. I believe both MJ and OJ got away with wrong doings largely they were celebrities. If it were you or I in those cases we would both be in prison right now. Both men actually transcended race and Michael managed to change his 😁 We obviously travel in different circles. Did you talk to any Black men (the cisgendered hetero variety) who enjoyed the film 🤔 Nearly $900K (according to IMDB) and most of that was outside the US and canada. In the US and Canada the gross is currently $356,714,075. If we assume an average ticket price of $16 we are looking at 22 million in tickets sales across two counties and we all already not everyone liked the movie. I'm sure many who went to see the film wanted to see more of the "legacy tarnishing things" instead of that stupid monkey and Michael moonwalking. 5 times the number of people watched the following video in 2 weeks...

Big bullies are the worse, if someone fights back, the bully can't complain about what happens when the victim retaliates. If the above is true I hope Karmelo gets off with an apology. I don't get the impression that Karemlo intended to kill the bully at least not with a 3-inch pocket-knife. Hopefully the twin bullying learned to stop bullying people, as opposed to believing he was the victim Again, it the above is true, there is no comparison to Kyle Rittenhouse or George Zimmerman (I don't know who Daniel Penny is).

Definitely going to college. Before that I thought all Black people were poor. I'd never met (or got to know) any upper middle class Black people prior to that. I was exposed to a wide range of music including Jazz. I even developed an affinity for rock music groups like Led Zeppelin are one of my favs until this day. Prior to that I rejected anything other than Soul, R&B, Rap, and Funk. Traveling, reading, and working in corporate America has also changed my world view significantly, but none of these as much as getting out the PJs and going to college. Ben Oki on what to read -- Read like this and your world cannot help but be changed. (#2 is my favorite)

....so you don't believe he was a pedophile who abused children, or if you do it does not matter? "There is nothing to be gained from trying to dig up dirt on Michael Jackson." Of course there is --MONEY! We've been down this road 😉 "Netflix has decided to do a deep dive into the 2005 trial against him." Why not? A "Blockbuster" movie about Jackson was just released -- perfect timing "But, that won't stop white supremacists from doing whatever they can to tarnish the legacy of The King of Pop." When Black people do this, it is just entertainment, but when white folks do it is racism. Do I understand you correctly? @ProfD We agreed the reason people produce this crap is because it is profitable. You helped me appreciate the reason people consume this stuff is because it is entertaining. What does racism have to do with it? Besides, didn't Michael Jackson transition to become a white person? I have no interest in seeing the film. Everyone to a woman (all women) who have seen the film that I spoke to about it was disappointed.

Yes, it is entertainment! That is what I was missing in terms of understanding why people listen to this stuff. Whether you are listening to beefs on social media or watching the Knicks whip San Antonio -- it is all entertainment. I think Trump understands this better than anyone. People eat up all his crazy comments -- even if they are outraged, even if it has a negative impact their mental health. Trump knows his brand of entertainment will get coverage and optimally feeds social media algorithms. All he has to do is call a reporter "stupid" and the entire country hears it -- even people like me who eschews his words. He has parlayed this into Billions and the Whitehouse. I can't blame him, Trump is an prefect reflection of America's, social media optimized, values and incentives. I heard on just now that the average person social media more than hours a day often "doom scrolling" making themselves crazy. I recommend people delete all social media from their cell phones. If Facebook did not exist, Trump would not have been elected, in my opinion.

I usually don't share "Reported Content," which are email people send me complaining about content on the site from lurkers. I usually just ignore this stuff, but this one caught my eye so I decided to share it :-) "This post is clearly full of racism and calling for hate towards a specific color of people are absolutely insane. That post is contradicting themselves. Let’s keep spreading hate amongst color."

I did! I can’t tell you how many hours I spent shooting craps or playing CeeLow in the stairwells of my building or how many bottles of MD 2020 and night train we drank. Once I started high school I began to cut back on that kind of stuff and spent a lot less time hanging out with the boys from my neighborhood. It was a good thing too… No, she was just a racist piece of shit. It took a lot of control for me not to do something I would later regret. @aka Contrarian I watched the first two games at sports bars and had a good time hanging out with friends and family. During the third game, I was exhausted from hanging out late and drinking the entire weekend before and didn’t even watch game three. I spent the time pulling together the BLK Bestsellers List (an activity. I’m sure I found more interesting than watching the game). While I am rooting for the Knicks I honestly don’t care that much. While I was an athlete and enjoyed playing sports, I’ve never really been a sports fanatic— it is just not in my DNA. It is probably why I’m not into pop culture very much. Speaking of bestsellers lists and pop culture. There was a book that just missed making the adult hardcover non-Fiction category, Live Your Promise: Escape Your Wilderness, Heal Your Pain, So You Can Manifest the Life You Want by Cheyenne Bryant https://aalbc.com/books/9781401998820 I had not heard of the author or book before, but when researching the title, I discovered The Author was the center of a lot of controversy shit, this guy named Toure (who I’ve met) got into a viral argument with her and there are a countless number of videos going in on her being a grifter lying about having a PhD and all sorts of things it was unbelievable the variety and number of people that were creating videos, just talking trash about her. Even the breakfast club had her on their program. While scrolling through that content. I also learned there was a fire storm brewing over Kevin Hart’s roast. Apparently they made a lot of inappropriate joke disrespecting George Floyd, and Cheryl Underwood‘s dead husband; while at the same time cutting jokes at the expense of white people like Melania Trump. Here too there was a tremendous amount of content with everyone and their mother weighing in on the controversy. Kevin Hart was also on the breakfast club defending the roast. It seems like the breakfast clubs business model is interviewing people at the center of controversy. All of this to my mind is contrived, unnecessary, and a colossal waste of time. It’s like a bunch of old maids, getting together and gossiping and talking shit about people and most of the people talking are grown men. I don’t get it. I mean, I do get it. It’s the way a lot of people make money and gain celebrity. This is one of the ways in which I think we were better off 50 years ago when men were incentivize to do things that were more constructive then talking shit about a comedy roast or a Cheyenne Bryant. While we’re on the subject of pop culture, I’m tired of reading about Scott Pelli and the other CBS correspondence who got the boot. They’re getting a bit too, sanctimonious for my taste. These guys have great high, paying high profile jobs, traveled the world met, smart, rich, famous, influential people and did so for decades—boo hoo! They act like losing their jobs is the end of civilization. Trust me, civilization will survive the loss of 60 Minutes.

That is a good question @Delano . My initial reaction is all of my experiences (growing up in Harlem during the 60s and 70s) and genetics (being a black man in America) have shaped my values.