Everything posted by Troy
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One-of-a-kind Event Centers Black Professionals and Creatives in the Book Industry
AALBC fam — if you believe in the power of Black storytelling, you need to be at the The Blk Powerhouse Summit. This one-of-a-kind virtual event is centering Black professionals and creatives across the book industry for a full day of radical conversation, connection, and inspiration. 🗓️ When: April 25, 2025 📍 Where: Online (via Zoom) 🎟️ Who: Black writers, editors, librarians, booksellers, book influencers & readers — you Spotlight Session: Creating Community Through Book Clubs Join Glory Edim, founder of Well-Read Black Girl, as she explores how book clubs become vessels for collective healing, learning, and joy. Whether you’re looking to start your own or deepen your current reading circle, this session will offer real strategies to build community through literature. Can’t-Miss Keynote: Authors in Conversation Acclaimed activist and author Brea Baker (Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft) and bestselling novelist Nick Brooks (Promise Boys) take the mainstage to talk storytelling, resistance, and reclaiming space through the written word. Their dialogue will leave you fired up and ready to write your truth — and protect it. The BLK Powerhouse Summit isn’t just a conference — it’s a movement. Let’s build a future where Black stories are published, preserved, and prioritized. 👉🏾 Register today and use code "aalbc" to take 10% off your ticket.
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Immigration, Deportation and Exploitation from US in Pictures
I think it matters than Kristi was depicted as standing in front of the men in the cubbies when she was not. We know we are being misinformed here. It may be people trying to game the algorithm for views, but it is more likely there is a narrative being pushed and the people doing are clearly not above misinforming us to accomplish this goal. I just now watched the video and I did not see the image with the guys in the cubbies.
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Dollar Tree Is Not the Same Anymore
@Chevdove that stores appears to have been rebranded since I left. It is not really funny because they are often the most virulent of racists. I'm not suprised...
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Dollar Tree Is Not the Same Anymore
@Chevdove that stores appears to have been rebranded since I left.
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Black Girl Clobbers Another Black Girl with Baton During Track Relay--Went Viral!
Man, I really have to proofread what I write. The quoted text was not what I meant to write. Anywho... @Chevdove I can guarantee you that the baton was hollow and as light as your cell phone. Anything is possible, but obviously I think a concussion was highly unlike, but what do I know. We will have to agree to disagree on this one 🙂
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Immigration, Deportation and Exploitation from US in Pictures
Yeah this portion of the shot is from AP pic, so I trust it is legit. What I was not buying where the men in the cubbies on the right. At a minimum they posed a security risk to Kristi. As you can see the AP image was changed. Obviously, it was done to manipulate the viewer's impression. I'd go as far to say that you cannot trust must of the video on YouTube. Just look at the tiles that show up in your feed. They are obviously crafted to get your engagement and content creators fed that algorithm. Doctored images get more engagement than real ones.
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Are We "Tribalistic" By Nature?
Yes, that was what I intended to write. I did not say gay was a mental disorder anymore than I said musical genius was. I was trying to give you examples, of characteristics one is very born with. I did not say you can look at a newborn and tell they’re a genius or gay or athletically on musically talented. Why go to the extreme? all I’m saying is that we are born with these talents or deficiencies. However, they may not begin to present themselves until we are older … obviously. It is not surprising that a professional singers child can also sing. Again the ability to sing well is an inherited talent. Sure, you can teach some people to sing well enough to carry a tune, but the Mariah Carey’s, Jesse Norman’s Whitney Houston’s. Aretha Franklins… Those people are born. It is a good thing you got off Meta if you stayed there long enough, it’ll have you believing that everybody can have their three-year-olds doing middle school math 😉 The data seem to indicate that many fifth graders can’t do fifth grade math. maybe those teachers need to go on Facebook and watch those videos too, huh?🤔
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Immigration, Deportation and Exploitation from US in Pictures
OK, I still don’t believe that’s an actual photo. Maybe I’m cynical. Send me a link to where you grabbed it. I’m curious enough to look into it.
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Black Girl Clobbers Another Black Girl with Baton During Track Relay--Went Viral!
Well they can be hollow and solid 😉 well, what was the their on the video. do they think it’s possible that the girl got a concussion? Have they seen anything worse and imagine they have and I bet it didn’t make the national news. yeah, we boycotted the 1980 Olympics. There was a brother from the Bronx who was supposed to be on that team.. Do you think women are born that way or is it the result of patriarchy? Just messing with Mel 🙂
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Immigration, Deportation and Exploitation from US in Pictures
Thise are some interesting questions @Pioneer1, not the first ones that come to my mind. 🤔 @ProfD I don't believe that is a real photo of Kirsti inside a lock up. Perhaps it is a photo of her superimposed upon a scene of imprisoned men, but who knows where that image came from?
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Race And Sexuality (Yeah I'm back on that 'ish again...lol): "Vanilla" Iceberg Slims?
They did not skip over Delta and Gamma males. They have definitions people just don't talk about them very much. I have not heard of sigma male until now.
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Scientists Bring Animal Back from Extinction?
Yeah, I heard this story too. It is a remarkable technical achievement. Jurassic Park is not too far off.
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Dollar Tree Is Not the Same Anymore
Wine is not considered liquor, so you buy it pretty much anywhere in places like OK and FL. We lived in downtown Tulsa which is essentially a food dessert -- plenty of decent restaurants but not a single supermarket. As you said nothing is a dollar in the Dollar Tree This is where the store was located, it appears to have been replaced by a more upscale grocery store brand. Good riddance. I hope that clerk is living in a homeless encampment 😡 Born and raised in an urban ghetto, I ain't above drinking cheap wine, but it was something along the line of Yellow Tail.
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Dollar Tree Is Not the Same Anymore
I pulled up and my woman, at the time, when into the store to buy a couple bottles of wine. She did not have her ID (she was in her 40s) and they would not sell it to her. She left the wine on the counter. I went in to buy the wine and the piece of poor white trash (pardon the slur but that she was) would not sell me the wine. I was furious in a way that scared me upon later reflection because I could have punched her in her face. I was reacting to what I perceived as pure unmitigated racism. As a result, I decided that I would never give Dollar Tree a penny at any store, at anytime, in any timeline. F-em!
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Priorities: Oh, Is THIS What Yall Are Talking About?
Actually, the reason he stopped and returned the trumpet was, as I later learned from my mother was another mother saw him stealing the instrument. That woman told my mother who gave me grief for trying to get it back. The thief was in a gang I think it was the Black Spades. If it happened a few years later being seen by another parent would not have stopped him. Shoot, he might have robbed her too. Most New Yorkers (NYC) are not property owners, so we call the landlord when something needs repairing. I think that is the reason we are less handy than those who live in areas where property ownership is easier. We had NOTHING in elementary school. Shop, Home Ec, Music, Sports teams, math team, band, for me was a three-year period in 6th , 7th and 8th grade in the early 70s. Yes, they got rid of all of that by the 80's. My high school had a swimming pool and I think a swimming class was required. I never took gym in HS. @Mel Hopkins was a swimming class a requirement at Tech? Fun Fact: in the 70s when my HS was all boys the kids took swimming class buck naked! I was shocked when I heard this from an older Alumni. NYC used to have entire HS dedicated to industries Aviation, printing, secretarial, automotive, art, music, engineering, transit, science, fashion, etc. Now everything seems to be text prep for college and STEM. Its why listening to Go-Go, Funk, or Gospel live is so much better than listening to it on a record. On the same Fuck documentary I watched earlier this week produced by PBS they have the UNMITIGATED GALL to include Elton John and David Byrne as principals of the genre! Talk about changing the narrative. I'm definitely a fan of Jazz and have visited clubs all over the country NYC, Memphis, New Orleans, Kansas City, the New Port Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival (notable for me, because it was the first time I heard "You Put a Spell on Me" and I was a full- grown man in European country -- shameful thar was even possible!). I like Blues too and have seen Bobby Blue Bland, BB King and other (admitted past their prime). I can also appreciate big band music, thought I have never had the opportunity to see a big ban perform live. The closet I come was seeing Ray Charles preform at the Blue Note in NYC with more 25 people on stage include 21 musicians, 3 Raylettes, and Charles himself. I was close enough to Ray to touch him -- my all-time favorite live music experience. There was no room for dancing. I can appreciate some country music, but it is so steeped in south racism it is hard for me to enthusiastically embrace it. For example, "Sweet Home Alabama" is a great song, but Lynard Skynard had the rebel battle flag proudly displayed. Obviously, that was a joke and a funny one. But don't think for a second you'd have hard time finding white folks who would trade places with Rock. There are countless white folks "passing" as Black and they are even rich.
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Dollar Tree Is Not the Same Anymore
Call me a snob, but I've never been in a Dollar General and only in a Dollar Tree once. It is simply not a brand that I've knew living in NYC most of my adult life. The Dollar Tree I visited in Tulsa I decided never to visit again. A woman I dated once swore by them, but the appeal was lost on me and it never made it into the rotation of stores I would buy things from, so I have no idea what y'all are talking about 😉
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Race And Sexuality (Yeah I'm back on that 'ish again...lol): "Vanilla" Iceberg Slims?
Well @ProfD we know full well that in our racist culture white men get away with thing Black men would be crucified for all things being equal. Obviously, Obama would have been completely unelectable if he behaved as badly as Trump. My mother says her father treated her mother like she was another one of his kids. Now my grandfather was born in 1880 in a children where women were absolutely 2nd class citizens completely subservient to men with rare exception. I do not want to live in a world where women are treated like that, but at the same time we need a culture than both treats everyone with dignity while recognizing the inherent differences between the genders.
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February Boycott: Amazon, Walmart, Target, McDonalds, Lowes
Starbuck is a multi-nation corporation. They lost money in lost money in the UK, Middle East and other countries -- $11B over all. Unfortunately the way our system works if you fail for show increase in profit year-over-year -- despite making a profit you get hurt in the markets and it makes thing even worse for you long term.
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Will the real Donald Trump please stand up
Unfortunately, this sentiment is shared by far too many people -- including myself. I don't listen to anything Trump has to say. I don't even listen to the thing people have to say about what Trumps says. I try to understand the impact of Trump's policies, but this is difficult to do because so much of the analysis appears biased. Interestingly I do watch Bill Maher's show. His has an interesting set of guests opposing points of views, and his segments are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. Maher himself strikes me as a little smug and often self-righteous. I have not seen the show since his visit to Maralago. I'm not surprised by this either. Maher's critic of Trump ALWAYS ignored any possibility that Trump could appeal to anyone because he NEVER separated the man from his media persona. Now I can see Will Smith smacking the shit out of Rock for that routine 😎 That will never happen as Muslims don't play that shit.
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Race And Sexuality (Yeah I'm back on that 'ish again...lol): "Vanilla" Iceberg Slims?
Sure, the aggressive macho behavior you've described has been discouraged -- not just for Black people it is a cultural phenomenon. I think it should have been tamped down. Chivalry was murdered by the time I came of age and we as a culture have suffered for it. I appreciate chivalry is a product of a patriarchal culture; indeed it's demise was brought on by the women's movement, but a cultural code of behavior needs to exist. The vacuum we have has not served us. Some aspects of chivalry need to be returned, but I know that is impossible as there are simply way too many images of men treating women as objects. It is not just our president announcing the grabs pussies, it is built into the popular music, video, strip club, easy access to porn, etc.
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February Boycott: Amazon, Walmart, Target, McDonalds, Lowes
Actually Starbuck has lost billions of dollars globally and in some markets are losing money. Domestically they are thrashing reworking their product line... Yeah, even a broken clock is correct twice a day LOL!
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Are We "Tribalistic" By Nature?
@Mel Hopkins any parent who has raised more than one child, and has been paying attention, knows they come out the oven with traits that carry on throughout life. Haven't you observed this? I could spot a gay child from a very early age, whose siblings very close in age and in the same household did not exhibit these traits. There are also kids that are antisocial by nature. Again, I'm not saying the environment has no impact--it does. My argument was never nature vs nurture. Sure, environmental factors like caregivers can of course have some impact - but that are not the entire story. I would think this is obvious. We all know the guy who wants his boy to grow up and be the alpha male, captain of the football team, and lady magnet. The guy does everything he can to help his kid along this path, only for the kid to become a rainbow flag waving "power bottom." I believe parents can best serve their children by helping them become the best version of themselves -- the version that is largely preprogrammed at birth, but can manifest in a variety of different ways because of environment. Imagine how much further along our country would be if so many Black geniuses' lives were not squandered picking cotton or languishing in some failed inner-city school. @Mel Hopkins do you people with genius IQs or gifted musically purely the product of environment? That is, you can turn any kid any kid into a Stevie Wonder.
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February Boycott: Amazon, Walmart, Target, McDonalds, Lowes
no, I didn’t move this one. I rarely do that. I recently read something about the boycott being really effective against Target apparently the stock price dropped substantially. I did not have a chance to look into it to understand why they thought the boycott was the reason rather than all the other reasons stock prices have been going down lately, from one thing to another and I subsequently forgot to post it. this is actually a good point that I hadn’t really considered. If the goal is to reinstate DEI initiatives, what had those initiatives accomplished for us in the first place and how are we being hurt as a result now? It’s not like Tabatha Brown’s products, for example, have been pulled from the shelves as a result of the DEI initiatives. How will we know the when boycott will be successful? What specifically does Walmart have to do? The oft cited Montgomery bus boycott’s goal was crystal clear.
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Are We "Tribalistic" By Nature?
Yes, you are right. I swear I don’t know where that word racism came from! Just replace the word racism with patriarchy and what I wrote! Back to the topic: Do you believe that people are born with some mental disorders? I believe that the description of certain beliefs and states of mind described as disorders is a function of our culture. And since our current culture is defined by patriarchy, patriarchy determines what is considered a disorder. That is, disorders are relative. People are born gay (as with all things there are environmental impacts that might affect genetic expression, but ignoring that for now) In our lifetime being gay was considered a mental disorder — There was something wrong with you. Today being gay is considered normal. I believe pedophiles are born. sure there might be some trauma that causes some pedophiles to act on their impulses, but I believe those impulses are a function of biology. There’s very little you can do to me to make me wanna have sex with a child or another man. By the same token, there are other men that will jump on any opportunity to do those things. Again. I think these people are born that way. In our patriarchal culture, most men look upon pedophilia with utter distain and revulsion. So how, in heaven sake can patriarchy give rise to pedophilia?
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Black Girl Clobbers Another Black Girl with Baton During Track Relay--Went Viral!
what I mean to say is that the girl was in motion away from the swinging baton it was not like she was standing still where the impact would’ve been worse. was this someone who ran track and field in the 21st century? I have never seen a solid baton. I’m sure the ones the girls were using were hollow. You can see descriptions of them on the web. as far as a medical doctor line about a diagnosis. I don’t know if a medical doctor actually made one. It has been several weeks since I watched the videos in this conversation, but I don’t remember a medical doctor claiming concussion. I think it was one of the news readers saying that the girl was concusseD.