Troy

Del please try not to copy what I just wrote. Here you've done it back-to-back. Again if you are responding directly to what I just wrote it is unnecessary and creates clutter which make it harder to shift through and read your thoughts. As far as your response; I'm confused bruh. Maybe that is a good indication we've gone as far as we can with this one

Clever and devilishly brilliant... I don't even take it personally, or believe it is racially motivated anymore. Greedy rich people will do anything to get another dollar and to secure their wealth. They will take the food away from a starving baby if it means more money in their pockets. That baby could be white or Black; it does not matter. White people are gunned down, in mass shootings, on a regular basis. The oligarchy wants to allow anyone to buy weapons of war without restriction just to make more money.

What do you think the order of my response means?

I make the distinction between our behaviors as influenced by marketers (as evidenced by our collective orgaism over the Black Panther Film) and behaviors born of traditions we create. The former is fleeting; the later is more sustained. Now that does not mean that our culture is not influenced by the majority culture (white folks). How could it not be? My only argument is that Black Panther is nothing more than a revenue stream for a few wealth white folks. All this noise about a culture revolution awaken of Black pride, a renaissance in African cultural heritage, and the beginning of Black empowerment because of this film is just plain silly. The Black Panther film does not define our culture. Our reaction to it, however, is a direct reflection of it.

Your question brings to mind John Boehner whose crying I find ridiculous. I can, however, have sympathy for white folks crying, just like I would for anyone else. It all depends upon the situation.

Yeah the situation is FOBAR. This quote, from the article is quote telling. "Over the past 40 years, the prison population has quintupled. As a consequence of disparities in arrests and sentencing, this eruption has disproportionately affected black communities. Black men are imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. In 2003, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that black men have a 1 in 3 chance of going to federal or state prison in their lifetimes. For some high-risk groups, the economic consequences have been staggering. According to Census data from 2014, there are more young black high school dropouts in prison than have jobs." When you come from the inner city this is quite evident. High swaths of our population are unemployed and unemployable. This will remain the case as long as we, in the Black community, refuse to educate our poor Brother and Sisters. Clearly, the government will not do this. Private industry will not do it -- but private industry will take money we borrow from government subsidized loans and still not educate us!

Yes Kalexander, Black people are not the only ones who fail prey the influence of marketers, which is not synonymous with "white culture." Del, Hannibal's father's name escapes me now, but I learned about both in the documentary of Dr, Clarke's life A Great Mighty Walk (I consider it required viewing). It is also covered in his books.

Del I gave you one prime example when I wrote; I actually teach web design at the college level right now. What I teach, and the how I teach it, has nothing to do with the way the school was founded. You did not address this. Would you care to do it now? I see that you chose not to answer my question again. I can only assume that you agree with what I wrote.

Yes that is my final answer. The bit about the Peace Prize was hyperbole, but it seems very likely 45 will serve out his full term and I would not be surprised if he wins a second. I read the article and there is nothing in it that weakens my statement. If I missed something please point it out.

Seems 45 as been absolved of the Russian collusion. They also tell us that the stock market is rallying, the employment rate is low, and the economy is booming. Even 45's approval rating is up. He is about to smooth things over in North Korea. I don't think Trump is going anywhere anytime soon, shoot he may get a 2nd term and a Nobel Peace Prize.

The was a typo in my last post, which I corrected (I'm sure you understand typos). Something tells me you knew what I meant though. Dude, leaving the question mark off, still makes it a question. Why do you insist on answering my questions with a question? I asked you a direct question and you jumped somewhere else. I asked you what does your most recent statement, "Does that also mean that Christianity endorsing the slave trade is of no consequence" have to do with the statement I previously made or the influence between religion and science that you are asserting? If you dodge my questions only to ask seemingly unrelated questions we won't get anywhere.

Everybody getting paid off this movie but Black folks and we running around correcting each other on how to properly do the wakanda salute (lower case "w" is deliberate).

@Delano free screenings in African -- that is called marketing, expanding an audience to make more money. Facebook is covering the earth with free internet access, do you think they are going this out of pure largess or to make money? Del the Huxtables were based in reality, Wakanda is based upon a white boy's fantasy. There is a big difference. Stan Lee is revered; Bill Cosby is going to jail. Cigarettes, porn, cocaine, deep fried oreos, and action flicks all make people feel good, and I'm afraid that is all they do-- at best. Look, white folks do this crap too. They built a statue to perpetuate their mythology. They overlooked Joe Frazier, an actual boxing champion, and built statue for Rocky?! This comes from a desire to make up for a deficiency and does not come from a position of strength. Again, our over-the-top assimilation of the world of wakanda comes from a position of weakness. If we base our source of strength on some shit white people made up and own and they we pay them for, we are indeed in very bad shape... but you know what this is par for the course why should I be surprised. Good list by the way ;-)

No problem. Yeah I just wish I could pull some the the passionate Black folks.

Personally, I don't use Amazon any more I let my prime membership lapse back when I was collecting information on a proposed boycott of the Amazon bookstore. I read the article. I think it would have been better if it attempted to explain why we should stop giving Amazon all our money. From a business perspective, I still use Amazon by providing buy links to their website. Honestly if I were not an Amazon affiliate I would not make very much money selling books as crazy as that sounds this is the situation we are in today. Speaking of Goodreads (which Amazon owns). I reluctantly began a test of adding Goodreads reviews to AALBC.com pages. @Mel Hopkins here is an example for your novel, Sleeping with D-Man. I say reluctantly, because Amazon owns Goodreads, but I'm also trying to increase engagement on the book pages too, and I want to see if this will help. The crazy thing is that I have to pay people to write book reviews, but Amazon gets a deluge of them on both Goodreads and the Amzon.com site. Of course most of these reviews are not very good, are biased, or are sponsored (thought this is not made plain to the reader). If an authors asks I will post an excerpt of a reviews we've published on Amazon platforms but as a policy I don't gave Amazon, Goodread, or any massive corporate site content for free. Amazon (and the massive social media sites) make a bazillion dollars off the content we give them for free. They need to share the wealth, and they don't. This is how I define digital sharecropping. The problem today is that actual sharecroppers knew they were being exploited.

Wow that is really deep Del. This just reinforces my point. I would not have known that the Wakanda Salute is a thing unless you told me. I'm sorry man you will not see me doing the Wakanda salute, mimicking something from a disney film. This just empathizes how needy and sad we are.... But hey if the film bolsters pride in our African heritage that is great, but is seems to me we are elevating Wakanda which is just plain ludicrous to me. I would be willing to bet that if you ask anyone of those athletes who big upping Wakanda during their celebrations to name 5 Africans who lived before 1,400 they would not be able to to do it. Do you think they could do it? Indeed, as a sanity check for that matter, can you?

No, I don't see the connections because you are NOT making them. For example, what does the question you posed, "Does that also mean that Christianity endorsing the slave trade is of no consequence" have to do with the statement I previously made or the influences between religion and science that you are asserting?

Del you are all over the place now. Did the point I made have any impact on you? What does anything you wrote in your last post have to do with science?

Carole Boston Weatherford has teamed up with many brilliant illustrators including, Frank Morrison, Eric Velasquez, Ekua Holmes, R. Gregory Christie, Floyd Cooper, and more, to create some terrific books for children. Often you don't see these books -- even the in major bookstores, which historically made these books effectively nonexistent were it not for the web. Some of these titles win children's book awards and gain some level of success and prominence, but still readers seem to be under the impress that there aren't very many Black book being produced. The issue s really one of awareness rather than supply. #readingblack

Guest Ali, I can't get past "After spending 35 years of my life in some of the toughest prisons in the country," I don't even know what that means... All I know is that you must have some serious survival skills. The throw away the key for of punishment never made sense to me. The super max prisons they now use is just torture, worse than death if you ask me. I guess part of the justification is that no one locked down in a supermax facility will kill one else. The same thing you describe happening in prisons is happening on the outside too. You know when while men are spilling forth their resentment, shit is about to get ugly... I hope I'm wrong. Guest Ali, please create an account so that I don;t have to approve all of your posts -- thanks.

When I was younger I would not even consider an HBCU let alone an African one. You are old enough to remember when being call a "Black African" was in insult. Today I feel completely differently, because I know more and try to fight against propaganda that is feed us. @Delano, even if I were to agree with you on how Universities were founded, the point is of no consequence because how science is practiced has nothing to do with the manner in which a university was founded anymore than the tactics used on the school's football team or the lessons taught in the business schools. Wouldn't you agree? I actually teach web design at the college level right now. What I teach, and the how I teach it, has nothing to do with the way the school was founded.

@Delano here is a source you are likely to believe that talks about the discovery of a university that predated christianity. Does this help? (Also you don't have to always repost what I wrote -- especially your reply immediately follows my reply)

@Delano, I get it, a lot of people saw the film. But even the writer of the article pointed out that this film will "cannot reverse generations of negative imagery and distortion." The point you are missing and that was overlooked in the article is that first and foremost this film is a vehicle to make money. If someone did an analysis to see who will make the most money from the film this will be plain to you. Look I wish all of the ills heaped upon Black people globally would disappear as a result of this movie, but it is woefully idealistic to believe this will be the case. I'm surprised you would hold this position. Do you think this film will change 45's attitude toward "the Blacks?" Do you think Colin with get he QB job back. Do you think they will ever let more than 10 Black people into Stuyvesant HS? Do you think all the trigger happy Po-Po will stop gunning down unarmed Black people? Do you think more than a handful of Black people, if any will share proportionately in the fantastic profits generated by this film? Or will our role continue to be that of consumer; continually forking over our dough to people the owners of Disney who we have allowed to create our Mythology. You don't see Native Americans running around talking about how great Pocahontas was for the indigenous people of North America. The few that are left have more sense that we apparently have. You do realize that The Hollywood Reporter article you site, and well as all the other sources --including the NFL, is part of the same propaganda machine that made this film so fantastically popular. This material is created to get you to think exactly the why you are thinking. It is good that you visit sites like AALBC so that you are exposed to ideas not beholden to the same propaganda. that has figured out a way to both define your culture reap great financial rewards from it.

@Damani, that really was some introduction. Would you believe I had dinner with Paul just last night. He really is a great man. I'm glad he connected us and that you have connected here. I have responded to your email @Christy, I thoroughly convinced that everyone has an interesting bio. Now the individual, may not recognize this because they lived it. I'm so sorry to hear about you losing your spouse so young, but this is one of the reasons your story woud be interesting to others. We all must deal with loss, how you deal with it would be both interesting and helpful to others. Thanks for joining us!