Troy

Boitumelo, I relocated this post from the Poets Discussion Board it is more appropriate for this board. I will relocate these as time permits but it is more likely that I will just delete posts which are completely off topic from forum's focus. Also you should your posts would easier to read it you did not use all caps and broke them up into paragraphs. What percentage of the Black population do you think falls into the catergory you've described above?

Fascinating point Cynqie. Rarely do I read something that actually calls into question the value of Smiley & West's actions without dealing with their unknowlable motivation. I tried to bring up a similiar argue yestersday, albeit in a more convoluted fashion, saying it does not matter what their Smiley & Wests motivations are or even whether Obama is a good president. Of course there efforts as well as out our could be used to deal with more important urgent tactical issues -- many of which, like many a quality education available, would reduce proverty. Smiley & West are never really called the poverty tour directly; 'cause who can be against a "war against poverty"? But hey this is a free country. I'm sure they will steer clear of NY City...

Xeon as always you are come across reasoned, thoughtful, smart and passionate. We don't always agree on points but we agree in the spirit of honest debate. Thanks for your contributions to the conversations. Not that that is out the way; you mentioned that "...no president has faced the number of personal attacks, distortions..." As if to imply that Obama is unique. This is in and of itself is an exaggeration. When Black people were lambasting Bush II, do you think they were more sensitive? More importantly you talk about Obama being threatened as if this is a big deal. ALL presidents are threatened -- this goes with the job. Regan was shot, other presidents where assassinated! Here is the thing Obama is under no threat of assassination because he is not pissing off the rich and powerful enough to warrant the action -- indeed they have an incentive to keep him in place.

Here are some comments from my Facebook page (names changed): RJ I posted this as a status the other day... Looking at Tavis & Cornell on their "Poverty Tour" bus I'm wondering if their clout could be put to better use if they lobbied corporations for internships/training and community endowments, and worked with non-profits to drum up private funding instead of going town to town to sympathize with people that are unable to help themselves. Maybe its a precursor to the 2 of them running for a political office. 8 hours ago · Like · 2 people. QAC I think they should have been out there touring during the last President's 8 years in office!!! 8 hours ago · Like · 3 people. YB www.barackobama.com (Are you in? ) Obama for America Barackobama.com is the official re-election campaign website of President Barack Obama. Visit the site for the latest updates from the Obama campaign, 2012 election news, campaign videos, local events, and ways to volunteer and donate. 8 hours ago JS I was just talking to a friend about this kind of thing. Crabs in a barrel. 8 hours ago · Like · 1 person. GH I'm just not sure what they hope to accomplish? It's great to shed some much needed light on this countries poverty issue, however, I have heard nothing about any solution. Neither Tavis nor Cornel are making any moves towards eradicating poverty, all I hear are their rants and put downs towards our President, this behavior is not condusive in solving the problems of the American citizens and their behavior only solidifies the assumptions of white america that black folks cannot unite, that all we can do is drag each other down! Crabs in a barrel mentality is real! 7 hours ago MM I read the transcript. Travis has never gotten over being slighted by the then candidate, Obama. Obama refused his invite to appear on his talk show. Michele was ready to take his place but she was turned down by Travis. And West is a follower. Whatever Travis says, West dots his "i" and crosses his "'t" Bravo, Holly Green. 3 hours ago Troy Johnson ‎ :-) I was attempting to get folks would visit AALBC.com and comment there. I should have been more explicit. That said, my thoughts re Smiley and West have soured as a result of the poverty tour: http://aalbc.it/rqqATD 2 hours ago PM Travis and West have their issues. You can shoot the messenger but the message is still valid. I am a Obama fan but you cannot deny that he has been timid as concerning a jobs program that can be seen as helping the poor (minorities). Obama's timidness to outlay a definite plan to put people back to work in a bold way like Franklin Delano Roosevelt has led to the Republicans to be able to change a job creating message to a debt and tax message. I hope he still has time to change the debate. about an hour ago · Like. Troy Johnson I see two issues here; What is the real motivation behind Smiley and West’s (S&W) harsh critique of President Obama -- is it mean spirited or sincere attempt to remedy a bad situation? i.e. Are S&W good or bad Has President Obama been an effective leader, living up to his campaign promises? i.e. Is Obama good or bad There are only 4 possible situations (S&W Bad, Obama Good, or S&W Bad, Obama Bad, etc, etc). At the end of the day, none of it really matters. Smiley and West will have negligible marginal impact on Obama's chance to win a 2nd term. Obama's chances will really be determined by the narrative his team comes up with to get people to come to the poles and vote for him. If the midterm elections are any indication, Obama has a tough road ahead of him. His story of hope and change will not resonate the same way it did when Dubya was in office. I say “narrative” because I have little confidence that Obama (any person) will take any “actions”, that will benefit anyone but the Plutocrats and Oligarchs (to borrow West’s phrase). 3 minutes ago

As an aside: I used the Facebook button to share this conversation on facebook, in an attempt to get people to comment here. Instead everyone just automatically, and perhaps more naturally, posted replies on facebook.

"Jack-offs" ,"Coons", my, my what harsh words for two Brothers simply trying to bring attention to the suffering of the poor at the hands of the "plutocrats and oligarchs". Seriously, maybe I need to re-think Tom Joyner's assertion that Tavis' issue with Obama is "personal". I don't think Smiley and West are jealous of Obama's presidency. Maybe they are upset at the lack of access and even more pertubed that Al Sharpton is Obama's go to guy regarding the Black community. At any, rate I don't know enough about what S&W are actually doing on the poverty tour to be too critical of it. I have to believe there is a better way for S&W to get their point across to Obama than the approach they have taken. More importantly this dysfunctional political system is really a reflection of a culture in rapid decline. Obama is merely a symptom of the problem not THE problem or even the cause. "...Babylon. Rome. America..." is right.

A year ago I may have disagreed completely with your comment Carey. I will never agree with the idea of calling West & Tavis "Coons" because they are doing something you disagree with. Last December I even touted Tavis' achievements blogging about it last December. Today I too am a little unsure what Tavis and West are attempting to accomplish. I assume they are being paid to speak, will sell a lot of books, promote their radio programs and other platforms, do some damage control for their respective images and have good time hanging out with each other while strongly criticizing the country’s first Black president. All of this begs the question what are those two really trying to accomplish? Now I've read what they said the the tour will be about, but it just does not reasonate with me. Something is just not adding up. I can't provide proof it is just my intuition. Xeon I assume you did not write this piece (you should at site the source -- even if you have permission to repost). The article is clearly biased, but is no different than the rest of the stuff that gets passed off as journalism today.

Cynique this is long over due and the honor is actually mine. I believe the other posters and lurkers have been graced by your contributions over the years. Peace, Troy

Interesting anaology, but why limit it to Black people . We are all "Bred in Captivity". What makes of any different in that regard to the Europenas, Mexcains, Asian's or any other group that has been here more than a couple of generations? Most white people don't have passports are not clamoring to any great extent to recapature the European traditions from the "old country".

While we are on the topic have you seen the preview for the up coming film called Dark Girls: http://aalbc.it/darkgirls

The World Wide Web (WWW) has been in a constant state of change since it became available to the general public in the early 1990's. I've had a web presence since 1995. I really can't imagine how the typical 20 year old can possibility understand a pre-WWW world. Things have improved so remarkably and quickly it is almost incomprehensible. There are two trends that I have noticed lately that are adversely effecting the nature of the WWW Large multinational corporate websites are beginning to dominate over independent websites. This is not a bad thing in and of itself. The alarming thing is that the big sites are able to accomplish this with bullshit content and are worst of all supported by search results from Google that are biased to this type of content. I blogged about this recently On-line discussion has become more shallow and superfical in the advent of social media. This is the reason for this post. I'm a big time user of social media. I have a prescence on all the major platforms just type "aalbc" after any socal media site and that will be me: http://www.facebook.com/aalbc, http://twitter.com/aalbc, http://myspace.com/aalbc, etc, etc. Have you ever tried to have a decent conversation on any of these platforms? The most popular place seems to be facebook. The disclaimer that one has to type before they try to express a sentiment that requires the reader to think; "...Facebook is not the best place to have this discussion, but..." is almost a cliche now. For the most part people don't get too deep. The conversations are fleeting. Try to find an conversation from 6 months ago on Facebook. Try to have a conversation on Twitter at all. The other problem, with the fleeting nature of social media is that the vast majority of stuff that is written is never seen. Sure contributions made by celebrities will be read, but the vast majority of stuff posted by the average Joe will just dissapate into the ether without being noticed. There is so much competition to be heard and so little worth being heard. There is so much duplication of effort, so much noise and so little real content... One thing I miss are discussion baords and the types of conversations that we used to have here during the pre-social media days. Are on-line discussions a thing of the past? Or do they need to be more agressively promoted in a much more competive world? I also miss the book reccomendations I used to get here. On social media you just have a bazilion authors talking about how great their own book is. The comments by ordinary readers on social meda get drowned out or are simply never made. I'm going to begin to push these discussion baords more by highlighting the advantages of this type of platform over social media. I know on-line conversations are for a very small percent of the population, bt surely there are still folks out there who would like to participate if they knew where to go. I'm not sure how many outlets are still available. If you have any comments about this discusion board, another discussion board or anything related plese post reply.

Xeon there is no point -- that is the point...

Carey thanks for all the shout outs on the other websites -- I really appreciate it. Sure I'll be will to do the podcast. I'll hit you up. Kola my message was full of typos. I actually meant to write "...comments a purportedly Igbo sister made, who you said,.." Again that was a surprising statement on her part.

Classic yet toned down Kola. This statement is so true; "Filmed and projected images almost always socialize the eyes beholding the images. Whether they be movies, magazines or music videos; the repetition of these visual images socially condition the watching eye as to what that particular society considers good and bad; what is to be loved and valued; what is to be valued as beautiful and impressive; what is to be coveted—and; and—gazed at from the tower of one’s own status in America—what is to be pitied and felt sorry for; no matter how noble and courageously it is presented on screen." Kola, I was also intrigued by one of the comments a purportedly Igbo sister made you said, there were pure Igbo Nigreians (not mixed with Europeans) that were very light skinned. I found this surprising.

Yep Classic Cynique. Thanks for sharing your perspectives here again! I dont think I've witnessed a movie more controversial than "The Help". This was even more controversial than Tyler Perry's For Colored Grils and Lee Daniels Precious combined. Perhaps because it is a film based upon a book written by a white person. If the book's authors and film maker were Black and the movie exacty the same the major media would not have covered the issue nearly as much. I posted a link on my social media to a statement issued by Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH), which provided a "...historical context to address widespread stereotyping presented in both the film and novel version of The Help." This link was clicked more than any other link, in a 24 hour period I've ever posted: Here is the statement: http://aalbc.it/therealhelp There you will fin a link to a CNN video of Martha Southgate.

Carey! Oh Shit! Whats up Brother! If it were not for the sake of Cynique, Kola and a few others this board would have flatlined. Did you ring a defribulator are are you just sopping by to say hello. I just got off Facebook talking about "The Help" or rather the racist captialist society that created the environment to produce the help. I was also lamenting the fact the we used to have similiar debates here, but now facebook is getting at the great content, associated traffic and honestly revenue. Facebook is killing independent sites... But I don't want to get off topic from Kola's post. I to will read her article and respond here.

I rememeber meeting you when you were first getting off the ground Hickson -- keep up the good work!

Hey Cynique, I mostly agree but would edit the your stament as follows: "...that the noble experiment of a black president has failed because Corporate America, within the context of capitalism, will never cater to anything but the selfish interests of the rich white men who are in cahoots with the Republican party and its tea party faction the democratic and republican parties" It does not matter who the president is -- we will just find a different reason for blaming that person for the country's woes, while the real enenies are the rich and powerful. Obama is not willing to risk his position or get people mad at him by making real change and improve this country for anyone else other the wealth and powerful -- this is his (any president's) true consitiuency. I predicted years ago than Obama would not win a second term. I still believe that.

Well boitumelo I could say this is the result of a white racist society, gun manufacturers, etc, etc. But this is impossible to justify... I presume they did not know they were being filmed.

Weiner's Weener -- for those who were curious. I'd not seen this before decideing to link this post in the lastest newsletter.

Congratulations Kola. While I may have provided one platform; your noterity and the quality of your writing are due to your own effort and hard work. The shout out and acknowlegment are very much appreicated. See you at the Harlem Book Fair: http://aalbc.com/events/harlem_book_fair_2011.htm Peace, Troy

Yeah seems he was very popular. He apparently got a PhD too! There are a lot of videos of him on-line. Here is one from 2007.

Cynique, about 30 years ago an old guy told me that his father told him, "Don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see". Later I discovered that was not an original line, but that did not make it any less true. The problem today is hyper-exaggerrated. I literarly don't believe anything I read online unless it has been verified by multiple independent sources. The Internet is simply rife with lies and distortions posing as truth -- anyone can write anything. Truth is mixed with fiction and the result is a complete mess. People even treat Wikipedia as if it is a real encyclopedia. Everything most be verified -- even then it is tough to get it right. But since there are fewer good journalists and business models to support them, the problem will just get worse. BTW that was a cute kid -- whoever he was :-)

A very humorous read John. However I doubt the cure of voting will have any impact on these afflication. The whole political process is flawed by candidates primarily interested in increasing their personal power and wealth or too beholden to those with power and wealth to be effective.

"We are in deep shit for many reasons." Tru dat! I am not suggesting the media attention is solely to blame. I'm saying the media’s obsessive attention helps send the message that everyone -- even the rich and famous are doing it too. Entertaining the idea that the media would stop its coverage is an exercise in futility. It is simply too lucrative. We are indeed witnessing a culture in decline.