Troy

Oh, my bad Pioneer. Del do you think calling your children, for example, "Black" makes sense? Would you want your kids or yourself for that matter, to be defined by some stereotypical, prejudiced and artificial definition?

All this confusion and flawed subjective reasoning is more proof why we should stop using racial terms as if there was in fact more than one race. In the article the Need2ritefatser linked, I share the following quote; "So there is a lot of genetic variation within our ethnic group, as is obvious to anyone even casually glancing at black people just walking down the street." This staement makes no sense, as one can not look at someone else and determine that individual's genetic variation realtive to someone else. It is just wrong to suggest say anyone can do this. In the very next sentence, however, we find; "What this means is that even the most phenotypically "African" (or what used to be called "Negroid") African Americans have dramatically significant levels of European ancestry, a fact that would have astonished many of our forebears, both black and white." Again, only someone who thinks they can determine another's ancestry by looking at them would be surprised. Then we have statement like Pioneers that further complicate things; "Black being more of an ideal. A style of dress, attitude, music, and historic struggle." Of course these types of statements are purely subjective and as such do not mean anything to anyone outside the group who uses them or believes such things -- including many Black people like myself. __________________ As a complete aside. Long ago, when the Neanderthal man walked the Earth there were in fact two different species of homosapiens running around. After man left Africa, there was some inbreeding between modern man and the Neanderthal. The people who stayed behind in African would not have any of the Neanderthal's genetic code. However the Black folks in descendant from the Europeans would (i.e. African-Americans). Maybe that is what is wrong with us?

Wow I mostly agree with you Pioneer. I do believe our culture does itself a disservice by making believe women and men are completely interchangeable. Men are not women with penises or vice-versa. The problem is men and women in this culture are thoroughly confused about what are respective roles are, and more importantly SHOULD, be in society. I guess that technically makes me sexist too

Sorry Anika I did not mean to come across as sexist, but I stand behind the comment even though it was made in jest. The point, in case you missed it, was to highlight Pioneer's focus on the color of her lipstick rather than her adultery. I know in today's culture some may view a dark woman wearing red lipstick as being as offensive as getting pregnant by a married man. Honestly while I was unaware of Jackson rampant affairs, it does not surprise me. Nor does the behavior of the women he deals with. I think Jackson, based upon actual behavior, is far more sexist than I. I just wish more people would be willing to call him on it. Perhaps Jackson Sr. would have exercised a little more discretion and maybe some of that would have rubbed off on the son, Jackson Jr. I heard, on public radio (you can't escape this nonsense), that Jackson Jr, gave his mistress a $50K Rolex watch -- money he stole from campaign contributions! How stupid can you be? I'm not naive enough to believe men of their power (and arrogance) are not going to cheat on their wives. Fine, but can you stop making the babies and try not to steal to finance your affairs? Can you pay your child support? What the hell is going on with the Brothers in Chicago anyway?!

I share this conversation from Facebook. It is in reaction to my reaction to Kam's review of Rhee's book. I thought it would be interesting to share -- since everyone is not on Facebook (for now) and it is a rare occassion when I spark an interesting conversation with smart people (like here). It is interesting how many of these reformers come in, arguably making things worse, leave and are heralded as great. They go on to write books and secure lucrative speaking engagements. If there is a teacher or administrator from a DC or New York City Public School who believes Rhee has made a lasting, positive, impact please let us know. Radical: Fighting to Put Students First by Michelle Rhee -- Book Review. Dolen Perkins-Valdez Troy: Rhee was controversial, and I didn't agree with all her beliefs and methods. But she definitely didn't make things worse. Of course, I'm not a teacher, just a concerned parent. My kid is in DC public schools, and I frequently visit the city's toughest schools through Writers in the Schools. I wholeheartedly believe in education reform. Radical education reform. Tamara Coleman-Brown I'm not sure about her, but you have to admit that our current educational system is failing.We can't continue to do the same things expecting different results. What worked yrs ago apparently isn't valid anymore. Chris Burns Troy, I've had this conversation so many times, but it always leads to these things for me... It is not the school system or the schools that are failing, it's the lack of parental involvement, lack of student motivation, and teachers who are not capable of engaging the students in a more modern way. What I mean by modern is that kids no longer have the ability to sit still and be taught without the teacher actually being part teacher/entertainer/motivational speaker/entrepreneur instructor. A great teacher can overcome the shortcomings in the system, a moderate teacher is going to need help and can't be in a situation greater than their talents. English courses have to teach Shakespeare, but to access it the teachers have to be well versed in current poets who actually utilize meter and form. Math teachers have to connect math to computer technology and explain why math is the gateway to millions of dollars in programming and coding. Kids are enamored by the visual culture of wealth and riches and if what is being taught doesn't in some way generate a connection to being able to be successful, not just knowledge for the sake of knowledge kids tune out. I could go on and on about this because while I said it boils down to a few things, those few things have roots in deeper issues. However, a strong involved parent can counter even the worst school system. Troy Johnson Dolen did you go to public school for your primary education? If so how was it? Tamara I'm not a teacher, though I currently teach a GED prep class and have given countless workshops and seminars or a wide range of subjects, but it seems to me the problem is that we keep reinventing the wheel. For example, schools have changed the way they teaching reading (dropping phonics), getting rid of rote memorization of vocabulary words, even eliminating grammar in favor of picking it up in the content of reading and mixing kids of widely different abilities into the same class. It seems students are increasingly victimized by any newfangled idea some inexperienced 20 something dreams up. And don't get me started on measurement systems like ARIS or high stakes test with completely pervert the incentives... Chris I hear you man. But I'm not so quick to let schools of the hook. To be clear I lay most of the blame with the school's system's leadership not the teachers or even principals. Consider this "radical" thought; parental involvement is overrated. Parents don't have to help with homework, don't have to show up at the school for every event, they don't even have to be educated themselves for the kids to achieve in school. It is the unfortunate circumstance we find ourselves in a situation such that the parent HAS to be ACTIVELY involved in their kids education for the hope of a positive outcome. The problem is most parents, particularly in our most needy communities, are not prepared for this challenge -- due largely to the educations they received. It is a self-perpetuating problem. Tamara Coleman-Brown The school system isn't failing?? We have hundreds of students that do well in high school, but get to college that can't test out of basic educational skills. When special needs programs have tripled, when all they really needed was a better understanding.When there's no tutoring available unless you're failing a class. Where schools are segregated based our income.I can go on and on.. Schools fundamental duty is to prepare students for a successful future although where you live is a bigger determinant than we believe. Tamara Coleman-Brown Troy, I agree. Troy Johnson Tamara I guess I should be clear in how I define "failing". In NY City, for example, 40% of Black boys get a HS diploma in 4 years. Most of those that do are ill prepared for a vocation or college. The best public schools high schools have single digit percentages of Black boys; in a city where the Black population is better than 25%. This situation is reflected in virtually nonexistent corporate exempt employment and college graduation rates particularly in the the STEM courses (both colleges and employers complain about a "pipeline crisis". I would even go as far to say this impacts incarceration rates and the stability of families in these communities. So for the community that I can about the failure is so abysmal is should be considered a crime. Now go back 40 years in the same NY City environment where the conditions were FAR worse financially and the City was one of the most dangerous in the country the schools were better. higher graduation rates, more Black kids in the specialized high schools, vocational schools, arts & music program, more athletic teams, an so on... Tamara Coleman-Brown It is a crime but as long as we continue to blame parents and students we will forever be blinded from the truth. Institutional racism is alive a well, I'm sure you've read, The New Jim Crow where it examines the issues we're discussing. So, do you agree that schools need reformed? Dolen Perkins-Valdez Troy Johnson: Yes, I went to public schools my entire life. I'm a product of the Memphis City Schools, yet another citywide system in dire need of major reform. I loved my school largely due to its racial and socioeconomic diversity. Even then, I knew these things were important to me. As I write this, I'm thinking of our phenomenal principal, who missed his calling as a motivational speaker. Without ever raising a paddle (as they did in the old days), he was clear that fighting would not be tolerated (in those days, guns weren't the issue they are now). Gosh, this is such a tough subject, largely because the solutions are divergent depending on the region, student body, school culture, student needs, and available resources. I say, let's take it one school at a time. Troy Johnson Dolen is say, simply, lets go back and do whatever your public school was doing. I'm certain your school was not unique. I feel the same way about my high school and Jr High School too; and I went to high school in the 70's. Speaking of HS violence I think everyone here will be touched by an "This American Life" program on the subject: http://aalbc.it/hhsp2 Harper High School, Part Two | This American Life www.thisamericanlife.org Dolen Perkins-Valdez Someone just told me about this program today!!!! Now I must watch it. Chris Burns To Tamara and Troy, I blame parents and students because after teaching for over 17 years at every level except elementary, and in every income level, and at the collegiate level as a tenure track professor, I have proof of what a great teacher can do. A great teacher is able to overcome a poor administration, lack of funding, poverty and the systemic issues that are prevalent to run a successful program and improve the ability of students who are considered at risk or special needs (special needs meaning that people gave up on the kid although the kid is capable.) Troy proves my point in blaming parents and kids in stating that 40 years ago, in much worse situations, the graduation rate was higher and students were attaining an education and learning. Troy could even move that to 25 years ago and the numbers would be better than today. THE SYSTEM has always been in place and Blacks overcame the system to earn their place into society, so your complaint that schools are failing and the system is at fault, I consider that a copout. A parent does not have to be educated or know the homework a kid is doing when a parent is present. 40 years ago fathers may not have been in abundance, but there was always someone in the home. Children were held accountable. Even in the worst income situations (hood ghetto, whatever) children were held accountable and parents SIDED with the teachers. Today parents will fight teachers, administrators and stand behind their kids before even getting the real story in many instances. Also, because of the hell that Blacks went through to be educated, Blacks were able to attain jobs and wealth that isn't comparable to the station that Blacks were in in the past. Now that Blacks can pursue more income or wealth, the children are the ones being left behind and not made accountable because there isn't a Big Momma, a father or mother in the house holding the children accountable. A great teacher can only do so much before getting burned out. Without the influence and care of a parent, the likelihood of success diminishes for kids. I am not naive about systemic issues, but I'm a realist who has been in the fire and in the worst schools in different regions of the country and I know what a good teacher can do, when a child has the support of a parent. Blaming the system is a waste of time and accomplishes nothing. Throwing money at the education system won't help, throwing computers in the school won't help. Accountable parenting (which is obviously hindered by societal issues) should be the foundation on which reform is made, but that is impossible. Sorry for being longwinded. Troy Johnson No worries about being long winded your perspective as a full time, veteran educator in good to read. A "great teacher" is rare (otherwise they would not be "great"). We cannot hope for a system full of great teachers. We have to work with the available resources that will include average and mediocre teachers. In the context of a complete institution this is fine. No one will argue the benefits of a great teacher. "THE SYSTEM" Chris has changed and that is the basis of my argument. I've watched lower standards be applied to our kids in the name of compassion. I've watched red pens be cast aside as not to offend the fragile sensibilities of students. As a result our kids are ill prepared to meet the challenges of life Lets look at the good teachers: How many good, bright teachers do you know who left the job quickly, or who are completely demoralized and burnt out due to the bureaucracy itself? Over burdened by dumb initiatives and mandates which changes with the administration. Often the principals and teachers KNOW these things will not work but they are COMPELLED to implement them. Do you think Rhee, for example, left DC teachers and administrators better off, happier as a result of her tenure? Parents can only do so much. The PTA (remember those) is not going to go into walk into a school and demand an art program when the school is mandated by the state to get students to pass a standardized test. Again the parents themselves are a product of a crappy "school system", as were their parents and their parents before them. I'm not saying these are bad people, they have been victimized by the government, in much the same way millions were victimized by predatory mortgage lenders or cigarette companies. Parents fight the teachers because the system is perceived as the enemy. Understand, it is the same rationale many people in the community have for not trusting the police. It is a natural reaction to a system that is doing you a disservice -- hostile even. Sure the anger and frustration may be misdirected. But the people are not stupid. They eventually learn they were done a disservice and they are very angry. Does this make sense to you? AGREED: Throwing money at the education system won't help, throwing computers in the school won't help. There is ample data to support this. This might sound cynical, paranoid even, but I beginning to believe the government actually wants schools to fail. So that the public will become so outraged that they demand all schools become privatized. Of course this would be a financial windfall of corporation and they’ll get to educate students to do whatever job they need. Donna Whiteman Troy, thank you. well said and not at all paranoid. Though well spent money does make a difference.. Many of the "good" public schools are thriving on large sums of parental dollars. Chris Burns Well presented argument that on the surface is logical and correct. However, the testing and mandated guidelines that have been set forth, only appear to lower standards. I can only speak from my experience, but that experience extends from being a teacher and high school coach in San Diego, in the poorest, most diverse school in San Diego, to the poorest rural area in Benton County Mississippi. In the San Diego school over 70% of the students at this school were second language and all lived in the City Heights/Southeast San Diego area of he city which has one of the highest gang rates in Southern Cali. These students were immigrants were all on free lunch which is the measuring stick for Title 1 funding. Anyway, those students had to take all of the tests and they had programs removed and still those immigrant students moved on completed college in many instances. They did not drop out of school. I'm trying to understand why the SYSTEM didn't fail those kids and I don't think you can explain that to me. On to my experience teaching in Mississippi. If you can find a county or city near you or anywhere that is at the same poverty level of the school I taught at in Mississippi I look forward to seeing. This school was 100% Black. I chose to leave a charter school as a favor to a friend who was terrified of the school being taken over by the state due to their test scores decreasing for 3 years straight by 18%. Mississippi's English State test is hands down one of the most difficult standardized test I have seen. It was in no way lowered standards. If anything it challenged the students to learn as much as possible. At this school I came in at the midway point of the year after Christmas break. I was given the book for the test and told by my peer/principal to save these kids (basically to save the school). I only two months to do so and for the students to get used to my teaching methods. I had to actually teach 9-12th grade since it was a small rural school. The 10th grade class had to take the SATP. I implemented strategies within the framework given by both the state, district and the school. However in teaching to the test, I also taught the students screenwriting, how to write poetry, how to write their research papers and how to use scansion to analyze poetry. I didn't care that these kids had people who dropped out before them. I didn't care that they supposedly were behind 3 years, I dug in and taught these kids like first year college freshman. What does the SYSTEM have to do with that? Nothing. Long story short, they took that test and for the first year in 4 years they increase 36% passing the test, to 70% passing. In the fall, the rest of the students that didn't pass in the spring passed in the fall. That class of 2012 was the first class at the school since standardized testing to have a 100% graduation rate. I left that school after that and went back to the college level. I write all of this to say, I used the old raggedy books the school gave me and a chalk board. The SYSTEM is a crutch. I know that racism and the commodification of the schools are in effect. I know that the barriers are out there, but after 17 years of education at every level, I have come to realize that if the parenting is not there nothing, nothing will fix the schools. A school only has a child for 8 hours out of the day. When they return to their homes those are the influences and characteristics that the students take on. The lack of nutrition, the culture of poverty, all of those things have always been with Black people and for years we strived to overcome and accomplish great things. In the last 20 years almost every win has been nullified by the crack epidemic, jail system, and the nihilistic mindstate of the new Black person. If by SYSTEM you are stating that the choices that Black men make in impregnating and leaving Black mothers to raise children on their own then I agree. If you are saying SYSTEM and you mean the Black family that has made and doesn't return to help others then I agree. If you are saying the SYSTEM and you are saying these false prophets in the pulpit who are now opening schools to get that government funding and still taking tithes and not producing jobs for their congregations then I agree. But the schools are what they are because the people in them are afraid to be great. The kids demonize intelligence. The teachers demonize the kids. The administration demonizes the teachers, and the school boards sit on their hands with six figure salaries and argue over meaningless titles. That part of the system sucks, but you can't tell me that one dedicated parent can't make a way for their kids. Chris Burns Excuse the mistakes I was typing fast. Troy Johnson Chris I'm going to have to print this out and get back to you tomorrow. I'm trying to get the February eNewsletter mailed tomorrow morning. Peace Chris Burns I understand Troy. I know I'm writing a lot. I'm going to share a paper with you in a moment that one of my students wrote when I asked her what was wrong with the schools. I think her ideas were right on point. This student is about to graduate from Texas Southern and wrote this paper her senior year. I'll tag you. Peace Troy Johnson Chris, your experience is terrific and highly commendable. The problem is that your experience however lengthy and varied is merely anecdotal. We can trade personal experiences all day and still not shed any meaningful light on the subject. When you related your experience with the immigrants students you failed to account for the fact that they were immigrants. There is plenty of data to explain why immigrants groups do better than native American and how after a generation or two these differences evaporate. When you related your successful experience in Mississippi you did not mention anything about the changed behaviors of the parent in raising test scores. You wrote a great deal about what YOU did as a teacher to make a difference. Then you concluded by saying, "... if the parenting is not there nothing, nothing will fix the schools." I think if you truly felt parents were such a big factor you would have shared something about what the PARENTS did differently and what the impact was. More importantly, as with the less than effective Teach for America program, you came in for a brief period made a impact and then left. Usually what happens next is things go back to the way they were before often getting worse as a dependency formed is abruptly removed. We can certainly agree on two things; (1) "The [bad] teachers demonize the kids. The [bad] administration demonizes the teachers, and the [bad] school boards sit on their hands with six figure salaries and argue over meaningless titles. " Yes, that is the system I'm talking about and it starts with at the top. (2) "one dedicated parent can't make a way for their kids." I, for example, sent my kids to private school. Do you realize in places like Baltimore and NY City for example anyone with the resources sends their kids to private school? Have you also noticed that the people with the greatest impact on the pubic school systems do not send their own children these shitty schools. If they are not in a private school they live in a communities with taxes and real estate so expensive that the public schools there are indistinguishable from a private school. As a result these people have no problems experimenting with our Black kids. We should ALL be outraged, but most of are too selfish to care about anyone but ourselves... Also, Chris did you understand my explanation for why parents give teachers a hard way to go?

Red Lipstick A woman of her complexion should keep her legs closed when in the presence of Reverent Jackson.

Check out this piece on gun violence in American schools:

This American Life is my favorite "radio" program. Over the years I've found every program extremely engaging, some fascinating. I listen via podcast usually at the Gym or during long drives -- interestingly never at home. The episode almost brought me to tears (seriously). I think because I remember, as kids, we had to deal with gangs and being afraid of being robbed or beat up. It has an effect on you -- though I never spoke to any one about it then, or ever, for that matter. No one could really help you, not your parents, not the teachers, definitely not the police. You had to rely on yourself or you friends (friends usually meaning a gang). This thing about these stories is that these kids face a very real threat of being killed! I never faced that. The risk of getting beat up is one thing, but being killed is a horse of a different color. I have no idea what that level of stress or fear does to one's brain as it is still under development during the teen years, or what the lasting psychological effects are. I do know that it is a self-perpetuating problem. Host Ira Glass introduces the show: "Today on our radio program, we spend a second hour at Harper High School on Chicago's South Side. We sent three reporters there for five months, starting at the beginning of this school year, because of all the shootings they've had. We have all heard a lot about gun violence and kids in the last few months. Here at our radio program, we wanted to understand what the staff and families at Harper know about this violence that most of us around the country do not know." If you don't listen to the entire broadcast check out the final segment it is only 3 minutes "Harper High School isn't alone". Memorial at Harper High School for Shakaki Asphy, a student killed by gunfire last Summer. Photo by Bill Healy. - See more

Yep I would agree that morals and ethics are at the root of our problem. But it is not just a problem with Black men but one of our culture, More money (or less) will not change a thing...

2013 Oscar Recap http://aalbc.it/2013oscar and Our Oscar Prediction Results (Kam got 15 out of the 21 categories correct) "...there was his shockingly-pedophilic sexualizing of 9 year-old Best Actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) by speculating about when she’d be too old to date George Clooney."

...If pigs had wings they could fly. Pioneer the question of whether having multiple children by multiply women, in present day America, is a very basic one. All the other issues of power, and money, breeding, "race", the law, etc are irrelevant to the very basic question. Money and power are no justification especially when you consider Jessie who has (or had) more money and power than most men. But he could not manage to keep one (that we know of) baby money happy even with a moderate child support payment. Do you think anyone involved would be better off if Jackson had two or three more?

Need2ritefaster if it seems harder with a Google search then just notice the ads they serve even on this site. If I go to a website and make a transaction like renewing my Ancestry.com fee. I get Ancestry ads for the next day or two. I guess their logic is limited in that if they never I already made my transaction or was otherwise done with Ancestry they would also know seeing the additional ads does not benefit Ancestry and results in lower click through rates. Pioneer I wrote an article related to this a year or to ago: Basically if you searched on a Black authors you would get sites related to their work as a writer (including a few Black independent sites), today if the author has any drama associated with them -- you will get the nonsense before anything else. This is not based upon my browsing history because I try to stir slear fo those sites and am usually research an author. Here is a article I wrote about searching for Terry McMillan: http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2011/08/08/google-worsens-web-experience-by-retuning-poor-search-results/

"...many Americans will go through life with the mistaken worldview that Roman and Greek institutions were the bedrock of Western civilization." -- Not if I can help it! I have info on Dr. Ben, Dr. Van Sertima, and James Stolen Legacy was a top selling book here in 2011 (thought I failed to create a page for James and over site I will make up for in March). Can you name a few of the others you believe have been forgotten but whom we should know about?

DRM Lawsuit Filed By Independent Bookstores Against Amazon, 'Big Six' Publishers Three independent bookstores are taking Amazon and the so-called Big Six publishers (Random House, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan) to court in an attempt to level the playing field for book retailers. If successful, the lawsuit could completely change how ebooks are sold. The class-action complaint, filed in New York on Feb 15., claims that by entering into confidential agreements with the Big Six publishers, who control approximately 60 percent of print book revenue in the U.S., Amazon has created a monopoly in the marketplace that is designed to control prices and destroy independent booksellers. The complaint centers on digital rights management, or DRM, the technological lock that prevents consumers from transferring any ebook they buy on an Amazon Kindle onto, say, a Nook or Kobo ereader. Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/drm-lawsuit-independent-bookstores-amazon_n_2727519.html

Visit this site to learn how Google make it very difficult to find information online: http://dontbubble.us/ I started noticing this years ago and was very frustrated because it seemed like no one else was getting it. Just visit the website site. The information is related very simply. The also explains why the internet has the effect of feeling like one big echo chamber. Facebook does the same thing. Discovering alternative view points of views or perspectives is very difficult. Which make learning difficult. If everyone agrees with you all the time and no one challenges you ideas you'll never learn...

Del the market gives us what will generate the most revenue; whether it happens to be what we need or crave is incidental. Mzuri, It is not just Google that is out of control. All of the big players are. Facebook, for example, has changed dramatically for the worse, and Twitter seems to following the same trajectory. Basically someone introduces an interesting service which people use. After the service is up a running and has obtained a critical mass of users, then, and only then, does the service impose a revenue model. The model is always advertising sales and selling user data. Next businesses large and small use the service to buy advertising and get preferential treatment for whatever they post. Facebook, in this case, becomes one big customized commercial. Advertisers like it cause thy have complete information on who the are targeting and spammmers love it because their are so many marks waiting to be scammed with the bait of a free iPad. Meanwhile the typical user fails to notice right away as ads are setup to look deceptively like normal communication from "friends". Desperate to keep people on the platform Facebook has taken to copying information from Wikipedia and other websites. Eventually visitors get tired of being sold to. Ultimately a new platform emerges with a different gimmick and is free of the adverting, spam, privacy issues and people migrate over to the new service. Ultimately that service need to generate revenue and the cycle continues... All the while nothing of value is created or maintained. Did anyone have a Myspace account five years ago? Look at what has happened to it -- basically you have to start over. People who are using Facebook as their "website" are making a big mistake. Does anyone believe Facebook will be where they are now in 5 or 10 years? In case you missed it in the comments section of the "Pimping" article check out DuckDuckGo article about privacy and Google: http://donttrack.us/ (again an issue to which most people are completely oblivious).

In many ways it is exactly the same Anika. But there are some fundamental differences, for example;. Google started out as a pure search engine. Today it still touts itself as a search engine but in reality Google is an eCommerse site. Search is used to attract consumers where Google ebooks, airlines revelations, and placement in the search results to other businesses, under the guise of sponsored links. I have no problem with Google selling airline reservations, but if they are getting their business by redirecting people who go to Google to do a search on airline tickets, then hijack those visitors and send them to the Google airline system https://www.google.com/flights/ this is problematic -- for all of us. If there is a competing website with a airline reservation system that find cheaper tickets, they are now at a competitive disadvantage to Goolge and the consumer is worse off because they do no discover the site with the cheapest tickets -- unless they are aware of what Google is doing or already know about the website. Most people have no clue. Now do I think the old style travel agents should all be in business and online tickets sales not exists? No. I think there is room and demand for both. I might choose to use a "traditional" travel agent if I need a lot of guidance. But if I just want to go from point A to point B, I'm glad I can do it myself online. I just don't want to be deluded into use Google's inferior airline reservation service when I do it online. Back to the mom and pop store analogy. I go to both Walmart and small independent grocery stores when I need a single item fast I go to the corner store. But if someone from Walmart was standing in front of my local mom and pop and told me the store was closed and provided free transportation to Walmart and continues to do so until the store was closed that that is dishonest and it is not "progress". Now whenever I want a loaf of bread I have to get in the car a drive to Walmart, who has now raised the price of bread due to the lack of competition. There are many small business that have been adversely effected by Google's practices check out this article someone sent me today; Is Google’s search manipulation hurting consumers? Google behaves like a monopoly, because it reality it is one. We haven't even touched privacy yet. This one reason I like DuckDuckGo.com they do search they was Google used to work. Ultimately I would like to see a model where service and content providers simply charge for the service they provide. Thay way to can be spared the advertisements, like a netflix subscription. One of the most useful sites I use is Ancestry.com. I play to use it. When I visit the website I do not get inundated ads or spam.

Pioneer the post you referenced was not "my" argument it was Cheikh Anta Diop. I clearly referenced him as the author of the content I posted. I thought it was interesting for you to use the Bible because I'm aware about how you feel about it. My impressions of the book are best summarized by the following joke, "When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible." I think in 2013 America a man having multiple children by multiple women is virtually always a bad idea -- especially if all the women know about it.

A GREAT new search engine http://DuckDuckGo.com (1) Each domain has only one link returned in the results. If you want multiple results from a single domain. You can click the "site search link" next to the results to get more results from that domain. No single domain dominates an entire page of results. (2) You'll find only one sponsored link and it is very clearly labeled. Sponsors links do not dominate the most prominent area of the search results page. Visitors get answers not commercials. (3) If you want Wikipedia results just type !w at the end of your query and you will be taken directly to Wikipedia. These "bang" queries are available for other popular sites !a for Amazon !g for Google (which is really more of a eCommerce site than a search engine), etc. (4) Official websites are list listed first and denoted as being his "Official Site". (5) This should have been listed 1st, DuckDuckGo does NOT track you rsearches. Read this: http://donttrack.us/ (it is brilliant). No lame excuses (lies) explaining that your searches are tracked to bring you better search results or better advertisements. Returning good search results quickly is very difficult but DuckDuckGo.com looks like it is up for the challenge and is able to do so with any observable bias in it results. The results do not skew toward big corporations, or scandalous content -- I'm actually excited about this new search engine! This is not paid commercial, but DuckDuckGo.com is the first viable alternative to Google that I've seen since Google joined the dark side of the Force.

For the past 12 years, Go On Girl! Book Club has given two (2) writing awards - the Unpublished Award, given to an adult, amateur scribe and a Scholarship Award given to a student if African descent studying English or Literature. Both awards are $500. The deadline for this year's award is March 15, 2013. Visit http://www.goongirl.org/scholarships/index.php for more information

If you are a reader wondering why it seems harder to discover good websites, or you run website or Blog that writes about authors or books you need to read this article. The Pimping of Wikipedia: Contributing to the Decline of the World Wide Web The mid- and late 1990s was an exciting time for the Web because so much new, rarely shared, or difficult-to-access information was now accessible. Today, there is more reason for concern, outrage even, than there is for excitement. The reasons are plentiful. One reason is the pimping of Wikipedia. (the full article: http://aalbc.it/pimpwiki) )

Even Dr King had at least one affair. A Broadway play was even made about it It seems the church members were in fact trying to get rid of the guy: People dislike Thomas because he does not conform to the same liberal ideology all Black folks must comply with to be considered Black. Obama does not conform to the stereotypical Black ideology either, he is smart enough to lie about it

The Black Egyptians--Original Settlers of Kemet The Black Egyptians are the original settlers of KMT. "The native Sudanese are one of the original pigmented Arabs in that region. They are members of the same ethnic family with the ancient Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Southern Arabians, and the primitive inhabitants of Babylon. All founders and sustainers of the mighty Nilotic civilization we still admire today. They are very great nation of Blacks, who did rule almost over all Africa and Asia in a very remote era, in fact beyond the reach of history of any of our records The following is evidence from The African Origin of Civilization: by Cheikh Anta Diop Evidence from Physical Anthropology The skeletons and skulls of the Ancient Egyptians clearly reflect they were Negroid people with features very similar to those of modern Black Nubians and other people of the Upper Nile and of East Africa. Melanin Dosage Test Egyptologist Cheikh Anta Diop invented a method for determining the level of melanin in the skin of human beings. When conducted on Egyptian mummies in the Museum of Man in Paris, this test indicated these remains were of Black people. Osteological Evidence "Lepsius canon," which distinguishes the bodily proportions of various racial groups categories the "ideal Egyptian" as "short-armed and of Negroid or Negrito physical type." Evidence From Blood Types Diop notes that even after hundreds of years of inter-mixture with foreign invaders, the blood type of modern Egyptians is the "same group B as the populations of western Africa on the Atlantic seaboard and not the A2 Group characteristic of the white race prior to any crossbreeding." The Egyptians as They Saw Themselves "The Egyptians had only one term to designate themselves =kmt= the Negroes (literally). This is the strongest term existing in the Pharaonic tongue to indicate blackness; it is accordingly written with a hieroglyph representing a length of wood charred at the end and not crocodile scales," singular. ‘Kmt’ from the adjective =kmt= black; it therefore means strictly Negroes or at the very least black men. The term is a collective noun which thus described the whole people of Pharaonic Egypt as a black people." Divine Epithets Diop demonstrates that "black or Negro" is the divine epithet invariably used for the chief beneficent Gods of Egypt, while the evil spirits were depicted as red. Evidence From the Bible The Bible states"…[t]he sons of Ham [were] Cush and Mizraim [i.e. Egypt], and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah and Sabtechah." According to Biblical tradition, Ham, of course, was the father of the Black race. "Generally speaking all Semitic tradition (Jewish and Arab) class ancient Egypt with the countries of the Black." Cultural unity of Egypt With The Rest of Africa Through a study of circumcision and totemism. Diop gives detailed data showing cultural unity between Egypt and the rest of Africa. Linguistic Unity With Southern and Western Africa In a detailed study of languages, Diop clearly demonstrates that Ancient Egyptian, modern Coptic of Egypt and Walaf of West Africa are related, with the latter two having their origin in the former. Testimony of Classical Greek and Roman Authors Virtually all of the early Latin eyewitnesses described the Ancient Egyptians as Black skinned with wooly hair. After the conquest of Egypt by Alexander, under the Ptolemies, crossbreeding between white Greeks and black Egyptians flourished. "Nowhere was Dionysus more favored, nowhere was he worshiped more adoringly and more elaborately than by the Ptolemies, who recognized his cult as an especially effective means of promoting the assimilation of the conquering Greeks and their fusion with the native Egyptians." {Endnote 15: J. J. Bachofen,Pages choisies par Adrien Turel, "Du Regne de la mere au patriarcat." Paris: F. Alcan, 1938, p. 89.} These facts prove that if the Egyptian people had originally been white, it might well have remained so. If Herodotus found it still black after so much crossbreeding, it must have been basic black at the start. Before examining the contradictions circulating in the modern era and resulting from attempts to prove at any price that the Egyptians were Whites, let us note the comments of Count Constantin de Volney (1757-1820). After being imbued with all the prejudices we have just mentioned with regard to the Negro, Volney had gone to Egypt between 1783 and 1785, he reported the Egyptian Race is the very race that had produced the Pharaohs: the Copts (p. 27). “All have a bloated face, puffed up eyes, flat nose, and thick lips; in a word, the true face of the mulatto. I was tempted to attribute it to the climate, but when I visited the Sphinx; its appearance gave me the key to the riddle. On seeing that head, typically Negro in all its features, I remembered the remarkable passage where Herodotus says: "As for me, I judge the Colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are black with woolly hair. ..." We can see how their blood, mixed for several centuries with that of the Romans and Greeks, must have lost the intensity of its original color, while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mold. We can even state as a general principle that the face is a kind of monument able, in many cases, to attest or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of peoples. {End quote} When Egypt was invaded by Arabs - Egypt suffered turbulent times when, in 609 AD, the country had sided with Nicetas, a lieutenant of Heraclius, in the rebellion against the emperor Phocas. Only shortly after Heraclius overthrew Phocas, the Byzantines were attacked by the Persians. The armies of the Sasanid King Khosrau II invaded Egypt, inflicting cruel suffering upon its some of its inhabitants. This Persian occupation lasted six years.

The Envelope Please: Who Will Win, Who Deserves to Win, Who Was Snubbed by Kam Williams Kam usually does a pretty good job with this. As far as Black folks go, Kam predictions are correct we will be frozen out of awards this year.

The 6 seater high chair is too much!