Troy

Wow! I need to know what woman can pull not one but TWO of the Jackson Five! The kids' father is also their uncle...

WT Hillbilly F! Where did you learn that piece of gossip so their kids are both siblings and cousins huh?

No, the two are different but, America is both a civilization and empire.

Kindred spirits?

Do you apply the same logic to the religion of Christianity? Obviously, I disagree with you in that particular point all racist are Homo sapiens. This does not mean that the entire species is racist, right? I also disagree with the notion that Black people can’t be racist because they lack the power to exercise it. A racist is simply a person who believes that there are inherent differences to people due to the artificial constructive race, especially when it describes inferiority or superiority.. As I always used to tell @Pioneer1 (hope he is ok) his racist beliefs always led to false conclusions, including a wide variety of stereotypes he believed. Racism is bad, but Christians and conservatives don’t have a monopoly on it.

You have to factor in what available. McDonalds is arguably the worst of the hamburger fast food joints -- but they are everywhere and they spend a ton on marketing. Imagine of 90% of the restaurants were McDonalds: In this imaginary world most people loved McDonalds and extolled their virtues of providing nourishment to the hungry without have to get out the car. Singing the praises of being able to get square pieces of pressed marine biomatter between bread at midnight. This is what the WWW has become today. @aka Contrarian YouTube IS a haven for crackpots and snake oil salesmen. They are also for all practical purposes a monopoly and is the #2 most visited website only beaten Google. I've been a user of YouTube for more than 20 years -- before Google brought. If was great for helping people serve videos when disk space was expensive. Google was allowed quickly allowed, unencumbered, to serve as a platform for music piracy. YouTube quickly amassed a catalogue that eclipsed iTunes. In the past doing this, like Napster, were shut down, yet Google was allowed to rack up Billions. Remind me how musicians make money again? One of my up-coming projects is to pull all my videos off YouTube and serve from my own server. I have already gotten rid of Google Adserver (don't you hate going with websites with all those shitty and intrusive ads? Thank Google for that), Google Ad Manage, Google Analytics. Next is YouTube and I will have the planet's only website completely free of Google. No, FB is in no way shape or form reflective anything real -- that is a trick bag.

@aka Contrarian, did anyone challenge, or even question, the post eviscerating Sowell? Of all the positives you mentioned, FB did not invent any of those things, as they were already available on the 'net. FB just managed to corner the market with disproportionate Black support. The "Free exposure" is not free; indeed, FB has made getting exposure more costly and time consuming. Again, this was not true when FB launched but it is true now. The same goes for Google. The incentives have been perverted on social. What drives engagement is what feeds the algorithm. "Influencers" who produce content that pleases the algorithm do not serve us. The two are in conflict. Though I'm open checking out any contrary examples. Google basically trashed their search engine for profit. If anyone discovers new site through a Google search today it was by accident. A new Black-owned indie site has no chance of being discovered through a Google search unless they pay Google I deleted my FB profile and stopped actively using the platform 10 years ago and am better off as a result. The incidental benefits you described are not worth the tradeoff from a personal, business, or cultural perspective. @ProfD There are profound differences better a dimwitted Trump sycophant, an elderly Stanford emeritus Professor, and precocious 30-year-old.

Do any of y'all make any distinctions between the Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas (funny how both could be called Uncle Tom) and kids like Candice Owens and Coleman Hughes? How do you feel about less controversial republicans like Herman Cain or Condoleezza Rice? I do. I'd venture a guess that I'm the only one reading this who has read more than one book written by Sowell, most of what I read does not address race issues. I have also read--and enjoyed-- Sowell's columns for years especially his "Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene." They were though provoking tidbits that challenged liberal views. For the record I tend to be both fiscally and socially liberal. The article was generally hyperbolic, which Facebook's algorithm loves! So, all Tdka is doing is enriching Mark Z by feeding the algorithm. Everything has a context. "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Audre Lorde Today, we blindly and feverishly use the master's tools to build up his house, the problem is that it comes at the expense of our own.

Yeah, he "seemed' that way. He was probably nutty long before that--The money was just and enabler. Wasn't his Dr. convicted for mis-prescribing his medication or something like that?

I have distain for most of these platforms, and the reasons are complex. Your description of facebook; "FB is a sounding board. A chance to get on your soap box and blow off steam to a vast, ready-made audience..." is accurate, but simplistic (all due respect to your wisdom and intellect). Facebook and Meta (Youtube) do not operate in isolation they entered a WWW where there was a vibrant and growing community of Black-owned and Black-centered platforrms. In a variety of ways these companies have completely destroyed this. In the earlier years I even helped Facebook accomplish this, but I had no way of understanding what was happening. I also understand that even if I did know it would not have made any difference--because it makes no difference today. It is not just me, some disgruntled website owner whose posters now suckle at Mark's teat. There have been many books written about how bad Facebook is--even Facebook's own employees describe the problems. Look, Facebook (and Goole and Amazon) IS THE WEB for most people. A hand full of companies control what you see hear and read. Their rage driven algorithms fan the fire of dissent for profit. I have more than 22K followers on FB that I earned through engagement on Facebook (helping FB build an audience). Today if I post something less than a handful of people will engage with it--don't even think about posting a hyperlink to a website. Even If I paid to boost a post (yes, I was naive enough to try that) I still did not get the same type of traffic that I used to get during Facebook's early days. Facebook used me. like they use everyone on the platform. You've read about Cambridge Analytica, right? Surely, you've read about Facebook's adverse impact on mental health, especially teens. Then there are the issues of abusing our privacy, and on... Facebook is much more than a "sounding board." I know most people do not get this and if they do, they could care less. I also appreciate, being an active contributor to the WWW for more than 30 years, that I have a perspective that most people do not have. I get that. It is just painful to watch, as Black people are hurt the most and are completely oblivious to what is happening. I could go on about YouTube, or rather Google (Alphabet) as well.

I know the question was for @Tesa , but only equal things should be treating equally. A couple of beers over cards is fine; crashing your car or losing your job because you are drunk not so good. Gambling is fine, but losing your house from a gambling debt not so much. Moderation for most things is fine Things like cigarettes, crack, meth, etc, have no real benefit that I'm aware of... and should only be available in the Black market.

Yes, I know, but the software can't tell the difference. @a_womon another blast from the past.

Oh, don't get me wrong -- I appreciate you doing that @aka Contrarian Please keep it up. I was just lamenting the fact that some of our favorite posters have left for Facebook and others who view themselves pro-Black but are actually more pro-Zuck.

Hard to believe. Time really does fly! Last year I visited his home in MN. Calling it a mansion would be an understatement. I did not get to see the entire place -- that is like a $400 tour. He is one of the few musicians I saw more perform than once (twice). I saw the Ohio players twice... I think that is it. Anyhow he was doing a residency on Vegas the last time I saw him 2007 he walked by everyone's table and I patted him on the back :-) If he was alive today he would still be only be in his 60's! Charley Murphy (another one gone too soon) tells a hilarious story about ballin' with Prince.

I hear you but unfortunately that is impossible, or rather it bad in the longer term. Software becomes outdated, security flaws emerge, and as application evolve the older system are no longer supported, so upgrading become necessary and the most sensible thing to do. There are users of this software who are using older versions and are now griping because these older versions are no longer being supported by the vendor. But the vendor has no choice because the software is dependent on versions of scripting languages that are no longer supported. Does this link help you find what is current in this forum: It what I updated the forum link on the main website to link to: https://aalbc.com/tc/forum/5-culture-race-economy/ it shows the posts in this forum in descending order (latest to the oldest) BTW, there are other universes where I did not upgrade. You can always go to one of those 😉

That happened to me this week. Shifting between universes did not occur to me as a cause, I chalked it up to some autocomplete feature that happened too quick for me to notice. I do sometimes imagine/feel one can shift from one universe to another, so you never know. Absolutely. I also believe we probably are not capable of comprehending all there is that is out there. The universe is a mysterious place.

Since the forum have been restored only @Delano , @ProfD , @aka Contrarian , @richardmurray, @Troy have posted. I just noticed if you mouse over the name, you see a preview of the profile. Many of the other posters @Mel Hopkins , @frankster , @Pioneer1 , @Chevdove , @umbrarchist ; @harry brown , @Milton have yet to return. I know I have to make the forums landing page less confusing and more appealing. I doubt think I would post here looking at the main page:: https://aalbc.com/tc/ I struggled trying to get the forum back up I got tired of looking at 🥺it but I really need to do something with that main page and cracking on attracting more participants. In the past 7 days despite the outages traffic from search is slightly up 2% according Goolge's Search Console with the most popular page in search results being: THE 100 BEST BLACK MOVIES (EVER) - Culture, Race & Economy - African American Literature Book Club

I'm not surprised. I used to see those blow-up dolls on 42nd street back in that day. I always thought they were for gags -- not actually used 🙈

Is it any wonder why our political system is so dysfunctional? Our best and brightest have no incentive become part of our government.

Y'all know I'm not a conspiracy theorist; the Earth is an oblate spheroid; vaccinate save lives; and chemtrails are simply contrails... But do you think man is really capable of the technological advances of the 60 years? Look at our leaders. look at the country's literacy rates -- we can't even stop murdering each other for 2 seconds! It is hard to believe a people so easily addicted to social media can also produce AI and Quantum computers. I don't believe it -- it must be aliens behind the scenes. 👽 I heard we shot an alien spacecraft with hellfire a missile and it just bounced off, still they did not destroy us. Maybe they are an advance human race trying to stop us from destroying the planet we share. 🤔

No, I did not mean to suggest that I found something "innately wrong" with it. I was just curious about the motivation. Sometimes, perhaps often, we do things without understanding the true motivation. It is the same curiosity I have about people who wear spacers in their earlobes, cover their bodies in tattoos, or color their hair purple. I will admit 20 years ago I probably would have been more judgmental about those things. Today I could care less about what a person does with their own body, but I'm still curious about the motivation. Look, white people invented dying hair blond or at least popularized it before Black women began doing it. Obviously, white women were not motivated by race. Maybe it is not racial for our deeply melaninated women either.

I was able to successfully reset my password, so the site's basic functionality has been restored 😊

Well, the site has been migrated and there are a lot of problems. This discussion forum does not appear to be one of them....

Of course, some here be against it because we look, pretty shitty. The US would probably most of the top 5 over the past 400 years. Chattel Slavery, Genocide of indigenous populations, lobbing two Nukes, etc, etc. This appears to reflect a small area. There are many middle class and upper middle-class areas where you can find people these types of people who are from FBA Black families. We are the majority in these classes.

Truth be told, you both have helped immensely. You have that in common 😇