Troy

I don't think Hill was referring to "politician" as meaning someone who previously in an elected office. I think he means someone skilled at negotiating, placating, horse trading with a disparate, conflicting, and sometimes hostile groups. That is a difficult role to preform successfully. Getting elected, for Hill, will be the easy part.

Yeah, that will be a problem. Hill Harper's celebrity is an advantage, given the superficial nature of our culture. He does seem to be genuinely interested in helping Black people. I've seen Hill a few times over the years mostly in connection with his popular books. The last time I saw him in Tulsa with Killer Mike pushing some Black bitcoin platform. I wonder what happened to it after bitcoin price dropped...

i agree, and I did not intend to suggest that it did. What it helped do was show people different sides of the issue of Black militancy from the perspective of the people. @richardmurray your comments suggest the intent is the movie was to advocate for or glamorize militancy. I don’t think that was the point of the film. I never thought a armed conflict in America today would be winnable or desirable. As mentioned in uptight. Our oppressor has access to the military. That may be true, but they are a significant number of people who do. The popularity of the Black Panthers tells of that. Radical change is what is needed in America.

Nobody is “self-made.” The successful may be smart and hardworking, but no one accomplishes anything, in a modern society single handedly-- unless you drop completely off the grid and are living in the wilderness, surviving on your own. Even then someone reared you long enough for you to live on you own. Seems to me after you've generated a billion dollars in wealth, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Biting the hand that feeds her... how much money does one need? It is not like she has kids to take care of... I dunno. I think homegirl is doing exactly want she wants. If she never generated another penny, she should could live 100 comfortable lifetimes on what she already has. I don't see her negatively vis-a-vis Black men. I just read the article about Clarence Thomas. He is not the only one to grow up poor, certainly not the only Black person. Like so many others, my father was raised in that type of poverty Clarence started out in. Given his entire life he should be one happy MFer. I'm sure he does not think he hates Black people. That is also not a leap I'm willing to make either. It does appear that Clarence may have self-esteem issues... leading to a lack of empathy and self-reflection needed to understand that he got to where is with whole lot of help, including affirmative action. Affirmative action was never perfect, but it was a lot better to what we had before it. I benefited from affirrmatove action. But that benefit was still eclipsed by structural racism.

Yes may he RIP. Yeah I heard he was controversial, but I understand he said things that men felt but were unwilling to express oo express -- sort of like what y'all are doing here LOL!

You can only define this for yourself. You like to make grand generalizations, applying them to all men in all situations. Real life is more nuisance and as a result more complicated. What I found most important in a women 30 years ago is different that what I find important today. I'm sure this is true for you too. This is true and there is no escaping it. As a related side bar: i was talking to a buddy of mine yesterday and he turned me on to this brother, Kevin Samuels, on YouTube. I have not watched any of his videos yet, but my friend was telling me how he schools people on "High Value" men:

I think men and women are different as well, but the differences are not so rigidly defined, as some people assert. I believe we are all on a spectrum. There are some women who born are more "masculine" than some men and vice-versa. America's social constructs are completely independent of our true nature. Western culture was defined to benefit wealthy white men. The marginalization of everyone else is a direct consequence of that. The fact that white women were given the right the vote after Black men should tell you something. Does anyone think that keeping women out of the political process has anything to do with the inherent differences between men and women? Does anyone think preventing white women from voting is a way to marginalize Black men?

I watched Uptight last night and I thought it was a very good film. The acting was a bit over the top, but enjoyable, nonetheless. @richardmurray I read conintelpro had agents working the film. This tells me the film was definitely of potential benefit to the black community. I thought the film did a good job illustrating the conflict in the Black community surrounding militancy. Frank Silvera, character Kyle's oppoiation to The Councils tactics showed this. I too wish the film were "smarter," but given the time, the constraints, the FBI I think the final product is commendable. Janet MacLachlan who played Jeannie passed in 2010 (she was older than my mother!) Now that was a fine sista! 🥰 I liked Roscoe Lee Brown's gay character. His scene in the police station was priceless. Booker T and The MG's did the original score. @Pioneer1 man, I wish I had a list of good films to watch queued up, but I don't. I used to this like with music they rarely make a good film, but they do the problem is discoverability as it is with books. That said last weekend I watched, A Thousand and One. It was very good film too (obviously IMHO) It was released in theaters in March of this year, but I did not learn about it until this weekend, scrolling through movies to watch on my Chromecast. The lead actress, Teyana Taylor is easy on the eyes too 😍

I hear you @Pioneer1 and I understand why you may feel that way, but it is not that simple. I think the Thug/Tom dichotomy you've created is a false one. Both are bad for the Black community and they are both a direct reaction to and financed by racism. Clarence Thomas may never bop grandma on the head for her social security check, but what do you think the generational impact of the Supreme Court's ruling will mean for Black people in the long term?

I have zero interest in this application — I'm not even curious about it. In a few years. if professionals tell me that Threads is a must-have I may look at it then, but I can't image that day coming. Twitter was always a relatively marginal social media platform. Heavily reliant on bot traffic and outrage... It is not clear how threads will gain relevance, in the long term, without doing the things people complained about Twitter doing. At some point, social media platforms will have to pay people, regular people, for engaging on the platform. Then there is Meta's increasing dominance. They have Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. A Meta App is probably installed on everyone's phone. This kind of dominance is bad.

When you don't control anything thing this is what happens. The Black people who should have our collective attention are those who were targeted by the Conitelpro. You can be certain these brother and sisters were the "right" Black folks. For example, one minute Black Lives Matter, matters and the next minute it doesn't. It always ends up depending more upon market forces and the whims of the media rather than a positive impact on our people. I like to debate, but in the real world I don't get to do it very much. In the last few years, I've spent most of my free time with women and none of them like to debate -- at least not with me. They usually take it personally, shut down, or simply avoid the activity. I had a female friend years ago who used to like to debate and we'd sometime argue, but she never took it personally or too seriously to end our friendship. She used to say I was "incorrigible." I had to look up the word when she first called me that 🙂 She was a natural fighter, a female warrior. Online however, I'm more likely to challenge another's ideas, that I would in person. I think debating racists or dysfunctional Black people is largely a waste of time. These people are incorrigible. Back when @frankster debated the last racist who posted here, I found that valuable, not because I though the racist would change, but because the way he replied to each point would be valuable to those really interested in learning to understand our predicament. @Pioneer1 one thing I have noticed is that you do not seem to be willing to change your position -- I don't recall seeing it happen. When presented with compelling evidence you disparage it in one way or another, calling it the white man's science or something like that... Also, I would not take everything said here seriously. I don't recall the context of these statements, but you know people tease, say things for effect, exaggerate, and occasionally make ad hominem comments (not me of course 😉

Yes I recognize the several of the actors too. I have not looked up the movie to see how i can watch it yet. It is interesting the movies that become widely known and those which remain obscure. Was anyone familiar with the writer Julian Mayfield?

Yeah, I need to read these arguments -- thanks for sharing. I'll come back after I get through them.

I never heard about Uptight until I started updating the site with information about the writer, Julian Mayfield. Mayfield stars in, and co-authored the screenplay. Whoever posted the clip mischaracterized the clip as "Blaxploitation" this is an inaccurate description (based upon the clip). Am I the only one who never heard of this flick?

I had previously watched the Frontline documentary and it was fascinating. Just cause you rarely see a photo of Thomas smiljng does not mean he is not having a blast. Did you hear about all those extravagant trips he was given over the years. I’m sure he was cheesin’ the whole time—we just don’t have access to that. …and the media you consume does not show this side of him. In true American fashion Thomas did what it took to maximize himself. In that regard is a success. Which seems to be all he cares about. He never attempted to be a Thurgood Marshall. I don’t think they make men like Marshall any more. The structures are no longer in place. The best Black minds don’t want to go to Howard, the NAACP is a shell of it’s former self, and liberal presidents like Johnson are seemingly unelectable.

well if were still part of Britain we may have been emancipated decades earlier. @Chevdove this is not widely known. They rarely tell the story this way. who are you talking about here? If King were alive today, I can’t see how he would be nearly as effective as he was in his day. Same for Malcolm, Garvey, the Panthers, etc. We are way too fragmented and easily distracted.

Even passing is subjective. A person calling themselves white my get by one but not another. Maya Rudolph could pass for some but not for others. The sooner we dispense with white racist concept race the better off humanity will be.

I was in Thibodaux last year. Site of a little known race massacre. @zeke1234 the “Jesus” Pioneer speaks of is the one whose religion was used To justify slavery and had done little to stem the violence in our communities. It is a mind set. It is the same mind set that give is our standard of beauty and tells us whose ice is colder.

Yeah Red Foxx used to go on about Lena Horne on his show Sanford and Son. YouTube is selling the flick for $4 maybe watch it this weekend.

Yes i know. I appreciate my comment was a diversion which is why I spawned another conversation. i never saw the film stormy weather what is bad about it?

I don’t know. I swear when I post from my phone it feels like my text is changed after I hit the submit reply button 😞

@zeke1234 that cover from the March 19, 1953 issue from Jet Magazine Intrigued me I shared the article here.

Jet Magazine, at least back in the mid-20th century, was good for crafting headlines would be considered click-bait today. This headline It got my attention, not because I did not know the answer; I wanted to see how the magazine -- designed to appeal to the masses -- covered the issue back in 1953. What do you think about the coverage?

Wait, @richardmurray all this time I thought you lived or were from Harlem. I wish more people took your polls. It may be that you have to have an account to take the poll. I'll lookinto this. Yeah, I saw that Yusef Salaam won the city council seat. I'm not surprised. He is tall, handsome, and the most articulate of the five guys he got bum rushed with. Being one of the exonerated gave him some name recognition which helps tremendously -- plus white people love him... I also saw the Bill Perkins died recently -- that news caught me off guard. I used to see the Brother running in Central Park (interestingly the last time was not too far from where the Central Park Jogger was brutalized).