Another one of my FB friends who was a member of the old crowd is my boy Shannon King who went under the user name "Yukio" and who also went on to become a college professor and a published author.

Below is an article he posted which was written by Peter Birkenhead and which I found very timely.

"I was about to write that I don’t think white people understand how much we are about to lose as a consequence of Black people losing electoral power, that we don’t have anywhere near an adequate appreciation of how much everybody in this country has benefited from the Voting Rights Act and the seismic political, legislative and cultural shifts it set in motion (there’s no Obamacare without the VRA — hell, there’s no Obama,) that almost everything we do every day has in some way been affected for the better by the democratization of political power and the corresponding investment in the public good represented by the VRA and its countless direct and indirect ripple effects (wether or not you send your kid to Head Start you have a hundred reasons to be grateful that other people send theirs,) and that I doubt very much that many of us would like to go back to a world lacking, for instance, the countless contributions, innovations and inventions of Black scientists, academics, engineers and artists subsidized by grants and institutions that would not themselves have existed but for the pressure exerted by people who could finally vote and have their votes weighted fairly.

But then I remembered who we are, and how not once since the Voting Rights Act passed has a majority of us voted for a presidential candidate who supported the immeasurably better future that it ushered in, or the many better futures it would still no doubt have delivered.

I remembered that we are white people, and that there is nothing — absolutely, positively nothing — that we aren’t willing to go without if it means Black people go without more."

Good 'ole (aka Shannon King), you going back more than 15 years.

Here is a conversation "On Percival Everett" from 22 years ago. It is hard to imagine we had conversations like this here. I took it for granted, because that is what we did on the Internet back then... before Facebook launched and all the Black people flocked there.

It only took a few years to reach that level imagine if we continued to the same trajectory for the next 22 years! Today Yuki posts on interesting things on Facebook and Mark is richer for it.

@aka Contrarian I guess I'm sounding like a broken record griping about Brothers supporting Facebook.

1. We (Black people) simply do not support Black platforms anymore, and this lack of support has only increased over that past 20 years

2. A Platform like Facebook can do so much demonstrable harm yet we double down in our support.

So, if it is not obvious, I'm a little salty about this. I'm not losing any sleep over it, cause I'm gonna continue to do what I do regardless.

There are however, indications that the tide is turning, so there is reason for optimisms 🙂

@Troy Well, as I previously stated, the articles that I occasionally re-post here are posted on FB not by the people who wrote them, but by others who are quoting them.

I share some of the provocative ones here sometimes to just start conversations...

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.

Obviously, I haven't been around here long enough to know of any former posters. It is great that they are still producing content.

Would be great if those indiciduals were still posting here but we know the net effect of the white man's ice.

Even the most intelligent, educated, astute & well-written/spoken brothas & sistas fall for the ice.

Amusing to me is Black folks who talk sh8t about the same white folks who own the platforms they are using to host their content i.e. Fa*ceb**k, Y*uT*be, Gram, Tok, X, etc.🤣

There's always the hope that Black folks will find their way out of depending on white folks & become independent & autonomous.😎

For many people, FB is a sounding

board. A chance to get on your soap box and blow off steam to a vast, ready-made audience. It is many-faceted and convenient for millions of people who have nothing better to do when it comes to occupying their free time. It's escapism and is very accessible. It also provides a way to connect with friends and strangers.

To me, since I no longer have a lot of mobility, hangin around there is just something to do...

I've always been curious why the guys on this site always express so much disdain for FB, but have no problem with YouTube, which to me is not that different from Face Book. They both just need to be taken with "a grain of salt".

16 minutes ago, aka Contrarian said:

I've always been curious why the guys on this site always express so much disdain for FB...

Personally, I do not have disdain for FB. Just never had a reason to use the platform.

Alao, I don't find appealing the thought of people I haven't seen or talked to in 40+ years tracking me down.🤣😎