SkoolMan Salute...

[Don1]

... SING OUT!

Unno betta show me unno Plan
All original die hearted SkoolMan
Show me unno Seal if unno ready fi go eat a Tank meal

SkoolMan! Flash leff di Big Igler dem ah Parade
SkoolMan! Step inna Big Tank and him nuh Fraid
SkoolMan! Brandish di Big Plan an demand fi get Paid
SkoolMan! Kriss inna yuh wingtip wid yuh Fade
SkoolMan! Big Ride park up inna di Shade
SkoolMan! Shark yuh ah swim wid yuh nah Wade
SkoolMan! Wen yuh chat Babylon lissen til dem Daze
SkoolMan! Tru Wizzy yuh respek large til it Blaze
SkoolMan! Yuh ah Don Gorgon an yuh nah LayLay
SkoolMan! Success done already made

WHEEEEEEELLL SELECTA...

[HL]

Saw your post below about your daughter. Congrats!!

America is a wonderful place when it comes to opportunity. One has only to 'apply themselves' (as my Dad used to say).

The lack of Black face is because "we" do not choose to apply ourselves. Seems some of us (prefer) to take the path of least resistance.....

It's not that us Blacks don't have the ability...we just choose pathways that's "easy".

Example: A Jewish or Asian kid will spend lots of time in the library; thus an engineer, physician...etc.

In contrast, a Black kid will invest the same amount of time on the basketball court or gridiron field. In some schools, Black who chose to study are rediculed....

A brain was placed in each of our head: Yes, some of us do not have parents and role-models around for guidance. But the ability to choose is inate. We still have the ability to choose wrong from right.

Prisons are not filled with blacks because a paddywagon drove around town--looking for Blacks to lock them up. (And yes, I know the deck is stacked against us).

Sorry for the long windedness... but much respect to you and your progeny on the potential achievement.

[Exile]

You should have just stopped after the first sentence.

[Islandman]

Why you say that? There is some validity to what HL says.

Anti-intellectualism is rampant in our culture.

[HL]

Yes Exile, i could have...but decided not to.

I wanted to post on this topic since i know it would make folks like you and other extermely uncomfortable.

[Exile]

Really....education and intellectualism is different things wouldn't you say?

[Exile]

Folks 'like me"? Please explain that. Why would I be uncomfortable? Don't understand what you are trying to say.

[Islandman]

Sure they are different, though related.

BOTH are underemphasized in our culture, generally speaking.

[HL]

Stick to the darn topiK Exile!!!!

[Exile]

What topic is that? Relax...explain what you mean below...then I'll deal with the nonsense on top.

[HL]

You finish krissmuss shoppin' yet?

[Exile]

Everyday a Christmus fi mi....

[Exile]

I see you decide not to respond...I wont even hazard a guess as to what you meant...or was trying to say...

[HL]

It was really intended for Don 1. I wanted to prod him on the issue of the high incarceration rate in blacks in the US.

We Blacks have (maybe) 70% of our destiny WITH OUR CONTROL. But we ******** it up. We prefer [and find it more convenient] to concentrate on the 25% of the issues that we have little control over...like racism.

[Don1]

I happen to largely agree with you as to cause and effect regarding imprisonment. Black people are our own worst enemy...succumbing as we do to bad choices. Opportunities abound in America no doubt. Also thanks for the nice words re my daughter

That reasoning above however was not the subject informing my prior response to your utterly offensive and spiritually bankrupt post on the incarceration issue.

Suffice it to say that:

1. Your characterization of the alarming level of incarceration of Black people as some kind of "old" and "ho hum" issue inducing yawning on your part is an abomination

2. Your (serious or not) reference to seeking investments in the Prison Industrial Complex and promoting that concept as an employment generator is evidence of a spiritual vacuum that you seem to operate in regarding Black people... another abomination

3, When last I checked, the millions of Black people entangled in the criminal system were citizens and residents of the USA....this makes the problem an American one.... unless you subscribe to the right wing theory that Blacks and other non-white people are somehow "not really American"

If they are American it means that their incarceration at these horrendous levels is an American dysfunction...which dysfunction should have a high priority for redress...primarily by we same one. Again if we're responsible for the redress...your start point of disdain is a recipe for continuation of of the same abomination

Capice?