First of all, I am a beautiful Black woman who happens to be in love with a beautiful Black man, so all that yang about "you must not have good relationships since you all in mine..." is a ludicrous line of reasoning and I wish some of you would just stop with the red herrings. You can be Black and happy and still have something to say about stuff cats do that does not serve us. <P>Second of all, I'm not quite clear why I as a Black woman become the bad person when I propose that Black people act in their own self interest in response to centuries of whites doing the same at our expense. I'm not saying that all white people are evil, most are quite apathetic as are most people in general, but for Black people to continue to work in their best interest has never and will never serve us. <P>The reason I posted initially was not solely as a disappointed fan, but as a Black woman who works with Black people who need some images to look at and feel good about in this sea of our absence. I do not feel that with the already ridiculously low amounts of Black men in positive roles in mass media, that it serves us to waste one of the few opportunities that we do have to push forward an a agenda that is not ours. Or maybe more appropriately, it's sad to see that our artists find it necessary and/or desirable to do roles that can't serve us in the end. And before you even ask, there is a huge difference in a white actor deciding to play such a role because bottom line, there are far more movies with whites in the lead period. To see a Black face on the big screen is a rare treat and for a brotha like BT to take that treat and give us this is insulting. <P>For that brotha on the verge of the interracial joint, you seem like a sincere brotha so I'm not gonna come with roughness, but let's just say that I pray that a sista with some good characteristics comes your way. It will be better in the end, I'm just about sure of it. And if you're not sure, think about what type of mother she would be to your son. How exactly would a white woman raise a Black man? And if you're like the other 20 brothas that has asked this question of me in the last 5 years, you might be sayin', "I ain't gonna marry her, or have children with her," but I don't know a technology yet that can stop conception and if you're doin' the do, it is entirely possible.<P>Believe it or not, I love people, all people and it is because of that love that I can't simply sit by and allow folks to be wack. White people are going to continue to disrespect us as long as we allow it. And if you don't know about that fellas or ladies for that matter, think about the last relationship with a person that just let you get away with everything. After awhile, your respect for that person decreased and it grew boring and you someone ended it. Similarly, if Black folk don't stand up like the men and women that we are, no one will ever recognize us as full human beings with a legitimate right to power as ordained by the divine. <P>Now I would be willing to chalk up BT's decision as a horrible, heinous mistake if he comes back with something good for us, but let's just say that I wouldn't be surprised if this downward spiral continued. I also don't mean to scapegoat him either because as I noted previously, this seems to be a trend among todays rappers. I wouldn't be surprised if the rap game took a turn for the white in the next 10 years.<P>I don't think that it serves any people for Black people to forget who we are, where we've come from, how hard it has been, and how far we need to go. If we continue to allow ourselves to be portrayed outside of our truth, then we will have no one to blame for the final stages of our holocaust but ourselves. <P>I simply want justice for all. At the rate Black people are going, we are going to continue to reap nothing in return for our creative labor. The way I see hip hop today helps me to know how Egypt was appropriated, how jazz became white and how rock became Elvis. We can't keep simply giving it away and if others care to enjoy it, we must make sure that they are reverent to its roots. We are such a givin' folk, but we just can't keep givin' it all away. Again I say, I pray that Black people learn from the Jews (Not the kickin' indigenous folks off their land and appropriating it for themselves part) but the part where we act in our own self interest, where we find out what we are good at, corner the market on that and make everyone else beholden to us for what we have. Come on yall, don't keep givin' it away.<P>