Derek McGowan

wait, how did you know street names? but when I post part 2 of this ride then it wont be as clean (notice more trees adds a lot to the clean feel) since you were looking for possible segregation I used Google Streetview and the Google Maps 3D overview to figure out where the neighbourhood was, via landmarks and a street sign at one corner in the video. I started with the boulevard Adam likened to the Ocean Parkway, and worked my way back, comparing. I know, I know, I am a nerd. I love urban form and I love to use Streetview to immerse myself in a place. (I also am a bit of a hack at geo-location from my studies of the Syria war). What my first impression was how like Montreal's were the Baltimore streetscapes. See here, for example. I actually did madison avenue, which I live on, over to Eutaw, then Park (the street with the fountains) Bolton street and finally Mount Royal where I passed that group of students on the sidewalk. That ends (besides the cross streets) the Bolton Hill community. The video I will post today (the second half) is the adjacent community, Druid Hill, McCulloh, and Division. Also Pennsylvania Avenue is in that community but I have that street in a another video

Ill follow your first point to a tee your second point, I have no idea how to isolate it from the bumpiness. It would have been worse if I mounted the camera to the handle bars. Also, I don't have a motorcycle

wait, how did you know street names? but when I post part 2 of this ride then it wont be as clean (notice more trees adds a lot to the clean feel) since you were looking for possible segregation

I have more video so far and will edit them together- 1. the rest of the above ride (the opposing neighborhood) 2. a video taking you from the Burned out CVS shown during the riots, to the Inner Harbor Moving forward, I was going to add in text to announce the different neighborhoods and any historic locations, such as Woodrow Wilson's house or the first Catholic Basilica in America, but should I just voice narrate the journey? (in-between gasps for air!) Also I'll need to change the placement of the camera somehow to get the helmet out of there.

test video https://youtu.be/WZ4nlENMpf0

this is an issue.... From my position, it seems that more blacks practice cpt then don't. Happens at dinners, weddings, church events, dates, work, etc. Most older folks don't do it but 40 and under... its a problem. And it pisses me off because I was raised "if you are late then it shows you don't care about the other person's time" In fact, I was an hour early to the closing today. I've been at dinner parties where the time that the event was supposed to start is the time some attendees began getting ready. I could make mention of elite society 100+ years ago purposely arriving fashionably late but whe you have kids arriving to work 15 and twenty minutes late, its a problem Thanks. I do not understand it either, however It does get my attention. Do you notice a significant difference between blacks from the Islands and or Africa and American blacks in basic core behavior/values? A... There is no monolithic Black person. Black encompasses people of African descent throughout the diaspora. There are as many intra-racial differences among Black people as their are among people of European descent. Also "The Islands" is pretty diverse as well. There are differences across Island culture. I'm afraid I'd have trouble answering this concisely without using gross generalizations or stereotypes that have limited basis in fact. There is differences in culture, language and experiences. With that obviously comes differences in behavior. If I'm understanding the question correctly it is very broad and would take a Black Studies course to explore. But if I had to summarize behavior across culture I would say that Black people from different geographical locations reflect the culture of their environment in nearly every way.

Sorry, DL, I havent ignored your question, I've been trying to get my wife to give her perspective along with mine since I don't have much to say on the subject. I personally haven't felt extra attracted to pregnant females. A few of them are quite cute while pregnant but I feel that they would probably be cute to me if I saw them and they weren't. None of the guys I've been friends with have mentioned being attracted to them, at least not verbally. I've seen pregnant girls from teenage to adulthood and ..... I don't know, maybe you had some physical changes? Breasts, hips, etc? I did have sex once with a pregnant girl but it surely wasn't because she was pregnant..... My experience as pregnant woman was that ALL men where more attracted to me regardless of ethnic background. I figured it had something to do with pheromones and curvature. In general it has been my experience that Black men are attracted to curves and the more severe the curves the better. When you were pregnant did your breast and any other body parts swell along with your belly.

CP time. I laugh. Do you know JST (Jewish Standard Time)? For cultural and historic reasons Jews tend to run a quarter to a half hour late. I remember when my oldest son had his bar mitzvah I invited all my Jewish guests to show up at the synagogue at 09:30 and my gentile guests to show up at 10:00. The service was scheduled to begin a 10:00. Anyway just about everyone arrived on time. Here is one for you---- Who knows what Evil lurks in the Heart of Man???? The Shadow do.... thats interesting, I never heard of that but I guess I don't have many Jewish associates. The one stereotype you always hear about them is that they are cheap

I think you may perhaps have a slight misunderstanding about what this thread is about

this is an issue.... From my position, it seems that more blacks practice cpt then don't. Happens at dinners, weddings, church events, dates, work, etc. Most older folks don't do it but 40 and under... its a problem. And it pisses me off because I was raised "if you are late then it shows you don't care about the other person's time" In fact, I was an hour early to the closing today. I've been at dinner parties where the time that the event was supposed to start is the time some attendees began getting ready. I could make mention of elite society 100+ years ago purposely arriving fashionably late but whe you have kids arriving to work 15 and twenty minutes late, its a problem Thanks. I do not understand it either, however It does get my attention. Do you notice a significant difference between blacks from the Islands and or Africa and American blacks in basic core behavior/values? A... My experience with West Indies or African blacks is limited. I have a Jamaican commercial tenant. He is a one man operation- seamstress and also drives for the airport. He opens everyday (he is below my art studio) but I can't say its a regular-hours sort of thing. I usually get there early 8-830 and he is there when I leave out for lunch then he stays till after I leave. One bad thing, when I took over the building, he was already there. We agreed that since there was only one service to the building (the original owner lived above their shop, so my studio is in what was living quarters) he would pay the electric bill and I would pay the water bill. Appears he never paid and last year I had to pay his 3000 gas/electric bill to get the service to get my lights turned back on. He has been making payments back since that time. I used to work in a area called Rockville. It is in Montgomery County a suburb of DC and is very metropolitan. I had employees from China, El Salvador, Jamaica, Sudan, Brazil, etc We would have customers in line speaking French and Italian. But all the kids working there were in the 16-19 year range and no I didn't see a difference in their behavior but that average behavior was better than those in some other stores I've worked in. My wife is from Florida and currently she works at a HBCU so she has probably has had more experience in the matter. Hopefully I can get her comment tomorrow.

My commentary was about his vocal brilliance not his personal choices. Outstanding. And his physical stylization as he sang. There was no room for improvement except in his own mind which he was constantly on about. I only said what I did off the title of the song he did you put up. --Brant he was so good you couldn't imagine better (unless you were whole hog obsessed with Mario Lanza)

this is an issue.... From my position, it seems that more blacks practice cpt then don't. Happens at dinners, weddings, church events, dates, work, etc. Most older folks don't do it but 40 and under... its a problem. And it pisses me off because I was raised "if you are late then it shows you don't care about the other person's time" In fact, I was an hour early to the closing today. I've been at dinner parties where the time that the event was supposed to start is the time some attendees began getting ready. I could make mention of elite society 100+ years ago purposely arriving fashionably late but whe you have kids arriving to work 15 and twenty minutes late, its a problem

So, good news is that I was able to borrow the go-pro, bad news is it rained on Saturday so I had to move my 20+ mile exercise ride to Sunday when I was supposed to do the first of many community tours. Then couldn't do it today because I was in closing. Hopefully I can get something up next weekend. The full plan (not to be done in one day mind you) is a tour of the black community I live in vs the mostly-white neighborhood one street away. A tour of several college campuses, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, University of Baltimore, Morgan State University (HBCU) Maryland Institute of Art Purposefully seeking out of housing projects Purposeful seeking out of boarded up homes Well manicured and pristine (non-rich) black neighborhoods The route from my mothers house to a grounds tour of the elementary, middle and high school I went to City Hall The Inner Harbor, Fells Point and Canton etc The videos will only be ten minutes or less so you dont have to sit through a documentary and hopefully the on board mic will pick up any environmental sounds.

Yes, I would prefer for us not to post and discuss straight charts and numbers. I'd prefer that if someone posted a chart then it could be weaved into their personal story, or into a question. But what does the charts mean to you?

Feel free to offer any follow up questions to ones I have answered

Some of these are funny, but fact is that I really didn't have any in mind and had to search for these.... I still can't think of any on my own....

1. Is that number accurate? Where did you source it? But (without me looking it up) if it is true I would say its rooted more in the perceived racist attitude of the republican party. You could of course say that Lincoln was a Republican and it was the Southern Democrats who really pressed Jim Crow but in the modern age the felling is that the republicans care nothing about anyone who is not an entrepreneur/business man. If someone is having a tough time living from paycheck to pay check and the political leader says "Let them eat cake" then there is going to be a disconnect. To simply assume that blacks would be all "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" when there is an ingrained history to whites purposely preventing them from pulling themselves up from preventing them from voting, to turning down loans (that they qualified for), to passing over them for promotions. Many blacks feel that the playing field needs to be purposely leveled the same way that it was purposefully unbalanced. Remove the idea that the line of folks voting for democrats are full of welfare queens, because A. only 30% of blacks are on welfare http://madamenoire.com/515370/stereotype-debunked-whites-receive-food-stamps-blacks/ and if your 95% number is true than there are lots not accounted for, and B. most of those welfare queens, or teenage mothers don't vote. The people who are in your mind are not holding strategy meetings late into the night on how they plan to vote out those who don't give them all they want. In the last governor's race, I personally voted Libertarian and in the previous presidential campaign, I voted for Obama. Mitt is the biggest flip flop say-what-they-want-to-hear in my voting history. But even if it wasn't him, I would have still voted Obama. Besides the I-have-no-idea-how-we-will-pay-for-it ObamaCare, I personally feel that he has done a good job. And I'm talking about my opinion on the reality of his governance, not the perception (he's going to take away all our guns, he is blocking all oil drilling, etc) My wife in bold 95%? That statistic seems unfounded. But I will say this there have been 2 major shifts in party alignment. Because Lincoln is credited with freeing the African American's from slavery and he was Republican the first registered Black people all aligned with the Republican party. The next major shift came with FDR's New Deal, his presidency marked the first time that Party became so closely linked to "working class Americans" . African Americans were made promises and were given a few symbolic gestures as to appease and persuade them to vote democratic, JFK and several presidents to follow used a similar model. But the 2nd and biggest shift came with FDR when for the first time in America party affiliation and race became so closely linked. 2. I would guess that the murder rate for blacks (four times higher than national average) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/murder-rate-for-black-ame_b_4702228.html is so high because for those who are in the drug game, respect is big thing. People have been getting shot and stabbed over respect for years (Alexander Hamilton) but those in the current drug game whether it is African American drug lords or cartels in Mexico have taken it to a extreme level. Possibly because of easy access to guns, possibly because of the drug gangs don't have the same rules as the Italian mob, maybe because the blacks feel more desperate. I personally have never fired a hand gun and I don't know anyone who has killed anyone but there is no covering up that I have known multiple people to have been shot after messing around in the game. My cousin was killed after a dispute. I just went to a funeral the week after the riots for a friend from some years back. The lack of a father is possibly not the reason because I would suspect that in that sort of household (where the father is in the game) then they would raise the son to "Don't take no sh_t" Its some kind of respect thing. You don't want to appear weak... I guess. Current homicides in Baltimore 144. I only knew one of those guys. Last year I didn't know any victims Sorry, I've never been in the game so I don't know what the rules are or why someone would feel that way. I know what it feels like for someone to try to make you look stupid in front of others. I've also had direct disrespect issued toward me such as being outside talking to my girlfriend and having a car of guys pull over and try to talk to her right in my face. Some guys are super direct in doing just whatever the hell they want to do and then other guys on't want to put up with that, possibly because they are of the I-do-what-I-want type as well. If the guns are withing reach, then they settle it, Hatfield and MCoys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield%E2%80%93McCoy_feud But I don't know anyone just angry like that. 2. There are several ways I could answer this question. For the sake of time I'll sum it by saying poverty, poor education and hopelessness have always been lined to crime. In any society you will always find those who are the poorest and who have the worst education will have the highest one to one crime rates. Now if we were including massacres, wars, colonization, mass enslavement or even serial killers, which I don't think you were then you would see that white people have killed more people than any other race of people on the planet. Thomas Sowell- not everyone is up on all the intellectual movements. Hey not everyone is an intellectual at all. The vast majority of my white associates (20-30+) look to me for answers on everything from the conversion of centimeters to inches, to was the moon landings a hoax, to who this or that scientist is and what did they say. My wife has a deeper background on African American history (Harlem renaissance, Black Zionism, etc) and I have to get corrected if I mention an author who did not write the book I purport them to. Sometimes people aren't even interested in certain topics, like I don't care how prominent the black thinker is when discussing reparations, I'm just not interested to follow the discussion much

Decided to break it up before all our text somehow gets lost 3. I think that white people ,in my experience, are more willing to buy an image of a black person (in fact my painting "Fine Arts" was bought by a white person) when the painting is a realistic depiction of a regular person. The numbers even out for the black buyer if the realistic depiction is of an icon, like Jesus. If the art is more abstract but still has obvious African themes, white people have no problem with buying it, based of course on their background mentality, and there are no European themes for abstract paintings so blacks buy them the same, but they are more attracted to African themes. I don't do abstracted art but I have watched over booths for other African American artists at outdoor festivals such as this guy- http://theartofponcho.com/ 4. I'm going to have to get back to you for the jokes. I'll find something on youtube.

Because there are some questions that either can't answer (such as the Wire question) or ones that I may be indifferent to, I've decided to also get my wife in on these questions. I'll give my answer and then hers will be in bold. 1. I agree that it does remind me of every comedian doing a man-in-a-woman-fat-suit routine (this includes Ms Doubtfire) The Madea character did get its start as a stage play and if you know theater, big bold characters steal the show. I believe that where it gets its popularity is in her flagrant use of saying what you wish you could say if you were in such a situation. So say you worked in retail and a customer did something like opened a sealed package on the sales floor and left the merchandise on the floor. When confronted the customer says "Oh, I found it that way" Your internal reaction (turned up to ten) is how Madea would react, like " B..tch! I just say you open that package, you think I'm stupid?! Let me state though firmly that there are quite a few prominent blacks (Spike Lee for instance) who think that Madea is demeaning and bad for black people. 1. Lol. I like your analogy about it being a bad rip off. Madea is a common trope used in Black media. She is the "Matriarch". Also, men dressing as women for entertainment is a common theme across several comedy spectrum that dates back even before Robin Williams = Mrs. Doubtfire, John Travolta in HairSpray ( Click here for more references) I haven't watch many of Madea shows or movies, but from what I have seen of them they put common social ills in a comedic and spiritual context. In that among movies staring Black people it is unique. Movies with an all black cast are rare, Movies that give a glimpse of the "black family" experience are even rarer. This is not to say they do not happen just when you list all the movies an any given year the number of movies featuring an all Black cast will be substantially smaller. Then throw in the combination of it not only being a Black cast, portraying "the black experience", spirituality, comedy and it being directed by a Black director and you have a cock-tail of "must see" TV. If there were more options out there I doubt it would have as much of a following as it does. Most Black intellectuals, especially Black men do not like Madea movies because they find them demasculating and (for lack of better word) coonish. 2. My personal feelings on Interacial dating are "do you boo". In other words, whatever floats your boat. I dated a Jewish girl for 3 years. A good friend of mine dated a white chick from Iowa. Some people do get pissed off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj6hrTItC9A But honestly I don't get it. I understand that their argument is a never-trust-the-white-man attitude but I don't get that either. I personally have never met anyone my age or younger that would care about dating outside their race. One thing though, the white girl has to have a black girls body. If the white girl has a big butt then most blacks guys will pursue her, no problem and their homeboys will give them respect for getting with them. Secondly, in lower income areas, there are low income whites living along low income blacks and trust me, they act and talk the same. Some white people are Blacker than black people depending on where they grew up and when you grow up together you are going to inter-date. Maybe its a different thing for a black person to reach corporate America and meet a white person there and date. Maybe that where all the hate comes from because it appears to some that the black who did that feels like their race is no longer good enough. Sometimes they do feel that way, other times they just like the other persons personality. In conclusion I do here most hate (online) from females who see black men date out side their race. Black men, when they see a black woman with a white man are more prone to say "He don't know how to handle that" (speaking of the white guy about the black girls body) 2. My perception is that generally we accept those things that we cannot change. In general everything that is accepted or tolerate does not equate to liking it or approving of it. From conversations that I have had Black women are particularly annoyed. 1 because they feel like there is a shortage of Black men and someone outside of the race/social group are adding to the depletion when they date them. 2. Black women seem to have less of a range in the race of males they attracts so when that supply is depleted they have little alternative. 3. For Black people rooted in their culture and history it seems a betrayal to date a white mate because the history of oppression. I could actually write a chapter on how deep the feeling goes but those 3 points will have to do for now.

I've got some places in mind to go through. As soon as I borrow my brothers camera I'll be on my way. Possibly even this weekend.

The Wire? Did I miss something in his post? A... Hey, I said ask anything Sorry Robin, you have me at a disadvantage because I've never seen a single episode of the Wire. My wife tried to watch it last year when it became available for free on Amazon Prime(we were going to make it the next dinner show) but said the acting was bad so we skipped it. I never had HBO sooo... But on the other hand, when I first moved into my area 11+ years ago, I cam home one day to see the crew wrapping up filming an episode on my block but I didnt get to see any of it. I did get to see when they filmed the movie Step Up on the next block though. If your question is about drug culture then I can say that I have witnessed, once, a drug chopping room. A space with a bunch of guys cutting and separating crack/coke (I have no idea) into the vials for their customers. I believe, and I say believe because he died when I was maybe 10, that my Uncle was addicted. I also have a cousin who is in recovery. Also one friend I went to high school with is in pretty bad shape, or at least he was last time I say him. Looks like he went from weed to heroin or something. Other than that, I don't personally know anyone who is on drugs. I've known quite a few people who sold them, most of them have since stopped. Lexington Market is known as possibly the heroin capital of the US. There you will see at least one person per day doing the crackhead lean (I'll try to get it on tape) but quite honestly that person could be either black or white. Most daytime/obvious drug deals take place in neighborhoods that have the run down look- multiple boarded up houses, trash on the streets. But it could very well be that deals take place in other neighborhoods but covertly, I have no idea because I was never a part of that world. I've never witnessed anyone actually injecting drugs though when I was growing up, I did see from time to time vials and needles in alleyways (not so much now and I dont know why that it) I've also never known someone break into anyone's house looking for stuff to sell to get drugs. Scratch that, when my grandmother died some years ago, I was staying in the house and came home one time to find the place broken into with a few things missing. I dont know if that was a drug thing though. If your question about the Wire is more focused on the murder rate. I can talk about that in another post. Also if there are more direct questions about the drugs I can answer to the best of my knowledge, such as the names of areas that are known to have high drug selling rates. I can try to look up how many drug rehab places are in Baltimore as well (I know of two off the top of my head)

As I stated in the South Carolina shooting thread, it appears that some individuals have been operating from a very narrow view of what black culture/life is about. I consider myself to have a very full and intimate knowledge of what white culture is because I went to a majority white college for 7 years (Towson University-http://www.towson.edu/diversity/profile.asp)I dated a Jewish girl for 3 years, going on vacation with her and her family, and I've worked mostly in the county. Also Baltimore is majority black but it is hardly segregated. I attend a discussion group, last Sunday of every month, that is 100% white 50+ age group members, another on second Wednesdays, same demographic and I have a standing walking/talking friendship with a slightly older than I white friend. When I was doing life drawing sessions (for multiple years) my peers were white, the leader was and the models were. But, it seems that some folks are arm chair philosophizing about a black culture that they have no connection to and only hear of from the miles-away perspective of television troupes and media. Some of what you hear about is true, some of it isn't. The main thing is to never look at a small section of a group at stereotype the entire race. For example, if you consider rap music to be the essence of black life then you really have no idea. For example, there are 37 million blacks living in America according to Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity. Jay-Z, the king himself, the undisputed leader of hip-hop, a world wide name, husband to Beyonce, averages only 2-3 million records sold. His biggest album, where he sold 10 million albums, was his break out record back in 98 and he hasn't come close since. http://www.statisticbrain.com/jay-z-album-sale-statistics/ Rhianna has doubled his sales in half the time. You could say Rhianna has doubled sales because other demographics are buying her album and I'm not denying that but according to this PHd thesis (and well known fact) http://www.academia.edu/428185/THE_CULTURE_INDUSTRY_HIP_HOP_MUSIC_AND_THE_WHITE_PERSPECTIVE_HOW_ONE-DIMENSIONAL_REPRESENTATION_OF_HIP_HOP_MUSIC_HAS_INFLUENCED_WHITE_RACIAL_ATTITUDES Whites actually consume 80% of rap sales. So the same goes for Jay-Z's popularity. In fact, of the multiple black dominated radio stations that we pick up in Baltimore, only 1 focuses on rap music (92.Q) all the rest are R+B, Jazz, or older black music like Sam Cooke. Anyways, I'm presenting a forum for total access. You can ask any question. You can ask to see the neighborhood in which I live and I'll provide a video tour. You can ask to go inside a black person's home. You can ask when did I (as a black male) lose my virginity. ANYTHING you want as long as you are sincere. Want to know what I think are the downsides of the black culture? The upsides? The business opportunities? The legal system in a majority black city? Bear in mind that this is MY experience, on the ground, in one city. I cannot speak for all black people but hopefully I can at least expose you to more than what you may already know.

Yeah, right... White culture! Oh God... now you're going to get Jonathan going now. That fugly creature he idolizes represents his values! Greg But you gotta admit, that was FUNNY right How about this one Seriously though, it would appear that some otherwise thoughtful individuals may be suffering from a lack of on-the-ground- information about the full black community. So enough of these charts and numbers, enough of accusing people of being racist. How about I start a thread where you can ask anything you want about the life of a black person in Baltimore City. I'll provide straight answers, I'll even record a tour of city (via go pro and bicycle) I won't clean up anything or try to persuade. I'll just give as much access as I can. What do ya say?

Yeah, right... White culture!