“You don’t like your authority questioned. Do you, Allan? Partypup is right along with your line of thinking on this topic. There’s something about partypup that doesn’t sit right with me. I think she’s a “sell-out”. That may be harsh, but that’s my opinion. My assessment of her stands, her posts were a bit emotional, shall I say. However, I have and do acknowledge some worthwhile points within the tirade.”

Good Lord, Marion. I am so loathe to re-enter this painful exchange. I have monitored it, expecting that at some point the discussion would return to the original topic that I posted. In case you hadn’t noticed, I had quietly exited the exchange, hoping that it would rob you of the energy you require to keep spewing ad hominems at me. But it was a fruitless effort, as you continued to cast aspersions at me even when I was no longer corresponding with you, remarking to another poster that I “rub” you the wrong way and that I am a “sell out”. It seems you are only happiest when others are *attacking* you and picking on you and disagreeing with you. When they simply stop engaging you, you continue to jab at them, hoping your provocations will bring them back into the fight. And so I resisted the urge to respond, as I knew that a response would bring you joy that you did not deserve.

But alas, I can resist no more. I must admit that curiosity (along with the desire to see you engage in mental gymnastics) has now gotten the better of me. I am simply dying to know how and why I am a “sell-out”. What am I “selling-out” to? What, on the other hand, would constitute “selling in?” Your explantion should be entertaining, if nothing else.

Just to be clear: is it your position that am I “selling out” because I do not blindly support all black leaders and celebrities? If so, are you not equally as offended by the fact that Obama has “sold out” to (a) private interest groups such as nuclear lobbyists for Exelon and (b) Bush and the GOP by supporting warrantless wiretapping under FISA? Or, since you admit your knowledge of politics is not what it should be, perhaps you aren’t even aware that the man you so vigorously support and defend has spent his brief political career “selling out” and compromising?

And yet, rather than focus on the public figure for whom there is ample evidence of “selling out”, you choose to slap that label upon me — with no knowledge whatsoever of who I am.

Marion, you know absolutely nothing about me except that I am black, female, a lawyer, and that I disagree with you. You have no idea what causes I am committed to. You have no evidence or proof whatsoever that I have behaved in a way that goes against or contradicts core values that I have or SHOULD have.

I suspect that what “doesn’t sit right with you” is that I simply don’t agree with you and that I am a black person who does not think the way black people *should* think. Well, here’s a newsflash for someone who supposedly doesn’t believe in stereotypes: black people are not monolithic. We aren’t all Democrats. Some are Republican. And then, some (like me) choose to go their own way, think for themselves based on all the facts and evidence at their disposal, and forge their own opinion that is not tied to a particular party.

I believe little of what I see and read in the media, and forty-two years of life experience has shown me that common sense is not necessarily common. I was a huge fan of Thurgood Marshall. Clarence Thomas, by contrast, disgusts me. I think Bill Cosby is a fine role model for blacks. I think O.J. Simpson was a self-hating black man who shrewdly manipulated the deep-seated racism of blacks to his own advantage in securing an acquittal. Black people, like people of ANY skin color, come in a variety of flavors: good, bad, untrustworthy, faithful, proud, self-loathing, heroic, cowardly, hard-working, lazy, smart, and dumb as crap.

THAT’S what I believe. And if having those beliefs makes me a sell-out, well then, sister, I will wear that label proudly. Deal with it.

There is an old adage: five percent of people make things happen; ten percent of people watch what happens; the rest of the people wonder what the hell happened. You have proven without question that you fall into the last category.