Actually Queenie for me it's less about debate than an exploration of the range/s of a given thought thrown out for discussion. It gives me a chance for an interogation of my own thoughts and feelings as well hopefully gaining insight into other realms I perhaps would have never found otherwise if not for another's thoughts for me to explore on the matter and vice versa. Debate is rarely on my radar screen no matter how I come across in my generally rather stilted abbreviated language skills, zero sum games don't really do much for me. I much prefer surprises and epiphanies to a paint by number canvas kit with it's lines defined and truncated end.
Debate--poor choice of words. I understand your point.
I love the fact that some among us, including you, no matter how rooted we might be in our own opinions, are curious enough about what others think, to ask questions. As Black people, our tribal affiliations today are thinly connected at best, nonexistent at worst. And just because we look alike, we know very well, the desegregation of our community resulting in our physical separation and daily indoctrination by a domineering culture, causes us to no longer think alike. So it's important to ask each other questions when we hear or read a comment that sounds foreign to us. Mind control is a powerful thing.
I applaud you for being an independent thinker. I call it free thinking, which is a concept. Reading your "testimony" gave me reason to pause, because it made me think of Carter G. Woodson's book, "The Mis-Education of the Negro," and its impact on my Black people.
“If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.”
― Carter Godwin Woodson,
The Mis-Education of the Negro
Peace and solidarity