You wrote:

"Me thinks thou doth protest too much." If her statement does not speak to your conscience, then ignore it. I live in LA and I used to think those relationships were the result of environment, LA-LA land being so Hollywood and all. B.K. however, lives on the East Coast, a part of the US much more amenable to the cultivation African, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American relationships. I know, I once lived there. That she has observed a noticeable trend among East coast Rastas only lends credibility to her contention.

Please don’t be biased … I can’t ignore any poisonous statement that is nakedly directed at me, whether or not it “does not speak” to my conscience. I live in Germany, not in Texas where Kelani currently lives, not in Los Angeles where you are. Clearly Texas is not Germany, and what is American is not international. Having lived in Germany before as she claims, which I believe, Bantu Kelani -- (and including you living in L.A.) -- should know that difference.

You wrote:

“I can accept inconsistency, and human frailty, but there is also some incongruity in the apparent inaccessibility of African females, even for an affair or one night stand, and the apparent accessiblility of European females in such judicious society.

I think I know what you’re referring to there, but does Bantu understand what you mean there? I don’t think she would be able, but she keeps writing to me about “Congolese women who are dating other Congolese” as her example, as if I were to ‘go after them’ … If she’s had enough ‘experience’ living abroad, as an Afrikan, which I think she’s had, Bantu knows very well that most Afrikans living abroad/overseas date their fellow countrymen/-women in their clique, except they date/marry someone from an entirely non-black or non-Afrikan background. In such “cliques”, the men usually act as “overseers” of their women, which I could never be a party to: This mentality is perhaps right for those involved, but how does it impact on the general Afrikan identity/mentality, or on OTHER Afrikans generally? Whereas it is of course not impossible for an Afrikan (living overseas) to date fellow Afrikans from other Afrikan countries -- and I have witnessed that before -- it is no guarantee that one can ‘find’ that love being searched, anywhere … Bantu knows this, but she still seems to insist about those “Congolese women married to other Congolese”, as if to tell me that a single, non-Congolese Rastaman living in Germany can even be party to that.

There is also a BIG LANGUAGE FACTOR that many people overlook (and many Congolese here don’t even speak English or German, but only Lingala and French; whereas I don’t speak French or Lingala, but am fluent in both English and German.

You’re right: It is of course easier -- at least HERE where I live -- to date a white female than a black or an Afrikan one, simply because there aren’t ENOUGH black women here … This has nothing necessarily to do with someone PREFERRING a white to a black woman, [and it has been like that with me over the years in my own personal case], but it’s just the way things are. Period! That’s the issue I was putting forward when I wrote about a “geographical factor”, but instead of understanding the point I was putting across, or showing a desire to reason further, Bantu castigates my living here in a very arrogant tone, as if saying I am here only because of white women. This is not only silly, but annoying, yes, because what is she doing in the USA, anyway, when the Yankees are the very people who pulled all those strings to control the puppet we know as Mobutu, the very people that raped her country? Hers was misguided & misdirected anger against me for “chasing after white women”, and my daughter is just a scapegoat there …

Further: I didn’t mention my daughter for no reason. There are many reasons for that …: You can go through the posts again, read between the lines (where you have to), and I hope it will be clear to you. Perhaps there are also other factors that you don’t know about, since I’m reading about you the first time today (without assuming you are new to the forum). Yes, I referred to my daughter, as Kelani referred to her boy-friend, but no-one should write back to me in such hateful language implying that my daughter has no right to exist, or that I would be better off ‘forgetting’ about her. And all such harsh words coming from a woman, … it’s hard for me to understand. Or to accept. No! That’s where we differ, because my daughter is still my own, regardless of her race, regardless of what colour her mum is, and regardless of whether any “pro-black Blacks” accept her or not. Also, I can seriously accept anyone castigating Rastas ‘going after white women’ for PURELY RACIAL/economic REASONS if that person also shows the same repugnance for black women marrying across the race-line for PURELY RACIAL/economic REASONS.

To try and excuse ALL black women who inter-marry becomes unfair if the person doing the blame (i.e. on the men) is NOT ready to listen to the reasons an Afrikan or a Rasta guy in a past/current interracial relationship may have. I call that: HATRED!

Take it or leave it, but there are no black women here where I live, in fact very, very few in Germany compared to there! Just an example.

The world is large.