Not necessarily, IMO. In many cases, certainly. But in some cases, opportunity/luck/fate plays the biggest role of all.

That's because you're about as old as dirt. :)

Who wouldn't be?

There are men (black, white and yellow) that preach to the younger ones that they should hate (fill in) because of things that happened to the older ones. Not warnings or cautions but demanding the young ones hate (fill in) out of duty to their elders rather than going on their own experiences. That just perpetuates hate. :(

Naw, I was thinking of some neat tools. A lot of things they invented were labor saving devices. Gee, now why do you think that was?

To spend more time fantasizing over white women. :)

:lol2: :beer:

Like what?

Like eggbeater, street mailbox, ironing board, street sweeper, pencil sharpener, dust pan, gas mask, fountain pen, golf tee, torpedo, automatic car wash, turn signals, answering machine and traffic lights.

Or how about a microcomputer system with bus control means for peripheral processing devices.
Or finding by separating the liquid red blood cells from the near solid plasma and freezing the two separately, blood could be preserved.
Or how to synthesize physostigmine for treatment of glaucoma and cortisone for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Or how to remove cataract lenses and transform eye surgery, using a laser device making the procedure more accurate.
Or an illusion transmitter which transmits by cable or electromagnetic means a three-dimensional, real-time image.

Then there's fire-extinguishing foam for gasoline and oil fires, polymer foil-electrets for microphones but most important of all BEER KEG TAPS. :)

The street letter drop mailbox with a hinged door that closed to protect the mail was invented by Philip B. Downing. Downing, an African-American inventor, patented his new device on October 27, 1891 (US Patent # 462,096).

African American, Sarah Boone, patented an improvement to the ironing board (U.S. Patent #473,653) on April 26, 1892.

Charles Brooks of Newark, New Jersey invented improvements to street sweeper trucks that he patented on March 17, 1896. His truck had revolving brushes attached to the front fender and the brushes were interchangeable with scrapers that could be used in winter for snow removal. Charles Brook also designed an improved refuse receptacle for storing the collected garbage and litter and a wheel drive for the automatic turning of the brushes and for powering a lifting mechanism for the scrapers. (See patent following page)

At first penknives were used to sharpen pencils. They got their name from the fact that they were first used to shape feather quills used as early pens. In 1828, Bernard Lassimone, a French mathematician applied for a patent (French patent #2444) on an invention to sharpen pencils. However, it was not until 1847 that Therry des Estwaux first invented the manual pencil sharpener, as we know it.

John Lee Love of Fall River, MA designed the "Love Sharpener." Love's invention was the very simple, portable pencil sharpener that many artists use. The pencil is put into the opening of the sharpener and rotated by hand, and the shavings stay inside the sharpener. Love's sharpener was patented on November 23, 1897 (U.S. Patent # 594,114).

African American inventor, Lloyd Ray, patented a new and useful improvement in dust pans. Lloyd Ray invented a device with a metal collection plate attached to a short wooden handle in which trash could be swept into, without getting one's hands dirty.

Garrett Morgan was an inventor and businessman from Cleveland, who invented a device called the Morgan safety hood and smoke protector in 1914. On July 25, 1916, Garrett Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue 32 men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. Morgan and a team of volunteers donned the new "gas masks" and went to the rescue. After the rescue, Morgan's company received requests from fire departments around the country who wished to purchase the new masks. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. Army during World War I. In 1914, Garrett Morgan was awarded a patent for a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. Two years later, a refined model of his early gas mask won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety, and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Lewis Waterman patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884. Writing instruments designed to carry their own supply of ink had existed in principle for over one hundred years before Waterman's patent. For example, the oldest known fountain pen that has survived today was designed by a Frenchmen named M. Bion and dated 1702. Peregrin Williamson, a Baltimore shoemaker, received the first American patent for a pen in 1809. John Scheffer received a British patent in 1819 for his half quill, half metal pen that he attempted to mass manufacture. John Jacob Parker patented the first self-filling fountain pen in 1831. However, early fountain pen models were plagued by ink spills and other failures that left them impractical and hard to sell.

Garrett Morgan stated in his patent for the traffic signal, "This invention relates to traffic signals, and particularly to those which are adapted to be positioned adjacent the intersection of two or more streets and are manually operable for directing the flow of traffic... In addition, my invention contemplates the provision of a signal which may be readily and cheaply manufactured."

The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This "third position" halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely.

Garrett Morgan's hand-cranked semaphore traffic management device was in use throughout North America until all manual traffic signals were replaced by the automatic red, yellow and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world. The inventor sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Shortly before his death, in 1963, Garrett Morgan was awarded a citation for his traffic signal by the United States Government.

Those were picked from an (much larger) email I received from a black friend of mine that I replied to. The whole (exactly duplicated and frequently wrong or unclear) list is frequently forwarded around the web during february, in addition to being posted in scores of places on the web.

You left a out quite a few other things as well, but more to the point is the fact that it's you and I having this conversation and not the person(s) who started the whole thing.

*golf clap*

Don't strain your arm patting yourself on the back, okay?

That's not a problem. The advantage of of being so intellectually endowed has allowed me to transcend the necessity of such self-congratulatory calisthenics.

There are some people that are intelligent, and some people that are not, but can fool people into believing that they are.

You are neither.

Opinions vary.