What exactly did he say about you? What were the personal attacks? You mentioned comments about your personal appearance?

Did he do a Toure and take down the offensive comments?

Thank you for your concern for my well being. I stand corrected. You are trolling for Ryan Leslie. As if I can't conduct a Google search or read a press release. As if attending a name school and doing some work for a short time has any long-term permanent value to the collective. As if creating music with questionable or marginal appeal has anything to do with addressing the misogyny and abandonment of black males.

I suggest you read this timely post on black women who act as guard dogs for some insight into your fixation on "schooling" me instead of your client. I don't recall you revealing the professional link between Leslie and Andrews or posting his denouncement of the poor behavior displayed either.

Since it is I who was attacked I will defend myself. Of course in a normally functioning society that is the role of men to defend women but as this situation reveals far too many blacks operate outside those norms. So much so that a few disgruntled males who clearly view black women as a threat and competition overreacted to legit criticism.

Feel free to continue obfuscating though because you are digging a deeper ditch for yourself with each subsequent reply.

You need to stop the grandiose observations and inacurate accusations. It doesn't reflect well and cheapens whatever credibility you think you may have in this instance.

Please know that my intentions are not suspect. I don't know YOU or any other parties involved in a personal or professional capacity. I certainly hope you aren't implyingthat I work f or or have ANY affiliations with SXSW, BIT, the panelists, the event organizers or sponsors.

Quite frankly, I stumbled on this whole issue while surfing the net looking for general information on the show for a client of mine. I saw your information and decided to give my two cents and try to help a sister save her from HERSELF. I'm not sure of where you want to go, but be careful of the road you take. It makes all the difference. You have to pick your battles…and be strategic…in order to win the war. Especially when dealing with the digital age. This stuff has the potential to stay in the universe for perpetuity and is subjective.

Speaking of which, my take on the whole "hatred of Black women" is SO WHAT! I don't care what others think of me, it only matters that I love myself. I don't care how people perceive me, because I'm coming and I'll succeed no matter what.

I'd also like to point out (in case they didn't include his bio or state it in the session)that one of the panelists, Ryan Leslie, was accepted at Harvard at 15 and graduated at 19. He used to work for the Urban League in Boston in programs that encouraged and helped kids from underprivileged areas to go to college. He also worked on a program that helped unwed, minority mothers get their GED and coached them to higher education. Now that he is a successful music producer/artist he operates a production company that encompasses artists from all fields (writers, singers, photographers, cinematographers, bloggers, etc). He hires both interns and permanent staff for these positions.

All this to say, that you never know whom you are talking to so it's best to watch what you say, where you say it, and how the message it delivered. Makes all the difference. You never know when you will run into someone in the future.

Peace and Blessings to you.

I'm very aware of those who wish to serve as trolls for Andrews, Bowman and this mislabelled event. I suspect those who claim to be professionals and are well-compensated can figure out how to serve the communities they're leeching from without any assistance from me. I'm under no obligation to offer any more advice or critique beyond the valuable information I've already provided. Nor do I need to rely on them to have an event at SXSW or any other conference that provides vital empowering information for black women and underserved communities.

You are behaving like an Internet Ike(tte) Turner to come to this blog with the intent for offering insincere affirmation to insult and criticize. You're wasting your time. Now if you have real solutions to offer you should take them to perpetrators of slander and obfuscation not me for speaking out about it. There are standards for behavior and discourse that will be enforced. When you are ready to comply you are more than welcome to contribute.

First of all, newsflash, this is the INTERNET. It belongs to the people. Though it is your blog, ANYBODY can come up in here and have an opinion/comment…and post it. That is why you have a "submit comment" button, isn't it. Maybe I'm missing something? If you didn't like my post, all you had to do was use your admin. button and send my little post of into the trash bin. But you didn't, did you? YOU decided to post it and now you are trying to use me and my comments to make a point? I don't think so. You can save all that "DO NOT come into my blog" mess. You come across as a hypocrite and you seem to contradict your own stance. On one hand you say you had the right to state YOUR mind in the middle of a session at a conference, but you tell me "NOT TO COME INTO YOUR BLOG" and post a comment.

Second of all, nowhere in my post did I tell you, or even hint at, how you should feel, think and act. I was diplomatic and constructive and offered a possibility as to why/how things turned out the way they did. If that is how you took it, that's on you.

Third, I'm offended at your implication that I am one of those blacks that "sit back and chose to be silent". I am an professional, educated, black woman of a certain age group in America…like a lot of women out here. There is nothing you or anybody can tell me about struggle or speaking out. I buck the system EVERYDAY solely on the fact that I AM. Just because I don't get in front of folks at a conference and speak my mind, doesn't mean I don't speak out. Please believe that.

Fourth, I just don't think it's THAT serious. I don't understand how a haphazardly thrown together break out session at an entertainment/technical convention has turned into social commentary on hatred of black women and corporate conspiracy? Part of activism is not falling for the okedoke and recognizing shenanigans a mile away.

PULEEZE….as soon as I saw that session was not what I thought it would be or give me the support/information I deserved, I would have walked right on out. I wouldn't have wasted my time standing in front of the attendees/panelists giving oratory. Those are the wrong people to address such issues to anyways. The panelists are just invited by the planners and sponsors to participate and the attendees are just there to get information…just like you.

Event planners don't put roots on folks and lure them to sessions or convention activities. Participants chose to attend sessions and they are free to exit anytime. Better yet there are options for convention goers to give feedback on their experiences directly to the convention company. They even take suggestions on how they can make next year's convention better. The feedback forms/instructions are usually in the registration packet. If this isn't the case for this particular convention, it's easy enough to go on their website, get contact information and send them correspondence on how their conference was lacking.

Faith, since you have such strong input as a session participant, I'm sure you've also expressed your opinions to the convention production company and BIT directly? Or better yet, you'll be working closely with BIT for next year's conference so that everything will be more satisfactory for 2011?

Ms. Faith, I wasn't there, I'm only looking from the outside in, as I am taking all my information from your blog and his (Mr. Andrews).

I must say, while I agree with your opinions and input (I don't particularly care for P. Diddy or "Blood Diamond" Russ and I think people of color need to be uplifted and these PR campaigns disguised as social commentary in order to sell sneakers and beverages isn't the way to go), I don't think it was a good choice to stand up in a Q&A session at the conference and state your feelings on the panel(ists) and/or the content of the session. If it was a waste of time, I would've promptly left and found something else to do.

Even if the session was true to it's description, it still could have been a waste of your time as far as content and what you expected to get out of it. I've attended and have had to plan enough conferences in my career to realize that these "break-out" sessions as described in conference schedules aren't always accurate.

What PROBABLY happened in this particular instance was the convention company/convention manager(s) ran their conference schedule by the required cut-off date (location, hours, session name, etc)and the folks responsible for the actual session were scrambling at the last minute for their details/logistics (speakers, sponsors, topics, etc) and you got what you got. It's not good or bad…it just is. Hopefully, you got some kind of information and/or entertainment from the session and it wasn't a complete waste of time?

It doesn't surprise me one bit that the Q&A session was pulled from UStream. You best believe they don't want that out there in the universe. Especially since black women represent one of the fastest growing middle/upper-middle class segments of the population.

No maam……..that would not be a good look.

This is my first time posting a comment, but I have been a lurker, quietly reading for almost a year now. This SXSW conference, while I never heard about it until reading this blog, seems like something I would love to go to.

I just hope I can contribute a little more than this on future posts you make! I was just dropping through to let you know that I am reading and supporting what you do! You really encourage me with your words, and I hope you continue to do what you do! =)