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Well, I might be a little psychic because when I engage with a person for any length on line, their true persona begins to transcend their words as I read between the lines. I just pick up on certain things, that are said or that aren't said. People give themselves away and don't know it. Their style of expressing themselves takes on an attitude. The only thing anybody from this forum might be surprised about upon meeting me is my demeanor, Although 82, I am neither feeble nor sedate. And I have, after all, shared a lot of my personal philosophy as well as my life history on this board (much to the indignation of Sara who inadvertently revealed a lot about herself in her posts). My cyber personality would be different only in that I would bite my tongue a little more in person because I don't want anybody to go upside my head. People often tell me that I write just like I talk and I think I do because I write in a conversational tone. Contrary to what some might hope, deep down inside I am not really a sweeet person. Troy was exactly as I expected him to be. He and I have often clashed about things so I know both his mild and aggressive side. I know his pet peeves and his passions. And we fell into an easy conversation right away, quickly finding things to snicker about. I found it amusing that he kept saying I looked just like my picture. How about that? Troy and I didn't spend any more than about 10 minutes together because since there was no controversial topic to discuss, we pretty much said everything the moment called for. After meeting and greeting and bidding our fond farewells, me and my daughter split because we were in "Chiraq" after dark and didn't want to get caught in any crossfire. LOL. We even took an alternate route home because the expressway we usually take has had 12 drive-by shootings in the past 2 months. So we hopped into the Range Rover and got the hell outta Dodge. Mission accomplished. I met my good buddy, Troy Johnson, in person.

This article was written by a Brother I met at the Black Pack Party this week. Is Black Success Possible without White Infrastructure? by Dr. Obari Adéye Cartman I decided to go the “all Black everything” route last year when I published my book. In the text I encourage us to do for self, so it felt hypocritical to let Amazon make money while I advocate Kujichagulia. I had a vision of becoming a model for large-scale collectively sustained Black success. It was unsettling trying to think examples and only coming up with Marcus Garvey and Tulsa from decades ago and Tyler Perry today. Independent black bookstores are barely surviving, so I dreamed of doing my part by creating a demand for my work to then say ‘you can only buy it from a Black owned bookstore’. Which still sounds good, but I’m starting to have some doubts. Now y'all know this brother is singing my song. When I was setting up his pages on this site, I noticed his book, despite having an ISBN was not in any of the major retailer websites. I inquired about this and he sent me a link to his article. I was like whoa! I'm completely down with this--I just did not know. So I asked him for a direct to his book. Interestingly, I'm increasingly have conversations with publishers and indie authors who are interested in selling books directly--completely cutting Amazon out of the picture. I think this is a great trend, as Amazon OWNS the Black book retail business and this is impoverishing black business, and not serving the reader very well. The other benefit is that with Amazon out of the picture the author will make more money and the reader will pay less for the book. The example I shared about Dante Lee's book is a perfect example. But the trick is, getting the reader to buy the book on a platform other than Amazon. This will require a seismic shift in attitude among readers, but with enough promotion on the reasons why this matters I think it can be done. Dante was able to address the issue of getting reader buy by directly from him with by setting a very low price. This works for the type of book he was selling; a very short ebook. But for a physical full-length book, the model may not hold, but it is something we are wrestling with, and we are open to ideas. Below is a photo of Dr. Obari Cartman and a few other "Book" brothers at the Black Pack party; from left to right (front) myself, Obarl Cartman, (rear) Kwame Alexander (Newbery Medal Winner and Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winning author), Earl Sewell (bestselling author), and Earl Cox (publishing consultant).

If the writer does not rely on writing to make a living then they can pull off doing this. I should actually do something like this considering I don't place much of an emphasis on my books. I could easily switch the production of the book to a Black printing press and carry the books on my site only. Since the books are something I really love, but I don't see becoming as profitable as my sneaker biz, I made a choice to take a hands off approach and place the book where I assume readers are. Which limits the time I have to invest in finding readers. I guess if I was still an academic, I would place the energy into my website and book signings since this would be the natural progression in being a professor. I definitely commend the Dr. for attempting this. I look forward to a report on the short term and long term results. Good luck Dr. Cartman.

Here is another Brother, J. Marcellus Burke, I met during our annual Black Pack Party. He wrote what sounds like an interesting novel, The Black Knights. Which is fact based story about four fighter pilots serving in the German Air Force (Lufwaffe). His publisher, Bennett Johnson, who was also at the party (shown in the photo with me below) has an even more impressive resume. Bennett was Vice President of the Third World Press Foundation, President of the Evanston Branch of the NAACP and much much more. These brothers are both well into their 80's and still gettin' it in!

No Cynique you did not strike me as elderly in the least. I too appreciated that the situation my not present itself again so i cherished the moment even more. I went on about how you look like yourself, because you did. I see A LOT of photos of folks, meet them in person, and wonder who was in the photos they release Well next time you are in the 'hood check out a restaurant called Peaches. It is not much to look at, but they have an excellent breakfast I'm not checkout the duck bacon and the biscuits.

thanks for the share troy! what are some black online shopping sites that you'd recommend me looking into? the only one I knew of was webuyblack.com. theblackmall.com is currently just a directory, but the owner said will be moving into eCommerce in a month or so.

"Tapped" me on my back?! I was talking to someone and I felt someone punch me in my back. My immediate reaction is that this person better know me. So I turned around and it @Cynique in the flesh. Cynique, in an ideal world we could have taken more time to actually have a conversation. Seeing you was like meeting a celebrity. A celebrity whose career you may have followed and taken a photograph with, but getting to know someone takes time and I think it has to be in person. The interesting thing about getting to know someone on these forums versus real life is that (at least for me), is that I tend to be more honest here. I'll express views and opinion here that I would keep to myself at a cocktail party. Here I'm less filtered, so I'm probably more likable in real life But which one is the real me. I think if you know me both here and in the real world you probably know me better than most. Lurkers may fall into that catergory, but hardly anyone you actively posts does. @Delano (who i actually went to business school with in the early 90's) falls into the category of both. I first met him in 1991 when we both were constants in the PC lab. But I have not seen him in about 10 years so we have moved from physical to virtual. Choosing between the two; physical trumps virtual. But when there is no other choice virtual is better than nothing. Our culture seems to behave as if virtual relationships are better than physical ones, given the huge amount of time we invest, in corporate curated, virtual relationships. Corporate control of the relationship is one of the reason's I've optioned out of using social media for personal reasons; social media imposes which greatly distort who we really are. I actually started to dislike people in the social media world that I actually liked in the real world! So if someone who I actually know, warts and all, in the real world, is seemingly constantly boasting about how great wife, children, lives are; they seem phony and disingenuous to me. But then I realized it is not them; it is the way social media works, so rather than disliking people I otherwise like, I try my best to ignore what I see, or like hit the like button and keep it moving.