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Wow! Sad to see this very professional reporter die so premature. She was a trailblazer and ultimate professional. Gwen Ifill overcame adversity and hurdles as a woman and a black American to become a principled and respected first class journalist.She will be greatly missed.

During an interview with GQ magazine Usain Bolt said something that most Black athletes don't have the guts to say. He challenged the White/Western standards of morality and social ethics by plainly and openly proclaiming that it's part of his culture to have sex with many women. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/usain-bolt-culture-asked-womanizing-article-1.2874442 I've been saying for years that MOST (not all) Black men are polygamous and it's part of our nature. It's nothing to "admit" because admission implies guilt, and this is certainly not something to be ashamed or guilty of. If anything, it's a sign of mental and physical health to be the epitome of what nature INTENDED for you to be. It's also a sign of strength and character to buck current social trends especially hypocritical ones that claim sexual "freedom" while at the same time condeming most of those who chose to exerecise it. I have MUCH respect (or in his home of Jamaica we'd say 'nuff rispec...lol) for Usain for publicly stating this. If Tiger Woods.....a well known womanizer...had done the same thing instead of trying to get married and "settle down" in an attempt to imitate his middle aged White colleagues, I would have had more respect for him now. I'm not saying that marriage itself or even monogamy is against our nature. Black people were getting married in Africa before the White race even existed. But the TYPE of marriage structure and the way men and women are expected to interact with eachother in general in Western society is the problem. It's born out of the confusion of a Western psyche that exists even among self proclaimed atheists that condemn sex as the original sin in the subconscious while proclaiming sexual freedom consciously, and since most Black men don't suffer from that subconscious guilt and thus don't have that same dichotomy of confusion....they don't understand the "inappropriateness" of polygamous sexual relationships so frowned upon among so many Whites. I've said for years that Black men need to be who WE are and we need OUR OWN standards to live by. We can't live by another man's standards and expect to be happy or successful. Happiness and success may come to SOME Black men who attempt to live by White/Western standards of morality and ethics, but not for most because much of their standards goes against our very nature as Black men.

Thanks Chris! There are already plenty of people reviewing books on Youtube, but most of these book reviewers, that I've found, are not getting many views. But FightMediocrity is quite a good channel and I'm not surprised the guy is doing well. Man, I would be happy to be a correspondent on books, but what platform would be willing to pay for this service? You are right; book videos are tough to get a lot of viewers; CSpan's BookTV, The National Book Foundation and others published youtube videos of the National Book Awards too. Even if you ignored my "viral" John Lewis video, my videos got more views because I posted them first and actively promoted them. That is really saying something because the others had teams of people shooting their videos, with high-end equipment, and produced videos of much higher quality. I was by myself, with a crappy camera, running around drinking and socializing the whole night but ultimately I was more effective. God only knows what I'd be capable of with a decent budget and staff.

My John Lewis, shown above (higher up in this conversation), has more 5,500 views in less than two days. The reason for the greater number of views that normal is that Rachel Maddow used a clip from my video on her show, and credited me. Normally this video would have had at most a couple hundred views at this point, but just that simple mention on her show increased it to thousands. She also copied me on a tweet of the video posted --blowing up my twitter account as a result :-)

Clark even through this conversation started more than six years ago, it is good to read your thoughts. Most people I've spoken to about this could care less about Bill's abuse of Denise. He is held to a different standard. This sadly is a consequence of our celebrity driven culture. When I last saw Bill about 6 years ago, he was a very elderly man. So while I won't condone you kicking his butt, I'm sure you could take him :-)

Perhaps. First, Usain is one the most successful athletes on the planet, arguably one of the most successful ever. He is also very, very, wealthy. So he has far more latitude to say what he feels, good, bad, or indifferent than most people. Second, Usain comes from the Black island of Jamaica. Unlike Tiger, Usain is 100% Black and proud of it. Tiger rejected being called "Black" and chased after white women. For this reason and more Usain is universally accepted in his country, while Tiger is not. Again, more reason for Usain to express himself and be quoted in the media, even if what is says is based upon, I suspect, limited knowledge of cultural and social anthropology. Third, the NY Daily News is a tabloid barely one step above the National Inquirer. Quoting from the NY Daily News, in an of itself, weakens your argument--and it is my local newspaper. Fourth, I read the article and you've taken quite a bit of liberty with a few Bolt quotes to assert your argument. Usain did not say he was against marriage or felt it was against Black human nature. You've taken a young, single, famous, athlete who is making full use of his ability to bang a lot of chicks--of course that is natural. Finally, I feel you about living by our own standards, but we also have to live in a culture that necessarily has normals and customs. Of course, we may not like some of these norms, but collectively adhering to them or changing them in culturally accepted ways makes it easier for people with deferent beliefs to live together. Today, there are a great many people screwing each other like rabbits here in the United States, but they keep it to themselves, excising a bit of discretion and modesty. Discretion is certainly one thing America can use a bit more of nowadays.

While I'm certain the audience for this post has long moved on I am compelled to comment. I was a teenager in the 70's who both loved Bill Withers music and Densie Nicholas acting (Room 222). When I LEARNED (perhaps via Jet or Ebony magazines and/or WWRL or WBLS) that Bill WAS BEATING on Denise I vowed to myself that I when got older and became an adult I would look for Bill and KICK HIS ASS! REAL TALK! I'm glad Bill and I never met; he probably would have whipped my ass but WE would have HAD that fight over what he did to Denise. I STILL feel ILL towards Bill over his treatment of Denise!

I just changed the topic of this conversation to: "Black Writers Dominate the 67th National Book Awards," because they did. This evening, in between classes, I began running searches on the awards ceremony just to see how well my content ranked and to comment on other sites sharing my content where appropriate. Would you believe many people believe that giving three of the four awards to Black writers is a result of "white guilt?" I actually had a version of this conversation with a white attendee last night. I simply said, "...the winning books obviously reflect a high quality of writing." Here is a typical comment in left-leaning New York Times. "Is it even possible to win a major lit award anymore without being a black male writing about the African American experience, and in particular slavery and racism? Apparently not, just as there are apparently no other worthy or noble topics in the world. The quality of these books notwithstanding, it's hard not to view all these recent wins (NBA's, Man Booker Prize, etc.) as evidence of a pervasive strain of white guilt among the liberal intelligentsia. Time to stop treating books as props...and literature as politics." Sure Black writers were absolutely over-represented at the National book awards not just this year, but last year too. Is the National Book Foundation trying to correct for previously overlooking Black writers? I seriously doubt it, but who knows? Besides, this is not the first time three Black writes won the award. Back in 1983 Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, and Joyce Carol Thomas won National Book Awards. But let's for argument sake, say the National Book Foundation is indeed giving conspiring to give awards to Black writers to make up for the years they were overlooked. Is that even possible? How long would it take? Below is a chart which breaks down the number of Black winners since the award was launched. I attended the last four National Book Awards. In those four years, seven Black writers won the award. To put that in perspective: The award has been given for 57 years, it took 42 years before 7 Black writers won! It took another 20 years before another seven author were given the honor. Even before I ran the numbers, I was fairly confident that Black writers were historically underrepresented. Of course, this lack of recognition can not be attributed to a lack of talent. Many great writers who never won, Baldwin, Hughes, Wright, Morrison and on. Obviously, the doors to mainstream publishing were closed to all but a few talented Black writers. Indeed it has been illegal for us to even read the majority of the time we've been here. How many great writers did we miss out on because Black people were systematically prevented from being educated let alone being published? How many potentially great writers are lost, in 2016, because they aren't being educated? Today, when a handful of our best writers are finally being recognized, why can't it just be for pure talent? Why does "white guilt" have to be part of the mix? Racism reveals itself in the strangest places... If the Trump election tells us anything, it tells us who we really are as a nation. Comments like the one that I posted from the New York Times above just reinforces what we, in the Black community already know. Of course, Larry Wilmore's joke about the book awards being hosted by BET, was probably not funny to many in the audience last night and probably exacerbated some ill sentiment. But Larry called President Obama "my nigga" in a room full of white folks, so you know he'll say anything, at any time, in front of anyone. I commend the National Book Foundation for providing a platform which is not afraid to recognize Black talent, obviously doing so generated some criticism.

Miss you @Xeon, where you hangin' out these days?