Leaderboard

I am interested in learning strategies that publishers, self-published and others, can use to make their books visible to a wide Black readership and that could provide ways of selling their books on line, in bookstores, and hand sales. If such strategies can be developed and replicated, as well as show positive outcomes, I believe they will find many takers. I simply don't know what, if any such strategies are currently in effect.

I've learned from videos like this and in conversations here that I have to change the way I communicate with the general public on technical issues. Sharing data with graphics and charts really does not work with people unfamiliar with the domain in which you are speaking. You have to appeal to people on an emotional level. In the video Van Jones said; I know this to be true from personal experience because people have no problem saying they don’t care how much education someone has when they disagree with them. They’ll argue with climatologist easily dismissing what the scientist knows in favor of what they themselves feel. I have a talk coming up in a couple of weeks on the impact of Facebook, Google and Amazon on the web and I'm going to consider these factors when I address the audience. We'll see how it goes. In the video, also bt VOX they talk about the environmental cost of ordering online with the next day shipping. Amazon is the obvious culprit. As long as Amazon make their owners money, this behavior will never change. Amazon own the legislators and even the Washington Post who should be reporting on their activities. The only way this will change is if people change their behavior and I see little evidence of this happening.

I believe this to be true. However I have lost hope that legislative process can be a viable solution--that boats sailed long ago. Between the gerrymandering of districts, the misinformation and disinformation circulating, voter apathy, lobbyists working for the privatization of education, and the fact that wealthy people kids are getting great educations now. Is your daughter in the video? if not, it sure looks like you could have spit that child out yourself :-)

@Troy Ok finally read the article. I rarely like the leaps op-ed writers take in articles but this one is right on the money. He nailed exactly why children in the inner-city or in impoverished areas are being left behind. Educational budget cuts have chopped away at any additional exposure these children can have in an effort to become literate. Someone once asked me did I ever graduate college and if I didn't how did I as single mother manage to raise 3 college-educated daughters including one that graduated from one the top universities in the world and the other from law school... At first, I was offended because he implied that since he didn't consider me one of the "better-blacks" I was an outlier. Then I took a step back from being butthurt and realized I was an outlier due to the experiences my parents afforded me. My daughters are brilliant not in spite of their environment but because of it. My oldest daughter was born when most of people our age didn't have children. She became our mascot. And like a rag doll, all of my college friends, my mom, their moms etc took her to places that I couldn't. When I could, I took her on trips, such as to museums, art shows, dance recitals , lectures that I wanted to see or visit. For what would be the first grade, she tested into the LEAD program that New York City Public Schools offered in the 80s for the gifted and talented. Her Stanford-Binet IQ measured between 130-140. We left New York City and landed in "Byrdland" where the former Senator Robert Byrd funneled so much pork barrel money into the public schools that my girls got to participate in activities such as the very first Live from Mars where the mobile and wireless telerobot Sojourner sent back pictures of Mars in 1997. My twins were 6 years old when they attended NASA's Classroom of the Future, which was one of the JPL's satellite sites for the transmission. By the time my oldest daughter graduated high school - she was awarded a full ride scholarship to West Virginia University to study in their newly created program Forensic Science... This article is dead-on... When my children were born we lived a modest life but I gave them a wealth of experiences... In fact, I pursued a career that would allow me to give them richer experiences than their wealthier counterparts. It paid off too my middle daughter was admitted into Project Arrow (another gifted and talented program) in the 7th grade. By the time, the twins were in high school, I pursued another career that would provide them more opportunities. Whereas girls their age may have been looking for the latest club to hang out over a long weekend my daughters spent their weekends and holidays in Rome, Dubai, Tokyo and famed spots here in the U.S. In their Grammy award-winning public high school music department - they sat first chair with respective instruments, the flute and trumpet, in the School's band. All this to say, this article highlights the reasons why there's educational disparity between the haves and have-nots. Since I wasn't part of the two-parent- Martha's Vineyard in the Summer - Aspen in the Winter "better blacks" Crew...I refused to let my children suffer. So, I did one better; I sacrificed myself, took every handout and hand-up and used my talents to give my girls the world and Mars. I succeeded but If you're a single-parent with no help , working from sun up to sun down; how can you expose your children to rich experiences to broaden their knowledge base? When I went to public school we went on trips to the Hayden planetariums, Bronx zoo, Botanical gardens, Museum of Natural History, etc. By the time my first daughter entered public school, she was fortunate because only the gifted and talented classes went on field trips. Some say, street knowledge and the school of hard-knocks will help our children succeed but that's only useful if we want them to survive the streets. If we want our children to thrive, we must find a way to supplement their education with experiences that will provide a foundation for learning and critical thinking. Further, If we hope for a better education for our children we must elect legislators who will stop cutting the education budget.

Thank you Mel, but of course you'll edit to correct my typos first

@Mel Hopkins, as you said you can't know what you don't know. As someone who has also raised children into independent adulthood, all you can do is is expose them to a wide variety of things, help them to think critically and independently, and to serve as a model. If they don't discover the valuable gift(s) they were born while you are raising them, perhaps they will discover it on their own. You can't put the pressure on yourself to find this for your kids. They are their own people and ultimately have to live their own lives. The best you, and the community, can do is to create an environment is which people can achieve artistry, which I'd describe, at the risk of sound too new-agey, as finding one's bliss. The real risk, and trap, I think many people, if not most, fall into is never trying to figure out what gift they have that would allow them to achieve artistry in a pursuit they'd both enjoy and earn a living from. @Delano, do you believe Feynman was the only one aware of these problems until he reported on them? If no, that is the only point I'm making, in that you are giving Feynman too much credit. If your answer is yes, then we'll have to agree to disagree.

@Troy , I'm loving this discussion! Let's say a child today was born into the stage - BUT the discipline is unrecognizable to the rest of us.. We know what talent for singing looks like, math, even the natural sciences - but if there's a new discipline what happens to that gift? It's near impossible to nurture what we don't understand.

I think Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson were born. They were born into the stage as was Mozart, Beethoven, Ray Charles, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix, etc. There is not enough musical training in the world that could have made me in my entire 55 years of life as talented as Stevie Wonder when he was just 12 and he is BLIND! How many little boys could you have trained to do what Michael was doing when he was 10? Maybe in the field of consciousness all is possible. Speaking of consciousness, I'm reading Dick Gregory's last book. He said while meditating one time he levitated. He also said there were witnesses to this.