Leaderboard

This was fantastic event! I'm glad I was able to attend. Breathing life into a sleepy Mississippi town takes vision and lots of commitment.

It's very inspiring to see new voices show up and I hope you both continue to come to the boards and make it a part of your daily browsing habits as I have. I know we have moved off topic in a way, but it does speak to the idea of reparations and the cohesiveness of Black America that Coates is writing about something that simply will never happen and we are discussing it. Solving the problem of wealth and media information in the Black community is a fairly simple thing to do in theory. The problem is the convenience factor. Black folks simply aren't willing to give up the convenience of social media to take it upon themselves to visit 5 indie websites per day. More specifically 5 black indie websites per day and they are out there: http://huria.org/blogs/ Am I saying that visiting these blogs will fix black wealth? No, but it's a start in creating an old school webring which gives small biz people eyes on their products. The issue is then how do we convert those eyes into dollars. As Yao said you need capital, but to get capital you have to create a plan that shows how money will be generated and unfortunately Blacks do a very poor job of gathering together to build sustaining media outlets and businesses. Huffposts, Examiner, and tons of other sites work because they have pulled advertising money in due to the amount of content produced on the site by people of considerable status for free. Troy is right in stating that black people won't do this. I've attempted even in Memphis to get groups of people to write for my blog and every time those people leave or never write and start their own and within months the blog hasn't been updated and basically falls flat. That is our ultimate problem, we don't know how to sacrifice and we only want what is convenient. I mean consider how much Medium is going to IPO for, or be sold for, in the near future, or Periscope, or Meerkat. All of these platforms don't even pay for content and as we all know content is king. Facebook's platform is so easy to navigate that it becomes a seamless part of routine. Although I log in to AALBC and anytime I come back I can read or see information and then comment, I've seen other people say it's too difficult to log in and comment here. It's not hard it, it's just not as convenient as clicking the app button and scrolling through the feeds and information. So let's get back to the point of how to create platforms for the distribution of books/information that benefits Black folks. I have a website, at the bottom of that page and in the sidebar is something connected to AALBC. Since AALBC is the longest running Black purveyor of literature, I have to decided to give it prominence on my site. I also make sure to visit and share information from the site. If Troy creates a platform for us to list and sell books with a percentage of sales going to AALBC ala Amazon or Ebay, I would be willing to do that. I would also be willing to write articles or share articles from CBP on AALBC as a writer. All of these seemingly small things will drive traffic to the site. Imagine having a roster of 30 writers of influence (which I'm not) who are willing to create content for AALBC 1 day per month. Book publishers would die to have ad space on the site and the ad revenue for AALBC would increase. This would also create more eyes on content and the information would be shared between all of those networks of writers. This is just a semi solution post. There is a lot more for us to do and to discuss but I hope this kind of continues the dialogue.

Troy, We began this discussion on facebook. I appreciate your comments here. I am not sure if we are in a spiral. Where we ever what we think we were. I contest that we lack the consciousness but not the technology and capital. Facebook is a billion dollar corporation not simply a good idea. People work everyday to sync data, create algorithims, and create ways to connect with people, sell advertising slots, gain further capital, and the list goes on and on-I forgot sell data, create revenue. Karibu was poorly capitalized up until the end, highly leveraged-but with what my partner and I put in it, far more aggressive than most folks. We showed well, but it was labor intensive. In the end hundreds of thousands of people got access to back books-that's a good thing, but the personal cost was high. When the consciousness becomes important, I take it as a sign of ones own personal worth and the difficulties of competeing. You give me the capital and I can compete. Isn't that part of what Coates got at wtih reparations. How can we create strategies, invest and create models without the capital. I would agree we lack the community infrastructure to share the wealth, but that is just our path. I think content distribution is it-it will replace the bookstore. It intersects with journalism. Both industries need an overhall that is the opportunity. All of it, for me, is like a lab. I don't invest my money in it currently, I use the free platforms, watch, study and the like. It is daily rhythm and practice. Tell me a way i can direct more traffic towards you and I will.

I generally side with West, but he is confused on this point. He gives Morrison, an Obama booster, a pass and then spanks Ta-Nehesi with a dishonest appraisal. In less than 60 seconds online it is easy to demonstrate that Ta-Nehisi has, in fact, criticized Obama on several occasions. See, for example: How the Obama Administration Talks to Black Americakzs