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Zaji Absolutely science has become the new religion in the West! Most organized religions require people to have BLIND FAITH and to accept things based on hand-me-down knowledge instead of directly investigating things for themselves and coming to their own conclusions. And the science that is practiced in the West is the exact same way! Infact, if you don't believe in the THEORY of evolution in most scientific circles, you are usually ridiculed and everything else you have to offer is dismissed. Which is the same bullying tactic that most organized religions engage in.

From the article which appears in The Atlantic: “Indeed, the FBI’s war against black bookstores represents a sad chapter in the history of law enforcement in the U.S., a time when federal agents dispensed with all notions of freedom of speech as they targeted black entrepreneurs and their customers for buying and selling literature they deemed politically subversive.” Of course this is just one part of a multifaceted campaign to crush the Black community. Growing up in the 'hood we saw this assault first hand. The article mentions Una Mulzac's store in Harlem. Una was still running the store even after I started AALBC.com. The article actually doesn't do justice to the stuff she and other booksellers had to endure.... What I would really like to know is why aren't Black publications writing these articles? It really is an amazing feat for Black people to have done as well as we have given the historical and ongoing attacks against us and our institutions. Fortunately there are actually positive signs for the Black Book world. I added more bookstores to my database in 2017 than any year previously. Shoot, it may have been the first year there was a net increase in the number of independent bookstores since the late 1990's.

Does that mean Christians can't be mathematicians? Since reliqion and science are incompatible Isaac Newton was the last Magician/Scientist or it became less popular to openly be both. Do you realise how wrong you are. I'll give you some time to see if you can work it out.

Yes which is why drugs and alcohol are popular. "Reality Is For People That Can't Handle Drugs Group" David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest pg 707

The amount of time you spent asking the question is more than the time it would have taken to find the answer. Didn't you create your own search engine. Tedie had an astrologer give a talk and it wasn't banned. Isn't Ted suppose to discuss ideas. They could have chosen to refute some of his points. I don't agree with all of his points. Yet his position raises am interesting question about science or rather scientists. It's interesting that Zahir understands my point yet you do not. Why do you suppose that's the case.

Captain obvious (@Pioneer1) of course phenotypic differences are genetically based no one disputed that, why are you trying to make it a point of contention? Bottom line, you understand race is an artificial construct with no basis in genetics and that there is only one human race What else is there to discuss?

Sorry @Delano, I'm not going to jump on the Black Panther lovefest until I've actually seen the film. Why on Earth would you say I have "no love" for the film? Looks just because I'm not creaming my pants over a movie like the masses seem to be as reflected on social media -- which is a distortion of reality. The truth is I don't get that excited about ANY movie. As Cynique described, it is "escape entertainment," an action flick -- lets keep things in perspective. This will not change the world. It is entertainment pure and simple. It is designed and created to make money. Del did you see the film before you wrote all of this?

What?! Your categorization of science is completely wrong @Pioneer1. Science, unlike the world's great religions, would change a belief tomorrow if new information was presented that proved the current belief false. Indeed, it is often religion that holds science back, even killing people for speaking the truth because it conflicts with religious doctrine. This practice continues to this day. I'd even argue that religion holds back spirituality.

"It's a film with Black Female warriors. The Tech nerd is a woman. The bad guys are white and their leader is black. " Beth. How often are any one of those elements in a film. You can criticise the film. The villain is noble and heroic. Yes it is a movie. But it is making Black people very visible and it's a compelling story. So despite all of its flaws it's is a compelling piece of social commentary. Did you know the character predated the Black Panther movement.

　 Zaji Much of Socialism/Communism actually comes from Black systems of living if one looks at them closely. But bastardized. TERRIBLY bastardized by those who thought they could co-opt it without consequence. Just like most of these organized religions....lol. They take bits and pieces of ancient African philosophy and culture and run off with it half-cocked without a full understanding of them and invent oppressive belief systems with very little spiritual value and a lot of empty rituals that they have to continue to revise with each generation. As far as an ideal economic system....for me, a health MIX would be best. For example, when it comes to basic necessities that people must have to live and function normaly in society like health-care and housing....I think these things are best SOCIALIZED and controled by the COMMUNITY so that everyone gets something. But when it comes to things like entertainment or inventing new machines, I prefer a more free enterprise based system where people are directly rewarded for their talents and efforts. Having worked with and around Black people for so long, I know that in order to get the best out of most of our people there must be a REWARD or PUNISHMENT tied directly to the deed. Too many of our people have a "lazy streak" in them that is only exacerbated when they see people around them working...lol. People often point to Mexicans or Chinese and how 8 or 9 of them can all live in one house, work, and pool their money together to purchase a businesss and get rich; and ask why can't Black people do the same thing. Lol......would you like to know the reason I give them for why we don't?

It might be a movie put out for catharsis purposes. The POWERFUL will put out a film for those who are POWERLESS in this society to live out their fantasies on film as a way of satisfying them INSTEAD OF actually giving them opportunities to improve themselves in real life.

A Black story, predominately Black cast and Black director and writer. And it is the hottest movie out, and it is ringing the register. This is historic i read Cynique's link. yeah the movie has some societal issues. But it is worthy of discussion. Look at the range of characters. The tech head , the warriors, revolutinary, killers, theives. Yet they are undeniably black without being sterotypical. Black peope posting their exuberance and disdain. Man this is like Obama but with a better ending.

　 Troy It is fascinating to see how malleable your thought process is. Rather that just concede that you now agree with what I've been saying all along you have the balls to write; "The fact is, race is a CONCEPT.....an idea" and make it seem like you are making a revelation?! Man what are you talking about? Since day one I have AGREED with you that race was a human construct! Infact, if you look at the FIRST PAGE OF THIS VERY THREAD I all abut said this very thing when I told you: "Just because it's a human construct, doesn't mean it doesn't exist." https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/4850-actually-troy/?page=1 　 I've NEVER denied that the concept of race was a human construct. So are the concepts of "sex" and "gender". I said that race was a way of CATEGORIZING PEOPLE and all categories are human constructs. At any rate, given that statement, one you've seemly integrated, unconsciously, that idea that race is just an idea without basis in genetics. Again, I've NEVER denied that race was a human construct. What I said WAS NOT a "human construct" were the PHENOTYPICAL FEATURES (skin color, eye color, hair color and texture, nose/lip shape) that the racial categories are based upon. Those are physical genetically based features. Just like SEX is a human construct, but the PENIS and VAGINA that the construct of sex is based upon is NOT. I also told you that just because something is a human construct, doesn't mean it has no validity. Literacy is a human construct.....but it's valid and useful. Counting is a human construct....but it's valid and useful. Medicine and health care are human constructs.....but they are valid and useful. Cynique This is yet another example of how you CHANGE your position just to oppose me, lol. We know that you AGREE with my idea that various races exist....yet you pretend that you're agreeing with Troy.

Thank you for clarifying that, Zaji. @Troy is that clear to you now. I would believe it that's your modus operandi.

@Troy. Actually, it seemed he was merely repeating the title of the video itself (but much later). When I first saw the post, I watched the video immediately and saw the title where it said it was banned. At that point, he had made no comment on whether it was banned. He didn't need to. The title of the video itself said it all. So I went about looking it up to see if it was banned and found the information about it being taken down on TED's own website. I did that research on my own. AFTER I read the information on TED's website about them banning it (or as they put it, removal from the main area), I saw him begin noting that it was censorship. At least for me, he did not state it was censorship PRIOR to ME finding the information on my own on TED's website. Once again, I researched because of the title of the video, NOT because of anything @Delano wrote.

Troy you are the first person to mention it was banned. I posted it but I didn't mention it was banned. I also stated I hadn't watched it yet. @Troy Zahir and Mel both commented on the link. So it should be pretty easy to find.

I dunno if I was 30 years younger I would probably get excited about this flick, but to me it is just another superhero movie with video game action and the same story written to appeal to teen age boys... I also resist, by my very nature, the herd mentality exhibited by Black folks in seeing this movie. I feel manipulated, by the people who are making the real money from this film. @Cynique, I understand the sentiment (and will read the article after I see the film), but all this does is serve to divide Black people. I will however say the people are gorgeous, and the visuals are quite appealing. I do plan to see the film, probably this evening, so I'll have more to say later.

The following quote was from the article, “How Google may be jeopardizing African-American literature websites”; which was published yesterday on the The Outline website: Ouch! The author of the article, wrote what I thought was an important article on a subject that has gotten virtually no coverage outside of what I have written, so despite the scathing critique, that I've shared above, I'm glad the article was written. However, the paragraph, quoted above, was over the top. The site does not look like it was developed in the late 1990's indeed none of the technologies the site deployed were available in the 1990. Now I'd accept the site looks like something from late 2000's which is why I'm engaged in a website upgrade. The site is sprawing and has well over 15,000 pages, but that is stated as if it is a disadvantage and opposed to being an good thing. With the exception of the sites homepages (homepage, and other main section pages), the typical page on the site is not busy-- certainly not as busy as many other content websites. I plan to residesign all of the main pages because they are busy, but the vast majority of pages on the site are fine, in my opinion, and I will not me change their design as part of this upgrade. I actually pride myself on the internal linking of web pages. I think it is a benefit of the site, and how the web is designed to work. I will not cut out internal linking of pages--that is a strange comment to make especially when using the word "zillions." It is just hyperbolic. I agree the menu is has more links that it should and I already know how I'm going to address that issue and it will also simplify how the site is organized to visitors. I do sell books directly (drop shipped by Ingram) and also though Amazon, B&N, and other affiliate programs — AALBC.com is not just an Amazon affiliate site. I also send readers to the author’s website or to the publishes website. All of the buy links for Black Classic Press and Just Us Book send readers to the publishers websites. How I sell books depends upon the book. I’m actually growing the direct to author/publisher websites to combat Amazon’s dominance. Finally, the majority of book descriptions are the same ones most booksellers use; they are provided by the publisher. If the writer looked or was familiar with how book sites typically work she'd know this. B&N, Amazon, Google, and I often use the same book descriptions. If any keyword stuffing is done, it is done by the publisher, in the copy they provide to booksellers. But keyword stuffing on the publisher’s part seems unlikely. I have never engaged in in keyword stuffing (the practice of using specific word in copy, more than you would normally to rank better in search). I did ask to author to provide me with an example of this to better understand how she came with this idea. Other than book descriptions, Kam's articles are the only "syndicated" content that AALBC has ever used, and I actually had to stop using Kam's articles because of Google penalties (I know one publisher of Kam's content who deleted almost 2,000 of Kam's articles. i refused to remove content that I have paid for and that was published legitimately -- I don't care what Google says). ALL the rest of AALBC.com content, articles, lists, reviews, etc is unique. So while I do not say that Kam's film reviews are syndicated, they are such a small portion of AALBC.com, to use this as a critique for the site overall is extreme. At the end of the day, Google is indeed using it's dominance in search to redirect traffic from book websites to their own book store and content they have copied from Wikipedia, Goodreads and other websites. This has prevented many website from succeeding, hobbled the efforts of the sites that remain (including AALBC.com), and have essentially prevented any new one from launching -- which is the point of the article. The issue is much larger than AALBC.com or any individual site, so despite the factually inaccurate smackdown of AALBC.com the fundamental issues raised in the article needs to be addressed and are worthy of broader attention, something I think the article will help accomplish. I thanked the author of the article, Adrianne Jeffries, for bringing additional attention to this issue. Of course I pointed out the issues I had with her critique of the site .

Thanks for the voice of reason @Bill. The 90's comment was really over the top, but as you wrote the article itself did address an important subject. I do need to address the way the site is organized to help people appreciate amount of information that is contained here, and that is the final stage of the redesign. My blog is actually sporting the new look: https://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2018/01/23/mantle-proudly-publishes-authors-shithole-countries/

The "90s" comment forwards a wrong-headed perspective, casting web style as trendy, like clothing style. If newer functionality is missing, complaint about the missing functionality is legit; but date references are just vacuous & snide. Beside the unmanageable effort of writing your own text, using the author/publisher text offers a preferred neutrality. Users often don't care whether a site has 15, 15K, or 15M pages -- only whether we can easily reach what we want. Dynamic database-generated pages make the idea of "page count" obsolete anyhow. E.g., "How many pages does Amazon have?" ... and "busy"??? ... has Ms. Jeffries seen an Amazon page? By comparison, AALBC pages are relatively minimalist. (if not as structurally polished) "Websites like AALBC also would never have been viable businesses without Google to send new visitors their way." Really? ... maybe without any search engine ... but Lycos/HotBot/AltaVista, etc preceded Google, and might have routed queries for "African American book" to AALBC using their algorithms. I've only used a fraction of AALBC.com, but the community support is unparalleled, and I found the site mechanisms rich & intuitive. AALBC comments notwithstanding, Ms. Jeffries' (re)report of Google algorithms amplifying false content partially mitigates the other sins. Thanks for linking it here.

LOL!!!!! I gotta make sure I'm checking in more. I didn't even realize you shared this Troy. Thanks as always. Mel, stop being goofy, lol. I was actually in my feelings about it. The Jelly Beans are flavored like Krispy Kreme donuts.