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Tempus is fugiting. And before we know it, election day will be here and that bad ol Donald Trump will be ousted and Democracy will be restored and gas prices and grocery bills will plummet and the Economy will skyrocket and everybody will be able to afford to be sick. Black folks? They can all come out of hiding .God will be in his heaven and all will be right in the world... Or - maybe not. Hope all you optimists have a Plan B.

Back in my teens and 20s, I wouldn't have believed that I would feel so obliged or dedicated to people I wasn't related to or something I wasn't getting paid to do. But as we know, things and often attitudes and mentalities change with time. Now if I spend an extended amount of time away from AALBC whether it's a few days, a few weeks, or a couple months.....I feel OBLIGATED to go back and as best I can respond to all posts directed at me or about me. And also, if time permits....address posts that grab my interest even if they weren't directed at me. And it appears that most of you seem to feel the same way. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ And by the way let me thank @Troy for providing this space for us to do so. It's been a while since I sent a token of my appreciation because I've had new personal obligations to focus my resources on these past few years, but your treasures are building up. Trust me _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I suppose it's just human nature; however knowing this makes me feel good, proud, and hopeful. Why? It shows me that there are certain feelings, emotions, and drives that are just innate in human nature that guarantees that no human society will degrade down past a certain level. We will never get so selfish and individualistic AS A COMMUNITY where we simply ignore eachother and focus on our own issues and promotions. Some will, but the vast majority will not. There are certain ways we relate to other human beings that seem to be "in" us; ingrained in our psyche. These are the traits a progressive well functioning society should be built on and modeled after. Characteristics that agree with basic human nature.

As part of the AALBC upgrade, I have to move to a dedicated server. The shared environment I current run on is not allowing to add the features I'd like to add and to make aalbc.com a truly world class website. This discussion forum may experience a brief outage (hours not days). It is also possible some posts may be lost depending upon when you make them. So please do not share anything you do not want to lose until I give the all-clear. Finally, I will probably migrate to newer discussion forum software (...ugh, I know). The problem with this software is that they are pushing upgrades to a cloud-based solution which is much more expensive. I'm basically broke; so, I (1) can't afford the software and (2) I don't think it is worth it. There are better solutions that I can more easily integrate with aalbc.com and I will pursue one of those. I'm open to suggestions. This software will remain in place, but I will probably lock down the discussion forums and encourage people to begin using whatever new platform I launch. I believe this is the best chance for increasing the number of engaged active users of the site and ultimately building something that someone else or another team and actually maintain after I'm gone. (Sidebar: in the longer term I doubt websites will continue to be a thing, but there will always be a need for to Black-operated and owned platforms we Black people communicate and curate out culture we can't leave this up to Elon and Mark).

UN backs resolution calling slave trade ‘gravest crime against humanity’ RFI Thu, March 26, 2026 at 4:08 AM EDT 2 min read A memorial sculpture by Sandrine Plante-Rougeol in Bordeaux, a historic slave-trading port, where the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade remains central to debates on recognition and reparations. (AFP - GEORGES GOBET)More The resolution – proposed by Ghana – was adopted to applause by a vote of 123 in favour. The United States, Israel and Argentina opposed the measure. There were 52 abstentions, including the UK and all 27 members of the EU. Ghana's President John Mahama, one of the African Union's most vocal supporters of slavery reparations, was at the UN headquarters in New York to support the vote. "Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice," said Mahama. "The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting." Transatlantic cruise to turn spotlight on Brazil-Angola slavery past Despite being non-binding, the resolution goes beyond simple acknowledgment and asks nations involved in the slave trade to engage in restorative justice. It also highlights the legacy of slavery via "the persistence of racial discrimination and neo-colonialism" in today's society. "The transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families, and devastated communities," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "To justify the unjustifiable, slavery's proponents and beneficiaries constructed a racist ideology -- turning prejudice into a pseudoscience." During discussions over the resolution, US ambassador Dan Negrea said the text was highly problematic. "The US also does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred." He added: "The US also strongly objects to the resolution's attempt to rank crimes against humanity in any type of hierarchy." The UK and EU countries put forth similar arguments while acknowledging the wrongs of slavery. "The resolution risks pitting historical tragedies against each other that should not be compared, except at the expense of the memory of the victims," said French representative Sylvain Fournel. Heroes who fought to abolish slavery honoured in Paris Pantheon expo For African Union officials, the language of the resolution is central to its purpose. Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah, the AU’s Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Development, said clearly naming these events removes any lingering ambiguity about their nature. “It is to say that what was done to Africans was not a tragic accident of history, but the result of deliberate policies whose legacies structure today’s inequalities,” she said. “Justice begins with calling things by their proper names.” Beyond recognition, the resolution encourages countries historically involved in the slave trade to engage in processes of restorative justice. Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has been explicit about what that could entail. “The perpetrators of the transatlantic slave trade are known – the Europeans, the United States of America,” he told reporters. “We expect all of them to formally apologise to Africa and to all people of African descent.” He pointed to the return of looted cultural artefacts as one possible step, alongside continued efforts to dismantle structural racism and, potentially, financial compensation for affected communities.

@Troy....thanks again for everything you're doing to maintain this site.

Abolish the need for Visas to cross International Borders.....Advocate for the Right To freely Travel the Globe as a Basic and Foundamental Human Right. Travel is Education

The great experiment that is the United States of America (USA) even in its relative youth as a 250-year old nation has studied the history of empires...their rise & fall. The *smartest* thing the USA did was allowing people from all of the planet to come & live in this country. Though its institutions, the USA has tapped into the best & brightest minds from around the world. Through its power of money & influence & military strength, the USA has become the leading super power in the world. There is no other country on the planet to which more people immigrate. I don't believe the USA will implode or self-destruct under the weight of its own largesse. Nor will disputes & bickering among disparate groups of people (tribes) derail the USA either. I believe it will take an act of of the universe i.e. series of natural disasters to dismantle &/or destroy the USA. There's always the remote possibility that white people will get fed up with each other & start firing off those nuclear bombs. Of course, going nuclear means game over for humanity as we know.

Impressive word usage there. Let me know how much you'd charge to write my posts.

We are going toward the "light" aka the longest day of the year. Wouldn't it be reaffirming if America reversed its course and the current powers-that-be dissipated and were blown away by solar winds! What say you, Delano and Chevdov?? 🗯

In the mean time, silky-voiced Nat Cole, a Chicago product, enjoyed tremendous popularity among his own people. He put out a lot of single 78 vinyl records in the '50s as I recall, and they were all hits! We loved us some Nat "King" Cole. Back in the day, a lot of - perish the thought - colorist negro women used to pay him the left-handed compliment by declaring that "the only thing they liked black were Cadillacs and Nat Cole". To this day, like one of his best sellers, he remains "Unforgettable".

The Best way to destroy colorism is through Education Create systems that promote celebrate and reward all skin tones hues and shades... Accentuate the positive and ignore or confront the negative..... Saturate Mass Media with the Spectrum of all shades ....as equally as possible. Demonstrate the necessity of variety.. etc

I wrote that slave films aren't going to be very popular. Surely, some people will watch the films & enjoy them in one way or another. Otherwise, films, music, books & other forms of visual & literary art provides entertainment in different ways. Entertainment as escapism doesn't have to be negative in the form of self-hate or low self-esteem. Many people can watch a movie or listen to music & allow it to take them away from their reality for a few minutes up to a couple hours.

Well, if you dont want the 3 Presidents to talk politics at the funeral of a political figure, then don't invite them, just to show how important the deceased was. And Al Sharpton certainly didn't mince any words about what's happening in the country in his remarks. If you want a dignified funeral, don't invite a bunch of dignitaries to speak, and hold the services at a huge hall to accommodate all the public mourners you opened the doors to. You're just asking for confusion and resentment and that's what the Jackson family got. You can't have it both ways.

Jesse Jr, has his bi-polar panties in a bunch because the 3 US Presidents invited to the funeral of his father (a political figure in his own right who never missed a chance to speak about political issues) injected politics into their tributes to Jesse,Sr. at his funeral. Jesse, Jr.'s complaints have garnered very little support, with most people cynically speculating that he's probably trying to get on the good side of Trump in hopes of Trump pardoning him for his crime of misusing his campaign funds to finance a luxurious lifestyle and served time in jail for doing this. tsk-tsk. Also rumors floating around about Jesse having conned Trump into contributing to his presidential campaigns back when he ran for president twice. Whatever. As has previously been established, nobody's perfect.

Common ground achieved, arguably my most positively responsed post. I am very happy:) thank you again @aka Contrarian @Chevdove @Pioneer1 beautiful memories from you all:) thank you for sharing.

Interesting. Can't help but wonder if any of this astrological activity coincides with Israel and America's violent assault on Iran and what it portends for the future of the great American Empire and the orange tyrant who has crowned himself king of it.

I've been noticing a trend over the past decade of how so many AfroAmerican movies and television shows debut on Netflix as opposed to the major theaters and broadcasting channels now. This reminds me of how as a kid all of the major television networks like NBC, ABC, and CBS featured Black television shows and movies not only through out the day but also in primetime. Then starting around the mid-90s they started systematically taking Black television shows and movies and "relocating" them to networks like UPN and the CW channel. And then moved many of them off completely. It's getting to the point that every time I see an article about a new Black television show, I start skimming over the words until I see "Netflix" in the article because I know that's where I'll have to go if I want to see it. Yet at the same time Latinos have 2 major television networks (Univision and Telemundo) that Latinos from one end of the United States to the other can sit down and freely enjoy watching without passwords, fees, or subscriptions.

That part right there.

I haven't. Thank you for sharing! I probably won't. I am working on my first screenplay but it's historical fiction.

Of course, some here be against it because we look, pretty shitty. The US would probably most of the top 5 over the past 400 years. Chattel Slavery, Genocide of indigenous populations, lobbing two Nukes, etc, etc. This appears to reflect a small area. There are many middle class and upper middle-class areas where you can find people these types of people who are from FBA Black families. We are the majority in these classes.

@aka Contrarian ain't workin' right now. Tell her to put the phone down and help you get things going....lol.

Mel OMG! Do you know that my ex-husband said the same exact thing LOL! Maybe I'm subconsciously auditioning for the same exact role. But then again, maybe saying shit like that is one of the reasons WHY he's your "ex"....lol. ProfD There should be no confusion among FBA/AfroAmericans about where our birthplace stands as it relates to the original sin of slavery & acknowledging it through a series of actions including recognition, apology & reparations to name a few. Both FBA and ADOS have made it crystal clear that ONLY descendants of American slavery are entitled to Reparations from the United States. If Ghana and other African nations had a SERIOUS shot at somehow FINESSING some money and resources out of the West and even the United States in Reparations payments...I wonder would the most outspoken representatives of these movements eat humble pie and get behind their program, lol. That's why it's not good to burn bridges.

Lol...maybe AI will solve THAT problem, soon.

A LOT of people have been talking about this online Russia and China apparently support it.

Liquor and White women.....his two vices, lol.

That is about as likely as the rising cost of cigarettes making smokers reconsider their habit, quit, and live healthier life styles...lol.

Chaka not only still has those amazing pipes but, at 74, she looks great! Stephanie is still hangin in there too, her mellow voice retaining its smooth quality. Didn't she recently go on tour with Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, and Chaka,- the Grand Dames of R&B?

@Pioneer1 what do you want exactly? I am a little confused. You know that Black owned media exists and black owned media emphasizes black love between black people who are not yella/light skin/ideal mulatto/ or similar. you know black people have access to black owned media in the usa. So when I see your complaint, it seems to me, what you really want is for non black owned media to present black people a certain way. Am I right? My problem with your desire is, how can that happen in the USA? is not the usa a multiracial country? Many people talk about white jews but many websites in the usa, many groups in the usa are publicly anti jewish, no matter a jews phenotype. All the American civil liberties unions and Defamation Leagues don't stop said anti jewish organizations from posting whole movies online stating the jewish populace, any phenotype, has to be... removed. So what do you want exactly?

No surprise that clebrity gossip has always pushed the Willie Lynch narrative & colorism. Over time, there have been moments where Hollywood showed dark-skinned actors & actresses. As mentioned in another thread, Hip-Hop music brought a lot of dark-skinned entertainers to the forefront. Examples of Hollywood Black couples: Owning media outlets is one way of promoting the images that reflect Black people across the spectrum. Producing content that features Black folks in healthy, functional situations is another way of reversing the colorism narrative & other stereotypes. Black folks cannot merely complain about how we are being mistreated &/or portrayed. We have to rewrite the narratives.

Nat King Cole born 1919 enjoy music and lyrics from the legend

It is a sad state of affairs that the only hope of getting out of a man-made quagmire is some type of celestial intervention.

That reminded me of the late great Robin Harris when he would talk about how "holey" somebody's shoes and clothes were....lol.

Sure. Entrenched blue states do not make as much of a difference in the POTUS election. Same goes for red states. Swing states flip-flopping play a huge role in determining POTUS election outcome. Those are the states that Democrats need to pour the most time & energy convincing folks to "vote blue no matter who".

Understood. At some point in your lifetime, I hope that you are able to relocate to Haiti or some other country that is less dysfunctional than the USA. No need to quote yourself. I understand the context. Hoping that my family members have the misfortune of medical malpractice or bad law enforcement or cheaters is not going to change me and/or cause any type of pain or suffering on my behalf. Again, such is life. I always have and will roll with the punches.

His band was multicultural, the men sang lead vocals and the women played instruments. Which is still rare.

Exactly. That is why I created Huria Search I literarily brought it back yesterday. It was down for several years, but as I'm revamping the site I'm bringing back features that I abandoned -- even if a few people will use and benefit from it. It took me all of 5 minutes to bring it back. AI made this possible. AI is reminiscent of the early days of the web. This time around fewer people will take advantage of it and the benefit to individuals will not be very long.

@Troy thanks I never heardo f the african american golf digest

That last for a few minutes relatively speaking. Just long enough for me and many others to get excited about the potential only to have it usurped by the folks maniacally fixed on money. The same thing will happen with AI; money will be the only motivator in how it is used and criminals will have unfettered access to use it to fuck over the world. Today I resurrected a Search Engine, Huria Search, which only queries Black-owned websites. There are hundreds on Black owned sites that are indexed. It uses Google's tech in the way it was originally designed -- just to direct you to websites. It used to sit on it's own domain huria.org, but I allowed the domain to lapse. I have pulled the search engine it back into AALBC.com. I naively thought Black folks, especially the website owners themselves would support the search engine -- maybe embed it into their own sites. That never happened website owners actually stopped linking out to other websites as Google told them it would potentially hurt them in search -- as a result it became virtually impossible for people to discover another website from a website. I have NEVER stopped linking to other website because, despite what Google says that was the beauty of the web. I sure you will not find ANY Black site that links to more Black sites than AALBC.com.

To get the nation out of the Great Depression, one of my favorite Presidents.....Franklin D. Roosevelt......implemented community service projects and conservation and agricultural project to employ low skilled and unskilled people by the millions and used government funds to pay them decent wages and raise them out of poverty. My Father remembered some of these projects. There were "work camps" all around the nation, including down south....employing a lot of Black folks.

For you Bible believers out there (and you know who you are...lol), when you read about someone being called a "son of man" in the Old Testament. When you read that term in the original Hebrew or Aramaic....it literally means the "son of Adam". Why is this important? The Hebrew word for man (mature male) is "ish" The Hebrew word for humanity is "inoshut" Adam doesn't mean "man" nor does it man "humanity".....it's a SPECIFIC TYPE of person.

@Pioneer1 I've said it before and I'll say it again. This site would be nothing without other people, including people like you The WWW is a place that rewards those who support the "other man" and not the Brother man. It is a very perverse and pernicious in this regard, because it works against all of us. Consider the fact that many Black people spend a great deal of time, energy, and money trying to understand a learn how to "work" some social media platform owned by a white, male billionaire who not only does not give two shits about us, but in most cases actively works against us. Meanwhile, Black platforms struggle and fold. I know I make it because of Black people who support the site in big and small ways -- it is the collective effort that makes the difference. Check out the book Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell it addresses the issue of "There are certain ways we relate to other human beings that seem to be "in" us; ingrained in our psyche." in a clever way.

One of the reasons I wanted to share this video was because of a couple of recent events that happened over the past week or two. The incident down in Austin Texas where the Senegalese man started shooting people. And now I'm hearing that the man who shot up the ROTC class down in Virginia was also an African. They aren't sure but it appears they did this in response to Americas actions in Iran. People....especially Black folks...shouldn't be so quick to defend people who don't even recognize them as human beings. How many Arabs or Iranians have retaliated against the West when America sent missiles to Nigeria a few months ago or routinely targets Somalia over the decades? You don't even hear of AFRICANS being outraged over it...let alone Arabs and Iranians. Yet you got Africans who want to strap up and seek revenge for something that barely concerns their well being. ProfD One has to wonder 1) what the African countries are doing about their citizens being sold into slavery & 2) how complicit are the leaders in those countries in allowing it to happen Exactly. I'll tell you what they're doing about it.....SENDING THEM. Instead of making the economy better and more stable so that their people wouldn't want to leave the nation and migrate to these racist Arab societies or risk drowning at sea to make their way to Europe......some of these African leaders are actually ENCOURAGING their own citizens to leave the nation! Why? Because they figure if they leave: 1. There will be less mouths to feed, which means more resources in the country for the few who remain. 2. They're hoping these refugees can find jobs in Europe or the Middle East and send money back home so they can steal get some of it.

@richardmurrayI watched "Within Our Gates" and fully appreciated it for what it was. In fact, it inspired me to do some research on Oscar Micheaux because I was both curious and confused about him, even misspelling his name. I was, however, vaguely familiar with him which was why I was of the opinion that it must've been his movies that I was seeing quite a while back on a local TV channel that did not run them in prime time but instead put them on during the early afternoon, almost as if to fill in empty air space like the wrestling matches and The Liberace Show did back during the early days of TV. This would mean that my seeing these old films must've been back in the 1950s. Anyway, I learned, to my surprise, that Oscar Micheaux was born in 1884 in Metropolis, Illinois, a town I know of because I had friends from there, and that he died in 1951, so he was alive during my life time. I watched a couple of short YouTube videos about him and have concluded that at least some of those sound movies I was watching back then were ones produced by him later in his career. Finally, imo, some of the stereotypes I previously mentioned did appear in Micheaux's "Beyond the Gates". Certainly Sylvia Landry, the lovelorn heroine of "Within Our Gates, was a "tragic mulatto" whose real father was white and whose black adoptive parents were lynched, her adoptive and nurturing mother, Mattie, being a "Mammy" figure, and the wicked Larry, brother-in-law of Sylvia's cousin, being a villainous "Trickster", while the tattle tale Ephraim, was the "Coon" figure. The minister Jacobs, who ran a school for black children, represented the "Righteous Reverend"and Dr. Vivian, who falls in love with Sylvia, represented the "romantic hero". These personifications, rather than being pantomimed degrading figures, were transformed in "Within Our Gates", and I suspect the improved versions, like the film itself, were used to counteract the negative caricatures that "The Birth of a Nation" depicted. My introduction to Micheaux was probably about 70 years ago and I'm curious if those films I remember seeing were lost and no longer exist since the claim is being made that this movie is the last of its kind in existence. Also, imo, minstrel shows were not totally without merit. They show cased sly humor, buck dancing and banjo artistry among other things. I mention this because there was a time when black Masons would stage their own minstrel shows and, having seen one put on by my father's lodge when I was a young girl in the 1940s, I remember being rather proud that my dad, was a member of a barbershop quartet that performed in a show his Masonic lodge staged. Just some thoughts...

Films depicting slavery aren't going to be very popular. Mainly because it does not make people feel better about themselves. Entertainment is a form of escapism not intended to cause depression.

I was deliberating whether or not to put a 'laughing emoji' or a 'heart emoji' because this post evoked two simultaneous emotions for me. Yeah. Me too. The clouds blocked it completely where I am. On this same wise though, there is supposed to be an upcoming celestial event that might be spectacular. A comet is suppose to come close to the sun in a few weeks and because of it being 'a sun grazer' though, it is difficult to know what will happen. Scientist say that it might explode or if it makes it past the sun, it might become bright enough to see.

I'm engaging you're entertainment.

So? Del and I are pretty much on the same page when it comes to you. I'm appreciationg how he so succinctly sums you up. Saves me the effort.

Clearly you are not "stuck"

Maybe he isn't stuck, he may not be mobile.

Actually I somewhat prefer that Talarico won. All of this crap with Trump is significantly a White Male Racist problem. Send in a White Male Democrat to cope with it.