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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

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.

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.

....is Go Daddy gone yet? Mel I'm assuming this stands for "Foundational Black Americans" and ADOS American Descendants of Slaves? Correct What is the difference? Pretty much the same ideology that focuses on us as Black Americans having a separate and distinct identity and culture from other Blacks in the Diaspora. Yvette Carnell who is a staunch proponent of Reparations started the ADOS movement to establish a separate identity for us as Black Americans separate from Africans and West Indians so that IF and WHEN we do get Reparations, supposedly they'd only go to US and not other Black people who didn't descent from U.S. slavery specifically. The FBA movement was started by Tariq Nasheed because he liked the idea of AfroAmericans having our own separate identity and promoting our culture, but he did NOT like Yvette Carnell and didn't want to join HER organization....lol. So he started his own. Both groups are similar but many of those in the FBA movement don't believe that they or most Black Americans descended from slavery. They believe most of us descended from Black people who were already here in the Americans. Many of them don't recognize any ties to Africa what so ever. So I'm not sure how that will work in favor of their argument for Reparations. Many of the followers of both groups are so ignorant, they don't realize that most Caribbeans and Black South Americans also descended from slavery. The fact is, there were many Black people already here through out the Americas for hundreds if not thousands of years before Columbus. While that is true, the vast majority of us are descended from the Black people who were brought her from Africa during the Middle Passage. So both sides are correct. I guess it depends which history one wants to put the most weight on. But like I said, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If a Black American wants to hold on to the claim that they didn't descend from slaves and have no connections to Africa, then they won't be entitled to any Reparations money or benefits.

That part right there.

I have to disagree. Some Africans were reported to be sold because they were imprisoned or had debts. But the Portuguese literally built a fort at what is now Ghana's shoreline because they had already invaded West Africa and had to fight other invading Europeans who headed to the continent to get goodies. But we are talking about the 1400s. This was just the beginning of what historians call the Atlantic Slave trade. Elmina Castle "In 1482, Portuguese traders built Elmina Castle (also called São Jorge da Mina, or Saint George’s of the Mine) in present-day Ghana, on the west coast of Africa. (Mack 1.1 Portuguese Exploration..") But the millions of enslaved Africans wasn't sold by Africans, that was the British, French, and Spain until they finally got out of the human trafficking business. Then the newly minted Amerricans started a second middle passage - and imported a few million more. By the time of the Civil war there were four million Africans in the southern states (also why they lost) ...Africans selling Africans is white propaganda to deflect from the truth of the slave trade that harmed so many lives. The reason why historians know they trafficked all those Africans to various Carribbean islands and the Americas is because of the hubris of the white man who kept-effing records. Like Thomas Jefferson who had a list of his 600 slaves, they kept records everything!

Mel Now wait a minute...... I wasn't ready for all of THAT.....shit, lol. Some women can live a lifetime alone and men can't imagine a life without someone in it. Facts. I noticed pretty early on, either as a teenager or my very early 20s......that psychologically speaking, men need women far more than women need men, lol. I've been to many parties and clubs and I've routinely seen groups of women sitting a table with no men around laughing and having a good time or on the floor dancing with eachother partying it up. "Ooooo........go on girl." "Yall is crazy.....I can't take yall nowhere!" I have YET to see a group of men at a club or party all crowded together dancing with eachother oblivious to the women in the area. But then again....I've never been to a gay club. Maybe that's normal there.....lol.

O@TroyI appreciate and admire your dedication and sacrifice. Always have. Wish I was about the future, instead of the past. Needless to say, I wish you well.

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.

I forgot there will almost certainly be MORE problems in the short term, so lease grant me some grace, as it is the nature of these things. It is still just little 'ole me running the beast of a website

I'll give you one guess... Money! ...yeah basically. I made that observation myself, thought I don't hear it expressed very often perhaps that is considered poor form. It is the kind of observation I would expect @Pioneer1 to comment about, albeit wrapped in some conspiracy. I was always curious about bridge when I learned it had similarities to whist which I play pretty regularly now. Bidding makes all the difference in Whist too. That or when our leaders become entertainers. Robots which can do all of that are on the way. If first one will do a longer more than kiss and hug you. That is a problem that trust will go away with the webserver I'm migrating to.

Some celebrities will do &/or say the most ridiculous to include revealing their ignorance in order to maintain relevance. As the late Honorable Malcolm X said back in the 1960s, if entertainers are leaders, we have a bigger problem. Congrats to your alma mater in making it to the Final Four. The bots are convenient when calling up a few friends isn't in the cards. The invention of computer games allowing humans to play with themselves was the precursor to social isolation. As humans become more silo'd, AI will become the perfect companion to some. AI won't do dishes or give out hugs & kisses but it won't require anything of humans either. Zero sum fun.

Ok, I didn't know WHAT you were talking about at first. I had to look up the fact that Stephanie played Dorothy in The Wiz to make the connection to what you were talking about, lol. Personally, I thought Diana Ross was the only one who played that role.

I'm fine with Black folks self-identifying &/or aligning with a tribe. Humans have been tribal for centuries whether it is by country or ethnicity or culture. More importantly, FBA/ADOS/AfroAmericans/Freedmen need to build stronger strategic alliances with other Black folks & groups of people with shared common interests. As both you & brotha @frankster mention...there are Pan-African & other Black groups working together. Millions of Black people were not kidnapped. Moving that many people requires coordination. African leaders were selling people as if they were pieces of gold. For as long as I've been sitting in an armchair around here, I've mentioned that government & politics do not work that way. Black folks even in the highest-level positions of government do not have enough power to give us anything. Cases in point...POTUS Obama or Justice Uncle Tom Thomas or pick a name. They cannot take unilateral action or make decisions. Everything requires some type of consensus.

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.

Awesome gesture introduced to UN by the West African nation of Ghana. 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.

Lol....I don't know where THAT one came from. Most folks don't know how short our cute little sista really is...... I was at an event where she sang for the opening. Man, she hopped off stage and walked past me. I was sitting down and was STILL taller than her...lol. I waved at her and she had to LOOK UP at me to smile....lol.

Come on now.... If you're looking for a young man....there are less expensive and time consuming ways to find one, than that.....lol.

Which is crazy because back in the 50s and 60s not only did every Black community have it's own paper but nearly every Black highschool had it's own Black newspaper. You didn't need a Scripts Howard back then. Black students were learning journalism (among other skills and trades) BEFORE they graduated from Highschool.

Yep. Most people don't know that this is where the word "slave" comes from....the Slavs Places like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and Slovenia....the slavic regions of Europe where the Arabs and Africans used to go and get slaves to bring back to the Middle East and North Africa. Called "Mamlukes" So.... Are you done hibernating? Like a bear or groundhog.....lol....you've decided to come outside and join us for the Spring?

See, and that's another issue. I know the internet is the largest form of media currently, however it's not wise to put too many of your eggs in one basket. Where I go at work, I walk into different departments and depending on which race/ethnic group dominates the environment....depends what you may hear, lol. But the thing I notice about departments dominated by Whites and Latinos....whether it's the office or the warehouse....they don't need the internet to listen to their music or programs. White people can still listen to their music or talk shows on the radio and so can Latinos! Racist conservative White men still can tune into AM RADIO stations from coast to coast and listen to politics and have their voices heard. They don't need a computer, phone, or wi-fi to communicate with eachother OR be communicated to. Again, all Latinos have to do if they want to listen to a Latino program is just turn on the radio and you'll have 3 or 4 stations they can listen to in Spanish Most Black folks have to use their phones to get online to pick up THEIR programs or listen to fresh music not downloaded on their phones My greater point is......... We can EXPAND our options without CANCELLING some of them out. We should be on the internet and social media...no doubt. But we should STILL keep and have our news papers, radio shows, and broadcast television stations to reach that older or less tech savy audience.

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

Some African dudes at work are the same way. I mean, you can barely get a "hello" or "good morning" out of some of them UNLESS they want something from you. Every morning you can say, "Hey my man....what's up....how are you this morning!" All you get is a dry: "Yeah yeah....hey mon'......" Nigga glancing over at the White folks HOPING they don't see him talking to you. Now if they need something from you or need for you to talk to somebody for them: "Hey bruda! I need to get some important papers copied. Who can do that for me?" I tell them: "I'm sure the Immigration Department at the Federal Building downtown has a copier and a fax machine you can use! Why don't you run down there after work and ask them can you use it!"

ProfD Funny thing it's illegal for us to buy cartons of cigarettes & break them down to sell loosies. Well see, I didn't know that. I don't smoke or deal in cigarettes so I didn't know it was illegal for citizens TO do that. I guess that's why they have an ATF bureau. Easily. Same mentality that bums a ride & doesn't offer gas money or *borrows* household sh8t (sugar, cooking oil, flour, a few pieces of bread, etc.). That caused flashbacks from childhood. We had a woman who lived next door who would constantly ask for shit like that and we KNEW when she wanted something because she'd always first greet you buy saying, "hey neighbor"....lol. Any other time she'd either ignore you or give you a "Hey" or stale "How you doin'". But when she wanted some sugar or milk or eggs or wanted to use the vacuum cleaner..... "Hey Neighbor!"

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

Understood I stand corrected Yep I do People with a racist world view

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

There was & is a lot of *work* to be done around here. Takes all kinds of labor (skilled & unskilled, educated, under-educated, etc.) to get it done. Sure. Slavery, genocide, exploitation, trafficking, etc., every human ill is woven into the fabric of a wealthy nation. The great thing about dialog/discussion is there is plenty room for hypothesis, speculation, hyperbole, etc. The discourse does not have to remain literal down to every last work, phrase or belief.

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?

I disagree. I think creativity is part of the human condition. We are all born with it. Sure there are degrees to individual levels of creativity. Different forms of creativity at different vary in value over time, but again we are all creative creatures— it is why we are not swinging from trees like our cousins. AI is already creative and this seemingly will only get better over time.