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Gibran

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Everything posted by Gibran

  1. Though, at the outset, this may seem totally foolish financially, but it has been done before and with great success, I might add. As they say, drastic times require drastic measures, so consider this. First, some historical background. After the Civil War, a great deal of land was confiscated from the southern rebels as contraband of war. In any event, there was some talk of this land being distributed among the newly freed slaves in those parts of the country. It was a noble thought and would have been an even nobler gesture had it taken place. It didn’t, though. What happened was that President Johnson held a National Day of Amnesty where he officially pardoned all the southern landowners, returning their confiscated property. That may have deprived us of a shot at getting some property but it proved that Americans were open to reconciliation between two violently antagonistic groups for the sake of rebuilding a better country. Even though you had made a terrible mistake by waging war against the US government, you could be excused and given a second chance. Following that already-established precedent of pardoning criminals for the greater good of the country, why not institute a 2021 version, instituting a Day of Amnesty for drug-dealers? Accordingly, all drug-dealers would be pardoned of any and all drug-related crimes, and would be entitled to keep all the money they had amassed from drug trafficking. However, to enjoy the full benefits of the money, the drug-dealers would be required to invest their money back into the community. To insure full disclosure and transparency, a parent company modeled somewhat after The Freedman’s Bureau, which will oversee the funneling of the funds into appropriate channels would need to be established. In South Africa, after the overthrow of apartheid, there was still bad blood on both sides. To help heal these social wounds, several Truth and Reconciliation trials were conducted where mostly white men from the military and local law enforcement would come forward to confess their atrocious misdeeds in an attempt at social reconciliation for the good of South Africa. Without a doubt, this country is immersed in a social crisis like none other and if black America is to emerge intact, no options can be overlooked. We can tap into a vast reserve of disposable wealth that would be made readily available under the conditions outlined above. Dope boys would jump at the chance to finally come in from the cold. Decades ago, when gang-bangers were offered a chance to disengage and to get a real job, they jumped at the way out. They were trapped in the life and had no way out until offered one. There would certainly have to be complementary programs set up to insure compliance with the terms. In that regard, I developed a program a decade ago called PROJECT UPLIFT that dealt with drug-dealer addiction. No one had ever approached the drug problem from that angle but I knew that the dealers were as addicted to the drug culture as the junkie was to the drug. That’s why they can’t stop even after they are millionaires. In conjunction with drug-dealers being ‘de-briefed’, other programs will be needed to contain the eagerness of young ones eager to step up for their so-called time to shine. In case, you didn't know what was going on in the streets during the 80s and 90s was that more illegal millionaires were produced than you could shake a stick at. And the vast majority of this ill-gotten gain was concentrated solely in the hands of brothas barely old enough to vote. Oddly, enough, once you get all this money, you can't spend it. Sure, you can live well, but you can't invest it except in other illegal goods. Money need to be put to good use. **for clarification, this would apply to drug-dealers who are not confined**
  2. For once in my life, I can offer the news that a city in NC has put forth a REPARATIONS package for the black residents of Asheville. It is hoped that what happens in Asheville will become a model for the rest of the nation. The city council voted unanimously to issue an apology for slavery and promised to pour money into investments into the black neighborhoods. No money will be paid out to individuals, but a newly formed Commission was formed so that the money could be allocated accordingly. Two other cites, Providence, Rhode Island, and Richmond VA have followed the Asheville model while last year, Evansville, Illinois took it one step further by becoming the first city to approve direct payouts to individual blacks.
  3. I was definitely wondering about Cynique. Was kinda looking forward to hearing her voice. Didn't want to ask so now I know.
  4. I sometimes think back to the old MUHAMMAD SPEAKS newspaper from back in the days. At the back they had this cartoon/drawing about how we would start to imitate whites if we got too close to them. This was during the early 70s when sistas first started to dress provocatively in public following the mini-skirt craze.
  5. That's what I thought. Just wanted to see if I was alone in my thinking or if there were others who thought so.
  6. I am more than likely wrong about this, but wanna run a 'background check' on Paula White. I don't know much about her but practically every time I have seen her preaching, her church has been jammed packed with brothas and sistas. I recall the first time i saw her was back in the early 2000s and I asked someone about her since I was intrigued to see a white lady leading a church full of black folks. I mean she was strutting around preaching and hollering and screaming just like a black minister. I was then told that TD Jakes had schooled her. Okay. The next time I saw her was a few years ago and she was still at it. And then I see her with Trump last week as his spiritual advisor. Quite naturally I thought about sheep being led to slaughter. I mean, I shouldn't expect that because a white person hangs with us don't necessary make them an ally any more than it can be expected that all blacks are Democrats, but still, Paula White? She is a for real Trumper and I wonder if she used any of her considerable influence over the black people who follow her and listen too her to vote for Trump. If so, then wow, we was sleeping with the enemy! Ain't no thang to me either way, but if this is so, then I am led to wonder if we are still that vulnerable to outside influences. Again, I have no clue if she did even attempt to sway anyone over to Trump-----but would she have to? If you a halfway decent leader, then you don't have to say a mumbling word. Your example will speak for you and your flock will follow in lockstep. So much for Paula White, gonna give you my list of white people who fooled me. All of us probably have a list. Basically, I just got one; Clint Eastwood! Man. I almost had to pop a pill or take a drink when I saw Clint go in on Obama when the brotha won reelection. When he was doing his thing out in Cali, I never checked his political card just assumed he was on the home team. I wrongly assume that because he had personally directed a few movies about us, was cool with Morgan Freeman. Damn, Clint was the number 1 cowboy and Dirty Harry.
  7. pic of true Hebrews after h Pic of the Hebrews after ttey were taken in captivity by the Assyrians This was 3000 years ago and was etched into a wall. Winners always depicted their victories over enemies. And this was big and the King wanted to make sure that everyone knew that he had conquered the Hebrews. Why Not? These were God's People and they had just beaten them in war. That would gave them a big rep as being the ones who conquered the Hebrews. One thing fgor sure is that your enemies know what you look like and if thery are going to put youy on blast before the whole world, they gonna make sure they get your image right! the middle pic is an ad showing Hebrews (Heeboos) 4 sale. pic of hebrews on the walls in Egypt while we were slaves under their rule. If the hebrew slave would have been white, they would have depicted them as such. These folks are black.
  8. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I want to take a second to spoil your appetite with a bite of the truth. While we have our sights set on the KKK, Right-wing fanatics, Trump and others who thrive on trying to harm us, we are barking up the wrong tree because no one is in a better position to kill us than white scientists who want us dead as much as the KKK. While we have been asleep at the wheel, there are scientists who are experimenting with RNA Interference Technology. It has been around for a minute in the use of crops, but now with a bit of tweaking, scientisst have discovered a way to isolate certain genes and to insert these genes into other organisms to transfer the chemical and molecular properties from the host to another source. It was via this cross-transference that scientists have been successful at making tomatoes bigger and more red. This bit of tech could also be used to target certain crops such as corn and insert, transfer, and encode the corn with protective cells from an alien source that will allow the corn to protect itself from pests without the use of harmful pesticides that can harm the food chain and by extension, the humans that consume the goods. Tweaking the tech even more, it was discovered that they could specifically target the gene pool of blacks and introduce antibodies, cancers, and other immune-killing organisms into the food supply that will harm us. They have gotten so good at targeting us with what we eat that right now, there are foods that can be bought at stores that when eaten will not do a damned thing to a white person, but dependent on what disease was transferred into the composition of the food, it would fuck a brotha slap us. White man eat a burger and ‘dem belly full’. We take a bite of the same burger and end up stricken with some immune-deficiency disorder. Crackers ain’t playing with us. And what about what they call “Medical Cannibalism?” It was why they placed 80% of abortion clinics in black neighbors and try to promote abortions among sistas. At the most, we holla about this being a form of birth control to stunt our population growth. Well, as always, we are a day late and a dollar short because the real deal is even more sinister. They harvest the tissues of dead black babies and feed them back to us in the form of the meds we are prescribed. Might even be a batch of dead black baby tissue in your bucket of chitterlings. In a perverse twist on the old Funkadelic album title, ‘America Eats Its Young’, we do it unknowingly. We finally got hip to Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood, and her profound hatred for us. In fact, her program of eugenics put in place to exterminate black babies was so impressive that Hitler adopted her genocidal model to use in his program to kill the so-called Jews in Germany. Excuse me, but let me regress for a second and tell you what Hitler did. It can be verified. I will also provide a link where you can find this info about RNA Interference Technology. Anyway, when Hitler started killing the Jews, his generals got nervous because they didn’t want to have any part of killing God’s Chosen People, so they were hesitant because they didn’t want to anger God. What Hitler did was to call a meeting of all his top generals and told them not to worry because they were not killing the people of the Bible, they were killing ‘bastards’ or imposters. He said that the white people he was killing were not the true Jews. He said that it would be America who would suffer because they were the ones who had enslaved and mistreated the real Children of The Bible, Yep, Hitler knew that we were and are the real Jews. He knew dem imposters over in Israel had hijacked our identity. Same thing with the Prime Minister of Egypt from decades ago who, when asked if the Jews in Palestine would ever find piece, Gamal Nasser told Time Magazine that the so-called Jews who now occupy Jerusalem will never have peace because THEY LEFT BLACK AND CAME BACK WHITE! And this is why I write. To impart info that may prove vital to our survival. I don’t give a damn about writing about how much dope I sold or how many women I have been with, or how many heads I had to crack in the streets. It’s useless info when we are under attack as we now are. Like Carter G Woodson said: “America has spent more money hiding our history from us than it spent on NASA.” Ain’t gonna hit you with no religion but what about this science. Once upon a time, for some reason, scientists wanted to compare the skull of a Hebrew slave in Egypt to other skulls of black folk because they figured that all the skulls should be identical since they were both African, but they got a shock when they discovered the skulls were distinctly different. Hmmm, they were puzzled. And then they matched the Hebrew skull with the skull of a brotha from here. They matched. The skull from a Hebrew slave and the black soul brotha in the States were identical, meaning that they were the same people. Okay, now they were at a racial crossroad because apparently all blacks were not one and the same genetically. This challenged the view that all blacks descended from Ham. I am not getting into religion because as Brother Troy said, it’s too opinionated but I am willing to stake my life on what I know about who we are as a people. We Dem People! Here’s a bit of science, though. Once upon a time, not too long ago some brothas in Africa were talking that talk about they were the true Jews of the Bible and leading Jewish scientists and scholars had a good laugh over this and decided to shut these brothas up once and for all. So, they took DNA samples from the Lembas, the African tribe, and they also took DNA samples from the so-called white Jews. I don’t have to tell you what happened. Through this DNA research, it was scientifically proven that none of the samples taken from the white control group could be traced back to the bloodlines of the ancient Jews. Guess what, the bloodlines of the Lembas connected them back to the people of the Bible. The white Jewish world was stunned. If they were not the Children of Israel-----who was. The Lembas? What is so important about the Lembas is that they are, in all actuality, members of the larger Bantu tribe of West Africa. Know who else came out of the Bantus of West Africa. That’s right----us. That’s why when you trace your DNA, it usually will lead you to West Africa to the Bantus. As you can imagine, they took DNA samples from the Bantus and it should come as no surprise that the bloodline of these Africans could be directly traced back to the Jews of the Bible. And this is science and well-known. If we came from the Bantus and they are direct descendants of Abraham, then who are we? WE DEM PEOPLE! Want more history. Try this. Better yet, look it up. In the 8th century, a king named Bulan converted to Judaism. He was a Khazar from Europe and his kingdom was sandwiched between Islam on one side and Christianity on the other. Both Muslims and Christians told Bulan that because he was a pagan, they couldn’t trade with him so he would have to choose to be Muslim or Christian. Bulan was sharp, knowing that if he chose Islam, the Christians would cut him of and vice versa, so he made a power move. He accepted Judaism, the only other monotheistic religion. This way, he could trade with both. King Bulan then invited real Jews into his kingdom to teach them our religion. These are the same fake Jews that are over in Israel now. They are Khazars or Askenazi Jews who converted to the religion. They converted and the historical record on this is openly clear. If they are not real-----who is. Us. We Dem People! The Jews control the media, TV, newspapers, publishing, etc. Therefore they control what we learn and they don’t want us or the world to know they are masquerading as us. Who financed the slave trade? Jews. Look at what happened to Nick Cannon a few months ago when he spoke out about us being the real Jews. They threatened the brotha and chumped him on national TV. In response to that, I wrote a book that clearly made the point about us being DEM PEOPLE. I released the book last month and gave it away free, but I had problems with promotion because on FB and other platforms, if you make statements about the so-called Jews you get flagged as anti-semitic and your content is disallowed. That was my original implication when I first mentioned that the platforms for black lit was shrinking. I spoke from personal experience. That is why we need platforms to share our info without outside interference. What if what I say is true. At least, you will have the chance to make a decision yourself. In these days and times, we can’t afford the luxury of turning up our noses at shit that doesn’t sit well with what we have been taught. Research first. Do your own due diligence to see what’s what. What could be worse than having info that could help us but we chose to ignore it . Let me throw this at you. While researching the book, I stumbled up on a way to see who we are just from common knowledge. Gotta use a lil scripture. Bear with me. In the Bible, God refers to the women as The Daughters of Zion so if we can somehow find out who these women were, then maybe we can locate the men. These women were so fine and phat that God had to check them for flaunting their great beauty. God said that because The Daughters of Zion strutted around with their necks outstretched, switching as they walked, He had to tame some of that flavor. What did He do? He punished them by stopping their hair from growing. Instead of well-dressed hair, they would suffer baldness and other hair issues. Now, you tell me, what women on the planet suffer from hair issues. Isaiah 3:15-18. Just a lil something if you believe in the Bible. I done got started so let me finish before you pull out your knives to cut this up. Here’s a snippet from Zondervan, the leading authority of biblical stuff. Zondervan’s Compact Bible Dictionary: Ham / not the Negroes Zondervan’s Compact Bible Dictionary: Ham – The youngest son of Noah, born probably about 96 years before the Flood; and one of eight persons to live through the Flood. He became the progenitor of the dark races; not the Negroes, but the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans and Canaanites. According to this, Ham was the daddy of Africans; Egyptians, Libyans, and so forth but there were some more darkies out there, THE NEGROES. Were we not called Negroes at one time? Wonder why. There’s more: This is an early map of Africa and if you want to look, you can find a place called NEGROLAND on the map. I would guess that is where the Negroes lived. The dude who did this map was the premier map-maker of his time. He always got it right. Once these maps were done, they were signed which was like the seal of a notary declaring the map was true and authentic. About a hundred years later in 1848 in Berlin, Europe divided Africa up , changing the names to the Belgian Congo, The French Republic of Dahomey, etc. Erased Negroland out of existence. If you look, you will see that Negroland is on the West Coast where we were picked up from. There is a book from 1930 called HEBREWISMS of West Africa where the writer states that “THE SLAVES MARKETS OF WEST AFRICA WAS FILLED WITH BLACK JEWISH SLAVES! He was emphatic that these were not just black slaves but black Jewish slaves. One Last thing is this Let’s apply common sense. This is what the Pharoahs looked like back in the days. They were black. If God is All-knowing and All-wise, why would He send a cracker baby to hide with brothas? Next month, in every black church in the world, you gonna hear about how ol’ King Herod took out a hit on Jesus, but God spared Jesus by telling Joseph to flee into Egypt to hide. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that Jesus would have to have been black if he was to hide in Egypt where everyone was darker than blue
  9. Sadly, good content has been severely diminished. It's shameful albeit true, but it is what it is and in today's world of indie publishing, you get in where you fit in.
  10. I fully intend to check your book out. The title caught my attention because I wanted to be a triathlete in the early 80s which makes me absolutely familiar with the discipline and determination needed for such a feat, but what is equally as vital is ENCOURAGEMENT from others.
  11. I agree. I second the idea that Troy is highly skilled and knowledgeable about his chosen profession, and I'm quite eager to confess that on any occasion that he has provided advice to me, it has been accurate. 100%. And since I have yet to grasp the mechanics of how to respond using the quote button, I will say here that I do not believe that AALBC is too restrictive to serve as a platform by which to reform black literature. To be fair, it would be best to understand what those restrictions are perceived to be before I can accurately answer. However, what I do understand about most entities, no matter what they purport to be, is that it would be short-sighted to establish any business without leaving room to expand. What business model is it that would curtail its own growth by virtue of built-in restriction? The whole idea of enterprise is GROWTH and for a business owner to operate under the guise of 'just going so far' is ridiculous. In business, the sky is the limit, and this true even if you are a non-profit or a cyber-site-----you don't block your growth by being restrictive. Just saying.
  12. To date, there are three primary reasons given for the black man’s tenure at the bottom of the social totem pole. I’m convinced there are more, but the three most commonly accepted ones, due to my studies, are that we are where we are because of (1.) Divine Decree. (2) Hereditary, or (3) Social Engineering/Laws Okay, let’s examine the trio of woes. Gonna start at the bottom and work my way up since the path is more objective. Let’s use 1865 as a start date for our freedoms here in this country, and take a look at some of the laws that were enacted to halt our forward momentum. I have already mentioned the infamous Pig Law of 1867 which initiated the plantation to prison pipeline. But long before this ‘jailbait’ law, white America started as early as 1638 to pass laws to put us in our place. Without any doubt, this law and others were designed to criminalize black life. There were no jobs for us, so we could get busted and locked up for not being employed. Since there were harsh laws against vagrancy and loitering, the best way to beat the law was for a brotha to get protection from a while landowner who would take the brotha under his wing to exploit him In 1638, Maryland, fearing that the industriousness of the free blacks in that state would lead to black prosperity and economic independence passed a law that declared that ‘blacks shall not share any fruits of white society’ which effectively limited avenues of capital and access to the means by which to earn a wage outside of menial, manual labor. Shortly thereafter, since this Public Policy worked so well in holding blacks hostage to a master/slave relationship with white America, it was adopted as national policy by 1705 but with a really racist twist. All of a sudden, in 1705, it wasn’t just enough for white America to know that black America knew its place, they wanted to make good and damned sure that white America truly understood just what the hell was going on by making sure they recognized that they had a moral obligation to help niggers stay in their place. You see, it was not enough that we knew our place, it was equally imperative that white folks knew how to keep us in place. Therefore, laws were enacted that defined how blacks should act when in the presence or company of whites, and by the same token, it taught whites that they should act superior when in the company of blacks. In case, they failed to do so, they could be fined or jailed for not treating blacks like shit, and every church, business, and civic organization was bound by this law. Around this time, it was like a national game show in America as states competed with one another to see who could hold niggas back the most. In 1710, Virginia got in the red zone and punched it in for a touchdown when they passed the Meritorious Manumission Law. Okay, let me pause. I’m a street person, hustled all my life so many of you may not know about the feds ‘snitch law’. It’s called Substantial Assistance and it works by snitching on someone to get you off the hook. And that is exactly what that 1710 Law was about. It rewarded blacks with snitching on other blacks and by doing so, they would get privileges otherwise denied to regular brothas. The law was called ‘crabbing’ and that is why the phrase, “like crabs in a barrel” refers to us sometimes. In any event, the law was designed specifically to destroy any sense of community by pitting us against each other as we competed for the crumbs from Massa’s table. As I mention over and over again, the white man was there, an eyewitness to what we did. The white man witnessed us making crops grow from barren earth. We tamed horses. We planted shit on this side of the Atlantic that wasn’t supposed to grow so there is no way they were going to award us forty acres and a mule. We understood the secrets of nature and could become self-sufficient through agricultural means. Being no fools, the whiteys knew they had to get us out of the country, away from land. What came next was no accident since the whites wanted to move us into the city where we would be like a fish out of water. We were strangers to the concrete jungle. We understood land and nature, but asphalt and steel cities were alien to us. Crackers knew what they were doing. Remember MLK and the March on Washington. Well, Malcolm called it the ‘Farce on Washington’ since everything had been carefully crafted behind the scenes by the Jewish leaders who ran the NAACP. MLK was only a front. Jewish men organized the event, even deciding who would speak and what the tone of the messages would be. I know Bayard Russell gets credit with the logistics of the march, but it was all contrived and micro-managed by white forces in the background. Same thing with the Great Migration of blacks from the rural south to the urban cities of the north. I’m paraphrasing some of my extensive notes, but after WWII, a Commission on Employment was set up to lure blacks into the cities where they could be better contained, if not controlled. Anyway, the Commission went on to report that they needed to keep certain segments of society away from the land in the south so they could become CONSUMERS! In the north. I mean, was that master game or what? Whitey saw us coming. Better yet, whitey sent for us. He wanted to get us away from the one thing we understood which was land. The white man was so sharp and devious that once he couldn’t get any more paper off of us as slaves, he sent us north and overnight, we were transformed into consumers. What more could be expected? For the first time in our collective history, we get our first shot at getting our hands on some real paper. Since, we had no prior contact with the almighty dollar bill, all we knew to do with it was to spend it. What else could it have been good for, and just in case we somehow learned to invest it, the white man was a step ahead of us. They wanted us to earn money and then to give it back by spending it on shit that boggled our imagination. Bought up every little trinket in sight. To prevent us from investing our money or to use it to start businesses, white folks passed countless Public Policy Laws to insure that there would never be a transfer of power under any circumstances because the laws dictated that blacks ‘were to be a managed work force and would not be allowed to compete with whites in commercial or business deals.’ This was nothing more than the ‘ole keep a nigga down law’. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Fortunately, for the other team, this law worked so flawlessly that it carried on, continuing under different guises and disguises. In one era, these draconian laws might be disguised in a top hat and a whip while the next time you encounter the law, it is wearing a mini-skirt and ho boots. Either way, it’s a trap. However, there were still pockets of economic resistance in practically every state, but just as soon as these financial meccas of Black Wall Streets were discovered, they were destroyed, leaving no traces of how successful we could be without white interference. But then, under mounting pressure and universal condemnation for its treatment of brothas, white America flipped the script and blessed us with integration. For us, we thought integration was the hookup where we could get to be close enough to Mister Charlie and Miss Ann that we would now be friends with benefits. Well, they reaped the benefits as always. Integration came with strings attached that we couldn’t or didn’t see. Along with integration came what is or was known as The Tipping Point which measured how many niggas to let integrate into Crackerville before the tipping point was reached. The Tipping Point was the point where if one too many niggas was let in, the whole shebang would go to hell. Nevertheless, integration was a process where just the right number of us could be let in for the purpose of nigga maintenance because once the recommended limit was exceeded, we would no longer be seen as integrationists but as invaders. And this is only a few of those old laws that were put in force to force us out of equal treatment, but what of today’s restrictive laws. Remember redlining. Redlining as a law, according to scholars is THE major factor in the gulf between white and black wealth. In 1930, the government approved redlining and supported it so that area where we lived could or would be denied loans for improvement which would cause the area to decay which led social scientists to predict that social apathy induced by living in a depressed environment would result in a social pathos where no substantial learning could ensue. The desired premise was that apathy and despair would lead to chaos where learning would be stifled. This exact premise was proven in those school free meal programs because you can’t process info when you are starving. In essence, we have been set up to fail by the government as the laws will attest, and though things may have changed the underlying rules of the game haven’t. We are still in peril. I am quite sure you know of laws just to hold us back. I am not about to revisit the 14th Amendment issue again but yeah, the deck is stacked against us.
  13. The ongoing relationship between writers and readers is age old and has been called one of the greatest social experiments of humanity since it is this bonded sense of communication that has forged empires and invented religions. There is little argument about the passion and range of our oral traditions that pre-dated slavery, but much of what was passed on from one generation to the other as folklore and traditional stories was invariably lost as we transitioned to English from the tongues in which our history was recited. On this side of the Atlantic, due to the constructs of our forced labors and the need of the slave-masters to craft a new breed of man, one of the first things we lost as we were deliberately stripped of our language was the power to transmit our oral traditions. Once released from servitude, the need to chronicle our journey became a vital mission and our writers wrote. What grew out of this need to give expression to our worldview and perspective was the beginning of the “Slave Narratives” which were acknowledged as some of the greatest work from that historical era even though the bulk of them were either lost or destroyed. Unarguably, it was the power of these books that were the spark for the abolitionist movement and helped produce outrage and antislavery sentiments in other countries. Another book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is credited with being a fiery catalyst that added fuel to help ignite the Civil War. Books by Frederick Douglass were so powerful and insightful that they outsold most books by prominent white writers. During the tumultuous Reconstruction Era (when white southerners got reparations for lost property following the civil War), it was writers/scholars such as Booker T and W.E.B. who kept our people tuned in to what was going on, dispensing knowledge, advice, and hopes of redemption. The tradition of using the written word as a social platform continued, gaining preeminence during The Harlem Renaissance where the ugliness and evil of institutional racism was laid bare between the covers of books by a host of world-renown black writers. This was no doubt, the heyday of black literature with a flowering accent on liberation, black pride and self-sufficiency. With the commencement of The Civil Rights Movement, the push for a viable black literary heritage was upheld and supported by writers such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Chester Himes who extended the boundaries of telling stories with a social consciousness. Our books celebrated us. In the 80s Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and other black female writers asserted themselves. Is it a sort of literary genocide that our books, for the most part, no longer teach us? Of course, any writer worth his salt is free to write as his ambitions dictate without any responsibility to his audience to warn, or to enlighten, or to educate. My personal opinion is that when a people are mired in the depths of a horrendous social crisis where the survival of the whole may be imperiled, then those who possess skills and talents conducive to the welfare of the nation and doesn’t employ them to benefit the cause is useless to that cause. To illustrate how important reading is and how one single bit of info can potentially save lives, here I go again, Pioneer1, with one of my observations! Anyway, in the feds joint, the brothas from DC and the brothas from NC didn’t get along and we had some serious beefs; the strife between us was constant. One day I read about ‘blockbusting’ where families from NC were transported to live in DC and I shared it with DC, and just as sho’ as shit stank, we got close and all the beefing stopped. We were cousins. I know that may seem simplistic but that info that I read and passed on, saved lives. When our writers write with purpose, the reader would know that it is best sometimes, when searching for answers, to first examine the obvious. Sometimes, the things that make us laugh can make us cry because you can’t pick up one end of a stick without picking up the other end as well. For example, our most prized collective asset is our melanin, that wonderful pigment that blackens us. When a people are in their native land, their skin, hair and body composition are physiologically designed to both complement and to withstand the rigors of that environment. When we were home, we didn’t suffer from sickle cell because our cells were designed with a built-in malaria defense system which we needed. However, once in the US, the same defense system that protected us at home was now useless and the cells mutated, sickling, thus causing this disease that is mostly common to us and no other people. Same thing with melanin. As long as were we in our natural clime, the pigmentation did precisely what it is designed to do and it performed its function to flawless perfection. So, now that we’re over here in a different climate, our bodies function oddly. Melanin protected us from the sun at home, but over here, where we are operating against the laws of our collective nature, our bodies don’t produce enough Vitamin D. And this lack of Vitamin D is a primary contributor to the high incidence of cancer in the black community. And white doctors have known this for decades but withheld the info that something as simple as taking Vitamin D could save your life. That’s why our writers must write. The medical society has confirmed that there are two primary reasons why blacks die from COVID-19 at such alarming rates, and both involve a lack of Vitamin D. That is why the writers who are intent and interested in being a uplifting voice for the community must write with purpose. Otherwise, we will commit literary genocide SUPPORT AALBC
  14. NOW THAT YOU HAVE USED YOUR VOTE USE YOUR VOICE PROTEST THE MARGINALIZATION OF BLACK LITERATURE SUPPORT AALBC!
  15. The challenge to black readers in the very near future may not be where to find great writers, but rather where to find the books that our great writers write. What has been happening for quite some time is that our access to quality literature produced by authors of color has surely narrowed, restricting our voice. If this shocking trend continues unabated then there will be little hope that we will emerge from ‘whatever comes next’ intact as a united people. We must heal. Now. Therefore, the big question is not so much a matter of when but how. While it is human to celebrate change when it holds out possibilities for us, but if we, as a people, are going to put ourselves in a position where we can both manage and control part, some or all of what happens to us, we must heal. Celebrate. Then Heal. To date, what has been so symptomatic of us is that we are so proud of ourselves, and rightly so, for having endured to the end of whatever crisis that has afflicted us, that we don’t allow the healing process that ultimately follows any great battle to complete itself. We must heal. And only we can heal our hurt. No other people on the planet has ever been forced to endure as much as we have had to endure just to reach where we are now. Lord knows, we done paid some dues and in today’s socio/political climate, there is no longer any room for failure so in order to get stronger, we must, by necessity, HEAL! We must heal and rarely will we find anything more transformative for our healing than reading. There has never been a better moment than now for us to seize control of our literary narrative and to use this narrative as the foundation and the building blocks of a more unified black nation. Words possess that kind of power, especially when they are employed specifically to uplift, to enrich, and to empower. If we, by chance, are going to heal then what could be more rejuvenating than immersing ourselves in the depth and richness of our literary essence. During the Harlem Renaissance, the writers of that period took it upon themselves to introduce the black masses to themselves by using their writings as a mirror which reflected the harsh realities they faced. Additionally, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, it was the ink of our writers and scholars that help illuminate the path out of the darkness. It was liberation literature. Clearly, the one the thing that history will bear witness to is the fact that scarcely has there ever been change without the ink of the scholars being the catalyst. It was Voltaire, the writer and philosopher, who sparked the French Revolution with his writings. It was the writings of Marx and Engels that unified the working classes in Russia. And it is rumored that one of the documents that stirred the souls of the early American colonists to unite was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. Therefore, the thunderous might of words cannot be ignored so we must let our writers write but charge them with the duty to educate, and to uplift, and to transform. Otherwise they are useless. The truth never lies so we must not surrender our image or our voice to others so that either can be experimented on and tampered with. Now is the time for us to have our say. We must say NO to literary gentrification where outsiders either encroach on our right to tell our stories, or to restrict where our stories are to be found. The suppression of our voice is as evilly damaging as suppressing our vote, and with few exceptions, a people without a voice are too easily victims. Given the historical range of our suffering, there is no doubt that healing needs to take place in order for us to be whole. Yet, oddly enough, healing is what we have ignored most. And to be honest, the constant barrage of attacks against us has left us little or no room for recovery as we have been kept busy trying not to be consumed by the range and anger of American hospitality. However, if this is our NOW, we must find our center; that one place where we can all connect and where we can feel and explore and experience that which belongs to us------the power of our words contained in books written by, for, and about us. SUPPORT AALBC
  16. A PEOPLE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE WILL PERISH. THERE IS A WAR GOING ON TO DESTROY BLACK LITERATURE. FIGHT BACK. SUPPORT THOSE WHO FIGHT TO SAVE OUR LITERARY HERITAGE. STAND WITH AALBC. SAVE OUR RIGHT TO WRITE AND TO READ OUR OWN STORIES. VISIT THE WEBSITE.
  17. Thank goodness that someone is honoring the oral traditions that have been passed down through the generations. Our history survives within the lines of these folktales. The words of the elders matter!
  18. let me drop this right here O black woman, do you know who you are? It is you for whom the birds sing when the dawn opens itself for inspection. It is the glow in your eyes that the stars imitate when they sparkle. It is the color of your flava that makes the rainbow dull in comparison, and it is via your beauty that we can physically witness God’s artistry.• O black woman, do you know who you are? You are the secret that only reveals itself when a man is truly ready to experience the joy of having his dream transformed into reality. You are God’s private blessing to men who know what to do within the point between birth and death. To dwell within the kingdom of YOU is where heaven begins. • O black woman, do you know who you are? You are both the starting point and the finish line for everything I could ever aspire to be. You are a force of nature that has broken my shackles so that I can walk freely. You have erased my doubts so that I can think clearly. You have repaired my broken wings so that I can soar beside you. • O black woman, do you know who you are? You are the magic that awes the universe, the splendor that amazes the earth, and the glory that makes men heart beat with pride when they attempt to possess U. • O black woman, do you know who you are? You are the beautiful gift that God left on the doorstep of my heart. You are that special moment in time when nothing else matters but most importantly, you are YOU! Unmistakably YOU! • O black woman, do you know who you are? You are the sunshine that lights my life from within. You are the fire that warms every fiber of my being and that illuminates my path so that I am never afraid of the darkness. • O black woman, did u know that when I stare in the skies the stars spell your name? I feel your touch in the wind and I see your face in the clouds. And when I stand under the shadow of your smile, I find shelter from the storm. • O black woman, do you know who you are? You are that warm safe place where all roads lead at the end of a day when I have slayed all my dragons and find that all my strength comes from you. You melt on my life and I become complete. • O black woman, do you know who u are? You are chocolate, dipped in mystery, a specially-designed flava whose smile is brighter than the rainbow.
  19. True Dat!? It's right around the corner. Thangs sho' 'bout to change 'round heah in a minute! Peace
  20. Today, while still young, may ultimately evolve into a moment long remembered by all of us for some time to come. This Election has been huge, but later the dust will settle and you will check off the things you would like to see occur in exchange for your vote. Nothing will change in some places, and in others, there may be change for us as a collective, but while we are trying to peep what others can will or might do for us, we must look to see what we can do for ourselves. We, I am sure, can all find things for which we would enjoy planting our flag, but I know that if we don't take immediate steps to preserve our literary heritage, then we will find ourselves written out and wiped out of the literary conversation just like we have already been written out of history. If we now let them control the narrative of our fiction, then who will be there to speak for us. We have lost our historical narrative. Do we now elect to tarnish the richness of the urban experience by sitting back and watching doors closed on our own ability to tell our stories as we have seen and lived them. I remember being mad in the joint when I read a book called Freedomland or something. It was a white man writing about the black experience. How dare he? Only we can tell our stories, but can we do it without platforms like AALBC. Not hardly. We need a place where we can write and tell our stories without interference. We need AALBC. We must take steps just to insure its survival so that we can continue to dialogue. AALBC, whether you know it or not, is like our THINK TANK. At least, that is how I see. Look at how the landscape has changed over the years as black owned book stores have dwindled down to nothing, What's next. Black sites like this one. I know many of you are familiar with the GReat RESET because I have seen mention of it here so you have to know that one of the key proponents of the RESET is to eliminate all the poor performing businesses and to eliminate them as this is truly an 'only the strong survive' agenda. Who is more vulnerable to a RESET than anything black, and cyber business is just as vulnerable as brick and store establishments. Now, that the race is over for the soul of America, let's join the race to SAVE THE SOUL OF BLACK AMERICA! Save our literary heritage. I believe that the lifeblood of any people is sustained via its literature. What can you do to join this CALL 2 ACTION? 1, Continue to support the site with your participation 2. Invite friends to the site 3. Join FB book clubs and make them aware of AALBC 4 Buy books from this site 5 Sell books on this site.
  21. Today, while still young, may ultimately evolve into a moment long remembered by all of us for some time to come. This Election has been huge, but later after the dust has settled and you check off the things you would like to see occur in exchange for your vote. Nothing will change in some places, and in others, there may be change for us as a collective, but while we are trying to peep what others can will or might do for us, we must look to see what we can do for ourselves. We, I am sure, can all find things for which we would enjoy planting our flag, but I know that if we don't take immediate steps to preserve our literary heritage, then we will find ourselves written out and wiped up of the literary conversation just like we have already been written out of history. If we now let them control the narrative of our fiction, then who will be there to speak for us. We have lost our historical narrative. Do we now elect to tarnish the richness of the urban experience by sitting back and watching doors closed on our own ability to tell our stories as we have seen and lived them. I rememebr being mad in the joint when I read a book called Freedomland or something. It was a white man writing about the black experience. How dare he? Only we can tell our stories, but can we do it without platforms like AALBC. Not hardly. We need a place where we can write and tell our stories without interference. We need AALBC. We must take steps just to insure its survival so that we can continue to dialogue. AALBC, whether you know it or not, is like our THINK TANK. At least, that is how I see. Look at how the landscape has changed over the years as black owned book stores have dwindled down to nothing, What's next. Black sites like this one. I know many of you are familiar with the GReat RESET because I have seen mention of it here so you have to know that one of the key proponents of the RESET is to eliminate all the poor performing businesses and to eliminate them as this is truly an 'only the strong survive' agenda. Who is more vulnerable to a RESET than anything black, and cyber business is just as vulnerable as brick and store establishments. Now, that the race is over for the soul of America, let's join the race to SAVE THE SOUL OF BLACK AMERICA! Save our literary heritage. I believe that the lifeblood of any people is sustained via its literature. What can you do to join this CALL 2 ACTION? 1, Continue to support the site with your participation 2. Invite friends to the site 3. Join FB book clubs and make them aware of AALBC 4 Buy books from this site 5 Sell books on this site.
  22. Thanks for keeping black lit alive and helping to make it more viable in a world where black voices are not being adequately heard
  23. Yes sir, the underlying nature of a man is always there lurking just under the surface and veneer of his new mage whatever it is. It is hard to abandon the ideas and tendencies that went into the process of shaping your worldview. What is so pervasive about the street mindset is that it is hard to shake. If you are in corporate America, you can shuck your 9-5 work image and ease into your everyday brotherman persona in the afterhours. Even this role-playing can have detrimental effects since one has to be careful when putting on his 9-5 game mask; he has to be sure to erase anything in his brotherman persona that will conflict with his corporate visage. Just like a sista can't forget to put on her lipstick, a brother cannot forget to put on his corporate mask. It's designed to both protect him and to defend him agaist the negativity his skin tone will bring forth. But you can never step outside the street persona, though you can mask it. In fact, most brothers from the streets such a myself don't ever want to lose our 'street smarts' because we know that if we can survive on the streets, we can survive anywhere. It's like the adage that if, as an entertainer, you can make it at the Apollo, you can make it anywhere. For street people, it is a badge of honor to know we have survival skills that would allow us to go anywhere in the world and get by. We have this thing we like to ponder about if you put a hustler in the jungle and a corporate brother, the street brotha would survive (What do you think?). Even when we 'square up' and join the real world, we are not giving up our street mindset. And like anyone else in a situation of immense stress, you always revert to instinct which is the primary thing that can be counted on to insure the outcome you will need to survive or to end a threat. Hence, the acts of the 83 year old gangsta. In the 70s, there was a white convict named Jack Henry Abbot who wrote a bestseller from inside. Norman Mailer and other writers helped get me out. The ex-con was enjoying life as an acclaimed writer, making all the rounds ,rubbing elbows with the NYC elite but while dining in a swanky NY resturant, he got into a minor dispute with a waiter. The ex-con felt threatened and despite everything her had going for him, reverted back to who he was and he stabbed the waiter, killing him. He couldn't avoid who he had taught himself to be in order to enhance his survival quotient. Check this out. These racists cops, even in the aftermath of George Floyd are still publicly executing black men. They know how rabid public sentiment is against their murderous behavior. They know their body cams are recording. They know bystanders are recording. They have even been allegedly trained as a professional not to employ deadly force, but when the moment grows to the point where he must choose between his training and his instinct, the cop will revert to instinct. He will kill the brotha because he has taught himself that despite his training, his instinct is more reliable. Oh yeah, let me throw this one as I had seen this play out time and time again in prison. Out here in the streets as well. Try this if you ever want to see how instinct works on a human level. Get up in face of the wrong sissy. You can talk shit and ridicule his sexual preference but when you go too far, you gonna find yourself in a fight but not with someone who fights like a girl. You find out you're fighting a real man who got real skills with his hands. Sweet Thang be done reverted back to instinct and you dealing with a monster.
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