Mel Hopkins

The Anti-Abortion group says their next step is a federal ban on contraception and abortion. 

This move criminalizes women and will also stomp over the right to privacy. 

When I first began visiting this forum in 2010, there was a lot of talk about the fall of the Black community because unmarried Black women were having babies with multiple men. I noticed, too - no one put the onus on men. I'll never understand that perspective, mainly since men cause 100 percent of unwanted pregnancies. 

But let's say women lose the right to choose abortion. And any attempt to abort, a woman becomes a felon. Felons lose their rights to participate in society, especially in the political system. Black women are the most consistent voting block, but we're no match to combat voter obstruction. 

So, what's next? The government subjugates and returns black women to breeder status? 

Speculation aside, if black women lose their rights to exercise agency in this society, what's next for the Black community? 

Yep, black multimillionaires exist, and most of us probably have very close relationships with them. What always amazes me is the various ways mm achieve their wealth goals. 

20 hours ago, Delano said:

I am going to make a word to describe this, complisult. Starts as compliment ends as an insult

YES!!! Perfect word!

20 hours ago, Delano said:

 if you were flying international from 97-00 we may have met.

 

Actually I used to fly to the islands around Christmas 84-91.

I started flying international routes in '08. Best gig ever! Well, until we got the low-rent gangster Smisek for a CEO. I left the job soon after. Many flight attendants hated Glenn Tilton. Someone in scheduling (or higher up) requested me for the lead flight attendant for the executive merger transition team flight. Tilton was on that flight, and I found out he was all about the passengers. Tilton was older, but many of United's passenger-technological upgrades began under his leadership. He was also a gentleman. Smisek, in comparison, had no honor - and the airline went down under him. 

10 hours ago, ProfD said:

Moderation is the key when it comes to eating it.

I've been on a weight-loss diet since puberty - so yes, exactly!  Moderation is the key!

But here's something else I've learned.  Movement. A lot of us forget to move when we get older.   I'm not talking about exercising for 30- 60 minutes a day, although that is good too. But I mean getting up and moving every hour for at least 9-10 hours a day.  I jog for 3.30 minutes every hour. And I don't eat after 6 PM.  Well, at least 6 days a week.  

Ok back on topic: - I'll eat soul food (poultry/ fish, greens, oats and corn meal, but I've cut back on wheat.  Baked macaroni for holiday meals. But no peach cobbler, ever.  

13 hours ago, Delano said:

I think that both Mel and are comfortable in the spiritual and the intellectual. In addition she lime yourself is amphibious we can swim in both cultures.

OMG, I thought I was the only one who doesn't eat dairy in the winter!   They are hilarious but no lies detected.  Belly is full but no nutrients.  And yes, I can cook my a - off but I know that food is bad for the heart.  Even though it's good for the soul. 

19 hours ago, Delano said:

DEC was big in in the Boston area. I did a co-op at Wang Labs in the mid 80's. So you are giving me a flash back.

Ok now it's getting really weird.  Are our lives our own? 

18 hours ago, Troy said:

I am not sure you appreciate just how much smarter you are than the average bear.  …. Or maybe my opinion of the masses is just too low, But I don’t think so

erm...Thank you?

17 hours ago, Troy said:

We trade across fiat currencies and financial institutions make a lot of money during this.  And sure individuals can do this with Crypto, but again doing this is even more complicated for the vast majority of individuals.

When you write "Trade Across," are you referring to the foreign exchange (FOREX)? - ETF (exchange-traded funds) investing?- I agree with that too. I made a few "dollars" ETF investing in the Yuan around 2012-2013 (I think). Aside: a lot of folks don't know this, but working as a flight attendant is like earning a GLOBAL MBA. I got stories.  

But I'm not talking about trading across currencies.

I mean trade cryptocurrency for goods and services like we trade US dollars for goods/services. For example, Today, I can edit a paper and ask for a Cash App payment in Bitcoin. I can cash out too. It is that simple. These platforms exist to make the transition smoother.  

However, I think your original statement raises the question of Usability versus Utility. ("Is it easy to use" versus "do we need it")

I just finished watching the JP Morgan Chase CEO of asset and wealth management on Bloomberg - and her main gripe is keeping financial talk simple so that everyone can understand how to invest.

Plain communication helps to drive easy-to-use design.

When referring to anything digital, the KISS method would benefit Boomers, X-boomers (the Jones Generation), and the first group of generation X, especially since the digital age happened to us. Digital generations Millennials and Generation Z live it - but they may not have an easy time explaining it to dinosaurs.   Aside: Not too long after graduating from Tech, I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation during its heyday. It was fortuitous to have access and exposure to technology communication since my teen years and beyond.  I do my best to share that insight. 

If we're going to bring our community up to speed, we must discuss emerging technologies in plain language.

38 minutes ago, ProfD said:

I think brotha @Delano is referring to the Metaverse in general as a temporary escape from reality.

 

At least, that's what the whole Lego digital people and landcape looks like to me.

I felt a little guilty because reading does help me escape some of the madness.  And yep  nailed it with legoland!

2 hours ago, Delano said:

Another way to temporarily escape reality. 

Reading?  Or media in general?  

3 hours ago, Troy said:

Can you think of a so called influencer who is a Black, cis-gender, male in my age range on TikTok, for example?  Is he buck dancing (metaphorically speaking).  Again I will give it a shot...

Here's a group I found via aarp  - Silverfox Squad LLC - I think the founding member designs shoes  - He's verified on instagram has about a half-million followers. Who knew? lol

io

On 3/14/2022 at 2:27 PM, daniellegfny said:

also your expertise might be extremely helpful with this particular down

@daniellegfnyI'm not sure what you mean by " this particular down. "  Also, I'm not a blockchain technology expert.  My vocation is journalism. I'm an expert at gathering and disseminating information.  In short, I read a lot.

On 3/14/2022 at 12:22 PM, Troy said:

This would comport with my experience.  Any AALBC content that went viral on social does so because of someone else's efforts -- not mime.  In each case I never was able to identify the person who first my content go virial.

I was wrong about the influencer part...

On 3/14/2022 at 12:07 PM, Troy said:

'm part of a program called Builder + Backers and am hoping to do an experience in which I can test the effectiveness of TikTok for AALBC,

I'm not familiar with the Builder + Backers program. If you could, would you share an overview? 

Also, I don't know why this escapes me (maybe I'm too close)- but YOU ARE AN INFLUENCER with the oldest black books promotion website on the internet. AALBC continuously drives black book sales and promotes authors through email marketing, promotional marketing, bookselling programs, and social movement. 

TikTok is designed for low information consumers. The TikTok audience wants their info in easy-to-understand, digestible "byte"-size increments so they can share it with others. My daughters always force me to participate in the music and dance challenges, which I love. I've noticed the same with other parents our age -even celebrity gen-Xers and X-boomers. 

So, from the cultural perspective, TikTok has been able to bridge the generation gap. Users even engage others in the literary movement and have brought a lot of backlist books to bestselling status. So, here's a thought. BookTok (43 billion views as of today)- "BlackLit" could be the theme (the blacklit hashtag isn't popular) featuring social movement black literary fiction. For example, my daughter's beau's grandfather wrote Trumbull Park in 1959. Recently inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Trumbull Park is about the first black family moving into a whites-only public housing project. I've noticed in the aalbc newsletter you reach back to spotlight the literary history makers. So there might be a way to get your #Sankofa (2.3 million TikTok views) on, to use that editorial angle as a point of entry to tell and promote aalbc's story on TikTok.  

@Troy Off-Topic:  My club notifications isn't working.  I get notifications from the forum topics but not club notifications.  I do have it set to receive notifications when someone comments, starts a topic or replies to my topics  - but I'm not getting anything. I hope club members are getting notice of activities from Readingblack.com 

On 3/12/2022 at 9:55 PM, Delano said:

Would this result in more book sales or is it going to limit book sales but expand the resale market. 

My preliminary assessment is trading nft books is no different than big 5 publishing does with books that are in the public domain and no longer have copyright protection.  Penguin Random House makes a grip selling "The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B DuBois  - so yes, I believe it would expand the resale market in a similar way.  No one can own the copyright on the book but you can update it with your insight and create NFT for it.  At least, my understanding is the copyright remains with the creator , the winning bidder owns the the original digital file.    

On 3/13/2022 at 7:00 AM, daniellegfny said:

Gather the creatives to artistically, and graphically d display what’s been buried, burned, flooded, and erased through time in our history. 

My understanding of the blockchain ledger - crudely put: no one can go back and change the building blocks. So, the only way it could be effective in black history keeping is if we start from today and add digitized artifacts - kind of like the national archives.   Have you read  this whitepaper https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/policy/nara-blockchain-whitepaper.pdf ?

10 minutes ago, Troy said:

Do you, or anyone else here besides Danillegfny and myself hold, cryptocurrency

Yes, I've been trading Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins since 2018.  Coinbase pays you to learn about new coins. 

13 minutes ago, Troy said:

but the adoption rate of buying physical things with crypto faces many challenges which will imped if not stop wide spread adoption. 

We trade in cryptocurrency like we trade in fiat money - I'm not sure what you mean.  I haven't used my cashapp to trade in cryptocurrency yet - but it's an option.  Do you rermember when I wrote about Publica back in 2018?

On 3/13/2022 at 11:20 AM, Troy said:

  I'm just not sure this is translating into buyers and readers.

Reports indicate booktok had an impact on book buying but not necessarily reading. If I remember correctly, Pew Research indicated reading held steady.  I think I mentioned this last month in one of the aalbc discussions. 

"Kristen McLean, executive director and industry analyst at NPD Bookscan, said social media—particularly TikTok users who post about books, known collectively as BookTok—has “definitely been a factor” in surging book sales, along with the pandemic in general, with many of the sales gains coming in Q1 and Q2 before the Covid-19 vaccines were widely available." https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/01/28/how-tiktok-helped-fuel-the-best-selling-year-for-print-books/?sh=4ac1eb617c3a

On 3/13/2022 at 11:20 AM, Troy said:

 

Somehow I don't think I could garner that type of following -- she is a 20-something and I', old enough to be her grandfather.  But you know what, maybe I'll just give it s shot and see for myself.

Also like I mentioned in Readingblack.com - maybe folks our age would better benefit from a relationship with influencers instead of spending the time running an account. 

On 3/13/2022 at 11:23 AM, Troy said:

Perhaps we will also use AI to read the books for us too

Troy, you are killing it! AWS has AI (am*z*n comprehend) to help with reading comprehension

On 3/13/2022 at 11:26 AM, Troy said:

Are you seeing may folks in our age on TikTok?  Did you discover Kendra Reads before you saw the CBS News article?

I get all my TikTok notifications from my daughters, who share stories with me.

Since I don't spend much time on TikTok, I followed up on the CEO's claim of about 40 billion views for the hashtag BookTok. Following that lead, I searched for black BookTok and found Kendra.Reads via the CBS news story. I followed her because she promotes black books and follows up on recommendations where popular series contain black characters. 

I didn't see one ad while watching any TikTok video. Starting an account and getting an audience would be too time-consuming for me. The way to benefit from the hashtag BookTok is through its popular influencers promoting books. 

I saw TikTok CEO Shouzi Chew on Bloomberg this morning and the interviewer, David Rubenstein, asked Chew, how someone Rubenstein's age could benefit from TikTok. Chew answered BookTok, generates 40 billion views (BILLION WITH A B ) for the booktok hashtag. There is also Black BookTok  I found one influencers "Kendra.Reads" https://www.tiktok.com/@kendra.reads?lang=en with more than 100k followers who was featured on CBS news https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kendra-keeter-gray-tiktok-creator-black-characters/. 

I'm on tiktok.  So far I just watch.  Is anyone promoting here promoting their books, bookstore or publishing company on tiktok? Post your profile name so we can follow. 

On 3/9/2022 at 6:20 PM, Troy said:

Who is on TikTok anyway?  

 

  I am ThrvngWrtr.  But I haven't thought of how to use it yet.  Which is why seeing TikTok CEO Shouzi Chew on Bloomberg this morning was wild.  The interviewer, David Rubenstein, asked Chew, how someone Rubenstein's age could benefit from TikTok. Chew answered BookTok, generates 40 billion views (BILLION WITH A B ) for the booktok hashtag. There is also Black BookTok  I found one influencers "Kendra.Reads" https://www.tiktok.com/@kendra.reads?lang=en with more than 100k followers who was featured on CBS news https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kendra-keeter-gray-tiktok-creator-black-characters/. 

On 3/9/2022 at 6:41 PM, Troy said:

 

We are a long way away from selling books on block chains

not so fast... have you checked out Publica https://publica.com/

On 2/27/2022 at 4:01 PM, Guest Tony said:

Obama was half white, Harris is half black and married to a white male and now Jackson is married to white.  Don't tell me you don't see the pattern. Why was a bother not good enough?

Well, in the case of President Obama, "a brother" was more than good enough. Obama's father is a black man who met the President's mother in college when both were studying Russian. But President Obama is married to a black woman he met on the job (White Shoe Law firm) "When Barry Met Michelle." 

There is a pattern, and it's called access.

We rarely leave our comfort zone to find a mate. 

Judge Brown Jackson met her husband when they were in school (Harvard). A mutual friend set Madame Vice President up on a blind date with her future husband (former Partner at a multinational law firm). They married when she was 50 or already in her 50s. 

If there's something to gripe about, it's how they all run together like some badass wolfpack. 

Btw, betcha didn't know the Late Senator John McCain's daughter-in-law is a black woman. McCain's son met his wife in the military.