Mel Hopkins

@MAFOOMBAY it seems as if you still do - much of what you've written here is what I would use in an syllogism to support choice.

before 1400?, Makeda Queen of Sheba, Imhotep, Cleopatra, the alchemist, Memnon, - I got 4 but I know the gods/goddess a little better..

@TroyThank you! I was hoping you used Yawatta's review. Not because of the stars but she really read the book and dissected it! Also, even though Amazon snatched up goodreads the authors and readers seem extremely passionate about books.

Thank you @Wendy Jones - I guess I'm not amazon dependent as I thought... but I am also on goodreads.

@D.E. Eliot Thank you for sharing your journey.

Re: this sentiment It's a choice. And it absolutely explains why some in the black community choose escapism.

Lexus' Genius Product Placement in Marvel's Black Panther Movie Highlights Growing Influence of African Americans' Buying Power ROCKVILLE, Md., March 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- African Americans continue to have a supersized influence on the U.S. economy. By 2020 African Americans are projected to have a buying power of $1.5 trillion with a cumulative growth of 16% and a compound annual growth rate of 3% from 2015-2020, according to market research firm Packaged Facts in the report African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition. Skeptics about the cohort's financial clout have to look no further than the recent success of the 2018 blockbuster Marvel superhero movie Black Panther, which has enjoyed record shattering returns and which to date has grossed more than $900 million globally. The film was a surefire success almost from its creative inception and official announcement four years ago as the news sent a simmering excitement through a black community starved for more minority representation in comic book movies. While Disney's Marvel Studios cheered the film's success, so too did car maker Lexus. Movie goers got a look at Lexus' new luxury LC coupe which is featured prominently in a major chase scene through the streets of South Korea. The scene marked two years of collaboration between Lexus and Marvel Studios. Packaged Facts' research revealed that product placement in movies and television shows resonates with African-American consumers. For example, black consumers are more likely to remember the brand name product characters use in a movie and try products they have never tried before that they have seen in a movie. Seeing a product used in a movie is also more likely to reassure black consumers that the product is a good one. Furthermore, when African-American consumers are online or in a store and see a brand name product they recognize from a movie, they are more likely to buy it than its competitor. Car manufacturers featuring their vehicles in comic book movies isn't anything new. However, as AutoNews.com states in an article, Lexus' multicultural marketing agency, Walton Isaacson, openly admits that the idea to for collaboration and product placement in Black Panther represented an opportunity to link the car maker with a cultural event. In addition to the product placement in film, Lexus leading up to the Black Panther release commissioned an original graphic novel, Black Panther: Soul of a Machine, featuring the LC 500 and a Lexus takumimaster craftsman as heroes. And don't forget the Black Panther-themed Super Bowl ad for Lexus. In the end it proved to be a shrewd strategy for Lexus. AutoNews.com reveals that there was "an explosion" of ad impressions across TV, social media, and in theater due to the film and the product tie-in. Further, in the week following Black Panther's domestic premiere on February 16, online searches for Lexus at shopping site Autotrader were up 15% from the previous week. Likewise, Autotrader revealed that online traffic for the LC 500 specifically was up 10%. It's impossible to say how many of these searches were performed by African Americans, However, based on Packaged Facts' previously referenced research on the impact of product placement on African Americans combined with the fact that Lexus is already popular with minority consumers, it's fair to deduce at least a portion of the searches were by black shoppers. Packaged Facts' data also revealed that African Americans are among the biggest car buyers in America. Between 2012 and 2015 spending by African-American consumers on new cars and trucks increased from $13 billion to $20 billion. Further, the 51% increase in spending by black households on new automotive vehicles significantly outpaced the 27% increase registered by other households. But it's not just new cars that get lots of love. Spending by African-Americans on used cars and trucks grew more than twice as fast as comparable expenditures by other consumers. About the Report African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition analyzes recent consumer spending and demographic trends for the African-American population in the United States. View additional information about the report, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports at Packaged Facts' website: https://www.packagedfacts.com/African-Americans-Demographic-10293172/. About Packaged Facts Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services. For more essential insights from Packaged Facts be sure to follow us on Twitter and Google+. For infographics, tables, charts and other visuals, follow Packaged Facts on Pinterest. Please link any media references to our reports or data to https://www.packagedfacts.com/. Press Contact: Daniel Granderson 240.747.3000 dgranderson@marketresearch.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lexus-genius-product-placement-in-marvels-black-panther-movie-highlights-growing-influence-of-african-americans-buying-power-300611592.html SOURCE Packaged Facts

@richardmurray thank you for thinking of me and thank you for bringing this project to my attention. I barely make enough time for my current writing projects so for now I have to pass. By the way, I don't write or speak Portuguese, lol.

I'm not sure about Australia but I've read a lot of news articles about the chinese owned corporations setting up factories in Kenya and other parts the continent that are not environmentally friendly and - the Kenyan government has finally gotten around to shutting them down. So would business owners and workers count as non-government entities? Also, I don't look at chinese nationals doing landgrabs in African nations as a positive. In fact, Chinese nationals own a lot of the hotels and other properties here in the U.S. and also noted for being in bed with jared kushner for that 666 park avenue deal ... nah they need to keep wakanda anything out of their mouths - they don't do us right either...

@Christy, welcome and thank you for joining! My condolences on losing your loved ones. <3 What are you selling in your online shop? Also how did you first become exposed to all those authors? Do you purchase from the author's websites, bookstores, online retailers book club, etc.? In addition to writing and publishing, we're also working to make it easier for readers to gain access to books by black authors. Any suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated?

While they are kicking Africans out of their republic? That's some stinkin' mess...

All three of these points are connected. While it's reported that europeans came armed with guns and bibles to colonize African countries - they didn't have control over their (Africans) minds. Unfortunately, many had succumbed to the ideology of the oppressor instead of powering through the adversity to succeed with their own morals of social justice, way of life and abilities intact. Just like perennials will find their way through the cracks of cement to bloom on the surface, no amount oppression can make one abandoned their morals or belief system. If it does then death is far better for those types. We of African ascent who are here in America obviously had far stronger ancestors than those whose bodies lie at the bottom of the ocean. Edit: To be clear, the story ended for those who are at the bottom of the ocean.

@Damani Wow! As I was reading your introduction, I felt like I was visiting the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Welcome! I'm not being facetious either when I visited the museum I actually took photos of the exhibits of some of the events you mentioned here. Powerful! Also congratulations on finishing the first draft of your historical fiction novel! Aside: Not sure if this is your first attempt at looking for an editor but just a heads up. Novels require a different type of editor than non-fiction. I suspect editors for historical novels are even more detailed because they will help out with authentic language from the period. So, please don't let just any editor work on your book.

@D.E. Eliot did you mean an estimate of the novel's cost? Or did it cost $10k to publish your novel? If the latter, why did it cost $10K

@Damani , welcome. I don't see your introduction. Is this where you posted it?

@Troy Hidden Figures worldwide box office was $236 million Maybe Nate should have played up the woman co-warrior angle to the historic battle... These young women aren't interested in the man rescues woman's honor trope. All my three daughters have seen black panther as did my women cousins and they were all impressed by how the women were portrayed in the film. This means to me this is how they see themselves. Possibly the way Nate views women came out in his filmmaking and simply turned off many young black women and women of color. Also @Troy don't discount Byron Allen who made a $20 million dollar bid for birth of the nation - he lost to fox searchlight who only paid 17.5 million

I feel these words are true for me, anyway. This is why I believe any cosmological theory goes in my metaphysical bag. No one can we prove origin. And why would we want to prove origin? I love to speculate and enjoy my experiences as it relates to consciousness and energy. It is like having my own secret garden where I can play with others who are of same mind. It's a garden that no one can destroy.

@Delano , @Troy @Cynique The scary thing is all of you absolutely correct! How crazy is that???

Wow, this part right here is quite sad... no, we are not all beholden to white supremacy. Women like me cower to no one. Still, the fact that so many of Black Americans have their minds shackled is heartbreaking enough. Who has time to think about anyone else when those we give birth to perish due to their own ignorance. @Troy , I agree a lot of it comes from culture. From public school, media and culture it was hard not hear about slavery but for a lot of us, we were far removed. For example, I grew up in East Flatbush were West Indian pride was strong ; you'd be hard pressed to hear a Jamaican, Bajan or Trinidadian mom or dad talk about slavery. It was all about education - - I think a lot of cultural differences within the black community have to do with the expectation of our parents.

@Troy Oh no! I was just looking him up and Moneta Sleet Jr. just a few weeks ago! What a huge loss to the black community. He was a great mind, researcher and historian! No, Guest Ben T. Mel, I cannot agree to this as it is written. First one must choose to feel inferior. if this did not occur in my own family - I would not assume this to be true for any other black family; enslaved or not. So, no I'm going to throw this whole sentence away, so that I may read the rest of what you've written with an open mind.

Exactly @Troy ! Why did a movie have to tell black people, Ethiopia was never colonized? And that even that is a half truth... Ethiopian was almost colonized by Britain and briefly occupied by Italy. Why is that most American blacks do not know about the Abyssinia Crisis and the wars prior and the wars that followed. You mean to tell me before black people (the collective) learn anything someone has to put it in a movie? And also, not every black person in America was enslaved. There are many who have the "wakanda" mindset. It's true a great majority have ancestors that were enslaved - not everyone shares in Killmonger's make-up. Even those who do have ancestors who were enslaved in America don't carry that baggage. While it may be a reality for some, I find it disheartening that some feel they can identify with the film's character.

Congratulations, @D.E. Eliot and much success. Yes, you're in the right place. Troy has more than 20 years in the business - especially as it relates to black publishers and author and he won't steer you wrong. Also please consider joining #readingblack if you haven't already. Check out the articles on Amazon posted there. Many successful medium-large publishers have moved away. If you choose to stay, then moving forward as a publisher, you are going to negotiate with Amazon on a different level at least-for the sake of those you will publish in the future.

@Troy I don't rule it out. What if Jung was correct and the stuff we learn goes into the collective unconscious and that's why it takes time to retrieve it? No one can say with certainty where information is stored. Aren't scientist still trying to figure out how Einstein's brain worked?

@Troy , I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I still haven't seen the movie but I get the sense that black people couldn't relate to the monomyth before this film. I could be biased though -and "tight" because I wrote a whole contemporary world within a world that made no references to the european culture. In fact, the main character ascends from Ethiopia and she speaks about the fact that the country was never colonize. Her antagonist is a powerful obeah priestess that ascends from the gold coast but settled in Jamaica - and their heritage, language and rituals are intact. Some of the reviews I got from black women specifically was it wasn't believable because the characters didn't behave like "real black people". Specifically the "black" people in my book didn't have "colonized" minds. I am glad this film has opened up the minds. Now it won't be so difficult to write and sell books that are set outside of the 'hood, or cling to that slave narrative.

@Troy I found a plausible explanation while I was watching a skeptics video. The explanation offered relates to the news article you shared regarding knowledge. The professor mentioned that the more you know about a subject, the more information you have to draw from. You may not be able to access it right away but once you quiet your mind or do something else the information surfaces. The odd thing is no one really knows where this information is stored. There are some theories that it resides in the brain, but not everyone believes that. Anyway, life-long learning is the key.