Mel Hopkins

@Delano As I mentioned my goal is NON-ATTACHMENT. Un-attachment is different. My comment to Troy, here, reveals out of sheer exhaustion to get him to see my perspective, and failing miserably, I stopped. Not detach but just stopped. Maybe stepping back gave me an opportunity to determine what I was actually debating. Was I fighting to defend President Obama's legacy? Or was I fighting to prove that life under President Obama was better. In debating the former, I'm offering a record which has nothing to do with me. If I was debating for the latter, it would be fighting to maintain the illusion that circumstances have to be a certain way for me to be happy. It could be but I'm no longer in that moment so I don't know. I'm not sure how this relates to your original comment here in the Calling all amateur psychiatrists thread, I responded here that I didn't think your assessment, characterization of Cynique not critiquing my comments was accurate. For clarification: I meant that maybe you don't notice that in my exchange with Cynique that I offer no resistance to Cynique's alleged critique or psychoanalyzing. I believe that she can "see" what I'm attached to. So, I look within then respond. Maybe, it's me who responds differently to Cynique than I do with the others. I do agree with Cynique though CONTEXT matters.

@Pioneer1 et al,On February 16, 2018 PBS is airing the documentary Pioneers: Reginald F. Lewis and the Making of a Billion Dollar Empire - PBS

@zaji Thank you for your presence!

Yes, Yes, Yes,! (I'm over here giggling -because I have to meditate on this All.The.Time. )

I believe it is well-documented that environment is factor in genetic mutation... the whole "Out of Africa" project details the mutation of the mitochondrial DNA to track how humans changed as they moved further away from the equator. Geneticist classify modern humans in haplogroups to mark our movements around the world - "race" is never mentioned in the study but rather they identify the change in genetic code. Also @zaji points out the initial testing, the Cambridge Reference Sequence came a European woman and worked it's way back to Africa. Not all mtDNA results are derived from that test. There are a few, one in use is the Yoruba mtDNA. For example, my results came from FamilytreeDNA and they use(d) revised (rCRS ) and RSRS (Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence) The RSRS results are based on the mitochondrial Eve's ancient genome. As I've mentioned here before, according to my results my haplogroup L3 is from Ethiopia My halplogroup maternal ancestor was the progenitor of the Eurasian (European and Asian) haplogroup L, M, who left Africa. Today, they look different from Ancient Africans but that's due to their migration patterns. If they came from the first woman in my line, my maternal ancestor but left Africa this should stand to reason environment caused a mutation in their genetic code. This would be the same way environment caused my genetic code to become different from the original modern human woman, mitochondrial Eve. I'm still her descendant but my maternal ancestor's migration pattern caused my genes to mutate and for me to look different. Also there was a recent article on early human - the "cheddar" man who died about 10,000 years ago. But getting back to the thesis of this post, discussing what "race" is or isn't" is actually trying to make sense of mentally-ill babblings. We know there's no biological foundation for race. In the same respect, there's no scientific basis for culture either. Still I subscribe to what serves me - and that's doesn't mean I'm brainwashed - but rather I think certain mental illnesses can be contagious. Or borrowing Nietzsche phrase from Beyond Good and Evil - He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

@Delano yes, that would be helpful.

https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/course/5 Google Tag Manager Fundamentals Course Overview Managing multiple analytics and marketing tags for your site can be a challenge. Redundant or incorrect tags can distort data measurement and reduce your site performance. In this self-paced course, you’ll learn how Google Tag Manager can simplify the tag implementation and management process for marketers, analysts, and developers.

A rich source of melanin is beneficial to those who need to survive the effects of radiation. Some could ingest it because it's also found in fungi. Using melanin to determine "race" is a slippery slope. I rather not be someone's source of survival in an aftermath of a nuclear holocaust because I'm dark skin.

I dunno, @Del this assessment seems inaccurate. I admire @Cynique 's thought process and construction. So early on and now I would seek clarification or ask her to expand on a thought. Our exchange is psychoanalytic sans the resistance. And I appreciate that Cynique "sees" me. I appreciate our constructive exchanges. It's not a man vs woman thing. Anyone who finds constructive criticism challenging, usually struggles with attachment. Cynique has a gift of unmasking that thing we're attached to. Maybe that's why our conversations go unnoticed. I offer no resistance. I work to be fluid because I'd rather see if that thing is preventing me from achieving my goal of non-attachment.

@Troy I agree it would be better for the long term. In fact it would allow every independent book publisher, self-publisher of books for and/or by African-Americans to become a sustainable distribution network. Imagine #readingblack.com becoming a large independent book distribution network. In fact, if you or someone would show us how to track our books for sales, distribution and dispensing advertising fees we all in the blackbook eco-system could actually sell each other’s books too. Not only would each make money we will support true independent distribution network. 1- we'll have a mechanism to get an advertising fees for books we don't have to stock - and 2- we, independent publishers and self-publishers will have learned another piece of code that will allow us to track the books we sell through other websites. Btw, this comment also belongs in -->and it will definitely be welcomed in #readingblack.com Strategies <- and if you can help me understand this process will help readingblack.com become a distribution network.

@Cynique Would that be to maintain the wealth such as Jay Z mentions in his song "Family Feud"? Because even as a divorced mother who also has a baby daddy I can see how this is definitely a strategy if our goal is to maximize wealth in the black community. Jay Z even has Beyonce listed as songwriter on this track - so again the intellectual property money stays in the family. Nah, I can't see your statement as negative - I see it as strategic and adds to the motif of "focusing on culture to take us forward."

@Troy I agree it would be better for the long term. In fact it would allow every independent book publisher, self-publisher of books for and/or by African-Americans to become a sustainable distribution network. Imagine #readingblack.com becoming a large independent book distribution network. In fact, if you or someone would show us how to track our books for sales, distribution and dispensing advertising fees we all in the blackbook eco-system could actually sell each other’s books too. Not only would each make money we will support true independent distribution network. 1- we'll have a mechanism to get an advertising fees for books we don't have to stock - and 2- we, independent publishers and self-publishers will have learned another piece of code that will allow us to track the books we sell through other websites. Btw, this comment also belongs in and it will definitely be welcomed in #readingblack.com Strategies

Yes! I would gladly host and participate in this discussion because damn, lawd knows these "yellow shirt" hating folks spend an inordinate amount time figuring out ways to harm us and take our "lunch, and lunch money" !!!

@Troy , I attempted to update my about me section on my profile and it returned an error. Itwon't update. Also I used the promotion tool on one of my discussion posts - and it also returned an error - it used to work but now there's a bug. Ok enough of the housekeeping. Is there a way we could save the books we'd like to purchase to our profile? Also on the books for purchase - do you get credit if I purchase the book from amazon? I rather purchase books directly from the authors' or their publishing companies. I know you were working on a way to get advertising fees for books sold through aalbc from author/publishing company's websites - have you decided on a plan (that is easy for us lowtech folks) ?

This is where I think a lot of folks get confused. For example, I don't ignore "gender" constructs; I simply refused to submit to it. In fact, when I hear someone discuss gender, I give them the side-eye and keep it moving. Those who embrace constructs and labels as if it's a badge - tell me all I need to know about their level of engagement.

@Delano I find a lot of my books through mainstream and alternative media too! This is yet another strategy, many authors should put into their marketing - media relations activity for books.

@Troy thank you for posting! @zaji you have a new follower on wordpress.

@Troy my parents raised me to think this way. Before cross-cultural awareness was a thing - it was how I viewed the world. First from my immediate cultural perspective then how others' behavior informed their culture. So yes, that's it. I don't see race, per se and I never have. I see culture and subcultures in humans. Here's my backstory: My dad was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany and that's where my public education began. Since the school was affiliated with the U.S. Military - I didn't encounter "race" indoctrination. When we returned to the states, I was a cosmopolite. Yes, 5 going on 6 and I was already a citizen of the world. By then it was hard to talk me off my foundation. When I was confronted with race and the civil rights movement - my mom told me humans were all the same. I remember using the word nigger when I was in the doctor’s office looking at a magazine. It was Jamaica travel ad and I remember saying the little girl in the picture looked like a nigger. My mother said when retelling the story that a "pink" woman in the office smirked. My mother quickly corrected me right there. She said people were fair-skin some were brown-skin and everything in between. What's weird is looking back, the little girl looked just like me. I was under the influence of grown folks’ conversation. I used their” nigger" label and depiction of a girl who looked like me. I made a note to younger self that would be the first and last time I let the national conversation influence my concept of me, my culture or any culture. I kept that promise too. My mom indoctrinated me to her concept of beauty and that's been hard to shake. If I'm not slim-trim, well-dressed and hair perfectly coiffed I'm not fit for polite company. But that too is part of my culture (or sub-culture.) My mother never said whites, negros or coloreds, it was fair-skin, brown-skin. I would later learn that my father wanted to share the harsh realities of "racism" with me, but my mother said "no" because there were more important things I had to learn. She is an education advocate and I still have more books in my library than I can read in this lifetime. But get this, my mother uses the most derogatory terms when it comes to cultures. She didn't when I was young, nor did she use those terms when my daughters were in their formative years. Aside: She didn't tell me about her battle with colorism within the family until I was older. Her skin color was the darkest in the family. The women of my maternal line are light brown to fair-skin with light colored eyes and jet-black hair. My great great-grandmother's father was native American, her mother was from Ethiopia, East Africa. We think she was a free negro since we can't find any enslaved people in my maternal line. We are from the north - most of my maternal family live or are buried in West Virginia. I empathize with those who were enslaved in this country. I hold a harsh opinion of those who did the enslaving. I give a side-eye to those who sold off or let Africans be captured. None of it defines me. Case-in-point, a boy called me "nigger" when I was bussed out of my middle-class to upper-middle class black West Indian and Jewish neighborhood to go to a school in an Italian American poor to working-class neighborhood. Yes, that was NYC bright idea of diversity back in the late 70s lol. By then I already knew who I was in relation to the world. So instead of internalizing it; I beat his Italian-azz. It was no different than him calling me out of my name. My euro-Jewish teacher tried to chastise but I was "eff you too". You already know about our high-school - it was about as diverse as any public school could be - except we were the talented tenth of all cultures in NYC. It wasn't until I got to St. John's University did I have to face the reality of” racism" and clash of the cultures. In college, you realize the clash is more about competition and folks will use anything at their disposable to graduate top dawg to get that head start in the rat race. But it was social media that blew up my cultural reality. I learned that everyone doesn't have the same understanding of the game. I learned there was a difference between blacks - almost the same as what WEB Du Bois revealed in his Social Studies report in 1901 ... There was a difference between southern and northern blacks - there was a difference between free negros and newly freed enslaved blacks. True to that 1901 report my mother. a northerner married my father a southerner. His family were sharecropper but had to escape the south because someone had a hit out on his father. My grandmother with her 9 children made it to Brooklyn but her husband did not. My paternal grandmother had to start all over. It took them just one generation to become lower middle-class and the next generation (me and my first paternal cousins all got accepted to BTHS (wild, right?) one of my first cousins is a millionaire. I think what saved them was cultural assimilation. The sisters and brothers left their southern culture behind and quickly assimilated and all married northerners. So that's a snippet of my back story and how it informed my cultural view of the world.

@CDBurns This ^ is the term I was trying to remember! Thank you! Yes, please share a video in strategies !

@Delano @Troy Ditto " Facts @Cynique Daaayum! This is fabulous! I need to post this on my pc - so that I'm always reminded not to do this! All learning stops at this level.

@Delano Welcome, my psychic brother! Thank you for joining this one! How do you find books to read? Or if they find their way to you - how does it happen? @Delano And this one... how long did it take you to stop being self-conscious?

@Troy Thank you! Sharing thoughts with each other is the only way we are going to get the best into action!