CDBurns

Agree 100%!

I said something along the same lines. If you know that we die from breathing towards a cop, don't breath towards the cop. It sucks that we die from minimal interaction, but defusing a cop situation is the same as defusing a gang situation... Humble yourself in order to live. It's like walking past a 2 foot tall gate of a 4 foot tall Pit Bull. If you walk across the street you minimize the likelihood of the Pit jumping the gate and mauling you. Even if you walk right in front of the gate, if you don't taunt or bother the Pit, it may leave you alone, but the reality is that the 4 foot Pit Bull behind the 2 foot gate at any time could snap and maul you for no reason at all. Shit happens, but you can definitely clinch your buttcheeks and stop the flow of shit. Just close your mouth and do as your told. You can try to prevent an issue, but sometimes the Pit will jump that 2 foot gate just because it's a Pit Bull. There is no rhyme or reason behind these murders. I just know that it's always as it's been. Nothing has changed. We just have more ways to see it now. Well, I take that back... every murder I've seen thus far has one thing in common each individual failed to defuse the situation. We just had a black kid killed by a cop here in Memphis. People immediately began protesting and "black lives matter". The information came out today, the kid tried to run from the cop because he had two warrants where he had molested two kids in another state...

When I say I tried "it" I failed to clarify. I tried to add writers to my site, but it didn't work very well. I also tried Buddy Press inside of Wordpress which is a feature that mimics Facebook in it's feed concept. That didn't work very well either. BUT I'm not Troy and I don't have a huge network at my disposal. I think if AALBC had a wall with a feed it would work, however it would be just like Facebook in that the content would be very short lived and not indexed or searchable by Google, so that would be a problem. While Myspace and Google+ are not dead, they don't compare to Facebook/Twitter they are both viable commodities and that is really the goal isn't it? To generate enough money to create a trickle down effect of sorts to the content providers. Good dialogue here!

I was about to write the same thing. This sounds like an urban legend.

Man... Dear Ricky... I admire your attempt at generating discussion and content but that article is all over the place. Narrow brother and tighten your writing or people are not going to stay with you on those blogs for long. Definitely appreciate the idea behind the story, but if you remember the old 3-5 essay writing method, get your thesis and support your thesis, but don't throw in red herrings and a lot of information that explains, but generates more questions and discussions. If you took that blog post you could literally turn it into a series and keep people coming back more than once. Keep writing though and sharing!

I was not condemning or judging. Just sharing info :-)

Troy, man of the people. I hope the poster comes back to thank you.

I tried it before, but unless you are constantly removing spam, it is a pain to run. Under Wordpress PHP I installed Buddypress. I pushed a lot of people to sign up for it, since it looked almost like Facebook. People used for one day and went right back to Facebook. So creating a content that streams ala Facebook and Twitter is out of the question and it doesn't even matter. Consider that Google + is all but dead and couldn't compete with FB/Twitter/Instagram. Black people simply have to make an effort to visit more websites outside of social media and to interact with the websites as opposed to only on social, but it's very hard to get them to understand this so you have to factor in consumer education when you decide to create a site that is content driven. Troy has an old platform which means he has an extensive database. He has the best chance of any of us to get Black people to a single location, but in order to do so AALBC will have to become an information based site that caters to every walk of Black life. In a way he already does this with the books and film reviews. He simply has to add other sections of entertainment, business and education content. Once these streams have been set up then it's a matter of finding dedicated writers. I always mention Wordpress, but any content provider that allows the blogger layout would work. The ease of adding users is straightforward. This is what I did when I made a call for writers (which didn't go very well). I required each writer to have an Amazon Associates account and a Google Adsense account. When they wrote an article that was about music or books, they had to link to the item on Amazon and they could add an Adsense ad to their post. (By not having any adsense ads on my site this is allowed. If I had adsense, I would only place the banners in two locations leaving a third for the writer to post theirs in their article.) By forcing the writers to sign up and have their own blogs, they could monetize every blog post. All writers would theoretically make money if they are sharing their articles on FB/Twitter/Insta when people visit and if they click through. This was an incentive. It can work. But there is also a learning curve in teaching writers about the benefits of monetizing. Hell most writers don't even run their own sites. Getting people to use the site is as simple as building a staff of writers who will write one article per month. 30 writers with a network of 1000 people on Facebook. A tenth of their followers see their posts is 10 people x 30 writers is 300 extra unique visitors per month and if they simply click one extra page in their visit then you are talking a solid number of page loads. The key is getting the writers. The rest is easy.

The sites are already out there as evidenced by the http://www.huria.org/blogs. The content is there, it's just that the people who browse the web the most are young people and their viewing and browsing habits are not informed or educated. They are just beginning to understand how the web makes money and what they know more than anything is that you can go viral and get famous through jokes, fighting or dancing. All that we want for Blacks is already available. Blacks just do a crappy job of taking advantage of the information available.

I love confidence more than anything, so hair really doesn't matter. Intelligence, looks and shape... I'm married, but I'm just answering the question. My wife is natural and she and her sister run a natural hair website. They don't judge or condemn. They simply discuss the benefits and issues of wearing your hair natural. www.natural-ness.com is the site. I think we are far too fixated on hair. When we should be focused on how to capitalize on the hair market since it is a billion dollar industry that Blacks fund, but don't own.

I want to dive into this and discuss things, but you covered all bases here. This falls in line with the conversation that Hip-Hop actually does more harm than good in the Black community. We could discuss this all day, but at the root of it all is the videos and info from WSHH are shared and reblogged more than anything in the Black web. There isn't a "White" Man, or The Man, or some systemic oppression creating this wealth for Lee and his site. It's just us.

It's very inspiring to see new voices show up and I hope you both continue to come to the boards and make it a part of your daily browsing habits as I have. I know we have moved off topic in a way, but it does speak to the idea of reparations and the cohesiveness of Black America that Coates is writing about something that simply will never happen and we are discussing it. Solving the problem of wealth and media information in the Black community is a fairly simple thing to do in theory. The problem is the convenience factor. Black folks simply aren't willing to give up the convenience of social media to take it upon themselves to visit 5 indie websites per day. More specifically 5 black indie websites per day and they are out there: http://huria.org/blogs/ Am I saying that visiting these blogs will fix black wealth? No, but it's a start in creating an old school webring which gives small biz people eyes on their products. The issue is then how do we convert those eyes into dollars. As Yao said you need capital, but to get capital you have to create a plan that shows how money will be generated and unfortunately Blacks do a very poor job of gathering together to build sustaining media outlets and businesses. Huffposts, Examiner, and tons of other sites work because they have pulled advertising money in due to the amount of content produced on the site by people of considerable status for free. Troy is right in stating that black people won't do this. I've attempted even in Memphis to get groups of people to write for my blog and every time those people leave or never write and start their own and within months the blog hasn't been updated and basically falls flat. That is our ultimate problem, we don't know how to sacrifice and we only want what is convenient. I mean consider how much Medium is going to IPO for, or be sold for, in the near future, or Periscope, or Meerkat. All of these platforms don't even pay for content and as we all know content is king. Facebook's platform is so easy to navigate that it becomes a seamless part of routine. Although I log in to AALBC and anytime I come back I can read or see information and then comment, I've seen other people say it's too difficult to log in and comment here. It's not hard it, it's just not as convenient as clicking the app button and scrolling through the feeds and information. So let's get back to the point of how to create platforms for the distribution of books/information that benefits Black folks. I have a website, at the bottom of that page and in the sidebar is something connected to AALBC. Since AALBC is the longest running Black purveyor of literature, I have to decided to give it prominence on my site. I also make sure to visit and share information from the site. If Troy creates a platform for us to list and sell books with a percentage of sales going to AALBC ala Amazon or Ebay, I would be willing to do that. I would also be willing to write articles or share articles from CBP on AALBC as a writer. All of these seemingly small things will drive traffic to the site. Imagine having a roster of 30 writers of influence (which I'm not) who are willing to create content for AALBC 1 day per month. Book publishers would die to have ad space on the site and the ad revenue for AALBC would increase. This would also create more eyes on content and the information would be shared between all of those networks of writers. This is just a semi solution post. There is a lot more for us to do and to discuss but I hope this kind of continues the dialogue.

Way to go Kwame, as with my life, I didn't make it. Please share pics and info of the event. Troy I have to find a way to get back into writing as a primary source of income or I'm destined to be in manufacturing and missing out on art and other great events. What direction do you recommend?

Cornel West is becoming the angry old man screaming, "Get off of my lawn!" I wish I had a more eloquent phrase, but this is really how I feel. In the last twenty years the greatest movement for Blacks has been Hip-Hop (which really hasn't moved at all and has actually digressed). West and Smiley had the hearts and minds of Blacks for years and only accomplished the lining of their pockets through speeches and books. There hasn't been a real movement of any sort that has empowered Blacks from our intellectuals/leaders. As a matter of fact the Black community has taken more steps backward since West has come into prominence. Coates, like Jeff Johnson and Kevin Powell is attempting to stimulate the dialogue for the next generation. A goal that is much tougher to attempt in today's media market and culture. The sound bite generation that we are in now need immediate motivation and inspiration so guys like Eric Thomas, the hip-hop preacher, are very successful because they create the clips that can be shared and made viral. Coates, may not be attacking capitalism and Obama as West wants the world to do, but he is stepping into the arena and gaining traction which is needed sincerely for our generation of 30 to 55 year olds who are straddling the line between Malcolm and Martin and Sharpton and Jackson and now Dyson and West (damn look at the drop-off!) We need new voices. The problem is even our new voices fall on dead ears, or in this case the same old ears which keeps the dialogue above where it needs to be.

Here is another case of economic empowerment by Blacks in the past that will never happen again. In regard to the case for reparations, maybe it's like Cynique said we can talk about it so much, but what will come of the talk? If the CBL failed then, and we had ZERO response to the housing crash of 2007, writing and delivering this information creates the dialogue, but after the talk is done, will we even have a symbolic gesture, the taking down of the Confederate Flag, for reparations? I don't think so and that is what frustrates me the most about being made aware.

Man the things that are occurring inside of the Amazon house are amazing. As a big marketplace my account was automatically integrated with Amazon.ca and will be integrated into Amazon.mx (Canada and Mexico). In the past week I've been invited by Amazon.jp and another Amazon offshoot to become a part of the launch of Amazon in these various countries. I can write more about this, but it gets into a complex web, that all ends in the same spot. In an attempt to offset the oncoming push of the TPP and Alibaba and Rakuten's reorginization's, Amazon is ensuring that they have a foothold in these countries without even as much as opening a warehouse in those countries. It's an incredible business structure that only Amazon could pull off since there will never be a Black company that could get folks to list and sell through their own site. There is a lot more to say about this, but as far as Black folks are concerned, it's not the corps damaging us, it's just us Troy. It's just us.

And as further confirmation: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/business/media/amazon-lands-spike-lees-chi-raq-as-its-first-original-movie.html?_r=0

Troy, your inserts into those letters are all saying what we've know for a long time, NOTHING is going to change. Just because these angry white men are now facing the hit we faced years ago, they are crying. It will accomplish nothing for them because the machine is moving and Newton's Law is in effect! The only way to stop the Amazon object from moving is like you said, White publishing houses would need to pull the catalogs and that simply will not happen. In other words the fact that for all of these years people continue to build up platforms outside of their own is just a matter of chickens coming home to roost. You didn't want to publish Black authors. Black authors discovered self publishing, which has always been an option, but the success of certain Black authors swayed even well known and White authors to begin self publishing... only accepting deals to gain greater distribution. Now that writers have gotten over the process of being rejected and having to use the 1. submit to agent 2. get rejected 3. finally get an agent 4. get rejected by publishing house 5. finally get accepted 6. take 1-2 years for a book to release model, it is reaching into the pockets of large White publishers and now they have something to say... Nothing is going to happen. These guys will run out of money before they are able to use the monopoly argument against Amazon. This stuff is going no where fast and I know this for a fact because the majority of Amazon's inventory is not, I repeat, is not even purchased by Amazon!!!! It is primarily FBA. In other words the big publishers are delivering the books to Amazon's FBA warehouses and Amazon has the ultimate godfather. You use them because you literally (pun intended) don't have a choice since people just won't buy directly from you or your site. It's great information to read, but we know as Cynique would say (and Shakespeare) this is much ado about nothing.

Dang, I gotta spend some time with this one.

I wish my connection was stronger. I was always pulled in several directions like I am today. When I first met Quincy Troupe it was on the heels of the Magic Johnson book. I think that was 95. I had just started writing, but I was also playing college basketball. I was an old freshman after the military. I had a chance to sit in on events and he held a series in La Jolla every year. I was hosting the Open Mic at the Gallery 504 and I had a number of real opportunities to perform with Quincy, but something always stopped me from being able to meet him, although I was performing on a couple of stages after him and judged in one San Diego poetry slam that he was one of the panelists for. When I say a lot of us, it was San Diego so the Black Poets were older than I was, and our new wave was entering the MFA at SDSU one at a time. The first was Renee Swindle, then Jane Milligan and Jahsun Olufemi Edmonds, then I was next, then Bennie Eklipse Herron, then Ajani Brown (he's becoming pretty popular in Afrofuturism and is a professor at SDSU) and I don't know who came after Ajani. I stopped hosting the Gallery when it moved from downtown due to imminent domain and was moved to North Park. Herb Singletary connected every part of the San Diego Poetry scene. Although it was never really big, and Quincy very rarely stepped in, just because he was in San Diego it gave us a foundation.When I look back at that it could have been so much more. I'm hoping things come together in the next few days and I can go. I will keep you posted.

I don't know if they remember me, but Quincy was the head of the Lit department at UCSD when I was at SDSU. I actually performed on the same bill as Quincy in San Diego on several occasions. When I coached, I got to watch his son who was a very good basketball player (obviously because Quincy was damn good himself) play in high school in San Diego. I actually hired his son's coach as my assistant. The young Black poets in San Diego threw our weight behind Quincy when his degrees were outed and they ousted him as Poet Laureate of Cali. Then when a lot of us entered the MFA program and were attempting to do certain things in San Diego we got upset when it felt like the blowback against Quincy was hurting us. They have always done incredible work and they have always been very active in the community in San Diego. I had no idea that Margaret was from Mississippi and it's good to know this info. Thanks Troy!

This was a great back and forth.

Trust me I understand this and I've just come to the conclusion that I'm sacrificing 15% to Amazon no matter what the product is. I've pretty much given up the idea of selling through my site. I can't use Google Adsense so anything would be welcome to get some ad revenue if CBP every picks up on traffic. As of right now I'm at least winning when someone buys a pair of my shoes from my site I get an Amazon Associates kickback. I guess due to the amount of returns I have it's just easier to give up the 15%.

Good information and definitely creates symmetry. As the Gods & Earth's would say, 360 degrees = completion.

I might have to make the drive to this. It's actually a reasonable distance.