CDBurns

LOL! The Michael Jackson pic at the end... brutal. Note that none of the pictures are of Lupita. But the image of Black women in America is changing. This is seen in the hair business and should actually be studied. In the last 10 years the shift to natural hair has been kicking the hair relaxer business in the ass. It's to the point now where traditional hair companies are purchasing natural hair companies left and right. Consider Carol's Daughter as a reference point. There are more and more natural hair women being featured than the straight haired woman especially in marketing campaigns. Take the time to look at tv commercials and more than likely any Black woman on the spot will have natural hair. Now this doesn't mean that men are becoming more accepting. As a matter of fact Black men are the major reason Black women perm (huge generalization I know). Most natural hair women are married to White men. I'm not doing research to support this so I'm just making a claim, but google Natural hair women and White men and note the number of articles written on the subject. I know personally I've had black friends who just won't marry Black women and definitely won't be seen with Black women with natural hair or short hair. It's crazy.

But you can't do that... cause it's freaking me out. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very good find Troy. Consider this one shared immediately.

I just saw that movie Troy and my first thought was, will there ever be a time where we actually write movies that are this ambitious. I guess not ambitious, but just different. Our narratives need to open up. Delano interestingly enough, that movie ended with real communication which I think was ultimately the point.

What more is there to say? Boom!

I don't believe this. I mean we watch a lot of shows and I think total we watch about 30 hours a week. I think they are confusing having the Tv on with actual watching. I know sometimes people turn the Tv on and let music videos play all day but no way people are watching that much. Now if we look at conspiracy theory stuff a report like this would continue to generate marketing for a group that doesn't seem to have any control over their disposable income

Now that is a very true observation. Due to the speed at which we throw away pop culture we are not seeing very many "superstars" anymore. That's an whole other discussion and definitely an important one. There really hasn't been a break out store since the advent of twitter and facebook. We've seen more viral sensations than consistent starpower... I tend to say in regard to Tracy Morgan that if it weren't for Martin he would be still doing small comedy circuits. I think his Hustleman character was parlayed into SNL, but he never created a character as memorable as Hustleman on SNL. His "Pick up the Pieces" skit on Martin is still hilarious. I can't even remember his comedy from SNL. I will give you Jim Carrey's performance on SNL as one of the best moments in the last ten years. His impression of McConaughey was genius.

Mike Myers and Dana Garvey are both outside of that ten year window. I'm not talking recognition, I'm talking about creating memorable characters and then lucrative film careers which is what SNL used to do. The awards and small shows are good but the most memorable skits in the last ten years were Tina Feys palin and not much else. We can agree to disagree. But as far as being relevant to all ages the only reason it is still slightly relevant is it's musical guest and the digital shorts. Hence the rise of adult swim, the boondocks and Dave Chappelle (which was also over ten years ago...almost). Mad TV collapsed and In Living Color collapsed but Saturday Night Live continues on because of its legacy and only because it's easier to leave it in that time slot than it is to find something else to fit. Also people will literally stay up to see what foolishness the host will do. I wouldn't hesitate to say that the hosts are primarily the reason the show has been able to continue forward since the lack of a church lady, lying guy, Mr Rogers, or waynes world is non existent. I will agree that the live factor is a bonus but that is negated by the fact that the ore recorded digital shorts are the most memorable excerpts from the last few years. I do concede that the show is a powerful cultural factor because we are discussing it on a black message board when there are only three blacks featured.

I couldn't bring myself to watch it Harry. I just didn't feel like another slave story.

Will Ferrell was last on SNL in 2002 as a main cast member. That's more than 10 years. Jimmy Fallon was last a full time cast member in 2004. I know it's close but it's not 10 years, lol. Seth Meyers just got the Late Night job because Fallon moved up. I wouldn't consider him on the same level as Bill Murray, Chevy Chase or Eddie Murphy at all. He isn't even on Adam Sandler's level. Tina Fey took off after her Palin impression, but she hasn't had a major movie yet. Her biggest success is a SNL vehicle in 30 Rock. No where near the career of Chris Rock. I think the others you kind of get my POV of what a huge star is. I'm talking Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, or any of the old guard like Chevy Chase, or Dan Akroyd. Those guys have/ had huge movie and film careers. In the last ten years no one has really developed from the SNL family into a huge star. Andy Sandberg had several flops in film and Brooklyn 99 isn't exactly tearing up the ratings. SNL used to literally guarantee success for their prime time people. It just isn't producing the type of careers it once did or maybe I'm expecting too much. I watch the show in chunks on Hulu and it's primarily the digital skits or the musical artists on the show. I would say the funniest skit to me on the show and a lot of people would agree are the digital skits featuring Sandberg and Timberlake. They are the most succesful bits from the show as of late. Those along with the Lonely Island skits are the funniest. But are there any memorable characters that have been created on the show? When you think about SNL you automatically think about Belushi's Samurai, Eddie Murphy's James Brown, John Lovett's Lying Guy or Akroyd's characters. The only person who has an even remotely memorable character is Tina Fey. Here are a couple of those digital shorts from SNL I meant to say that they just got their first full time Black woman primetime player. I guess I'm letting on that I have tried to watch it, but the show is really missing a lot. I do think this was one of the funniest skits:

I watched the Walking Dead and then the All Star Game. The dunk contest Saturday Night was the best it's been in years. The whole All Star Saturday Night was pretty good. I have a lot invested in the Nba because of the shoe biz. I'm a die hard Knicks fan unfortunately... I don't blame you for not paying for those tickets. The Sarah Palin skits were good, and the weekend report is okay but I think the show is holding on because it's an institution and honestly what would fill that time slot. I mean the show took 39 years to get its first black woman comic. Like I said Justin Timberlake and the digital shorts are. pretty much the best thing going for it. Dennis Miller is just another angry white dude now and SNL hasn't really launched a big star in the last ten years has it?

I know the Fighting Illini people are simply crushed every darn year. Your shining basketball jewel Simeon produces the best basketball player in the country every year, but Illini never lands their own kids. That's primarily a shoe issue. Kids go to the schools that their shoe programs/AAU teams direct them towards. That's how the cash keeps flowing. The Mean Streets program pushes guys towards the premier programs based on the shoes they wear. Simeon's Derrick Rose wore Adidas and went to Memphis with Coach Cal (on fraudulent test scores...) Simeon's Jabari Parker wore nike and went to Duke Both guys were number one picks Jahlil Okafor (Whitney Young) was a Nike kid he went to Duke as well. I mean the story for Chicago is so deep and twisted it's amazing. You are right again though.

Sunday Night is Walking Dead night for us so that's what we watch. I didn't even realize SNL was doing a 40th year show. The show pretty much sucks unless they are doing something music related. In other words the best skits aren't even SNL cast members, they all involved Justin Timberlake or the Andy Sandberg rapping with T Pain. I did see an Adele skit, but once again it was music based. The sketch comedy is dead since the writers have failed to expand their rosters to include the backbone of the comedy world which is Black America. I did watch the Kanye performance on Okayplayer.com which looked like it didn't have any place on a comedy show. As far as Empire is concerned, I really like the show. I grew up in a single parent household and my mom watched Dynasty and Dallas and be default I watched those shows and soap operas like One Life to live and All My Children. Empire is like those shows. Not well constructed, but full of drama and characters that you just like to watch be inept. It's a break from the norm for me. Just like The Walking Dead is. I enjoy both reading and watching television. We set aside the last 30 minutes each night to read. We go through a pretty fair amount of books each year like this and we get to enjoy television. It's a good balance. We liked Power, and we watch Being Mary Jane. We also watch a ton of food shows. It would seem that running a small biz would occupy a lot of the day, but I have such a good routine there are always times for me to do everything I like doing. Besides, I use everything I do for blog content which earns me a few extra bucks a month.

Yes he gets it and his exposes and op eds on sports are very good. Ed OBannon and Sonny Vaccaro have been fighting to sue the NCAA and begin getting money owed to the players who have participated in collegiate athletics that are making major money. http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/11/11/the-latest-ruling-in-ed-obannon-vs-the-ncaa-is-a-win-for-both-sides/ He's right and this is seen in the players from Northwestern who just won a lawsuit to form a union: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-26/northwestern-players-can-become-first-college-union-nlrb-rules Man the whole of youth athletics is so corrupt it's terrible. I can tell stories, but these two articles really shed light on how the discussion is about to play out.

As with all of my comments I take a personal approach. I don't consider CBP a small business because I couldn't quit my job to run it. I've been in business since 2011 as my full time job, and I've had the business since 2005. During that time the most difficulties I encountered dealt with Black people. White people went out of their way to support the ventures and I had to extend my reach to very small towns to help and get Black support. As a matter of fact, in every business I've been in my prosperity derived from working with other races. My downfall came in trusting and working with Blacks. I've had some success when trying to do a few things with Blacks, but those Blacks were not American. I hate to be vague, but it would take too long to explain it all. I guess what I'm saying is I agree with Troy that the problem of black business is profoundly affected by the behavior of Blacks. Whites and others have the same problems, but our fractured behavior compounds the problem for us. We simply don't share information or help others without expecting reciprocity or ownership. Other cultures understand there is a hierarchy and that you can gain by working with the structure as opposed to working against it. Blacks want to be the boss immediately and will fracture a relationship to start their own thing even if they aren't ready to do the job correctly. We tend to desire accolades as opposed to doing the work and sustaining. In regard to the players, I've never really done a followup, but I would have to say the graduation rate is pretty darn high. I really only worked with guys who were overlooked. Those guys tended to work a lot harder than others and that translated to more success in the classroom. The camps and website have actually produced at least 5 high school coaches and 1 college coach, 1 NBA player and in my head a lot of those guys have become successful fathers and husbands. I should probably put together a book about that time because that would be a pretty good story. Right off I'd have to say at least 50% earned degrees. Some are working on their doctoral degrees or are in grad school.

Jerry Tarkanian (who died this week) former coach of UNLV, Fresno State and Long Beach State basketball is famous for a quote. The coach never claimed he was a saint — his problem, he said, was the hypocrisy. "In major college basketball, nine out of 10 teams break the rules … the other one is in last place," he wrote. I always revert to my experience in basketball when discussing sports. I coached at a neighborhood school in San Diego. I never cheated. Our rival down the street was a comparable program. Then they hired an AAU coach. The starting lineup at this school went from being 5-8 to 6-4 to having three 6-8 kids over the summer and the number 1 ranked player in the city. They also had a Reebok deal with fresh new uniforms and free shoes whenever the kids wanted. Now this is the poorest area in the city. I had worked hard to build my program and heading into my fifth season the team had improved every year with homegrown neighborhood talent. I didn't recruit at all. I tried, but I had nothing to offer, so I worked. We played this new neighborhood school. My tallest kid was 6-6 and played soccer for most of his life and weighed about 100 pounds. At the end of the game this AAU, new high school coach came to shake hands and I had bad sportsmanship. I said "Fuck you man". The dude had taken the job from a brother who was a teacher at the school and who worked hard after hours to help the kids in life. There weren't many brothers as head coaches in San Diego. Besides I was pissed about this all star team, but I was more pissed that we had a chance to win, but I blew it through mental mistakes. The dude yelled that I couldn't coach and I lost it. I had worked so hard to build everything the right way. I was working ridiculous hours and building my guys up as best as I could in a gang infested neighborhood and all of a sudden even the kids I was helping outside of basketball wanted to transfer and leave. It was frustrating. I even had coaches leave and go to the other school. At the end of that last season, I finally gave in and recruited a dad/coach who was at another school so he could bring in the top rated freshman in the state to my school. I gave the dad the assistant coaching job and the JV job. I guaranteed him control just so he could bring in his son, and this 6-6 kid who ended up being the number one leading scorer in the state. In the process my actions told my kids by default I didn't believe we could win against these AAU teams masquerading as high school teams. I told them by my actions that you have to cheat. I couldn't really face them because I had become a hypocrite. I never coached that team. I left and moved to Memphis. They went on to win the League championship and were the city runner ups and went to the state tournament. All firsts for the school. Every sport cheats, but the biggest cheat and scam in all of sports is the NCAA.

There isn't much to add to this at all. I was talking with a guy yesterday who was asking me about my Center Court Basketball website I shut down in 2011 and actually stopped running in 2009. I had sent over a 100 basketball players to college on scholarships. He was asking if I had any plans to do it again because so many players in the area are being left behind. I told him that I wouldn't, but I am more than willing to talk with anyone looking to set a site up and camp system to help players. I've been saying this for over 5 years and no one has called to sit down and do it and it's sad. I guess what it says is that people simply don't want to do anything that takes time anymore. If it's not immediate, it's not worth it. If it isn't in line with a stream on social media then why do it. I hate it, but this is blackness for most of our people.

I am certain this should be under the literature section, but it fits both sections. Pulitzer Price winning author Chabon does an analysis of a song Lamar released yesterday. Powerful stuff. Check it out: http://genius.com/4869098/Kendrick-lamar-the-blacker-the-berry/Been-feeling-this-way-since-i-was-16-came-to-my-senses-you-never-liked-us-anyway-fuck-your-friendship-i-meant-it-im-african-american-im-african-im-black-as-the-moon-heritage-of-a-small-village

Troy you would absolutely crush it here. Consider the cost of living and your ability to organize, your reach would be a lot stronger as you would only be 8 hours from the Black hotbeds of America (Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson, Ms., New Orleans) I think the America Dream as we know it is dead, but in the right situation it is still attainable. It will take a unified approach though. People will have to work together, but I guess that's just not a realistic thing to pursue. We can only try to fix our worlds and hope that our reach is farther than we know. You are exactly right though about entertainment. Rome had it's gladiators, we have our gladiators. Greece had its plays, we have our television and film. Escapism is a good thing, but ultimately it is dangerous when that escape is not offset by serious thought. Social media hampers and fast responses without research have killed any serious thought almost. I am in the process of teaching an entrepreneurship class at a local high school in an area where the crime rate is 200% higher than any other area in the city. The admin is giving me a 4 week-2 hour window each week to talk business with the kids. The first meeting was an introduction and this week I hope to give them some insight into starting a business without any money or resources. I think all schools need to implement workshops on entrepreneurship and coding with outside small biz people. This will begin to change a lot of the issues in our neighborhoods. These kids need to be more aware of the things that need to be fixed. Right now, they only know that they should go to school and pray for success which isn't going to work for a society that shifts so fast that while they are listening to the next new rap song and buying the next Jordan the world has moved another mile ahead of them technically. It's a dangerous time.

A Super Bowl party? Whattttttt???? And here I thought you were all work, lol. Great info to share. These type of debates/discussions are non-existent in Memphis. We used to have them at the Malcolm X Library in Southeast San Diego which is interesting. We also had a greater connection to the African Diaspora in Southeast Dago than in Memphis. As far as the question of who was greater... that's a difficult question. In regard to literature it would be WEB. In regard to promoting a stronger Black nation it would be Marcus Garvey. I guess overall, as far as I'm concerned they both hold an equality important place in the legacy and history of Black America so the discussion of greater is kind of flawed. It's a good question. Since I brought it up earlier in a different post, Ellison's Invisible Man attached a negative connotation to Garvey by creating the Ras character in his image. He avoided WEB but I guess an amalgamation of Booker T and WEB can be seen in the president of the college who kept that boy running by writing those letters of recommendation. Good discussion topic though.

Well Dizzam! You know what's interesting is that if we all looked at Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man closer we would see this being introduced in Black literature. I think a lot of this was taking place and a careful analysis of literature will reveal the disdain the writers held for various men in "important" positions. While the character in IM (Trueblood) was not of status the introduction of his story showed the infatuation of strong men in dominating women. I guess the idea of a patriarchal society is that the men get away with this behavior (Cosby, Woody, etc) and the women bear the brunt of proof and shame. Actually Invisible Man is all about the duality that exists in being Black. The simple fact that the main character represents every facet of life as he makes his getaway from Ras The Exhorter is evidence that Black people are not one monolithic culture, but the perception is that they are. One Black man is all things to the greater society therefore he is invisible. This invisibility allows him to maintain status while also acting as brutal and ugly as his white counterparts. Damn.

I see nothing wrong with shifting your coverage to be more inclusive. 18 years in and you should be the gold standard for industry news and info. You should be pulling seminars and conferences together that allow this venture to be a financial windfall. I know how important it is to give us a platform, but if we aren't sharing the site and participating in building it maybe it's time to expand. I don't know. I can't talk because I haven't advertised with you in a while. Which is a problem. Because in the past five years I've paid for 20 dollar boost posts and 25 dollar facebook ads. Maybe that's the wave of the future for you: burst packages. You can continue with black books but offer smaller more immediate campaigns for authors. Once again, I don't know. It's frustrating.

Sonic Boom!!!!! My goodness that was perfect.

Thanks Troy. Salena I inboxed you to kind of apologize... but not really, lol. Glad to see you're back and feel free to ask questions. Troy has an article for writers that you need to read: http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2013/07/28/5-things-writers-must-do/ Start there and that will help you a ton!!!

That's my question though. How and why did it change? What happened here? Why is it that a city that was run by Whites at a much worse time have less Black violence and crime and a city that is now run by Blacks has more crime and unemployment with more opportunities? That's why I have the biggest problem agreeing to a lot of the ideas of social constructs creating the problem. Memphis is everything Black people want and yet it isn't fulfilling it's potential. Yet three hours away Nashville has a Black owned bookstore, three black colleges of substantial standing in Meharry Medical, Fisk and TSU and an upwordly mobile trajection. However the Black population is much smaller there... In regard to Stax, Justin Timberlake invested a ton of money and now the area has a brand new business district across the street. It is still in a food desert so the shopping isn't that great, but the black college right behind has broken ground on new dorms and there is a Farmer's Market that just got 1.2 Million in funding so a lot of the things are changing. While the bus system isn't much to scream about, you have people in this neighborhood the home of Royal Studios that just created the super hit Uptown Funk, and those people are still walking around unwilling to walk down the street and apply for jobs at the local stores and fast food joints. If I have to answer the question why are people not doing it? I have to say that they simply don't want to, at least here in Memphis that is the case. I will say this, the kids here are learning from their parents and the welfare state is in full effect. Memphis has the highest death of babies in the world! What is happening here is completely absurd. People have to start taking responsibility because honestly Memphis is the land of milk and honey. Coming from California I can see things differently, but where else could I have quit a tenure track job and start selling shoes and make more money? I mean the opportunities because of the cost of property are astounding. If you came here and opened a bookstore and did events with our location to places here in the south AALBC would be one of the biggest companies in the country.

I had a really good post written but my browser closed and I'm not writing that long post again, lol. Troy I know all of the things you've written above. The difference is you're looking at it with New York eyes. I'm looking at it with Memphis eyes and that is a huge difference. Where you see racism as a factor I don't. Memphis is almost 70% Black, Memphis' school system is run by Blacks. The city government is run by Blacks, the major companies in Memphis have Blacks in a high position. Memphis has more jobs available than people willing to work. Memphis has a great prison to employment program. Everything that you are saying hinders Black folks isn't here. So that leaves one option as to why Memphis is always on the First 48 and leads the country in murders and unemployment: Choice. You're saying people don't choose to be in the situation they are in. I'm saying that's bull because in Memphis the jobs are here. Anyone who tells you anything otherwise is full of shit. You can rent a house in Memphis for 600.00 a month. In the worst parts of town the rent is as low as 300-400. This means two people working at McDonald's can earn 7 bucks per hour and work 4 hours a day for 5 days per week and those two people can bring in a 1200 a month together. After taxes that's about 900. Is it enough to live? when your income is only 30% of your housing yes. That's Memphis. We have more warehouses and distribution here than anywhere else. As a matter of fact, the city has to bring people in to fill jobs because people here just don't want to work. Now are there factors in play that prevent some from getting to jobs? Maybe but once again everything you see as an obstruction is a choice. Education in Memphis is damn near free. Community College is paid for with Hope Scholarships. This is the real land of opportunity but racism is stopping people in a Black city controlled by Black folks? In the seventies we could sleep with our doors open in the 100 degree weather. Now we have one of the highest murder rates in the country. So you're saying when White people controlled the city we were better behaved and more educated? Now that we have had Black mayors and Black police chiefs we are out of control? Don't tell me about crack in the 80s and racism because at that time we still had a ton of Black controlled services in place (churches and temporary employment services, etc) but in the last 30 years we just regressed? in Memphis all you have to do is the right thing. That's a fact. There are people here who work for Fed Ex part time and Nike part time and for temp services part time and when you sit and break down the numbers in Memphis part time with two people is money that you can actually live on because unlike McDonalds these jobs pay 12-15 per hour with only a high school diploma. More important most of the warehouses here have tuition reimbursement. After living in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Memphis I can say without a doubt that big cities are definitely hindered by racism and social constructs: LA and SD. However, Memphis is an open book and there really aren't any excuses for failure here. There are just poor decisions.