Troy

Wow. I completely missed the fact the Eric had a new book. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm here. How did you learn about the book's publication?

I'm reading a book right now, The Wisdom of the Native Americans, just little quotes from the indigenous people describing their way of life. There is nothing in it that describes all of the negative attributes that @Pioneer1 seems to think is human nature. Again, I think this is more a reflection of conditioning than an indication of human nature. I sure you've traveled and talked to a lot of people but if you probably talked to others like yourself who were fed a diet of the virtues of capitalism and the ills of socialism. I'm not trying to glorify the native American's but there is nothing in their history to reflect what you describe as human nature. The same goes for the precolonial African peoples. Capitalism, as we know it effectively started with Europeans about 500 years ago. The shit only works when people are exploited and enslaved--you know this right? Even when great wealth is amassed by a few they never share it. Today the majority of the Earth's population lives in abject poverty thousands of people die every day from starvation. This does not have to be the case, we have the resources to eradicate starvation, we just don;t have the systems to do it. In all of your travels have you seen real poverty? Do you think it is human nature to let that exist?

Pioneer I'm not silly enough not to recognize that the country views "race" completely differently than what science tells us, and treat people who like like me completely differently than people who look like 45. There are plenty of people who recognize the pain that Black people are in, there have been many books written on the subject. Terrie Willams wrote a book a number of years ago called Black Pain: It just Looks Like We're not Hurting, and there have been many others on the subject. But fixing this problem requires more effort that people are willing to exert. And people are so doggedly tied to the systems that are causing the problems we are trying to correct. It is like the author who understands that Amazon's monopoly on books is making them less wealthy, but maintains an Amazon Prime membership and buys all their books from Amazon. Or the Blogger who complains about a lack of traffic to their blog, but tells readers to visit them on Facebook any chance they get. There is A LOT of education that has to happen before anything changes, and that is even considering all of the resources arrayed against us.

I guess the problem in the US is that we do not practice a true form of capitalism, which is the fundamental problem. I I don't agree that capitalism is "in tune with human nature," unless you consider the exploitation of large swaths of the earth's population and the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few "human nature." People are more effective when they share resources and work together. While I agree there are many people who seek wealth, women, property and nice things as you suggest; I think most of that motivation is created because of the capitalist system. It is part of the conditioning that is required to make our brand of capitalism work. In fact, many could make a strong argument that constant consumption or the desire for it, makes us less happy. Are we happier upgrading our cell phones every two years, or buying more clothing than we can ever wear? Besides the majority of us are not benefiting from this system. I can't image that any thinking person would agree that progressing on our current trajectory is sustainable.

Da Lord, @Pioneer1, The Lord our Savior. That would be the response many might give. But you pose a good question. It does not seem as though guys are socialized to seek help, not from their wives, mothers or even there boys. Sure we can bitch and moan, but we generally don't say, I need "help." That would be a sign of weakness, and that dude would not be much of a man--not in his own eyes or in the eyes of society at large. Of course, we already know the system despises, so we can forget about any support in that direction. Some guys deal with the pressure with drugs or women. But the answer to your question is ourselves and our God. Of course, there are always exceptions but this is the general case. I feel sorry for that Brother. I falso feel sorry for that football play that killed himself in jail. I feel sorry for that Brother they rushed to execute in Arkansas. Black men garner the least amount of sympathy than any other creature in this country. Even dogs are treated with more compassion.

Yeah, white folks with money generally dictate what is is worthy. The sad part is they we seemingly follow what they do as if their brand of "journalism" is worthy of emulating. I listened to Joe Madison and Karen Hunter on Sirius and they talked about it for what seemed like their entire broadcasts. But I guess there is nothing that can be done. If you don't talk about it no one consumes your media. If you do talk about it you're nothing special...

Hi Sam, thanks for adding this information abut Yusef's latest book. I've updated the website to include it:https://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9780472073443 and am considering it for review.

Du Bois's speech reminded me of a comment @Delano, made in a conversation I started last week. Du Bois died a year after I was born and was old enough to have personally known black people who were formerly enslaved. It is a crying shame that almost 60 years after this speech was delivered the things Du Bois criticized have only gotten worse. His point on what we now refer to as campaign finance reform was particularly telling. W. E. B. Du Bois Criticizes Capitalism in the audio below. He was 93 when this speech was delivered and was a remarkable human. It seems he was wrong about socialism being the dominant world structure. I guess he was far more confident or optimistic in human nature. Your browser does not support the audio element. “…American Negroes must know what is going on in the world today and learn for themselves what [Socialism] has to teach them in order that they may preserve their culture, get rid of their poverty, ignorance and disease and help America live up at least to a shadow of its vain boast as the land of the free and the home of the brave” Del, maybe Dubois was right too.

Thanks for the offer, for I know white gay males don't have to work for free. Anywho, "gay white slave boy's" message did prompt me to reread this post. Almost two years later things have seemingly gotten worse even scandal driven black owned sites are not as popular as they once were. I this may be a leading indicator of the fate of indie websites in general. Is this the end of indie websites? Have Facebook reached a tipping point on their way to dominance of the WWW?

I have not heard this story in the news yet. It sounds so crazy, and you say he is still alive? Wow...

Perhaps the characteristics that made Robinson an ideal candidate to integrate baseball, were the same ones that did not necessitate his assignation. Robinson was a young man when he died, younger than I am now. I still think of myself as relatively young, perhaps I always will... The Robinsons used to host a big concert in their backyard in CT, eventually if got so big it was moved. I attended a few times it was like a family reunion. I spent most of the day drinking and playing spades. The Jackie Robinson Foundation used to host an awards banquet for their scholarship fund at the Waldorf Astoria hotel (they still may do it I just have not been in a long time). It was a big event. For some reason, Goldman Sachs used to have me sit at one of their tables--which was unusual because everyone else at the table was a partner (read: very wealthy). I never did learn why they invited me, but I always enjoyed myself. I met Bill Cosby one year. This was long before the rape allegations Cosby presented as much more elderly than I expected and this was well over 10 years ago. It is interesting to consider how the Black American presence in major league baseball is approaching our involvement in Ice Hockey. 50 years later we need another Jackie Robinson, a great athlete, family man, advocate for Black rights, free of drugs and hormones, with a squeaky clean rep, to integrate baseball once again. Then again they don't make men like Robinson anymore, do they? May he rest in peace.

We live in a country where Black people are regularly killed by po-po, and there is relatively little outrage. Certainly, nothing sustained and definitely nothing that changed anything. Asian dude, with a record, ignoring the instructions of both the flight crew and Chicago police gets his ass dragged off a plane, and the entire nation is in an uproar and can't stop talking about it! They are calling for a boycott of the airline--it is way out of proportion!. A woman live streamed her man dying after being shot for NO REASON, and there was five minutes of outrage. Puhlese. Where are the calls for the man to have complied with instructions to get off the plane? On a lighter note:

I like the new photo @Delano, you have not changed a bit. Black don't crack :-) Pioneer, I would describe myself it terms that would make sense to you, Black, brown eyes, bald, 5' 7' stocky, etc. but if the asked about my race or anyone else's, I would say "human" or homo Sapien Sapien if pressed. Political correctness is unclear at best and dishonest as worst. I prefer honestly, I recognize honesty is often mistaken as rudeness or rudeness disguised as honesty.

Everyone who is a regular visitor to AALBC.com's forums knows I'm on a mission to help Black folks maintain control of some portion of the web--especially where our stories are concerned. Currently, the majority of authors who email me information about their books do not have their own web site. This was not always the case. Despite websites being easier and cheaper than ever to maintain, authors are increasingly not creating websites for themselves. Obviously, the popularity of Amazon and Facebook is one of the reasons authors have begun using a Facebook or Amazon as their main web presence. Of the two, Amazon is far better than Facebook, if the author creates an Amazon Central Account (something I currently recommend that authors do). But Amazon is extremely limited in the features they provide for authors--you can't even add hyperlinks. Facebook is simply not a website, and I won't bore you explaining why. The weaknesses of both, from the author's perspective, is that they are optimized to maximize their own revenue. Uplifting, empowering, and enriching the Black community--any community--is simply not part of their mission. The features available on @CDBurns, AALBC.com page (http://ChrisDBurns.com) are simply not provided by Amazon or Facebook. In fact, I could provide so much more if I had more support from the authors I'm attempting to benefit. It is an investment in our community. Over the last ten years, we have lost an incredible number of Black-owned bookstores and Black book websites. Our prodigious engagement on Facebook has been a terrible substitute for what we've lost. But the main problem is that we have given the very control of our online culture to a handful of powerful corporations. Join the fight against corporate dominance of the website and use AALBC.com as your primary web presence.

Cast Your Vote Here

I just discovered looking at my own author profile: https://aalbc.com/authors/home.php?author_name=Troy+Johnson that when I make a blog post it is shared to social media. I'd forgotten about that don't even remember what mechanism I used to setup to do that. I'm not gonna worry about it. I make less than a handful of blog posts a month.

@Pioneer1, you're gonna love this one While I'm filling out this form on the AWP website, I'm considering pitching them a panel since AWP will be in my neck of the woods next year, I got to the question of "gender." Usually, this is a binary choice Male or Female but no, AWP presented me with this veritable cornucopia of choices. Gender: Female Male Agender Androgynous Bigender Cisgender Gender Fluid Genderqueer Intersex Transsexual Transgender Two-Spirit A gender not identified here I want to meet the person who feels the needs to choose the last option--surely they must be extraterrestrial. This is political correctness run the fu*k amok! I could see three options Male, Female, Other. Book why does AWP need this information anyway? Are they planning to make special accommodation for the deluge of Two-Spirt and Gender Fluid attendees? I seriously doubt it. Like a buffet, I was felt compelled to choose more than one option. The form allows you to do this!? I'm going to choose "A gender not identified here." I'll not be defined by society's restrictive labels! On the same form: Race/Ethnicity: American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American Latino Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander White A race/ethnicity not identified above The striking thing here is that there were more gender options than Race/Ethnicity. This is another stupid question, as the options are not mutually exclusive. I picked, "A race/ethnicity not identified," because my race is Sapien. I'm not half way through the form and these folks are already pissing me off. They are gonna love my subject; driving a stake through the heart of what they hold so dear... social media. Maybe I am a "Dinosaur" @Delano...

Man, I just now learned that Charlie Murphy passed. He was only 57. Charlie always stuck me a more rugged, manly version of Eddie Murphy. May he rest in peace.

LOL! man there has been some very crazy shit posted here over the years, and this was the first time I felt it necessary to distance the site and myself from something someone wrote. The main reason was the way you presented it as if it were factual, definitive, and indisputable, none of which it was of course, but I could see some kid coming here reading what you wrote and putting it in a school report of something, a lot of the site's traffic comes from schools. What you wrote belongs in Wikipedia I think this is the first time you conceded a point. I'm proud of you. I see some of my time and energy has not been wasted. You really should consider not using the word "Race," in the way that you have; it is wrong technically and confusing in a colloquial sense. Maybe try "ethnic group," this is more accurate and less confusing. Scientific American defines more than 5,000 of them. I also found this map that would probably make you very happy, as it uses all the terms you like: I have to concede your point about what it means to be Jewish. I looked at a few Jewish sites and they all say that you do not have to be observant to be considered a Jew. I find that fascinating! This must be an effort to bolster their diminishing numbers rather than actually count the number of adherents to the religion. I will now always look at the estimated number of Jews with a side-eye. Dude, you can be American and Puerto Rican. We used to call people like J-Lo Nuyoricans (New York Puerto Ricans). It is a matter of culture. You do not get to define that for her, or anyone else for that matter.

To Resist: The Trump administration rescinded protections for transgender students in public schools. The most vulnerable among us urgently need your support. To Educate: LGBTQ-specific curriculum in schools is still rare and Lambda's Writers in Schools Program provides valuable instruction about queer lives through queer literature. To Support: Anti-LGBTQ bullying is a problem in schools. Reading queer stories changes hearts and minds and helps create more supportive environments for kids. To Foster: When a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer visits a classroom, they give LGBTQ students positive role models which assures them they are not alone. To Save Lives: Most of us have a story about a book that offered us guidance at a time of extreme need. LGBTQ books save lives every day. i got this email this morning and for some reason it made me think of @Pioneer1

The opinions expressed above in no way reflect AALBC.com, it's affiliates, or Web master. You have mixed more terms than I can address. Even with your pre-19th century understanding of race, African refers to the continent. Many white Africans would disagree, legitimately with your descriptions. Africa is home to over 50 nations, countless entinicities, and one race. Judism is a religion, if you don't believe the religion, by definition you are not a Jew. It is like not believing in Christ and calling yourself Christian. Sure judism like any religion is part of one's entnicity. J Lo is Puerto Rican (if she says she is). One's nationality is a legislative thing. Your rules are not universal. Laws regarding nationality vary. Some people @Pioneer1 are members of more than one nationality. You can't force people in neat little boxes of your own design. Not only it is narrow-minded it is unnecessary.

I dunno Del maybe you are right. Prior to Trump's election, I thought it would be a wake-up call. A clear indication that something needed to be done to right our course as a nation, now I'm beginning to see it as perhaps the beginning of our final decline as a nation...

YOu all should check out the recent Blog Post related to this subject:

Interesting points. You probably saw the protracted conversation; "What does it mean to be Black?" on the forum. Personally, I embrace all three terms. Though I definitely use "Black" most often to describe myself. I only use American if I'm outside the States. Interestingly I named my website "African American" Literature Book Club, but the name is too narrow. The implication is that it is only for African-American. The word Black may be more appropriate because it is not limited to national borders. But I honestly don't know if "Black" people across the Diaspora would embrace the word as easily as we do.

Well 2017 turned out to be a banner year for Black writers. Three Black writers have won in the Letters and Drama categories. This is unprecedented and a welcomed trend--half of all the Pulitzer Prizes awarded to Black writers were given in the last 10 years (out of a 101 year history). I feels like someone heard all the shit I was talking about the Pulitzer Board earlier in the year Well congrats to all the winners.