Troy

@Cynique I was wondering where you dug that one up. So I see it comes full circle 😉 I did not see that photo because I did not read the Still No House Speak... conversation -- that whole subject interested me about as much as all the hullabaloo over Prince Harry -- i.e. not in the least 🙂

Not to take sides but that was a funny photo. Not that pioneer’s are not funny too, but i just did not expect that from Cynique 🤣

No, it is not, and that is my point. Our personal experiences are different. Also, you assume your personal experiences are the same universally. I do not. A football team roster is almost twice the size, a football team is a lot more expensive to field, and there are FAR fewer game football games played to generate revenue. So relative to baseball they may be paid very well. But I’m no expert…

i have not double checked but i think the U.S. test scores are down relative to other countries. I can say with a very high level of certainty there has not been A proportional decline. I bet there are more authors. It has never been easier to publish a book, so there probably are more published books but they were published by individuals. The books I’m really talking about are published by the larger presses. Distribution is no longer a problem if you publish with Amazon, Ingram, or any POD publisher that deals with Ingram. I’m just trying to understand why there are fewer books in my store for 2022. My initial instinct is to assume there were fewer of them published. I just don’t have anything to corroborate that assumption.

I believe the data does support this 🙂 But if the dramatic drop is true, it would need to be explained by something with a more immediate effect.

I’m sure that is part of it too, and the NFL is doing everything to exploit that. The NFL are brilliant marketers. They have turned the Super Bowl into a marketing bonanza people literally tune in to watch the commercials and half time show. The game is almost incidental. perhaps, but does that does not make you any less cool, just hard to live with 😉

Now that is an interesting point. Why do you think that is? Maybe the NFL owners are smarter when it comes to making money? I always felt they should pull up stakes and create their own league, but that will never happen for a variety of reasons You do, but that is what makes you so cool 🙂

Thanks for that @Stefan Your story explains the importance of books in a meaningful way. I will reference your comments when I share information about the book (after I get my copy). Ginzburg's book was first published over 60 years ago and is kept in print by Black Classic Press. They too understand the importance of books even obscure and old ones. 100 Years of Lynchings by Ralph Ginzburg Publication Date: Nov 22, 1996 List Price: $14.95 Format: Paperback, 270 pages Classification: Nonfiction ISBN13: 9780933121188 Imprint: Black Classic Press

Kenneth how old are you? yes he built a successful black school that is still churning out educated people with valuable skills to this day. Given the period he operated the last thing the white power establishment wanted was educated black peoples. an amazing legacy and accomplishment. Contrast that with today, in a much less hostile environment we have Dr. Umar 😉

Thanks for providing the path to your discovery of the video. Well @Rodney campbell you can also post the full chapter here and save people that extra step too 🙂

... your most formative years bruh. I don't think so. The changes are here to stay and will spread globally. Football is a gladiator sport and the men are modern-day gladiators. I heard a female sports commentator reject the notion that football players are gladiators. The thought that came to my mind was that only a woman would say that... is that a sexist comment? As you wrote @ProfD football is a man's sport, and women don't belong on the field playing with them -- or the locker room if you ask me. The NFL is trying really hard to grow its audience and getting women involved is a big part of that. Hence the pink on the uniforms and the female commentators. In the name of equity men really can't have anything to themselves anymore... But I guess saying that is sexist too, huh. As far as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin going into cardiac arrest; that may not have been a direct consequence of the hit he took. It seems to me there was some undetected preexisting condition. But of course, this will not stop people from wanting to end football or turn it into flag fooball which will interest no one. The real problem with football is not the danger, but the massive amounts of money involved causing the exploitation of college athletes to the creation of million-dollar slaves who provide the entertainment. Well maybe the longer-term traumatic brain injury is a more serious problem but I think you see my point. BTW that game was canceled. I am sure that screwed-up sportsbooks and fantasy leagues nationwide 🙂

I dunno overt white white racists.

I was reviewing the discussion forum archives (2005 to 2010) and discovered this post from almost 18 years ago: “Makes you want to run out and kill someone” Basically, the post was about someone sharing information on a book of lynching photos, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. I did not want to see the book and never even considered sharing it. I dismissed it as just cruelty porn The responders to my post disagreed with me saying it was important that this information be shared. I have clearly changed my position on this subject. I have (just now) added the book to the site. I guess I have learned a lot The YouTube video shows the photo from the book (I plan to order a copy). The video can't be embedded because there is an age restriction. (This is a trigger Warning! viewer discretion advised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRnToazuDaQ) The book can, of course, be purchased on Amazon. I linked to Amazon in the forum post. The link still works. To Amazon's credit, they have not broken a product link still they have started. Barnes and Noble has broken product links multiple times, and this is one of many reasons Amazon took over dominance of online book sales when B&N was the market leader. But Amazon is so freaking greedy they have set it up so they people can purchase a tee shirt featuring the image of a person being strung up! Seems like Amazon would be smarter about this, but when making money is your number one priority sensitivity is of little concern.

OK thanks to the internet Archives I should be able to restore the old Thumper's Corner Forums Archives which broke recently because the website for the forum no longer supports CGI scripts, so the program displaying the forum links does not work. Fortunately, the forum posts are text files. I have saved all of these I just need to remap all of the hyperlinks to the locations where the reside now: Original Location (where CGI is broken, so the forum links do not display) http://www.thumperscorner.com/cgi/discus/discus.cgi?pg=topics Internet Archive (to the rescue) http://web.archive.org/web/20160207063436/http://www.thumperscorner.com:80/cgi/discus/discus.cgi?pg=topics So now I have the links to the files. I just need to remap all of the hyperlinks for 123,567 posts in 9,583 conversations. Hopefully, it will be as easy as a global find and replace. Archive Name Posts Pages Last Comment Thumpers Corner Thumper's Corner - Archive 2010 (Final) 1052 175 01-15-10 07:19 pm Thumper's Corner - Archive 2009 715 84 06-17-09 06:57 pm Thumper's Corner - Archive 2008 3522 451 12-28-08 09:27 pm Thumper's Corner - Archive 2007 2897 316 08-20-08 11:55 am Thumper's Corner - Archive 2006 2413 316 01-24-07 11:32 am Thumper's Corner - Archive 2005 1924 218 12-30-05 01:36 am Thumper's Corner - Archive 2004 6273 412 05-01-05 12:44 pm Thumper's Corner - Archive 2003 3806 319 05-01-05 12:43 pm Thumper's Corner - Archive 2002 67 11 05-01-05 12:43 pm Race, Culture, and Economy Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2010 (Final) 3331 312 01-16-10 02:08 pm Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2009 1397 156 06-17-09 06:54 pm Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2008 8453 1215 01-04-09 10:30 pm Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2007 27511 1683 12-31-07 01:04 pm Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2006 31831 1604 12-31-06 12:14 am Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2005 5216 309 03-14-06 05:36 pm Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2004 7650 311 05-01-05 02:57 pm Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2003 1316 88 05-01-05 03:11 pm The Poetree The Poetree - 2006 to 2010 Archive (Final) 558 211 01-14-10 12:56 pm The Poetree - 2002 to 2005 Archive 1184 229 04-15-06 09:28 am The Kool Room (spun off from Thumper' Corner) The Kool Room - Archive May 2006 to March 2007 (Final) 31 9 03-21-07 02:15 pm The Kool Room - Archive July 2005 to April 2006 6525 403 04-15-06 02:47 am The Kool Room - Archive to July 2005 4872 246 09-10-05 03:25 pm Events EVENTS - Archive 2007 to 2010 (Final) 168 141 01-05-10 04:49 pm EVENTS - Archive 2005 to 2007 438 297 06-15-07 03:28 pm Miscellaneous AALBC.com Inbox - Archive 2005 to 2010 (Final) 187 45 01-01-10 08:43 am Vote for Your Favorite Discussion Board Contributor 44 2 01-13-07 07:17 pm "Keepers of the Flame" Serial Boards (2005) 146 10 02-22-05 12:28 pm What is Your Favorite Discussion Board Conversation? 7 2 03-09-07 03:49 pm AALBC.com - Off The Record (2006) 33 8 07-06-06 12:06 pm

@ProfD, I'm old enough to recall the days when men were men and women were women, so to speak. The gender roles were well-defined. However, things have changed. I think the benefits offered to nonbinary people have been good for those people. And the complete liberation of women is obviously a great benefit to women. However, these changes have created confusion about what it means to be a man in contemporary America. I think the changes have been even harder for cis-gendered, heterosexual Black boys. These young men, especially those under 30, aren't performing as well as the girls in school and ultimately in the job market. It has always been hard for us. In my day, growing up in an all-Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood, all of my primary school teachers were Jewish women (two were Jewish men, one of whom was ultimately convicted of pedophilia). In all of my school years, I never had a Black male heterosexual teacher -- that includes 8 years of college! I don't think this is a good thing, on a variety of levels. Again, because of the nature of the media anyone inclined to point out this problem is marginalized and ignored. Sidebar: I heard Umar Johnson has secured a building for his school 😉

@Rodney campbell welcome to the forum. why don’t you make it easy for folks and post a hyperlink. If the book is available for sale, post a link to where it may be posted. i noticed your comment on the YouTube video I posted about the decrease in Black books published in 2022. Thanks. How did you discover that YouTube video?

Of course, it depends on the person, but culturally the man is usually expected to take the lead. The woman can smile or make her interest clear but it is the dude the walks over and offers to buy the drink. I do appreciate that is changing for the younger generation.

Of course, these are not the only 200 Important Black books coming out in 2023, but this is perhaps the most comprehensive list out there — at least I have not seen one with more titles. This list of images will grow over time. On a related note: The total number of books on AALBC published in 2022 was the lowest it has been since 2003! The difference is not a few book books but by hundreds of books! Read More ▶

The total number of books on AALBC published in 2022 was the lowest it has been since 2005! The difference is not a few book books but hundreds of books! Now I don't have every Black book published on AALBC -- but my information is certainly indicative of the books published by the major publishers and the larger independents. I also capture more Black indie books than any other independent online store. This data tells me substantially fewer Black books were published in 2022 than in the past two decades! There were 35% fewer books published in 2022 than in 2021 and almost 50% fewer than the peak published in 2015, as reflected on the AALBC website. We don't have news sources to notice, care about, or report on the number of books written by Black writers declining so drastically. I think it is newsworthy to understand why this is happening Another book professional told me this is a direct result of the supply chain issues caused by the pandemic. That may be true, but I would have thought that might cause more books to be published in 2022 as a result of books being delayed from 2020 and 2021. I would have also expected a substantive decrease in 2021, which I did not observe. Also, I see no indication that the number of books printed overall has declined, the supply chain explanation does not wash with me. One thing I have noticed is that many Black indie authors publish exclusively with Amazon and while I can capture these books on AALBC, it is much more unlikely that I will add them to my store, as I can not sell them directly,* because they are not in normal distribution channels. While this may impact the number of books in the AALBC store, the impact would not be significant as the vast majority of books in the AALBC store are not Amazon-exclusive. There has also been an increased trend toward eBook-only books. I've seen this in the urban fiction genre in particular, but this is not a new trend and does not explain the significant drop in 2022 books. It is possible that I'm completely wrong, and there has not been a significant drop in the number of Black books published in 2022. If this is the case, I can say with 100% certainty that there has been an alarming drop in the amount and promotion and marketing behind Black books because I'm not seeing them. Maybe is it because I'm not on TicTok 🙂 What do you think? Do you have evidence to support or refute a substantial decrease in the number of Black books. * Because so many authors publish exclusively with Amazon I have recently started sending readers to Amazon's site for books that are only available to Amazon because promoting the writer is more important than their narrow-minded decision to publish with Amazon exclusively. This also allows me to sell books that are out of print.

@Pioneer1 because I and most of the guys i know don’t have a problem finding a woman. But the majority of women will complain about how difficult it is to find a man. Well of course the women, but that is because men generally take the lead on hitting on women —especially men of my generation.

Melanated people were not built to live in these conditions Bruh LOL! When I was in Tulsa it got down to -16 and heavy snow, but it got back up to the 50's a couple of days later and all that snow melted. They didn't even really plow the snow. Many roads were just impassible for a day or two, then things were back to normal...

It already is, look at how our culture has changed in just my lifetime. We went from having the voting rights act passed to having a Black president. When I was a kid there were virtually no Black TV shows, Movies, or books. We a Black show can on TV I watched it. Today there are so many Black TV shows I have the luxury of not bothering to watch most of them because there are just so many other options. Homosexuals no longer have to remain in the closet -- and can even get married! Weed is legal. Abortions becoming illegal... I could go on and on about how our culture's mortality continues to evolve. Overall our culture's sense of mortality is improving over the long run -- don't you agree?

Sure. but.... And this is the problem. I too like the idea of Kwanzaa, but I don't celebrate it either. I wouldn't celebrate Christmas either if it were not for the fact that everyone else around me celebrates it and that is the power of culture - even one is on the same page despite their personal inclinations. Every year millions of families go into debt to finance the holiday, It does not make sense, and is the function of our market-driven culture. The "start" of the New Year is completely arbitrary, so who cares? Your new year can be on your birthday -- it is a new year to you -- and you can celebrate it any way you like 🙂

I hear you @Pioneer1 "rapists, pedophiles, serial killers, crack addicts" are a minuscule portion of our population," so don' t worry about them. We can probably get more than 25% of Black folks on board. I'm not sure people truly appreciate the progress Marcus Garvey made toward unifying Black people. I don't see how it would be possible for anyone to unify Black people at that level again. I wish I was wrong, but I see little evidence that I am. Again, I think the fight for reparations must include non-Black people. We should strive for unity among people who are in support of justice. We can start by working to get an HR-40-like bill passed (a committee to study reparations for Black people).

This bill died, sponsored by John Conyers (RIP) in congress in 2015, but can be reintroduced. H.R. 40 Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.