Troy

What is the bottom line of what y'all are talking about? Is there a take away for someone like me. who is not steeped in Biblical text or history?

LOL! These guys are pretty quite. They only do that when threatened. Yeah they do sound like the Teradactyls from the Jonny Quest cartoon. I feed them, and they will eat right out your hand. I've see hawks pluck fish out of the water and carry they away to a tree. There are an amazing array of birds. I saw a bird (I have no idea what kind of bird). Fly into the pond, stay under longer than I could how my breath and come out some distance away and fly off! Now I knew fish could fly, but I never knew birds could swim! There are alligators in the water, fox, deer, rabbit, turtles, snakes, armadillos, etc all viewable from my patio. It is like Wild Kingdom up in here The shot below is from earlier this year.

See the two ads below. The are inserted into the discussion forum virtually indistinguishable from a forum post with the exception of a tiny little icon green icon that says "Ad." I would image that these are are very effective given how seamlessly the fit into the page. The ads are also high quality books from major publishers. in fact, I was unaware of Anita Hill's new book -- until I saw it advertised on my own site! I should be happy, but I have mixed feelings as I do not have the technical capability to create these ads on my own, nor do I know how much Google is making serving these ads on my site.

When you write "consumes" what do you mean? Information? Now there is an idea. That class would transcend race, wealth, education, and income. No one would go hungry or unseen. People can be their true selves. Imagine. Pelicans Sandhill Cranes are a function of living in Florida not class. 😉

This is sad. People with empty lives, who attempt to fill the void, with social media will always be disappointed. Real life altercations that are a result are completely voidable. That is probably the best course of action, but I'm too lazy to do it. A web backed my blockchain technology will make doing this much easier. I just joined (but do not participate) in a social media site called https://steemit.com/ which addresses these issues.

I did a quick search and did not find anything at all....

What?! Please share a reputable source.

Sure we can horse trade on definitions.🙂 I would not put "Factory workers, postal workers nurses, cops,.." into lower middle class or working class because of a lack of college education. Education level is often confused with class. Sure they are highly correlated, but not a condition of one's class. In fact the people you mentioned, nurses and the like, in an earlier era were the foundation of the Black middle class. Well keep in mind there is also a mentality associated with class. $15 million can be easily, and quickly, squandered by someone with a low class mentality. Many lottery millionaires and professional athletes have ended up bankrupted for this reason. There are plenty of people who grew up poor but become middle and even upper middle class because of their mentality. Of course they probably have to work harder than anyone else -- especially if they are Black. My lower class mentality, as it impacted financial decisions has impact me my entire life. I can see the same impact in others with my background.

The physical interaction with other people. My Tulsa office, for example, introduced me to the world of venture capital. I may be able to take advantage of this would could be substantial for AALBC. I have had people come to my office and buys book from me on the spot. The text messaging service I use is from a startup that was right next to me in the office There is a company that sells web development and SEO to HVAC companies and I learned quite a bit from the owner. I have started learning about Crypto currency through folks in the office I could go on, but none of those would have happened in my home office. I have worked in Libraries, cafes, Starbucks, and B&N's but this pales in comparison to a proper desk in a coworking space or home office. I work as hard from from any location. Right now I'm on my patio in Florida (photo below). This time of year it is great, work space, but without other people you are constrained. I have largely worked in isolation for virtually all of AALBC's existence and that, in hindsight, has stunted the site's growth. Incorporating the ideas of others makes you better.

It is as simple as that. @Pioneer1 I would not take this personally at all. Sometimes it bees that way. I have seen Cynique take what I considered abuse from people like Sara. Kola Boof took that to a whole 'nother, but Cynique defended them both. What is the difference between Pioneer and Kola I did not know. I'm trying to think of someone I took an instant disliking to on these forums and honestly I can not think of anyone. It may not be in my nature. There are of course posts I dislike, or disagree with, but it did not extend to the person. Actually there is a class of poster I have an immediate distain for: Remember the guy who posted all those conspiracy theories about Covid at the beginning of the pandemic? What differentiated him from you and Mzuri's posts regarding covid was that he was deliberatively trying to misled people. When he was exposed he left. You and @Mzuri strike me sincere in your anti-vaxxer position and are not trying to get others not to take the vaccine.

That thought occurred to me. The best a Black person can really do is upper middle class. A level I have never reached. These folks have trust funs setup for their children -- i.e. they will never have to work a day in their lives and enjoy generational wealth. They attend private schools. Their parents, grand parents, and even great grand parents are educated. They enjoy legacy admission to Ivy league schools. A middle class person can not see a penny of income, for at least 6 months, and it will not impact their lifestyle one iota. They live in safe clean neighborhoods, go on a nice vacation every year, may have a 2nd home, money is not a source of stress. They will pass on wealth to their children. A lower middle class person is essentially living paycheck to paycheck, but can consistently supply their basic requirements. Extravagances like private college education and two week foreign vacation is out of reach. A lower class person struggles to meet living required living expenses like housing or food. These are the folks who get evicted and have homes foreclosed, they have cars reposed, have bad credit scores, and no saving, etc. Too many people, in a country as wealthy as ours, are in this situation. *These are Troy's definitions and like most things their is some overlap, for example, some lower class people will have good credit scores. I've spent most of my life between lower middle and middle class.

I just thing the Wanda character is crass and not very funny. Was the intent to show how it feels to a guy when an unattractive women is attracted to you? What make it funny? I do too. But they can simply patronize the site too. Every day I have to explain to an author that, as a bookseller, telling me your book is available on Amazon does not interest me. Just this week I was on an almost 100% Black zoom conference commemorating a Black owned business. There were several established Black booksellers on the call to. But every time a Black author talked about buying a book they mentioned Amazon -- I'm not talking about young ignorant authors either. I'm talking about supposedly conscious Black writers. Again they are completely clueless on this sort of think. Their default is anything but a Black business. When the web started this was true, but today that is no longer the case. The web, for most people, is really just a few sites. This makes my point to @ProfD Facebook famously told businesses that you have to pay to reach your contacts. I appreciated their honestly, but I took a few years to build 20K fans and Facebook simply took the information and charged me for it. It was not long afterwards that I stopped meaningfully participating on the platform. I've already shared with you how Facebook regularly rejects innocuous books on their website. They have banned numerous romance titles from their website: I regular research Black author and Black business information for many, Facebook is their primary web presence, for most of the others there Facebook presence is actually superior. Plus Google serves up one's Facebook page before their official website. Another reason I ditched Facebook because it was beating my website on searches for my name! This is a big deal. I benefited a great deal with my office space in Tulsa. I'm working with someone to establish our own coworking space in Tulsa as well. I'm actually in Florida right now, looking for office space (shared).

This one looks like it may be interesting Del. I will definitely check it out. I'm not sure there are any "upper class" Black people in America it is more than a function of wealth. But in terms of wealth relative to the Black masses like me -- there are plenty of upper class Black folks. I've had a brush with a few. None of whom I could call a friend. It is if we could not be friends, as I can't "roll" with them since I can't afford to do what they do or go where they go. Plus they have to be careful about who they open up to since people would try to take advantage of them. There are not many opportunities for Black people of different classes to mingle. This is an issue that has gotten worse since integration (I believe). I did not know that Lawrence Otis Graham died until I read Pioneer's post. He was younger than I am now when he passed. A quick search did not reveal the cause of his untimely death.

Yeah it happens that way. It is sad his death has been used “evidence” against getting vaccinated.

That is probably my problem I think too small. I love y’all too that is why every newsletter ends with “peace and love.” None of this would be possible without y’all. I watched the skit with Jamie Foxx dressed up as a woman. I did not find it funny at all. I never did like the Wanda character… Jamie Foxx, I would later learn is super talented. The role of Wanda was actually beneath him, but in this wacky culture of ours, roles like that launch careers. Jamie has a new memoir out.

Personally, I’m not so easily swayed by a pretty face or banging body — they are a dime a dozen. My opinion of the Guardian has been diminished a bit by their trolling of Twitter for tweets (they can’t get Candice in the phone?). Then they post a misleading heading line, but are clearer in the actual article. Candice actually said: “When do we deploy? Of course, I ask that in jest because we all know the real answer. What is happening in Australia under the guise of a virus … is federal overreach, tyranny, totalitarianism – the kind that gives birth to evil dictatorships and human atrocities,” Candice recognizes the U.S. is not deploying troops to Australia. But she also knows her inflammatory comments will get her the media coverage she needs to continue building a following. meanwhile the guardian is fanning the flames of hate and division, instigating dissent between the U.S. and the Aussies from London is the problem — all for a few more eyeballs. Candice should be a non issue. Like Trump the desperate media has given Candice a platform which she is exploiting brilliantly.

There has never been a shortage of celebrities, not just Black ones, willing to do anything to maximize their wealth. Is there any record of a Black person, in entertainment, who sought to darken their skin, or are they always trying to lighten it. We know white women have been known to seek to darken their skin. I don't Bey is "selling out" as in selling out Black people. I think she is an A-list celebrity and is behaving like one. Try to shoe horn our senilities on to her in an effort to understand her motivation is a futile exercise. I know I liked when i skin got tanned in the summer, in fact I prefer my darker completed self. It was a running joke in my family that I believe my skin color is really darker than it is 😉 I always said my Nubianess is coming out as my skin darkened in the summer. In Florida I was able to keep my Nubianess all year long 🙂 That is why we are not bazillionaire. The Carters not only know what to do to get super rich thet are willing to do it. Right on!

A rose by any other name... For real! Hey @Delano did you create this from scratch or leverage existing hieroglyphics (symbols)?

LBYR Contact: Marisa Russell, Executive Director of Publicity (212) 364-1548; marisa.russell@hbgusa.com Jerry Pinkney, Caldecott Medal–Winning Illustrator, 1939–2021 New York, NY (October 20, 2021)—Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is saddened to announce the passing of Jerry Pinkney, one of the most heralded children’s book illustrators of all time. The illustrator of more than one hundred books, he had the rare distinction of being the recipient of five Caldecott Honors and the winner of the 2010 Caldecott Medal for The Lion and the Mouse. He died at age eighty-two after a brief non-Covid-related illness on Wednesday, October 20, 2021. A titan in the publishing industry, Pinkney was in the vanguard of those depicting Black life in children’s books and a champion of the work of emerging Black artists and illustrators. He won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award five times and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor four times, and was awarded the 2016 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lifetime achievement (now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award) and the 2016 Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Award for lifetime achievement. He found great success in retellings that featured animal characters and was the creator of such acclaimed works as The Tortoise & the Hare (2013) and 2020’s The Little Mermaid, which the New York Times Book Review called “lovingly rendered with rich detail.” At the time of his death, he was working on a memoir with his wife, minister and author Gloria Jean Pinkney, his high school sweetheart of sixty-four years, detailing his childhood struggling with a learning disability and his path to becoming an artist against the odds, to be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. “Jerry was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather whose impact influenced the creative endeavors of so many in our family,” says Gloria Jean Pinkney. Megan Tingley, Executive Vice President and Publisher, LBYR, said, “Jerry’s indefatigable attention to and love of his craft was unmatched, and he never stopped asking for his work to be pushed and challenged. Everyone he worked with was touched by his infectious delight in the act of creation, which never waned, and his generous spirit of kindness and collaboration.” Andrea Spooner, VP, Editorial Director, LBYR, commented, “Jerry Pinkney was a true artistic legend of the children’s book industry for more than half a century, and it’s fair to say the industry today might look very different without his groundbreaking work. As someone who worked with Jerry for more than twenty-five years, I can say that every interaction with him was a meaningful one. He brought great joy, excellence, genuine personal connection, and dignity into every aspect of his work and being, and we will all miss him dearly.” A native of Philadelphia, Jerry Pinkney studied at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). He began illustrating children’s books in 1964 with The Adventures of Spider: West African Folktales, and was also the illustrator of the original iconic cover of Mildred Taylor’s Newbery Award–winning classic Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. He also illustrated the first eight Black History stamps for the US Postal Service, and served on the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee. He was a member of the National Endowment for the Arts, was the first children’s book illustrator elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was elected into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, and was the most exhibited illustrator in American museums. In advice for children, Jerry Pinkney said, “For the young person who is struggling in school, never forget there are many different ways to learn. Be curious. Do not be afraid to try. Do not be disappointed when making mistakes. You will discover your own unique way of understanding the things being taught. Learn from mistakes. Everything that happens to you will frame who you are, and who you will become. Your path to success will follow.” Jerry Pinkney is survived by his wife of sixty-one years, as well as by his daughter, Troy, and his three sons, Brian, Scott, and Myles Pinkney, all artists, and nine living grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Dyslexia Foundation (dyslexiafoundation.org) or the Teatown Lake Reservation Preserve and Education Center (teatown.org). About Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is a division of Hachette Book Group, a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest trade and educational publisher in the world. HBG is made up of eight publishing groups: Little, Brown and Company, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Grand Central Publishing, Perseus Books, Orbit, Hachette Nashville, Hachette Audio, and Workman. For more information, visit hbgusa.com. # # #

From the 10/18/2021 issue of Publishers Weekly “Another Pandemic Surprise: A Mini Indie Bookstore Boom” PW showed AALBC some love by leading with a photo from my pop-up store on Black Wall Street 🙂 Please check out the article and use the social sharing icon to it with others.

Actually, it is our forum. Pioneer foots the bill (though he would probably never admit it) and I manage it. But it is pointless without participants and readers, both of which have increased due in part to YOUR participation. Heavens to Betsy, Mzuri, why do you care so much about my picking apart the article? I’m glad you posted it. I think it was great fodder for discussion. until you answered the question which you did finally, Please don’t hold your tongue on my account. Feel free to say what ever you want — often what is written here i disagree with or don’t know enough about (or care enough) to have a strong opinion one way or the other. What interests me is the ideas — even the ones i disagree with. I also enjoy the humor and learning new things. I enjoy the fellowship. I also enjoy being more honest… the time shifting allows me to express ideas more clearly that i might be able to on the spot. I’m also not constrained by visual cues that might make me hold my tongue in the real world. really? i did not know that until now. So who actually does it? How can the IRS enforce this? yes the record is public, but the transaction are anonymous. One could also transfer between alt currencies and really complicate tracking. the reward gets halved every 4 years but the value, if it continues to increase will continue to make business sense for the biggest players. They will be Ming going long after we are gone… please share the link to the article @Mel Hopkins I’m glad Jet was covering the subject in 2018. @Pioneer1 you are going off the deep end you only pay taxes when you realize a gain and depending on how long your hold the coin and what your income is you can minimize our eliminate tax liability. Is your money really stuffed inside a mattress?

@Mzuri I never said the article was "fake." I wrote the article was misleading and that tends to confuse people, because clearly two little kids do not have the wherewithal to profit from mining cryptocurrency. This is a important distinction, perhaps nuisance distinction that I'm apparently unable to explain. Did you read the white paper. No one group controls the the block chain which crypto rides on. That is one of the advantages of it -- just like the internet. Again what concerns me, are we going to fail to establish our own businesses or are we going to use white owned businesses. I know, but that was not what the article you shared discussed. But if you are speaking in general are you saying that you or I can make $100 (a day month) mining some other crypto currency today? Wait, what?! I know you must be joking LOL! I'm all about ownership. CNN, Fortune and the others can write disingenuous articles with click-baity titles to sell ads, but trust me the owners of these publications are positioning themselves to benefit from the crypto currently. We (Black folk) can not let this discourage us from understanding the technology for, like the Internet, we will all be let out in the cold. It is a fact that Black men provide most of the talent in the NFL, but despite some high profile wages, they share a paltry portion of the wealth. Don't even get me started on the athletes who spent their entire youth working toward making the NFL, entertain, mostly white folk and not even getting a college degree... Call it complaining the fact of the matter is we could develop our own league, but we will not because collectively we have been trained -- brainwashed -- to into be workers not owners. We also have been trained to believe that the white man's ice is colder, which may be true, because they get all of our support, and we serve at their largess...

In my mailbox today. I don't see how calling yourself a "New Afrikan" describes and describes you as a citizen of both the Republic of New Afrika and the United States of America. Anywho, here is the original email: --------------- The term African-American is disparaging if Black People use it to indicate they are citizens of the United States. Citizens of the United States are called Americans; a hyphen indicates you are not all the way there. Over the years people have used a lot of terms that did not properly represent who We are. African American is as much one of them as Afro-American, Negro and Colored. Recognizing yourself as a New Afrikan universally eliminates the element of inequality that terms like African-American carry. Recognizing yourself as a New Afrikan makes you a whole dual citizen of both the Republic of New Afrika (“New Afrikan”) and the United States of America (“American”). Visit my website at www.asetbooks.com and my youtube channel at https://youtube.com/channel/UC7fEkUP01ViblCH1W6XkGTA for more of what We need to be aware of. We are Black People, We are New Afrikans. We are not dark-skinned white people. We need a nation of Our own. Mba Mbulu

I don’t agree with this. I have contempt for the behavior of some people, but would stop way sort of indicting a group of people simply because they have less melanin. As you know race is a social construct, other than having less protection against the sun, they are no different than anyone else. Of course their are cultural, class, ethnic, religious, political, and other differences, but they have little to do with skin color — other than the differences we impose.

Use of the word “nigger,” like any other word, should be used when appropriate.