Troy

First, Issa Trae is talented; second, she emerged during a point in our history where people were streaming platforms and other content providers need content -- this has been a boon period for good content producers who know how to market themselves. Issa used the platform(s) where the most people aggregated and she used them well. In a world before social media she could have used Black Planet equally well. Zane, a very popular writer, did the same thing -- in a world before social media. She posted on her own site, earned a following, and got her own imprint, publishing company (imprint) and movies deals. I went to one of her premier in times square she was also large. Today a Zane would not have emerged on her own platform. Today, she would have to use one of the handful of social media sites. When Zane built an audience the World Wide Web was MUCH more fair and rational. Search engines actually returned search results -- not advertisements posing as search results.

I just read the article. Amazon is indeed forcing people to use credit cards rather than Library cards. The author also noted that Amazon owns the paper in which the article was being published, but said his viewer were his own. This may be true today, but the writers has completely missed the point. because Jeff can change this ant anytime.

You know what is cool about this list is that these are mostly books that are not widely known. John A. Williams and Richard Wright are perhaps two of the most important writers of the 20th Century, but they are not going to go viral on social media. We have created a cultural bias such much of the information that is most widely shared and defined as important is driven by an algorithms created by young white men, who know nothing about us. We have to continue to promote and define what is important to us. Bestselling Books by, or About, Black People for April 2021 #readingblack

Dude there’s more than one definition to the word look it up. I trust he is a good one. Has he read our reactions?

The article has a paywall, but I recall Trevor Noah's ebook was (apparently still is) exclusive to Amazon. Amazon is the only one who can sell the ebook. So naturally they can restrict the ability of people to access it from a library. The WP article has a paywall, so I could not read it. But thanks for sharing it anyway.

@Mel Hopkins I agree: Yes we marginalize ourselves. I recall quite clearly the fact that Black writers are balk at my paying them $100 for a book review -- while they would boast and promote that they were Blogging (writing for free) on the Huffington Post site! The Huffington post benefited from a great deal of free and exclusive content that I could not even pay for! Social media has just taken it to a while 'nother level. Today many reviewers STILL give Goodreads (an Amazon site) free book reviews! Why? I'm not aware of a single reviewer who has given Amazon free books review who has "blown up." Indeed, the number of platforms paying for reviews have been greatly diminished during the past 20 years when writers have been writing for free for the massively wealthy properties, from Facebook to Amazon. I wrote about this 8 years ago warning writers about Digital Sharecropping. As far as being targeting by the FBI; the FBI's job is done. When was the last time a Black person did anything impactful enough that our enemies felt the need to assassinate them?

Since when are these things intangible? Your argument fails actually weakens you position, for race is based purely upon subjective and inconsistent dimensions.

11 years later... Why?

Maybe the video was celebrating the "differently-abled," and it went "viral" because the video resonated with folks.

Race is really no different. Probably.

Dude it is not ME it is the findings of the scientific community weighed against the American public. ...and that my friend is the problem opinion, very ill-conceived opinions, crowd out reason, logic, and facts. One's opinion is irrelevant. The data speaks for itself. Yes, it already harder and yes our Government is the most stupid of the bunch.

@afro718, I’m going off my Ancestry DNA results and my family tree, both of which reveal similar ancestry to the person whose photo you posted, a background which is not at all unusual. Do you know the person whose photo you posted? Is it you? 🤨

That is a perfect definition for race.

I had a conversation with someone the other day, in which they explained to me why they were not getting vaccinated. It was a well articulated argument and the person who made it put a lot of thought into it. They believe that DMX and Hank Aaron, for example, were killed by the vaccine. I know, It sounds crazy but the person is not crazy, at least not as one would expect from a clinical diagnosis. the person is just “differently informed” with alternative facts. They are backed with scientific evidence, which main stream media is hiding from us, so that pharmaceutical companies who are the major sponsors of the media can make even more money. The person is Black but this has nothing to do with the Tuskegee experiment of the shitty way the American government has treated us — this goes way beyond. I asked about the nearly 600,000 Americans that have died from Covid, and it was explained to me that there were nowhere near that many deaths and many people who died from the flu and pneumonia their deaths were deliberately falsely attributed to Covid. I did not try to argue with this person or explain the fact that these were 600,000 additional deaths yes some of these people would’ve died anyway from some other cause, but a great deal more American lives were lost as a result of this pandemic. We are a lost cause as a people. I pray that this thing does not mutate into something worse That will kill a lot more people. Anyone reading this is very fortunate. Despite my life challenges I know I have been very fortunate I am grateful for that. But given our population and the things they are capable of, from genocide, to slavery, to putting Donald Trump in office, I really am losing hope in America. When Facebook’s Social media platforms are the source of our information there’s no wonder we are so differently informed. There is really nothing no one can do no amount of protesting or rioting will make it a difference. We will not achieve herd immunity what that means for our country remains to be seen.

Even though I did not buy the video entertaining I did not find it explicative at all. Now none of us know Afros motive for posting the photo and asking for opinions of the guys ethnicity and race. For all we know he could’ve been goofing on somebody to ridicule them as I indicated. I waited ridicule the guy. He could’ve also been providing an example of the folly of trying to describe ones ethnicity or even race based upon the way they look. That is the motivation that I took away. Everyone sees things differently.

Many American descendants of slaves have that background, including myself. @Pioneer1 again more evidence for why race is so problematic. And again, you can’t look at someone and determine their ethnicity.

I don't just mean chronological age but age in terms of time period. A Black 20 year old in 2021 is not the same animal as one from almost 40 years ago when I was 20. The autistic kid did not make this video. The production quality is relatively high -- a quality camera, lighting, and good editing. "Chen" = "Chev" as in @Chevdove (it was a typo introduced by autocorrect which seems to happening a lot more lately). Is this any different than @afro718's post?

Could be. At first I thought he/she/they might have found a photo of you LOL!

OK @afro718 what’s the answer? Or are you just trying to poke fun at someone you know?

I did not find the video funny at all. Nor did I find it entertaining. I guess I’m too old to appreciate it. Pioneer it was the video that Chen posted. I just embedded it to make it easier for others to watch.

Thanks for sharing @Chevdove

@Delano If that brother is Jamaican, which I doubt, he is definitely not living there. @Pioneer1 Because no one from a big city will be caught dead in those busted Shirley Temple curls.

Well a race part is easy: human As far as ethnicity, that is a great deal more challenging. You can’t simply look at someone and determine their ethnicity. However in the spirit of fun I’ll venture a guess. I would say this person is African-American from the south or mid west definitely not from a major urban center like New York City or Los Angeles.

Oh I’ve forgotten all about this idea I had. There’s software called Disqus that I use on most of the pages on this website. I thought, I still do on some level, believe it has the ability to be both social and a good Substitute for a dedicated discussion form. Here is a blog post from 15 years and someone has commented on it 15 minutes ago: https://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2006/07/09/can-black-people-go-5-minutes-without-music/ Instead of having discussion forums dedicated to a single website, imagine the conversation being extended across thousands, 10s of thousands of websites covering a variety of subjects. I think if Disqus marketed its software this way it would be more widely used. Today many websites don’t use comment Because they need to be managed. The management of my Disqus comments can be more labor-intensive the managing this discussion forum. There are also probably not very many websites with sufficient content and traffic to even generate many comments. Many of the websites that do you have a company feature used to Facebook social media plug-in...

Well darn @Chevdove you can't give the video that kind of build up and not share it 🙂