Troy

... an ISBN13 for this one too.

Got it. What about this one (include the ISBN on your website too):

So you see no difference between 4 years of Trump versus 4 years of Obama and as a result are completely indifferent to the two presidences? Pioneer, that kind of absolutism makes no sense because it ignores incremental progress.

Why you keep saying that Harlem wasn't destroyed? I lived through it. Maybe our definition of destroyed is not the same. This was the Harlem I grew up in. This scene was three blocks from where I grew up. I could have easily been one of those boy. The cases two are carrying are trumpets. Back when public schools had musical instruments they would let you take them home to practice. One time this older kid stole mine from me. I chased him and inexplicably he turned around and retuned it to me, patted me on the shoulder and said he was just playing. I later found out that an adult he knew saw what he was doing. The person knew my mother and my mother told me. She told me never to fight someone robbing you. Of course in the streets it is not that simple. No kid in America should have to worry about getting robbed, when I grew up it was a constant threat. Harlem defined urban decay. It was destroyed Brother trust me.

@Pioneer1 why are you dismissing Abram's impact with such ease? Would you have preferred that the two GA Senate have gone to Republicans?

Join Us TODAY! A Conversation on the History of the AABLC and with AALBC Founder Troy Johnson and Filmmaker, Booker T. Mattison at the F.R.E.S.H. Book Festival at 1:00 p.m. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82023234394?pwd=UGlkOGlzQjVIZkkyeHkxNWc5ZXpVZz09

Abrams is playing the long game. Two GA senators is far better for all of us than an state governor. Let's just see what the Democrats do now that they got control of both houses.

@Milton help us booksellers out and always include your book's ISBN.

I have over the years come to have a low tolerance for the so-called news. I'm perfectly content to wait a week or so and read what actually happened rather than the blow by blow. To me it's just a tactic media organizations use to sell more advertising. That said, Trump's behavior in recent days is alarming the reaction of many of our citizens is even more so. Apparently some would really like to see a coup. This is a reflection of the profound dumbing down of our population and/or the critical situation many people feel they are in. @Delano if you are suggesting that your astrological predictions foretold recent events I'll take you at your word. Many pundits have been suggesting that Trump would not leave willingly. To me those predictions were irrelevant because it doesn't matter what he wants he will be removed. As cynical as I am about our country I cannot believe that any attempted coup led by white insurrectionist would prevail. We are better than that despite all of our flaws

If definitely was not me. That subject is definitely not in my wheelhouse.

Yeah, but not on the classroom on front of the "teacher." When? Harlem was on loan; a community of renters not owners. Come on man do YOU of all people really believe that? Look at the people now? Who is reacting?

In honor of Zora Neale Hurston’s birthday, Amistad Books is giving away a free audiobook of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

They sort of pinkish in hue.

This list of books that could have been included on this list is quite long: https://aalbc.com/books/best-picture-books.php?year=2020

@MissKorang would you believe after 15 years of maintaining a blog, I've decided to give it up. My last blog post was October 26, 2020 and I explain why I stopped. I did not stop because I thought Blogs were useless it is just that most of what I have to say I share on these forums, in AALBC articles, or my newsletter, all of which get far more traction than my Blog. WordPress was also beginning to get on my nerves. I code HTML from scratch and WordPress's editor was more difficult to use! Then there is the SEO: My blogs posts simply don't rank as high in search as the same content on a regular AALBC page. Finally, and this may be the most important thing, all the energy and attention goes to social media today. I think this is a really bad thing, because social media has yet to replicate what a good Blog can provide. One of the primary reason for this trend is the bloggers themselves. Bloggers invest way too much time and energy on social media giving away free content and being driven more by likes and shares on social rather than getting people over to actually read their Blog posts. It is a lesson AALBC learned years ago and is the primary reason I spend very little time on social media. MissKorang, share you blog's URL here.

Eric Jerome Dickey was one of the few constants in publishing. He published his first novel about a year before I started AALBC and was less than a year older than me. Eric's fortunes in the book world far exceeded mine, but he always remained a down to Earth Brother and had a smile for everyone he greeted. The last time I saw him was in 2018 at the National Black Book Festival in Houston. We did not get a chance to talk but he shouted me out during his presentation (pictured below). I figured I'd see him again later in the day or at the next event. We frequently crossed paths as Eric participated in many events on "the circuit." The Brother was always positive as I'm hearing from other people super supportive of other writers behind the scenes. Eric made the book world better. R.I.P

Dude, you know it's a global pandemic right? Even if people were inclined to do what you suggest, where do you think we're going to go to separate ourselves, Mars? Elon musk will be there when we get there. We have to learn to live in the world we are in Brother. The notion of living in isolated tribal communities is a thing of the distant past, thousands of years past.

And I would do it seriously. I don't think that is necessary. If you compare Ebony from the 2000s to an Ebony from the 1960s you'll see the quality of their content degraded a great deal. I stopped subscribing to the magazine because it was written for children. The article I linked to from ebony in 1963 I only read a few years ago for the first time. I was floored by how good the article was. It was written by John a Williams arguably the greatest right of his generation, but the content was also terrific. But the magazine also included content that would appeal to a wide variety of people. It was just a great publication, that was slowly destroyed over time. Honestly, I have little hope that Ebony will be restored to its former glory. It seems to me that the environment which allowed Ebony to produce the content it did and make money no longer exists. Maybe it does, but people seem to chase money more than anything else and covering celebrities and their dysfunction seem to be the easiest path to revenues and that is what people pursue.

No, that so-called teacher simply did not care about us kids. He should not have been anywhere near a classroom. None of the guys in the back of the classroom were bad, or dangerous, (again I was one of them) one is a financial supporter of the site today. It is called classroom management and that teacher had no concept of what that is, but again he didn't give a s**t. The idea that gambling and drinking in the classroom was allowed in your school tells me that this sort of thing is probably not unusual at all, and that is depressing. @Stefan you missed what I wrote; I graduated from Brooklyn Tech too 🙂 I don't think so either, but the Harlem I lived in as an adult with my kids was not the Harlem I grew up in. Black middle and upper middle class people could have ruled Harlem if they chose to do so, but that would have taken organization and commitment from large groups of people and that is something which is in short supply. Harlem is not unique, as I move around the country I see the same thing wherever I go.

Yep, but I have not cut completely cut ties in FL.

True, but the challenge is getting the teachers capable of teaching students to think and who are willing to work under the conditions we subject public school teachers to. @Pioneer1 we will continue to disagree on the motivations of the leadership of our political parties. You feel they are dominated by white racist, I feel they're dominated by people interested in enriching themselves. Racism, so-called 'wedge" issues, and everything else are just tools used by the oligarchs to maintain power over, and extract wealth from the masses.

Hey @Chevdove yeah I miss both weather and the place I'm in is much smaller, but I'm enjoying my time here so far.

If I had $14 million dollars, I I'd invest in and bolster an existing profitable magazine, not one riddled with debt and controversy. Ebony is, or was, an iconic brand, I'm just not convinced of it's value today, but we will see.

I've obtained two copies of this book and will be raffling one copy off shortly.

I knew there was something special about you; I'm BTHS '80. @Mel HopkinsHopkins graduated from Tech too. I'm surprised as this is where you usually say something like; "These are race soldiers, who chose to stay in the hood willing to sacrifice themselves to help maintain white racism." Any observed differences in the way students learn can be explained by a numbers of factors, none of which would include what you understand as "race." I'm sure despite the racism the teachers and schools were superior in Stefan's generation than mine. The single worse teacher I even had was at Brooklyn Tech. This so called teacher (a retired engineer) allowed us to shoot dice and drink beer in the back of the classroom. All the kids were smart, but we just continued to push boundaries until it became clear there were none. Our "teacher" would read the paper while we gambled. In Stefan's generation, and earlier, teaching was a respected profession today teachers are treated like blue collar workers, as a result teaching is not the first job that comes to mind for our brightest people.