Troy

@daniellegfny, the steps that have been taken so far have averted a great number of deaths. Only God knows how many more would have died it nothing was done. The pandemic is not yet over. Again, you use strong language like "apocalypse," but no one reasonable is saying this pandemic is an apocalypse. So I'm not gonna try to defend that. So far, in least then a year, 788K people have died and countless others are suffering long term illnesses. If everyone believed as you do Danielle, the deaths would have been much higher. All of the economic slowdown you lament because of lockdowns, would have been a moot point because the increased number of deaths would have crippled the economy even more. How many people have to die before you take this seriously?

Sure it seems to me that people flirt more openly on blue collar jobs. That does not mean that people like it. They tolerate it. I'm not saying the behavior is not present in a corporate environment, but most of the employees know enough to behave professionally. Maybe because they are better educated or come from a culture where the behavior is frowned upon. Both environments (#1 and #2) sound like horrible environments for a woman (anyone) to work in. I have never worked a job where people behaved that way. But I've heard other describe this. People tolerate it because they need the job, other become quite adept of navigating these situation -- even taking advantage of them. Screwing a guy just to get ahead (pun not intended).

True, but you're ascribing these difference to genetics and therefore race (as you understand it). I don't agree with that. I believe it is more a function of culture.

Perhaps... I treat people as individuals.

@Pioneer1 it depends upon the environment. At work you would not say a woman looks fat for the same reason that you would not say she looks fine. Both statements objectify women and are inappropriate today in a work environment. Now on these forums or a nightclub or bar the rules are a little different -- say what you feel. If you say something some disagrees with you'll be called on it. I believe this is more a function of culture and power imbalance. In places when men are more powerful than women you'll see men behaving in an overtly sexual manner to women.

@daniellegfny "Lurker" describes someone who reads the forum but does not post comments. Posters, like you, are important for any discussion forum (thank you), but lurkers are important too because they provide the traffic required to sustain the website. No, that not it. My emotion attachment is to Black people. So when people do things, that I perceive will hurt us, I have an issue with that. There was a guy who posted here for just before you arrived. His name was Kareem. Like you he minimized covid-19, but he was in far deeper denial. He even maintained a blog in which is said that Black people were immune and that the deaths would never reach even a fraction of what they have already reached. I called him out on each provable piece of information shared. He ultimately he deleted all of his posts and left. I believe he was a true "troll." Danielle I don't think you are a troll, but i do believe that you have influenced by them. That Candice Owens meme you shared is evidence of this (do you know if the quite actually belongs to Owens?).

I'm no fan of Harris either, but you have three choices; Vote for Trump; Vote for Biden; or Sit out the election What are you gonna do @AJJones1007? Personally, I'ma hold my nose and do a #2 (pun intended).

I appreciate your candor @Jeffrey I wish more people would express themselves on the subject of book here, so thanks. Yeah, I was a diver back in the day the best in NYC Public schools my Sr. Year so I found Jabri Jumps cute yes the author is white https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Gaia+Cornwall in this case the author's race was immaterial to me. Same goes for Ezra Jack Keats, Diane Dillion, etc. This is America -- everthing is unfair to us especially in the book world. If you really believe in what you're created you'll figure it out. There is no other way. It will be hard, but try not to reinvent the wheel completely, learn from others.

Why don't you use this reasoning for you understanding of race? It wasn't the error that tells me that you are not a mathematician, how you interpret numbers reveals this. For example when you write, It just additional evidence. I won't waste time trying to explain to you why, on it's face, this is false, because you'll simply come up with reasons to dismiss it or ignore it like my reaction to your belief you can calculate covid death rate with the total population and the number of deaths. AIDS and Ebola require the exchange of bodily fluids. You can get covid19 from touching a surface or just being the same room with someone who has it. FAR more people will die from covid19 in any given period of time than will die from Elbola or AIDS. Maybe a few people close to you must die before this registers. Again, I know i'm wasting my time with you, but maybe some lurker who holds your belief will reconsider their position as a result of reading this exchange.

There are a couple of great friendships I have with a few white guys. If i treated them with the same distrust you would have my life would be less rich.

... and another thing @Mel Hopkins you know AALBC does not get get pre-publication galleys for any of the "big books" that come out. Books like Caste or How to Be an Anitracist , etc -- books that I sell a bazillion copies of... If I get one I have to request it every time. where white owned store get multiple copies final copies -- just because. I don't have to do this with indie publishers, like Akashic Books or Lee & Low or Red Sea Press or Black Classic Press or Kensington Books or Blue Nile I could go on ... Indie presses reach out and nurture relationships. with me. One exception, for me is is Amistad an Imprint of HarperCollins, they are exceptional, but that is due to the imprint's editorial director leader Tracy Sherrod. Our course I can go on about how Black booksellers are over looked by the large publishers for events. t is also true that big name Black authors themselves do not want to do Black bookstore events! In fact big name authors should, follow Walter Mosely's lead and do a lot more to support Black platforms. It is not just that the "Big 5" publishers do not give large advances to authors. Besides writers like Jesmyn Ward and NK Jemisen quickly earn out their advances and make a pretty penny on royalties. In fact, that is really what the conversation that should be -- forget advance size -- how much are Black authors earning and why, because the vast majority of published authors, or any color, do not get large advances. Where are The Big Five spending their ad dollars? Where are they touring their authors, do their in house publicists have a clue on how to reach Black readers? Do they even know the Black stores, sites, events to support utilize? At the end of the day the industry is steeped in classism founded in a culture of racism. the people who can made the changes are the ones writing Dana's check. Dana sounds serious about trying to make changes. I'm willing to give her a chance, but I'm definitively not holding my breath.

... you're learning 🙂

Do you understand why you can't perform the calculation that way? Why do you reject the CDC's guidelines and data? You obviously are not a mathematician; are you an epidemiologist? Have you even reviewed the CDC's guidelines, or just do you just rely on social media memes for your information?

So I'm supoosed to base my life on your paranoid imagination? Speaking of gators this photo was taken from my patio. The garage is on the otherside of the house.

@daniellegfny spare us the big calculator graphic it does not bolster your bad math, reasoning, and data. You simply refuse to see propoganda for what it is and are contorting the lie into your reality. Maybe @Pioneer1's explaination for you doing this is correct, because I have no clue.

If you are a bookseller and do not have a copy of Isabel Wilkerson's new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, in your hands right now, you are probably gonna have to wait until the end the month to score any copies -- assuming you placed your order soon enough in advance to get copies before they sell out again. That is unless of course you are Amazon. Now Amazon is always doing something devilish when popular books are really scarce. Today they are selling a paperback version of Caste, for $41.18 -- more than the $32 retail price of the hardcover. OK Amazon will argue that they are not actually selling the book, but Amazon is providing the platform and profiting from the transactions. Now Caste has been published in hardcover and audiobook formats, but not paperback. So how is Amazon selling paperback version of this book? Are they selling pre-publication galleys (you are not allowed to sell galleys)? Are they selling a bootlegged version (piracy is illegal)? Did Random House give them the exclusive right to sell this the paperback version (that would not surprise me)? Any ideas how are is selling a paperback version of Caste?

Lets see what happens. Publishing is a business of white privilege. I just added L.L. to the site: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=L.L.+McKinney I never heard of her before.

This I believe has always been true. When cost is the only consideration, then people do not do the things that our collective best interest. Imagine cities without publicly funded libraries do you think someone would come up with a business to loan books? Shoot, there are very few people who have figured a way to make selling book profitable. The arts survive because of philanthropy. Think about how New York City is pricing artists completely out gutting the city of it's culture. The platforms exist. What is different today is the pull of a deluge of baser distractions. Are you gonna attract more young men to listen to Jazz or a Cardi B. Are you gonna draw a young lady's attention with TikTok or a literary novel? There was always room and a time for both, but today we aggressively focus on what makes money, so it is TikTok and Cardi B. I don't think Tony Brown and the people who produced his work were solely concerned with money.

I'm not going to bat for race soldiers. I'm just saying people say stupid things online under and alias. Should the person who made this asinine post today lose their job if they were uncovered? I'm sure someone could find something you or I posted here twist it up and make us look like racist, sexist, homophobic, men. No I'm not. Honestly, I was afraid of being killed, or badly beaten and robbed when I was a kid. Living in that kind of fear is not good for anyone. I left my garage door open for a few hours yesterday -- and I'm surrounded by white folks. Do you often encounter these race solders in the real world, or is your hysteria fueled solely from what you watch on TV and find on the web?

See @Pioneer1, @daniellegfny is big enough to admit when he is wrong. It is not that hard; you should try it 😉 Again, this is another example of how emotion clouds reasoning. Rather than seeing the meme for the misleading propaganda for which it is, Danielle doubles down by minimizing the deaths and explaining that all people die?! That retort does not make sense because while we all will die, very few of use do it by committing suicide. One thing I've learned on this forum is that people are not swayed by facts. It does not mean these people are bad, or have ill intent, it is just human nature. I guess. I've been guilty of it myself. I remember early on, I too, though wearing a mask was a waste of time. Because the masks that the general public has access to and wears will not stop the virus. However, I later learned, with Pioneers help, that marks do indeed provide some protection provided everyone wears them and stays a few feet apart from each other. It is a simply way to save some lives until herd immunity is achieved or a vaccine becomes available. Of course the ability to potentially contract covid19 again is a wild card. Life is full of trade offs and I get the fact that the lock downs have adversely impact the people lives. Municipalities must weight and consider a variety of factors. But wearing a mask is easy and should be considered a no-brainier. But again, people get emotional, stop thinking, and make mask wearing a contentious issue. The other thing, and this is important, the people MOST likely to be hurt by the failure to adopt these simple measure like wearing a mask are Black people. The numbers bear this out on every dimension. So why any Black person would do anything to undermine efforts to prevent the spread of this disease is COMPLETELY beyond me.

OK, are we good with "4 deaths for every 10,000 who contract the disease?" In order words, the rate of death being 4/10,000, or 0.0004, or 0.04% You know like; 10,000 deaths for every 10,000 who contracted the disease would be 10,000/10,000, or 1, or 100%.

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I think that is a really good idea what you are doing with the people involved in your books. Have you considered allowing people to leave comments?

Sadly, we don't chose our race. Still you and @E Coli (or @E_Coli) are on the same page with the race thing.

@Pioneer1 have you considered that they are actually sorry for doing something stupid? Haven't you ever done something dumb, but did not realize it until some called you on it? Once you were made aware if the dumb action you apologized for it. I find it hard to get bent out of shape for something some dummy said on their free time. I'm more interested in what he does. Everybody talks shit.