Troy

It is just that simple huh? There is no subtlety to your game @daniellegfny, everything is Black and white. Would you agree that most people would consider poverty to be an undesirable state? If so why then do you think so many people, the majority, "decide" to be impoverished? Did you know this is one of the first generation of kids in a century who are less well off than their parents? Did a whole generation of kids decide to be less well off thatn their parents? Last question do believe in exogenous factors that disproportionately impact Black people hampering the ability to obtain wealth? You probably don't you strike me a pull-yourself-by-your-own-bootstraps kind of guy.

Danielle your in ability to understand something does not mean that thing does not exist, right? You usually have to look outside your own personal experience to understand something? That said, have you ever taught? Do you think if the publishing world was run by Black people and inner city children, like myself, were taught by loving Black educators that Black people would read more books?

Danielle that is a classic strawman arguement. I never wrote that, nor do I feel that way, so I'm not going to defend the statement. Where did you get that from anyway? 20 years ago there was a much greater variety of Black websites -- even Black book sites. Today these businesses are gone along with the wealth that they could have created for their owners and the pleasure they could have brought their visitors. These businesses were killed by a handful of websites whose owners (all white) are the wealthiest people on Earth. And no Jeff Bezos did not personal "kill" anyone, that I'm aware of. "Mob violence" is not necessary today, technology is better at taking wealth and is not nearly messy. @Chevdove no problem, the book targets Black women and addresses a subject you are well versed in, so I thought it might interest you.

That is just one manifestation of racism. Prejudice is another. Not hiring someone for a job, not allowing them to move into a neighborhood, or not being willing to get into a relationship with one, based solely on race are a few. @Chevdove white men collectively are the most powerful people on Earth and arguably the most racist. They have a legacy of brutalizing Black people and for a couple hundred years have raped Black women with total impunity. So to see sisters run into the arms of white men is, especially the most desirable one, is kinda hard to embrace wholeheartedly. Do you get it now? Now I fully appreciate that younger cats may not feel this way, because they are too far removed. I also appreciate some sisters and white men may truly be color blind, but in America this seems unlikely to me.

@Jeffrey I grew up in NYC the publishing capital of the world. As a kid, and to this day, NYC publishing is lilly-white. The vast majority of my teachers were jewish women. The first book i saw with a black character was written by a Jewish man. It is wonder any Black boy grows up with a desire to read for pleasure. I would have loved to have been able to read books with Black people in them, but i just was not exposed to any. Many it is one reason I feel strongly about sharing info about Black books today.

"Biracial," again is the language of the culture scientifically it is meaningless. White people said Black people were genetically inferior, more animals less than human. This justified permanent enslavement. Trying to convince whites that we were equal was met with violence. The resistance to the fact that we are all one race is meeting similar resistance.

There us defintely no shortage of interracial couples in my neck of the woods. In fact, if you see a black person in a couple the likelihood of their partner being Black is just as likely as being white.

I made more than 10K last month selling books. What is the point you want to make? No, not really. In fact, I consider Tulsa perfect analog to what happened to Black businesses on the web. Well I agree with you there. I too believe America can right itself, but time is short...

As much distain I have for Amazon, I'd much rather be picking products in one of their warehouses than cotton on a 19th century Louisianan plantation...

Pioneer there are many cultures in the Black American community. You've lived enough places to know that. I dont think "Oreo" is one, but hey I might lesrn something.

This is what I found when checking my Twitter messages just now. No one as ever done anything like this before. Sure sometimes orders get delayed or screwed up. No business is perfect. Everyone else who has a problem simply emails me. They don't put me on blast and effectively accuse me of stealing. @Pioneer1 I can see, based uoon what this woman did, why you would say we don't care about each other. But here is the thing, I've been working with this bookclub for years. The bookclub, Go On Girl!, which this sister is apparently a nember of has dozens of chapters and hundreds of members across the country, and are avid supporters of AALBC and I of them. So while I don't understand why this sister came at me publically, I know she is not reflective of the majority of Sisters than help support AALBC rather than try to tear it down. I'll let you know what happened to her order. She failed to leave her name of any other way for me to identify her order in her Twitter message. I don't have her voicemail either. And I'm not aware of any outstanding orders. The Sister that follows up on order status for me is pretty thorough. I know the correct response is to bend over backwards and to try to placate her, but I've learned when people come at you sideways you've already lost.

My laptop is realtively high end, but the built in video camera is trash. I'm going to Best Buy tomorrow lol!

That is the same line of reasoning people used to not emancipate Black people. Sure, forcing people to change entrenched idea even when they fly in the face of truth is always hard. Again your question is based upon a presumption I don't ascribe to. I do not believe there Black and white people. Their are just people. I'm not blind and I recognize how you and most other define black and white people so i can speak your language, so to speak. I do however reject all the characteristics you ascribe to people based upon how they look (what you call race). Again AALBC exists in reaction to people with your mindset @Pioneer1, people who treat differently, usually worse, because of they way we look. Americans have different subcultures based upon class geography, religion, history of enslavement, political party; sexual orientation, etc. Often people of the same subculture present in a similar fashion, but when they don't you even up with terms like "oreo." There is only one race. We just need to accept this and move on. Besides relgion alone is enough to keep us at each other's throats.

Obviously. This is one of the reasons AALBC exists. AALBC expanded its scope years ago to include writers in yhese categories. In fact one of the site's most popular pages is, 25 African Male Writers You Should Read and 25 African female Writers You Should Read Yes narketing is definitely part of it. The other part is our culture and educational system.

@Neal Owens i guess you forgot about our boycott.

Sure, why? I have zero interest in moving to either place. Well at some point I would like a life partner and if I'm only considering Black women am I unnecessarily limiting myself... I did not know that. Sure the thoughs are racist in nature. They are mildly racist not like those of the Klan and of no consequence to anyone else, but racist nevertheless. LOL. Now that is a double standard! WOW @Pioneer1 That's crazy. Sure Pioneer's sentiment is a racist double standard, but Black men of a certain generation "get it." If you think about it @Chevdove you'll probably figure out why.

Yes. One would never go wrong underestimating the quality of Brothers women choose to become impregnated by. True. This reminds me of a book you might like @Chevdove Sacred Woman the 20th anniversary edition is coming out in September. Send your address troy@aalbc.com I'll send a cooy when it comes out. I agree, but I don't think that community exists in America. Indeed, the way America is setup I don't believe it can exist... This is only partially true, for the idea completely ignores the systems in place that have benefited white men over Black people for centuries. Your experience @daniellegfny is an anecdote, a good one but not reflective of the whole. It is like saying, "look at Lebron James, Oprah, or Barack Obama, make the same choices they made and you can be just like them." Again sounds good in writing. In practice is a completely different story. Read about Tusla, OK, less than 100 years ago. Do you think, Lebron James, Oprah, or Barack Obama live in Black neighborhoods? Where do you think they buy their books? Imagine a strong Black community in which we could bump into one of those three in the local Black-owned book store. It will never happen.

Hate, like racism, are manifestations of ignorance. The expression of these may have a genetic basis, but we are not wild animal; we can rise above these primal emotions and ignorant ideas. Look greedy and evil people will exploit whatever economic system is in place, American capitalism just makes this easier because of private ownership. The American system allowed the private ownership of land -- nevermind they had to run the people living on it off. It also allowed the private ownership of other humans. A great deal of wealth was created this way. There are also degrees of exploitation. A 18th century Louisianan cotton farmer was far more exploitative of its workers than Amazon.

Perhaps, but if they loved it so much why did they Martyr Dr. King?

Amazon started by getting indie authors to give them exclusive rights to sell their books, but now major publishers are doing the same thing?! I recently added 1,500 audiobooks to AALBC that you can listen to on any platform -- not just a Kindle. Here you may find the newest audiobooks. However, Trevor Noah's audiobook, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood is only available from Amazon. If is a short sited strategy to give Amazon exclusive rights to sell a book. Let's see how that work for them. I already know consumers are increasingly dissatisfied with Amazon. But then again major publishers have never been known to be the most forward thinking entities -- shoot we are still trying to convince them that Black people read...

Hi Kevin, Your book sounds very interesting -- indeed fascinating. I never considered Oreos belonging to a culture different than the one in which they were born. The concept of a biracial person, like Barack Obama, passing for Black is intriguing as well. I always considered an Oreos as a person who is "Black" phenotypically, but is culturally "white." One does not have to be biracial to be an Oreo.

ROTFLMBAO! Yeah I hooked up with a white woman from the 18 century 😉

@Pioneer1 poppycock! You must choose a different word than "race" to the describe the phenotypical and psychological differences of people. Every educated person knows there is only one race and the all the dimensions you use can not be universally applied to all humans. This is junk science, filed in the same draw as the flat earth idea.

@Pioneer1 while I can't speak for @Cynique I'm not so sure she would be as closed minded as you, not to even consider watching the movie. It would be interesting to hear what see thinks. But that boat has sailed... Now I will admit the film did not provide any revelations to me and was created to appeal to viewers on an emotional level. Which in my mind makes it propaganda, but many so called documentaries -- indeed most movies -- are propaganda. Pioneer this is true. It is also true that we can not know the mental state of the people in those situations we surmise based upon a wide variety of criteria... Pioneer have you ever raised biological children?

On that we can agree. The way we practice capitalism is herently and, as you say, dependent upon exploitation. The fact that Black people have been exploited here is stems from pure greed, racism was invented to justify this insanely evil form of greed. People who practice racism are not always doing out of greed or evil. They are often poorly educated and woefully ill informed ... brain washed, some irredeemably so.