Troy

Welcome to America. This is a relection of our nation's priorites.

These titles are unfortunate. They are designed to attract readers in our hyper-competitive online environment. Even if the articles themselves are perfectly fine, the titles create a bias for the reader coloring how the article is interpreted. Of course these articles also attract readers who already have the bias... The National geographic knows full well that no one on Earth is a Neanderthal. I know this without reading the article. I defy you to find a statement in the article that counter this Chevdove. Unfortunately competition on the web is a race to the bottom, so you have "reputable" periodicals running articles with very misleading titles. The result is just a lot more confusion. These misleading titles causes off sorts of confusion and can even be deadly when the subject is corna virus or climate change.

So why do they keep saying that Black people did not support Bernie Sanders. I would have voted for Bernie over Biden and Biden and I went to the same university. Sadly, I do believe you are right about people wanting benefits for themselves while excluding others. This is a highly cynical perspective that I do not relish holding, but I've seen to many examples of this. Look at all the hording going on. I know people have gone into a store and purchased all of the toilet paper, water hand sanitizer available. The stores had to stop people form doing this so that other could get these products... Why else would one not everyone to be covered with medical insurance. Sure the public education system is jacked up for poor Black people, but some education is better than none. The time when one with a grade school education could earn enough to survive on was during a time when virtually no one went to college and skilled trades were in demand. Today the best you can hope for is to provide services for people with an education, clean their homes, deliver their food, drive them around, watch their kids, and wipe their asses when they get to old to do it themselves -- none for these jobs pay well or provide benefits.

No I don't. If I did, I would not believe that all evil white people would come back as another evil white person Also people are not lions, so your analogy does not hold from my perspective. No, I do not ignore the past, or have blind trust of anyone. I simply do not believe white people (any people) are directly accountable for the the evil behavior of their ancestors. Now they may owe a debt due to the inherited ill gotten gains of their ancestors, but that is completely different than saying people with light skin and straight hair, that you arbitrarily identify as part if the so called "white race," are inherently evil.

I do think you would like it @Chevdove People wonder what happened to the Neanderthals and how did they get swiped out. I always just assumed that the same thing happened to them that happens to any race, culture, civilization, species, now planet that encounters more than a handful of europeans total annihilation 😉 (I'm surprised this is not the theory @Pioneer1 buys into).

Thanks for sharing I'm thinking Puerto Rican to Latinx. How about Chupacabra to 45 🙂 Alberto, I need to update your profile https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Alberto+O.+Cappas You still in El Barrio? Please fill out this form when you get a chance: https://aalbc.com/content.php?title=Submitting+Author+Info+to+be+Listed+on+AALBC

The New York Public Library recommended a several memoirs which have been highlighted on AALBC. Visit the NYPL for a complete list. “These titles brilliantly display that we all have our own New York City, one that is shaped from our experiences and histories, that is unique to us yet not unfamiliar to other New Yorkers who are also proud to call themselves immigrants. ” Not for Everyday Use by Elizabeth Nunez Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue Open City by Teju Cole When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

I was just on Lip Alley where they have a much more vibrant Black book discussion than AALBC. I wish that were not the case, but anywho ... Someone there just recommended a book, by N.K. Jemisin, whose work I follow, so I was surprised to learn about a book i never heard of (image below). The book is not in distribution -- it isn't even in Books in Print's database. So I mosey on over to Amazon and see that it is an "Amazon Original Stories." I was like WTF!!? So Amazon is now selling books that they have the exclusive right to sell and Black writers are signing up for this bullshit?! This is outrageous. Amazon is the same company that announced during a global pandemic ,when millions of people have already lost the jobs, that they are cutting affiliate commissions 50 to 70% with just one week's notice. This has to be devastating to the businesses involved. How freaking cut throat can you be! Now I stopped directing readers to Amazon last summer. I did continue to link to Amazon for paid advertisers, but this is a practice I'm going to have to discontinue. Amazon already dominates the online Black book market. They already dominate all ebook and audiobook sales -- so much so that I can no longer sell these products on AALBC (side bar: readers simply do not buy libros audio books or kobo ebooks from me. I would still offer them for sale if the those vendors made it easier to determine which books had ebooks or audio books available -- but that is another story). So N.K., perhaps the most celebrated living science fiction writer on Earth, has a new ebook, Emergency Skin, which I can not offer for sale. Beyond this post, or similar commentary explaining just how f@cked up Amazon is, I will make believe the book does not exist. Just image if this ebook were made available to all indie booksellers by only making it available via Kobo and not the Kindle. Could the author make as much money? Why not? Indie booksellers, Black, white, online, brick and mortar -- whatever, are going to have to unite against Amazon or be buried. Amazon is predator taking advantage of weaken competitors while they are down. Some bookstores, many perhaps, will not survive the combination of a global pandemic and Amazon’s business practices. Readers, support your indie booksellers or lose them.

I found a reason to use Bookshop. It allows me to provide buys links for books I do not plan to sell here on AALBC. Here is an example for a buy link for the book, Clan of the Cave Bear.

Years ago, while still in college, a "foine" sister I was infatuated with, recommended that I read The Clan of the Cave Bear. It was not a book I would have ever picked up on my own in fact the title made no sense to me. For no other reason than her recommendation, I read and ultimately and I enjoyed the book a great deal. The story and the woman are perhaps the only reason I recall the book to this day The book, like all books I really enjoy is a love story. In this case familial love. Not one of biology, but adoption. It is not like any adoption story that you'll ever read. The story came to my mind during a dragged out debate I'm having with @Chevdove, who believes that Neanderthals are still among us rather than being extinct as all the current scientific data tells us. What I did not know when reading this story, over 35 years ago was that it tells the story of a Homo Sapien girl being adopted by an Neathanderthal clan [my take thinking back on the story]. It really is a brilliant story and I highlighly recommend it. Side bar: Now I don't sell this book on AALBC, so I can't post a link to this title here on this site (technically I could but I don't feel like adding this book to my database). In the past, I would have simply linked readers to Amazon, but since I'm boycotting Amazon, now I figure it is a good time to test the Bookshop affiliate program, which has been getting so much press lately. As a bookseller, I could not think of any benefits of Bookshop to AALBC, at least until now. I'll experiment with linking readers to bookshop for books that I recommend, but do not plan to stock or sell, because they are outside the scope of books we cover on AALBC.

Why? Yes, I do have difficulty in believing the opinions of people who reject, or cherry pick, science. Sure science makes mistakes, but somethings are not really up for debate. The world is not flat, there is only one race of humans, and Neanderthals have been extinct for thusands of years. If you told me the brontosaurus was not extinct, based on the illfounded belief that scientists were failing to admitting the truth; i word view you the same way. I don't know this to be true. Some african people don't have bappy hair and some non african people do. Do you know which gene(s) contribute to what you call nappy hair. Are there environmental factord that causes this gene to be expressed? Supposed the person is bald, can you look at them, read their dna sequence, and tell me what the tecture of their hair is? Just a couple nappy headed white boys for your review.

Forget what I wrote about how Amazon pays affiliates for sales on other products a referred customer might order. Amazon has just dramatically drop affiliate commission 50 to 80% on other products!? Amazon gave affiliates one week's notice and did this during a global pandemic! Amazon really is a shitty company. I was going to give away my Amazon fire stick now I'm just going to dump it in the trash.

KASI LEMMONS TO WRITE AND DIRECT FILM ADAPTATION OF MAAZA MENGISTE’S THE SHADOW KING FOR ATLAS ENTERTAINMENT The Bestselling Novel was Released Last Year to Rave Reviews Los Angeles, CA (April 16, 2020) – Fresh off the Academy Award nominated film “Harriet,” Kasi Lemmons has come on board to write and direct the adaptation of Maaza Mengiste’s critically acclaimed, bestselling, historical fiction novel The Shadow King for Atlas Entertainment, the company announced today. A gripping novel set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, The Shadow King takes us back to the first real conflict of World War II, casting light on the Ethiopian women soldiers who were left out of the historical record. The project will be produced by Charles Roven, Richard Suckle and Executive Produced by Stephanie Haymes-Roven and Curt Kanemoto who will oversee the project for Atlas Entertainment. “Kasi’s films are epic and intimate all at once,” stated Atlas Entertainment’s Roven and Suckle. “It makes her the perfect filmmaker to bring to life Maaza’s complex characters and compelling world captured in 'The Shadow King.’ We are thrilled to be working with her on such a special project.” “Maaza Mengiste’s mesmerizing novel takes my breath away,” said Lemmons. “The imagery is so rich and powerful and the characters so vividly drawn, it naturally lends itself to adaptation. I’m very honored to be a part of bringing this brilliant book to the screen and I’m thrilled to be working with everyone at Atlas.” Lemmon’s most recent film “Harriet” earned two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, and ten NAACP Award nominations. In addition to her work on “Harriet,” Lemmons most recently executive produced the Netflix limited series “Self Made,” starring Octavia Spencer and directed two episodes of the series. The Shadow King, which was published by W.W. Norton & Company in September 2019, received an abundance of praise and endorsements including being named one of Time Magazine’s “Must-Read Books of 2019” and was named a finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction. Newsweek says of the novel, “In haunting and beautiful prose, Mengiste shines a light on those whose lives are not often heralded.” The Shadow King is a story set in 1935 as Mussolini’s army invades Ethiopia and moves towards an easy victory. Aster, the wife of a commander in Haile Selassie’s overwhelmed army, and her household servant Hirut long to do more than only care for the wounded and bury the dead. Together they offer a plan to maintain morale among Ethiopians, eventually becoming warriors and inspiring other women to take up arms against the Italians. Lemmons is repped by The Gersh Agency and lawyer Nina Shaw. ABOUT ATLAS ENTERTAINMENT Atlas Entertainment, led by Academy Award® nominated producer Charles Roven, produces tent pole films, independent features, and series, which collectively have generated billions of dollars in revenues and worldwide critical acclaim. Atlas is currently in various stages of production on multiple films including “Wonder Woman 1984,” set for release by Warner Bros. on August 14, 2020;  “The Suicide Squad,” written and directed by James Gunn and set for release by Warner Bros. on August 6, 2021; “Uncharted,” which will soon begin production, starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas and directed by Ruben Fleischer, based on Sony PlayStation’s most successful game, which Sony Pictures has set for release October 8th 2021. Atlas also Executive Produced  the animated Scooby-Doo feature “Scoob,” starring Zac Efron and Amanda Seyfried, which Warner Bros. will release later this year. Atlas also serves as Executive Producers on the highly anticipated second season of the hit anthology series “Dirty John” entitled “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story,” starring Amanda Peet and Christian Slater, coming June 2, 2020 to USA. Among the 100 top-grossing films of all time, Atlas has produced four: “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Dark Knight,” “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Wonder Woman,” and at the global theatrical box office alone, Atlas’ films have earned over $2 billion in 2016 and over $1.6 billion in 2017.  Atlas’ most recent feature film, J.C. Chandor’s “Triple Frontier” starring Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal, was released by Netflix in March 2019 and watched by more than 63 million accounts and over 120 million people, making it Netflix’s fifth most popular original film ever.  Additional past feature film projects include David O. Russell’s award-winning “American Hustle” and “Three Kings,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” “Man of Steel,” “Justice League,” “Get Smart,” “The Bank Job, “Scooby-Doo,” “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,” “City of Angels,” and “12 Monkeys.” For television, Atlas produced the first season of the hit anthology series “Dirty John,” based on the popular true crime podcast of the same name. The first season, which featured an all-star cast led by Connie Britton, Eric Bana, Juno Temple and Julia Garner, became the most-watched scripted series ever among total viewers for Bravo and was nominated for Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards. “What / If,” the social thriller anthology series created by Mike Kelley and starring Renee Zellweger and Jane Levy premiered on Netflix in May 2019. Atlas also produced the original series “12 Monkeys,” based on the 1995 Academy Award nominated film by the same title, which aired on SYFY for four seasons. Next in television, Atlas will executive produce the limited series “Evel”, based on the story of larger-than-life 70’s daredevil Evel Knievel as he prepares for his greatest death-defying feat, the historic Snake River Canyon jump. The show, which will air on USA, stars Milo Ventimiglia in the title role and is currently in pre-production.

Hi @Chevdove writing text like this does not make your points any stronger 🙂 Wikipedia is not a primary source of information. If there is a point you like to make, or evidence you'd like to share, please direct me to the source Wikipedia cites; otherwise I'd have to track down the source. Besides I'm not going to hunt down sources that says Neanderthalss were still walking around in 2020. Chevdoe, I'm afraid you are misinterpreting everything you are reading on this subject. For example you shared the following: What point are you trying to make here? How does this prove Neanderthals live among us today? Seriously, maybe the reason you do not believe Neanderthals are extinct is because you do not know what extinct means. That may come across as condescending, but I can not think of any other reason for you to continue to hold the belief that Neanderthals are still alive. People who have light skin, read hair, and large brows are not Neanderthals, they are homo sapiens like everyone else alive today. I totally disagree. I based this on years of research as I do have a degree in Biology and I do understand the Scientific Method, of which one vital aspect is OBSERVATION. Not only have scientist published information on this subject and data but it definitely agrees with observation. You are wrong, Troy. So you can run a DNA test one someone by merely looking at them Chevdove? You can look at someone and determine that they have Nethanderthal DNA? That is a remarkable skill unfortunately it is not one you possess because it is impossible. Sure science involves obervation, but you can not observe someone DNA with your naked eye. Perhaps this is why so some many people struggle with the belief that there is only one race. People like to say it is obvious, because we look so different. Of course the science disagree with multiple human races, because one's observations are based upon what one can see, which rarely -- if ever -- tells the whole story. The most fascinating subjects in science to me is quantum theory -- it defies everything we know about the world based upon what we can see or sense on any level.

I just read an letter sent to me by someone who spent 10 days in the hospital recovering from Covid19. They wrote; “luck really had nothing to do with it; this is a narrative more appropriately viewed through the frame of ‘privilege.’” That really was the sentiment that I was feeling, though I could not put my finger on it. Look, I'm FAR from being in the 1%, but I am privileged in many ways. The story about my doctor friend and my home office reflects this privilege. As an adjunct professor I'm forced to teach courses remotely. I see, first hand how privilege, or the lack of if, effects people. My college had an "instructional pause" while they distributed 50K Wifi enabled tablets to students who needed them to learn remotely. This is commendable, but also alarming that so many college students lacked access. The digital divide that we used to fight against is still as real as ever. Smart phone access to social media is not enough and has benefited telephone carriers, cell phone manufacturers, and social media companies than the people who use them. Many poor primary school children have simply "disappeared" from the school system as they don't have computers with high speed WIFI access at home and can't be reached. How much further will these children fall behind? Who will help them? When I raised my kids, everyone in my household had a computer and or laptop/tablet, and smartphone. We always had internet access and, for a decade, this was true across two homes ... privilege.

Again, because no one can merely look at someone and determine which traits came fron Neanderthal DNA. This should be obvious. First, John Worthington for Ancestry – Genealogy & DNA is not a scientific source. Tell me about his "scientific" background please. Second, the article is click bait, designed to get your attention not to enlighten you. You might have noticed the word "may" in the article's title. May implies possibility not not certainty. I don't think you read the entire artcle from the-scientist.com which "...researchers cannot yet say how these archaic sequences affect people today, much less the humans who acquired them some 50,000–55,000 years ago." It then spends the rest of the article explaining why. It decredits what you and Pioneerbare saying. I suggest you read it carefully. Neanderthals are extinct and white people did not descend from them. Accept the known science.

It is not the biggest home office I ever had, but it is the most comfortable. While I miss socializing, I also appreciate how truly lucky I am. I'm not saying I don't have challenges, but relatively speaking... I called a longtime buddy of mine yesterday, a physician, he is in the hospital, on oxygen, as a result of Covid19. He told me he had gotten so sick that he wished he had died. Fortunately, he will recover. My friend is wealthy. I think about all the poor people, in his situation, that have died painful deaths, alone, and scared. Will this prompt Americans to fight stop a system that increase wealthy inequality and has millions without health insurance? ----- This is the kind of thing would have shared on social media were I still using it for personal reasons. I never really considered it, but these forums is my "social media." I haven't written a Blog post since August of 2019. Pretty much anything I have to say, I say it here. Stay healthy fam.

I've been listening to Burning Spear.

The following quote is from a discussion of Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi on the Black Syllabus: "Consider that lack of connection with spirits/gods is a result of white supremacy and colonialism; the belief that (certain) humans are superior, and what we produce on this earth for our consumption is all that matters/is all that is real." This struck me because the people who have done the most vile things on Earth pray to a God and believe in an after life -- or at least they say they do. Indeed white racism and Christianity go hand in hand. Maybe I'll read this book.

Perhaps.

You better be, cause those Neanderthals ... I mean guys are would rip you to shreds. 🙂 Seriously, if you believe Neanderthals decended from so called "white" homo sapiens then we can't have an intelligent conversation.

See that is the faliacy; it is not the same group of people. Just because they share the same complextion does not make them the same. What do you have incommon with a 15th century inhabitant of modern day Nigeria ... other than skin color (maybe, cause I don't know your complexion). One would think this obvious, but prejudice is a tenacious beast. With your reasoning we could say all Germans are just like Adolf Hilter. All the white people in 2020 are no different than the minority of white people who were slave holders in 1820 right? All white Doctors today would not treat syphilis to see the effects on Black people therefore we should distrust all white doctors. Do i understand your reasoning correctly?

Because they have dug up fossils and mapped the Neanderthal DNA. Again this is factually false. Saying it multiple times will not make it true. Perhaps sharing something from a source, other than your imagination, might be beneficial. Again, your observations are not a DNA test Besides these guy are not Neanderthals. I suspect you would not dare say it to their faces 😉 NO!!!!!

Agreed it just legitimizes the attacker and gives them the attention they apparently need. Of course not, but people in the last century or two have been conditioned to believe this. One would think after learning there is only one race and that genetically we are virtually identical (in fact some so called "Black" people are more genetically similar to so called "white" people than they are other Black people), that the notion of being superior to someone simply because of your skin color would have been discarded along with the junk science that produced it. Well, fortunately, not all the comments shared on AALBC are negative. Here is one just shared about the Egyptologist Anthony Browder, whose books I can not keep in stock. “Mr. Browder is a truly wonderful man, he has awakened in me a spirit that is unbelievable. i now can fully embrace more clearly my African heritage, thanks to this awesome man. We people who are darker than blue, have a huge job ahead and it is men like Mr. Browder who will help to enlighten us about our people and there magnificent contribution to the whole world and such knowledge will help to change our plight here in America as well as around the entire world the truth about our magnificent African ancestors will be known. Thank you, Mr. Anthony Browder.”

Yes racists and racism is relentless @Maurice It could be Hunter and Martin leave the racists posts and delete the reasonable one to amp up the controversy.