Troy

What happened to Oprah?

The graphic point was made to emphasize the fact mthe watching Rupaul does not turn heterosexual Black men into homosexuals. But you still don't agree. So now you say that white people natures are different and therefore less susceptible to being converted into a homosexual than a Black person who watches drag queens on TV. Do i understand you correctly. I don't know if whites drink more than native Americans or not, but acholism is often a function of other factors like poverty. I'm sure the consequences of genocide is a factor too.

Unfortunately @Pioneer1 it teally is not that simple. We all have to learn to live together. I don't wanna have to build a brand new community in upstate new york from scratch. We helped build and maintain communties all over the country and i want enjoy the fruit of our labor. Even if we did set up our own private community. We can't create everything we need we have to engage in trade. Suppose our community is attacked who would fight with us. What about a neigborhing community poluting our water supply? Who will enforce our laws? Man i could on and on with a million reasons why not only Black and white people need to work together, but why everyone on Earth does.

@Pioneer1, it continues to escape me why do you think this is a conspiracy against African Americans. Perhaps it is because I have never watched one and probably never will. But it seems to me that a white program, staring mostly white people would impact white people... How can this programming cause "...cause sexual confusion among AfroAmericans," when we don't even watch this stuff? PLUS one's sexual orientation is not determined by a TV program. Let me put it this way: how many more times would you, @Pioneer1 have to watch men in drag, on TV, for you to let another dude climax in your mouth?

Hey @Maurice I support my local business and if what I'm looking for is not available locally I buy online, from anyone but Amazon. Madinah, yes I see that Amazon has lowered the price (see graphic below). Amazon dynamically prices books to maximize revenue. I guess Amazon's algorithm discovered they were losing customers to other booksellers and dropped to price. Please notice that Amazon is still aggressive pushing their “free” audiobook and Kindle format. In fact the Kindle and Audiobooks buttons are the only ones that work. To buy the deeply discounted hardcover you have to click the small text below the button. The entire design and layout of the page is encourage the visitor to buy the ebook or audiobook — both published by Amazon. Because the ebook and audiobook are purely digital they both generate higher profits that a physical book. The price today ($15.35) is lower than AALBC’s price from the distributor. I would lose money if I sold the book at that price. The I don’t know what Amazon’s discount is for this book, but I know it is lower than AALBC’s. Plus, Amazon can easily afford to sell books at a loss, to eliminate competition. The elimination of competition is core to Amazon’s mission. Indeed this is the reason Wall Street funded Amazon for years while Amazon burned through money without making a profit, because they knew Amazon would ultimately become a monopoly. Yesterday I asked on of my customers why they chose to buy How to Be an Antiracist from AALBC and they replied: “This morning, I came across AALBC through a friend who posted on Instagram that she had purchased How to Be an Antiracist. She shared the name of AALBC to purchase the book from. I will continue to share AALBC & the list of bookstores on your site with others to ensure $ spent is going to Black Authors & Bookstore Owners who have written & curated books & resources.” Again, people are starting to see Amazon for the manipulative, greedy, indie-business-destroyers they are. People also recognize the added value that indie booksellers provide and are willing to pay full retail price for a book — even when Amazon tries to seduce them by selling a book below cost. Amazon screen shot (taken 6/1/20)

Why? The oligarchy has grow stronger. Racism has not gone away. The conditions that hold use back have not dissipated they have only grown stronger. I know plenty of booksellers who started selling books on the web before jeff Bezos. In fact i only started AALBC after i offered to improve the of one if those sites and they declined. None of those sites are around today and Bezos is a trillionaire. We have not changed; the rope has just been tightened around our collective necks.

That can't be true ... if so wow! Tampa has a curfew because of this whole situation.

I guess the best thing ti do @Delano is share the article from the source. If wanna share this post any if the social sharing links will work. Thanks for that.

Today I sold a few copies of Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist. Ibram is a critically acclaimed author who won a National Book Award in 2016 (I recorded Ibram's acceptance speech). Despite posting video and publishing a review of his latest book. I have not sold many copies of his Kendi's books. However, today I may have sold enough copies of How to Be an Antiracist for it to make my next bestsellers list. This piqued my interest; why is there increased demand of Ibram's work on the site? I decided to check Amazon and discovered that Amazon is currently charging $44 -- minimum price for a used copy! The book's price is $27 new -- Max. Amazon has 3rd party booksellers competing to sell over priced, used copies of a book that is still in print and less than a year old! How many unsophisticated book buyers will Amazon trick with this scheme? The reader is overcharged and neither the author or publisher earns a penny on these sales, but Amazon will, as usual, make money no matter what. Sure, people falsely believe Amazon sells books at the best prices, and maybe some customers feel compelled to buy overpriced books from Amazon because they are already paying 10 bucks a month for a Prime membership. But price gouging on books during a pandemic ... how low can you go? I think people are beginning to see Amazon for what they truly are. They don't care about the books, the readers, authors, or publishers. All they care about is getting paid, and on that they have executed brilliantly. (left) Amazon screen shot* (right) AALBC screen shot (taken 5/31/20) *Yeah, I know I'm breaking my own rule of not allowing links to Amazon, but in this context I think it is appropriate.

Four of Dr. Claud Anderson’s Most Popular Books, including a hardcover copy of PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America, are now available on AALBC. Of course you may buy these books individually.

Yes @Delano?

A society dominated by oligarchs and a legacy of structural racism.

I bet that was done to protect these home and other assets from the inevitable civil suit. They can't, short of a vaccine. But they will, cause our economy is service based. People have to eat out and get the "nails did."

Those who have rarely been the target of organized police gangsterism are once again lecturing those who have about how best to respond to it. Be peaceful, they implore, as protesters rise up in Minneapolis and across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd. This, coming from the same people who melted down when Colin Kaepernick took a knee — a decidedly peaceful type of protest. Because apparently, when white folks say, “protest peacefully,” we mean “stop protesting.” Read the entire article by Tim Wise. https://medium.com/@timjwise/violence-never-works-really-e0af884c03b4

I have not watched the video either, nor do intend to seek it out to watch. I did see the photo. Yes, they also find this evil entertaining and it drives revenue. This country is unraveling before our eyes. Hopefully we will work this out. The rich like Mark, Jeff, and 45 have little to worry about. They will do quite well. The rest if, us especially those with darker complexions, will need to be prepared for a world of hurt. Some of us think we are experiencing this now ... you haven't seen anything yet. Hopefully we'll pull ourselves together, at least in time to keep the planet inhabitable for human life.

I have been asked by a number of people to make it easy to buy all the books on the popular Top 150 Books for Black Children. Here is the link: https://store.aalbc.com/top-150-african-american-childrens-books/ You can now buy them all in one shot at AALBC (free shipping and no sales tax in 49 states):

Yes, indeed this is a conservative talking point. The difference, and this is a big one, is that the police are paid to serve and PROTECT us, not murder us. Just face it man you are, overall, a pretty conservative Brother. That does not make you bad. As I've gotten older I've been a bit more conservative as well. Sorry to hear about your ordeal @Chevdove.

😇 whaddya talkin' 'bout? We used to own more platforms and had more control over how we were portrayed in the media, but much of the is gone today.

...oh brother. @Pioneer1 ok I concede the mask is beneficial -- even some of the silly ones, including the klansman's

This is a consequence of our education.

Liberals are supportive, not critical, of the alphabet people.

This came to me in an email from the American Booksellers Association. They host a weekly Zoom conference "Coffee Break." It strikes me as absurd that an organization purportedly advocating from booksellers would expressly prohibit conversation about boycotting the monopoly Amazon. Damn, it should be the ONLY freaking thing they are talking about! But Amazon can bring a publisher to it's knees by refusing to carrier their books. Remember how Amazon pimp-slapped Macmillan. Antitrust Guidelines The booksellers in the room (virtual or otherwise) are, by definition, competitors. This means that under the law, they are prohibited from discussing certain things. Specifically: There can be no discussions of price or pricing policies. Competitors are never allowed to agree on the price at which merchandise is sold, or discounts at which merchandise is offered. All discussions of price and pricing policies are strictly off-limits. There can be no discussion of boycotts. Competitors cannot agree to cease doing business with any supplier for any reason. Nor can competitors agree to urge consumers to boycott a third competitor. It’s collusion, and is strictly prohibited. There can be no discussion of dividing up a market. For example, if there are two booksellers in New York City, they cannot agree that one will market only to consumers north of 57th Street while the other markets only to customers south of 57th street. This is also collusion and is prohibited. All three of these prohibitions come to us via the Sherman Antitrust Act, which carries treble damages and jail time. All three are per se violations, which means it only has to be proved that you engaged in the activity—whether or not there was intent to harm, or actual harm caused—for you to be guilty of violating the law.

I heard a news story that Trump's tweets were being flagged if they failed a fact check. So for the first time in my life, I logged into Twitter and looked at 45's twitter feed; I wanted to see what these "flagged" tweets looked like. I could not find a single one. But what I did discover is that 45 tweets a lot, I mean a heck of a lot. I was also surprised to see that half the people that follow AALBC also follow 45. Why do so many of us follow 45 on Twitter? Below is a screen grab from yesterday's tweets. This does not include his retweets or all of the tweets he made that day. The engagement is off the charts. Who knows how much revenue this is creating for Twitter. The scandal surrounding the flagged tweets just increases Twitter's traffic. If even got me to look at 45's feed. Because 45 tweets so often, and what he tweets is so outlandish, the behavior is really is not very different than that of a troll. The best way to deal with Trolls is not to feed them, but Twitter has done nothing but lavish 45 with food. People with useful or important information to share get little or no engagement, while 45 random tweets becomes prime-time news. This encourages 45, but just as importantly it discourages those with important things to share from tweeting because they are crowded out by 45's rants. You don't even hear about Katie Perry or Kim Kardashian -- not that I followed them either, but you could not avoid hearing about their impact on Twitter. Of course this is how Twitter makes money, but it really is a microcosm of what the WWW has become in the 2020s -- a troll farm. It is a shame because the web held so much great potential. I wonder what Twitter will do once 45 stops tweeting. Facebook apparently refuses to flag 45's lying tweets. Over the decades I have had posts post outrageous things here. These posts attracted attention

Of course, that is the only reason way this nonsense has persisted so long. We have been trained to seek the validation and approval of whites for so long, and on so many, levels we engage in hairism and colorism even when white folks aren't around.

@Pioneer1 what d you think? @Chevdove, your answer to both of my questions was essentially, "It depends." Of course this is true, it depends of upon this being a fundamentally racist country where eurocentric standards, and people, determine what is beautiful. So colorism and Black hair need to have book written on the subject. I believe the messenger often just as important as the message.