Troy

GoDaddy (AALBC's hosting company) is simply wrong for not allowing the use of the free SSL certificates. I'd go broke if I had to pay for SSL certificates on all of my websites 🙂

Well I can't speak to "acuracy," cause anytime you put cameras on front of folks you change things. But the stories were still compelling. Let us know what you think @Mel Hopkins One of my boy's sons, played on the same high school team, in Titusville, with one of the players highlighted. My boy and his wife have graduate degrees (his mom has a PhD), but the kid's mom on the show was locked up for 4 years when he was a kid. So it is a "slice" and not the full African American story. *I know you know this Mel, but I emphasized the point for other readers who might not know.

Basically the program tells the story of a couple of Junior College (JUCO) football programs. The teams roosters are made up of guys (mostly Black) who failed to make, or were kicked out of, Division 1 (D1) football programs. The guys all talented athletes with a menagerie of stories who are trying to make it back to the D1 level and ultimately to the pros. They battle with keeping their grades up and dealing with the challenges that landed them at a JUCO in some all-white-one-horse town. It spoke to my experience on some level. I could relate to the young men. I also used to teach guys this age, and background, trying to help them get a GED and it was not easy, so I could relate to the teachers that were trying to help these young men graduate. It also, indirectly, speaks to the business of collegiate football and how it really screws up the lives of so many people -- mostly Black -- without them really understanding what is happening. I don't watch sports, unless I have money on the game or am hanging out with my boys, but the way they edited the program made all of the games very exciting. Season #3 was particularly good in this regard. See I'm the kind of guy the will travel to Mississippi or Kansas just to watch these team play live and check out the communities covered. It was just a well done human interest story that speaks to the experience of everyday folks in a way that I'm not accustomed to seeing. My daughter who turned me onto the program told me not to get carried away -- "it's not like it is better than Game of Thrones." I loved GOT, but if I had to pick one. I'd pick Last Chance U.

Search engines, like Google use also use this as a ranking signal. In other words, all things being equal the site that uses https will out rank a site that simply uses http (not secure). https uses end to end encryption, which means the communications between your device and the website you are visiting is scrabbled and unintelligible to the bad guys lurking in cafes looking at your data over an unsecured wifi network. As far as I'm concerned all of the websites on the Internet should use https. You can get a free SSL certificate from https://www.sslforfree.com/ unfortunately greedy website hosts, like GoDaddy, do not allows the use of this free SSL certificate on the websites they host.

One of my kids turned me onto this show on Sunday and I've been spending 4 hours a night watching. I just finished season 3 (perhaps the best of the 1st three) and am about to start season 4. I highly recommend it.

2014 was an excellent year for critically acclaimed books written by Black authors. The number and quality of books published that year, by my reckoning, was perhaps unprecedented:

This line made me smile. This and some of the others, I bet, would not be understood by many Black people. Even this line says a lot -- at least to me -- it communicates location (use if "tennis shoes" vs "sneakers"), it communicates class and age upper middle class girls don't buy vaseline and they diffently not prepping with it before a fight for a dude...

The current mayor of Newark is Ras Baraka. I first became aware of him as a poet and the son of the icon writer Amiri Baraka. Both guys would be considered activists and far from being sellouts... But politics is such a scummy business. I don't believe anyone who enters politics today, and is elected to office, is worth a damn to the people. After seeing Ras and the rest of Newark bend over for Amazon, I was not impressed. So Newark has lead in their water (news to me BTW) and nothing is being done about it by their elected officials -- why is anyone surprised?

Hey @Milton I just added Priestess of NKu to AALBC. I also created a category called "Sword and Soul" to keep track of these books. I'm not aware of another book site categorizing books under this category. I know I have others in my database; they just need to be identified. I added a link to your site to purchase the book see below. Please post a publication date for when the book will actually be available for purchase. They will also get it on the “Books Coming Soon” page.

@Milton The background behind behind the artwork is interesting. What is the ISBN for this title?

No. Of course not, but the analogy is flawed. It is not a matter of simply "teaching" children how to use social media. The first problem that you'll encounter is that most adults are not in a position to teach anyone how to use social media effectively simply because they don't know how to use it themselves. But more importantly, unlike Ford's horseless carriage, social media is designed, by the best minds, through psychometric techniques to manipulate one's behavior. The techniques are enhanced dynamically through machine learning. Stressed, overworked, and tired parents are not match. Personally, I decided to opt-out. I do not engage on social media. I post links and will reply when appropriate, but I don't do anything personal on social anymore. That was the best way for me to avoid the negative influences and manipulation of social media. That strategy would not work with a kid. Peer pressure would be too strong... I fundamentally agree with you @Ldvirtue Yes parents need to do more. You are obviously doing a good job, but don't use your strength, effectiveness, and consciousness as a basis to judge other parents. They are not where you are and will need a LOT more help to get there -- assuming it is even possible. This sound great. But keep in mind many people are not as blessed as you are to be able participate in something like this. Shoot I had one girlfriend that loved to camp but most didn't really want to have anything to do with it. I took my kids several times and I'm sure I could get them to go today if I arranged a trip ;-)

This is true. Unfortunately he is a profitable distraction, so our media give him a great deal of focus and a disproportionate amount of their resources are dedicated to covering him. Even before he even before he was in office he got more attention than every other candidate combined. Similarly social media ain't going anywhere. If you locked Zuckerberg up there'd be another parasite right behind him doing anything they can to profit off our attention and information. None of these guys care about the impact on our youth -- beyond the wealth they can extract from them. It is hard for anyone to raise a kid in this environment, so it is hard for me to blame the parents.

You should work for Ibram's publisher. I was not aware of this book. I just added it to the website.

{@Maurice you don't have to quote the post immediately proceeding the one you are responding to. Indeed, it is almost never necessary to quote an entire post; you can just qoute the statement you are responding to. When one quotes and entire post it just makes the conversation harder to follow.}

@Ldvirtue why Black Republicans? That is easy. Have you ever asked one. If so you will fund that they are voting their perceived self interest (virtually always financial). This is no different than poor or middle class white folks who vote Republican.

Me too. Sometimes the source does not tie ti the citation or it support a different conclusion

Hey @everyfebruary I'm not sure I understand why you would come here and suggest Amazon's Goodreads?

Yes I saw dave and maya, but dave is a comic and none are journalists.

His sound track was I have to watch the movie again to see how he justifies that statement.

Hey @Maurice, thanks again for the recommendations! I just added these books to the website: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Stuart+Cosgrove#books and will reach out to the publisher for the Harlem 69. It is interesting that a Scot would be so passionate about the Black American music scene and is even winning awards for his efforts. I'm gonna share your image on social media :-)

At some point I'm gonna drop all my affiliate links and take direct orders for all books, in print, shown on the site. It will be much easier to order books than it is now. My goal is to have this setup in less than a year. Until then you'll have to tell whichs books you want (ISBN preferred), and then i can give you a quote.

No, not really. It is not cost effective for me to drop ship a small quantity of books internationally. However, if it is a book I ship directly, that is otherwise unavailable to you, then it might be worthwhile. I'd need your address and name of the book (for the weight). Was there a specific title you had in mind?

@Mel Hopkins "...packaging good journalism" and "...who embodied all that a great writer represents," this is the combination that I'm lamenting the loss of. Sure Ed's interview with Toni was in at least two countries and I don't know how many locations -- and this was in the days before non-linear editing, but I not even suggesting that one has to send this much money to produce something of high caliber. I thought for example Gil Noble's Like It Is, produced high quality content. I don;t come across this kind of programming any more. If anyone knows of a source of high quality in depth, and naused video programs please share.

Nah, the book is out of print and is only available on the secondary markets. Try this spot https://www.bookfinder.com/book/The_Africans-A_Triple_Heritage/0316552003/ I don't think Amazon owns it yet.

Well @Maurice when you are ready to buy The Fire This Time, consider buying it through AALBC. Did add Mazrui's books to the site (18 I could find) to AALBC including The Africans: A Triple Heritage. I watched most of the 1st episode last night. It was rather slow moving (maybe I was just tired). He did not seems to be aware that Africans actually traveled across the ocean to the Americas before Columbus, based upon the way he described the African's relationship with the ocean. This would be surprising since The work of Leo Weiner and Ivan Van Sertima was available when the documentary was made. The Africans: A Triple Heritage by Ali Mazrui Publication Date: Sep 01, 1986 List Price: $24.95 (store prices may vary) Format: Hardcover Classification: Nonfiction Page Count: 336 ISBN13: 9780316552004 Imprint: Little, Brown and Company Publisher: Hachette Book Group Parent Company: Hachette Livre Book Description: Looks at the history, geography, and culture of Africa, assesses native, Arab, and Western influences, and discusses sports, religion, government, and social issues in Africa