Troy

Maybe she is not a racist...

Honestly I think this is political correctness run amok. A comedian makes stupid statement and all hell breaks loose. People need to really get off Twitter if their tender sensibilities care stand it. The idea that journalist are being paid to cover the rambling of this particular racist is astonishing. Without exaggeration I've called FAR worse on my own website. There are more racists statements made on Twitter on a daily basis than anyone can count. Does it really matter that Roseanne made the statement? If so why? If the media didn't cover the tweet would anyone out side of the twittersphere have known? And if Starbuck don't want people coming into their store, making themselves comfortable without buying anything why can't they throw the moochers out? If I was asked to leave I would have brought something or left. There things that racists are doing that have a far more profound effects that go completely ignored or unaddressed. You don't like Roseanne or Starbucks boycott them.

What!? @Delano Pioneer just rejected your assertion to his being humble, and you rest your case? You also made another statement that you couldn't back up; I call you on it, and you call it "bait." Bait for what Del? Why are you so paranoid? You only feel like someone is trying to trap you because you must have done something you are afraid of getting caught it. I think if you reflect on your reactions to things you'll better understand you own motivations, for you seem to be motivated more from what is inside you than what has actually happened (what I described earlier as your "gut" reaction.) Again I was not trying to trap you. I was simply trying to understand where you were coming from by making it crystal clear that I saw no justification for what you wrote and inquired where you came up with the idea.

Me too. Del you see my statement as condescension and now arrogant to boot. This is tantamount to just call me names. At the risk of coming across as condescending, a strong argument would be much more effective at getting your point across. The thoughts that drove you to write this statement is purely a figment of your imagination Del. Can you describe why you wrote this?

As she drops the mic... The is why the forum will always be know as Cynique's Corner, for this is her house! Cynique, what you wrote will not change Del's mind about you. He is bigger than that... it is easy to brilliant and charismatic people in high regard. Thanks for setting the record straight. I'm sorry that the "gay white mason" caused your hiatus -- that is really saying something because even the Queen Kola Boof did not cause you to retreat and she could be vicious. Del I think the only reason you find what I say "condescending" is because you disagree with me, but can't argue on the merits. It takes all types of people to keep a forum going. It is easier when there are more voices. I believe this will change in our favor as the big social sites piss more people off and people begin to migrate back to indie platforms. Even the software that run this forum is rapidly improving, so I believe this will improve over time. I think the participation of women in these forums is a key missing component, but I'm not aware of a forum where men and women engage in an ongoing basis to note best practices. Lipstick Alley the standard setter for forums is primarily female. This forum used to have a great balance between the genders, which is what made it great, in my opinion. I could always come here and read something that would make me laugh out loud, that still happens but not as frequently. @Cynique's opening line, "...Egads, man, have you lost your mind?" made me laugh out loud I'm even chuckjling to myself as I write this. It is one of those jokes made funnier because people have a history. From Harry Brown to Richard Murray and from Del to Mel you all bring this thing to life. But occasionally someone like Cynique will come along and bring a brilliance that is rare gift. Welcome to Cynique's Corner.

@Delano Come on man, describing @Pioneer1 as humble is a bit much; don;t you think? I doubt he, himself, would use that word to describe his personality particularly as it has been presented on this discussion forum. Honest, sure, but no more honest than anyone else. Honest and humble -- LOL! Gimme a break! I'm not splitting hair here, Pioneer will go toe to to with anyone here. He will assert his opinion even when it is unpopular or flies against the entire scientific community. He can take a joke as well as dish one out. He is assertive and frequently initiates conversation on controversial topics -- indeed he enjoys this. His opinions and steadfast defense of them is a driving force behind this forum and his absence would be missed. No Del, these are not the makings of a humble person

Del the reason is, as Paul Mooney would probably say, "Tim Tebow is not a nigger." QueenX, still I believe Colin would have found another way to deal with police brutality if thought his relatively innocuous action would have resulted in his dismissal. I'd also bet if he did this prior to the "era of 45," he would have gotten away with it -- it still wouldn't have made a difference -- but he'd probably still be in the NFL. So no, I can't jump on the worship Colin bandwagon, because there are countless unheralded heroes grinding, everyday, making a difference in our communities, and no one sings their praises. We all know them, you might even be one. Again we can't use the oppressor's platforms as a tool for our liberation. In fact NOT using them is the best way to make a change. Imagine if Black folks stop watching and betting on football -- for just one season. Supposed we (and all out allies) took it a step further and boycotted all the NFL sponsors? Imagine the impact.

This event has been added to our database: https://aalbc.com/events/index.php?st=Washington#Seattle+Urban+Book+Expo

I wonder if I should update our Third World Press page with this information.

There is a lot to unpack there Del, but if I post a reaction to something on this forum -- I absolutely read what was written. I'm not sure you explanation of Cynique has not posting lately is completely accurate. She can better speak for herself, but she is in her 80's and has posted here longer than anyone else (almost as long as myself)... So you think Pioneer is the only one being honest, or rather more honest than most? That is interesting because I don't generally tell lies here. In fact I think I'm too transparent sometimes. I don't think Kalexander's opinions are any stronger than anyone else's -- certainly no stronger than yours or mine. I think you see his opinions as being strong (or egotistical) because, for some reason I don't understand, he rubs you the wrong way. Del I was not arguing as you stated, "that Feminism is of lesser importance than the Black struggle" I would however argue that is probably the case for a Black woman. There is a difference. The choice between racism and sexism is like deciding whether it is more important to fight for air or water. Obviously you need air more urgently, but both are very important. This is analogous to my view for Black women joining white women to in the fight for their rights. Sandra Bland was not killed because she was a woman. As far as Feynman and Newton it is easy to hold brilliant and charismatic (in Feynman's case) people in high regard. It is the folks you disagree with that you have to work on. I'll check out the Foster video before crashing tonight.

You believe whats published in the telegraph. Isn't that like a British version of the Enquirer? She ain't exactly a chick with a d-ck. If she lost those cornrows, got her eyebrows arched, and maybe a little make up, you probably wouldn't kick her out of bed. She is strong woman with a very athletic build and should be allowed to run with the other women because she is one of them.

The above is the quote I was talking about.

I guess compared to marrying you or I, it is a step up.

@Coach Michael Taylor, I'm not convinced there is a binary response to your question. Perhaps the answer is neither. From a personal perspective Colin's actions, outside of providing fodder for conversation, have not had an impact on my life, one way or the other. I'm sure the likelihood of being gunned down by law enforcement has not changed. Are you aware of any policies that have changed as a direct result of Colin's taking a knee? Do you think Colin, in his heart of hearts, would have taken a knee if he knew it would result in his being Blackballed from the NFL? Maybe he would have found an more effective way to effect change.

Yeah @Delano, you are probably right in that it is probably impossible to be perfectly objective. I did not say that your approach was emotional (though it may be). I wrote that you and Pioneer form opinions based "experiences and gut." Pioneer more so with experiences and your with gut (meaning intuition). I'm different in that I see the world through information. Here is a simple example: A few days ago I was talking into someone who was lamenting the fact that Grand Central Books, the #2 selling publisher on AALBC, did not have a single book by a Black author in their fall catalog (don;t quote me on the details). My first reaction was to ask how many titles are they publishing? She replied, "That is a Troy Johnson question." We know each other well enough to know exactly what that means. It is like when Google says that have a Black diversity network and a Black Enterprise magazine celebrates the this, while I view it as window dressing that covers up the fact that the company's history of hiring Black people is abysmal and Google has helped to destroy Black web based businesses. It is just the way I view the world, and I know it is different than most... Now if I don't have time to analyze something I go with my gut and then my experience, though my gut reaction is based upon experiences (and probably genetics).

True that. Sports, even ametuer atheltics, is now all about entertainment. Still she should absolutely be allowed to run with the women -- she is a woman. Do you remember the Germans back in the day They did not about banned them. Her time does not even come close to that of a man, she wouldn't even beat the best high school runner. Maybe this controversy is all part of the entertainment value, to drum up curious spectators.

As they say, "don't hate the player hate the game." Out of curiosity I ran a query on Facebook and on Amazon. It was pretty more more of the same warmed over press releases. but there was one "article" from 2012, "IS FACEBOOK MAKING YOU POOR?" In it was the following statement. "...two professors found that the bigger a person’s social network was, the higher their mass body index was as well as their credit card debt load. The loss of self-control leads to over-shopping and over-eating." There was no additional insight, no nuance as it relates to Black people. Indeed all of the articles I've read on Black Enterprises website are like articles from many websites just a repeat of something someone else has written without adding anything new. We need a publication that actually speaks to Black enterprise and entrepreneurship. But I image that magazine would struggle for both advertisers and subscribers,

@Pioneer1, I agree 100% (could it be the hypnotic new avatar ) Is that your quote? Lets not forget who reaps the greatest financial rewards for both taking care of the formalities and typically owning the venues where we have fun.

I use a webrings with my student. It just makes it easier for me to visit all of my student's pages when grading assignments. If any one breaks the ring they lose points. Webrings predated search and allowed visitors to discover websites. Of course the webrings were self regulated; bad players were naturally excluded. One might argue that this process is less efficient than using search to discover a website because webrings can't scale to millions of websites. But I'd argue neither can google because few searchers go past the first couple of pages of search results -- that is assuming Google does not hijack the searcher first with their own service. Where Google really shines is finding content on web page. They are so good at this it is mind boggling.

...and it is a crying shame. For the past week I've been reaching out to contacts, in the Black media, attempting to get some substantive coverage of the adverse impact Google has on Black businesses. Now my rolodex is not particularly deep, so it has been tough going. Sure mainstream media has been all over this issue, but Black media has been largely silent and they are effected has much as anyone. The vast majority of Black newspaper websites don't get enough traffic pay anyone's salary -- which is astonishing given they are tremendous content producers. I'm also concerned that this lack of coverage is resulting in a great deal of ignorance, in the Black community, that is hampering the success of some of our businesses -- which effects us all. I recently tried to find one article critical of Google on Black Enterprise's website. All I found was positive articles that read like Google press releases like the article, "GOOGLE STEPS UP FOR FLINT." The 2016 even included this line; The Black Googler Network, which is one of Google’s largest employee resource groups with 12 branches worldwide, is also working with the foundation on the project and will help raise funds and provide support. This line might give one the impression that Google actually hires Black people. The number of Black employes is dismal at best. This fact is widely reported by mainstream media... Why won't Black Enterprise help their readers understand the how to deal with the problems Google is causing web based businesses and developing strategies to deal with it? All I can assume is that Black Entroise is beholden to Google for some eason, and if that is the case we are in more trouble than you can image, for Black Enterprise is arguably the most powerful voice for Black Entrepreneurs there is. If Google owns them this is just going to be a tougher fight.

"An equal chance?" What do you mean?

I dunno @Delano your question referencing pregnancy and cats was rather obtuse to me as well. Maybe we just can "see" each other on this issue.

@Pioneer1 I missed your reply. The website is not based upon what you understand as "race." It is based upon culture, what you call "afro-american" culture. However in recent years the site's scope has expanded beyond Afro-american culture, but lets leave that aside for a moment. As a result, the site includes books written by white people because they have written books important to the culture. Again the so called "race" of the bride is irrelevant to me -- mostly because the royal wedding means less than nothing to me. But more generally who people choose to love is up to them why should I be concerned? @Chevdove, my initial reaction may have been a bit harsh, but the fact is I could not help but hear about this wedding it short of becoming a hermit, it was impossible to avoid. I hate being force fed this type of information.

@CDBurns, I'm still migrating pages from HTML to php after almost two years. It will probably take forever LOL! @Damani, If there are any active author webrings I'm not aware of any. I've really been racking my brain trying to find a suitable alternative to a webrings. I've been working with different groups looking at alternative mode of collaboration promotion. Unfortunately, on the web, the locus of power on the web has shifted from many indie sites to a handful a massive corporate site. As a result we are pretty much at their mercy in terms of discoverability. This condition would probably render webring ineffective unless we take back so level of control -- something I spend as much time trying to do as I do selling books.

Kimberla was one of the first authors I photographed back in 1999 at the African American Cultural Expo, which used to be held in Philadelphia. Here she is holding a copy of her first novel Here and Now, which was published just a few months earlier, in 1998, by Kensington Publishing. I've watched Kimberla "blow up" into one of America's most popular authors. She is the #6 all-time bestselling author on AALBC.com. She also made that other bestsellers list, the New York Times -- I don't even know how many times. Her Reverend Curtis Black series, which started in 2000, will come to and end this summer. The series included 15 novels -- almost half of the 27 novel novels she was published in the past 20 years. Kimberla's publishing career started the same year AALBC's. KImberla has always patronized AALBC during this time. She runs ads for all the books she publishes. In a way, I consider her success my success I'm also selling Better Late Than Never (the last book in the series) directly. I'm also working on selling all 15 books in the series, but there is one title, that I can find in distribution (The Best Kept Secret). Maybe having Kimberla sign them all for as a collectors item would be a good idea (what do y'all think of that idea? Here KImberla shares her thoughts on ending her series, exclusively with AALBC.