Troy

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.

Pioneer, I'm no more zealous than you are. Look, I know science has been perverted to do all kinds of ill things two black folks justify slavery, before scientific experiments on us, and more. But believe in in the evidence presented about a single race of humans or man's contribution to climate change is completely different. Okay, maybe I misunderstood what you wrote here, are you saying that this only applies to 20 year olds?

In addition to starting our own leagues. We could have simply boycotted the NFL. But obviously we don't care enough about what Colin was protesting. Kind of reminds me of my survey exploring the idea of boycotting Amazon's bookstore -- not the whole site just the bookstore--in an effort to prevent them from dominating the sale of black books. The strongest push back was from authors themselves -- the ones who actually are being hurt the most. People are not prepared to do the work, make the sacrifices, spend the money to start their own League any more than they would engage in the much easier activity of boycotting the NFL. As a result we just get used and abused. Collins looking for a job and nothing changes.

That seems like a stupid rule. Wherever they draw the line would seem to be purely arbitrary designed to just eliminate this particular Runner. Besides don't testosterone levels fluctuate? That's like saying if you're too tall or you have a natural higher level of oxygen uptake or are naturally stronger, you have a competitive advantage. It's not just hard work it's all about God given Talent as well. Do you think Michael Jordan will be as good a player if he was 5 feet tall? Let's not let any basketball players on the court taller than 6-feet cuz they have a competitive advantage... stupid. Maybe they should just get rid of the gender categories and have everybody compete in all sports regardless of gender sexual orientation whatever. We are all equal, right?

Yeah, sometimes people simply have an agenda and are not interested in the debate. Sometime I delete guest posts when this is obviously the intention and there is a link to some website and they appear to just be trying to build back links. I don't mind people posting link -- indeed I encourage it, but at least create an account. My question is why do people read posts and create accounts but never post. I used to think people were concerned about privacy, but most people don;t seemed to be really concerned about this given the numbers of people on social media... Below is a graph of newly created accounts that were never used. This does not include the accounts I rejected for any number of reasons. The other thing is that new account creation is way down too. I dunno maybe participating on indie forums is going the way of reading books.. (don't shoot that was a joke)

Again, @Pioneer1 it is not my concept of race. It is the culmination of a long period of scientific research including sequencing the human genome, whose conclusions I've read and and choose to believe and that is the point. You and @Delano put a lot more weight on your personal experiences and gut feelings. I'm not about to dismissed the entire scientific community's research simply because I can't wrap my brain around it. The same goes for climate change, the correction of newtonian law of gravity with general relativity, etc. Pioneer I'm not trying to belabor the point with you and your disbelief of a single race. But it is just the simplest and clearest example to illustrate your way of thinking that others reading this, without the benefit of our years of exchange, can readily understand (whether they agree with me or not). But to use your line of reasoning; the reason I disagree with your assertion that men only view women as potential sex partners is because I'm a man and I don't view women that way.

This also reinforces the fact that despite the large wages these athletes men serve at the largess of their owners, "million dollar slaves." Colin may never play football again simply because he took a knee -- a symbolic act resulting in an football death sentence.

Hey @Damani congrats on your progress thus far. I did not know that free Black people, living in VA for more than a year ran the legal risk of becoming enslaved again.

Hi Akilah. Are you from Oakland? If so consider going to the Sacramento Black Book Fair. It is being held next weekend. I'll be giving a presentation on #readingblack. The issue of reviews our are books can be discussed. You are not too late for sharing information about your book. Ideally most publishers of reviewer prefer to review books prior to publications. I no longer pay a reviewer to write a review for books which has been out for more than 6 months (I need to add that condition to the criteria). A commissioned review, of course, is an an exception.

Hi @Damani, thanks for taking the time to share the good news. You can always mention AALBC's Edit 1st, when it comes to manuscript editors. Sounds like a fascinating story.

Yes! You get it now Del, because I'm not putting Pioneer down. If one disagrees with someone, the expression of why they disagree is not a "put down." Putting someone down is an ineffective way to make a point. Kalexander2 thanks. Though you may be right, I don't know about "most people" being in that category. I do know most people i regularly converse with are not.

Hey Harry from time to time I make updates to the discussion forum's software. When the upgrade process is running the discussion forums will be down. In an ideal world I'd do this when people are less likely to be trying to login, but usually do this when it is convenient for me. I apologize for any inconvenience and thanks for the warning. No site is immune to hacking, but hackers general go after big corporate sites not smaller indie one. My problem is trolls