Troy

@Chevdove I know but your response did not answer my question. Are you suggesting that she was a racist when she married the Black man -- or only became a racist after she divorced him. The former would not make sense and the latter makes her no different than the majority of Black women who married Black men. While calling every slight made my a white person against a Black person racist is great for a social media meme, it is simplistic and reductionist. The answer to your questions are yes, yes, and yes.

Yeah like the gangstervwho hands out turkeys during the holidays in the hood. People are complex. The documentary cosby produced was in a word, great. The Cosby Show, donations to HBCU, great and great -- and I don't like to throw the word great around loosely. But the man also had a dark side. Stallone contributions to society pale in comparion (as far as i know). Cosby was a great humanitarian and a degenerate.

I'm going to watch more football, drink more beer, and look for more women to have uncommitted sex with -- like every red blooded American. Seriously, what can you do? Reason and truth are less profitable than extremism and lies so the masses are woefully misinformed. Trump is our president and Oprah has a great chance to win in 2020... pass me another beer.

@ErnestLiving, man do you really write between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.? I get up early once a week to catch a flight. Today for example, i was up at 3:30 but i took a 4 hour nap around noon 🙂 my problem is that i don't usually get to sleep until midnight. What time do you got to bed?

@Chevdove you do realize that tbe keyfob woman you keep saying that does not want black people living in her building was married to a Black man? Many Black women cant say that. How do you rationalize her supposedly overt racist behavior having been martied to a brotheer? Yeah @Pioneer1 anytime a Black person kills another Black person in the U.S. they just say Chicago 🙂 Acutually i believe detriot has a higher murder rate.

Man you guys love citing tabloids huh? Are you trying to compare stallone to cosby. One is a convicted serial sexual predator and the other was falsely accussed.

Answer: None.

The promise of Facebook was to create a more open and connected world. But from the company’s failure to protect millions of users’ data, to the proliferation of “fake news” and disinformation, mounting crises have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful? https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/facebook-dilemma/ Frontline has engaged in some old fashioned investigative journalism. If you regularly use Facebook these videos should be required viewing. I just watched the first episode and the things Facebook are knowingly doing exceeds my worse fears. I will delete -- not just suspend -- but delete my account as a result of watching this.

@Chevdove just for a point of comparison this event deserves attention and action. The "Key Fob Affair"... meh. A race war is not just evil but it is a completely absurd idea. Unfortunately, there seem to be folks trying to start one. So many people in the south have guns -- many of them walking around with them concealed -- just in case someone wants to start something. That combined with stand your ground laws and 45's constantly exclaiming these mass shooting would not see so bad if more people were armed. Unfortunately there are too many mentally disturbed people who own guns. In Florida it is easier to buy a gun than it is to register to vote.

I'm sure you all know that Ntozake Shange passed away this Saturday. I met her a couple of times. Once at a performance across the street from where I lived -- actually in the same building that serves as the barbershop in the Luke Cage TV series. There were only a handful of people in attendance so I go to socialize a bit with Ntozake, her sister, and their peeps. I have a photo somewhere, but I can't find it now... She struggled with mental health issues. I shot video of her discussing this about a decade ago and just now added it to her page. Shange is best known for her "choreopoem," For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, (I saw saw a production of it in the early '80s). She enjoyed a resurgence in popularity back in 2010 when Tyler Perry make a film the work, For Colored Girls. R.I.P.

@Cynique I just read the other post on this Black woman' story. Of course it comes as no surprise to me that this farce could be completely contrived. But I'm not about to gloat over being vindicated. That would be like gloating over my taking @Delano and @Kalexander2's money because 45 make it to the end of the year. It would be like gloating over being right about climate change. All the media's attention on this young lady is a sad use of valuable resources -- unfortunately utilizing journalists to cover this stuff is very lucrative, so it will only get worse.

The New York Daily News is a tabloid, at best one step above the National Enquirer. The sea of click baity ads on the site completely undermines my ability to take the site seriously. @Delano of all the sources of information why do you reference sources like The Daily News? I know a lot of people who participated in the ACN pyramid scheme -- you could not convince any of them that it was a scam. The idea that 45 would promote it comes as no surprise at all. Despite with the Daily News wrote it seems highlighly unlikely this will bring the man down. This is sensationalism. Del for the upteen time, I believe it is possible that 45 will be indicted and it is certainly possible that he will be thrown out of office. However it is becoming increasingly obvious that he will finish the year and that I will collect my money from you. There is a good chance he will finish his term. The possibility of a 2nd term is qute real too. Again the result of the midterms elections will be quite telling.

Oh that's easy: ratings. White people will never go broke putting crazy Black people on display. This is why Kanye West is one of the most popular Black men in America.Insert other media

@Cynique did you miss that the statement you are reacted to, that I wrote was written in jest?

Maybe you are right. LOL! Since when are you concerned about your reasoning being well received -- spit it out man! Besides the reasons I'm hearing for making this a federal case makes no damn sense to me so far. @Pioneer1, if a woman tried to stop you from entering your own apartment would you make a video of it and put in youtube? Seems like a childish, almost punk-like way of handling this (not something I'd expect a woman to understand). Some of the Brothers I know would have just showered her to the side and entered -- end of story. I don't get these social-media-people sometimes... Perhaps you are right, but this too is subjective based upon the recipient's own lense. Sometimes when what you expressed is so distorted from both what you intended to communicate and your actual belief it is hard to understand. What the listener is thinking. @Cynique, sure people believe their opinions but that is an entirely different thing than what is true what is factual. People hold opinions about things that are demonstrably false. We are all entitled to our opinions... Now we disagree about the relative importance of this situation. I think it is of no real consequence and certainly not newsworthy. You and Chevdove disagree. Fine. Yes my increasing disdain for the media informs my opinion because were it not for the media -- I don't read ANYTHING on Twitter unless it is directed to me, and I definitely don;t follow 45. However I am subjected his every tweet if it is incendiary and factually incorrect the more likely I'm to know about it. Twitter is losing active users by the droves -- why login to Twitter when mainstream media repeats everything there anyway? Me too

Phulese, more hyperventilation and overreacting to a social media fueled frenzy...yawn -- wake me when a bomb actually goes off. OK, before anyone "attacks" me know that I'm joking. I could not resist after coming from the other conversation about the "Key Fob" incident. Now this is serious... 45 is using Twitter as a platform to spread hate. As a matter of national security I'm beginning to think that a sitting president -- especially this one -- should not be allows to communicate with the public via Twitter. Greedy Corporation's who care more about money that they do about polarizing the nation. Yes, 45 has his hate filled rhetoric amplified in an unprecedented fashion. The real problem is his obvious lies go unchallenged and have become normalized -- an alternative truth. This is VERY dangerous. If 45 were not President people would be more likely to keep their racism to themselves. It is no longer politically incorrect to be openly racist. You have Twitter to thank for this. True voting may not make a difference as the process has been completely corrupted. I voted a few days ago, in Florida, by mail. I should be able to monitor my vote online. Hopefully well get a Dem in the Governor's office and allow felons who have paid their debt to society vote again. The results of both will be quite telling...

Again you and Chevdove's confusion on this point is becoming irksome. I NEVER said my opinion was right. I said out the box neither you or I know what was in the woman's heart. We are all just giving opinions. What I have been rejecting is the reasoning for you too saying my opinion is wrong. I've been accused of favoring a white woman over a Black man which is ludicrous and not understanding overt racism... an you want to accuse me of ad hominem?! Maybe we some more testosterone in this debate because you two women take every disagreement I have on this issue as if I'm making a personal attack. While I'm not surprised that a relative newbie like @Chevdove would take my statements this way, I'm surprised that you are reacting this way. Again, I submit that maybe the reason is your perception of my supporting Miss Ann --- I dunno, you tell me why this particular issue struck nerve with you. Chedove, In my book just because something goes viral does not mean it is relevant or serves Black people very well. I'd argue much of what goes viral on social media, and our oversized attention it, does us more harm than good and only services the media companies that broadcast and agitate the situation. I'm glad you agree that losing a job over a minor altercation during personal time it an overreaction. I suspect she was fired because she. is not exactly a valued employee and they used the situation as an excuse. Your use of the work "Attack" Chevdove differs from mine. It seems it does not take much for you to call something an attack. As in the woman attacked the man in the lobby and I attacked you by expressing an opinion that disagrees with yours. These are not "attacks;" these are examines of hyperbole. I engage in hyperbole from time to time to emphasize a point, but I never actually believe my exaggerations.

Yep @Mel Hopkins, the link you provided was the source of my data. So far I have codes applied to about 12% of the books in may database , so the number of books listed in your category will likely increase. Of the books I have already categories 800 different codes are used. I saw some book using nine codes. Technically there is no limit, but practically you'd probably want to use 5 to 10. I'll know more after researching the subject a bit more. I assume you selected the BISAC codes for your book. If not, do you know you applied them? I obtained the codes associated to your book from Ingram's database.

Obviously you have not read or understood a thing I have written @Chevdove, because your statement above, your assessment of my position is utterly absurd. You apparently have a such a deep seated hatred of white women that your have contorted my impressions beyond recognition. (I also did not realize the brother was attacked by the white woman.) The notion that I'm bullying YOU is just plain silly. You are confusing disagreement and candor with bullying. You are completely free to express your opinion; the suggestion in your comment that you are not is even more absurd. You obviously don't have a clue how I've run this platform for the last two decades. I'm not interested in reading any more opinion pieces about this situation, so I'll skip the article you've linked to. Again it is more sensationalism which does not serve me, or any of us for that matter. The only ones served here is People magazine -- a publication that never interested me anyway. I asked you about the police's reaction because YOU brought them up. I was trying to understand your reasoning. So you've done some more research to learn more, which again tells me that you did not have this information when you brought them up. Which makes sense given your conclusion.

@Chevdove, I'm not going to debate the fact that slavery has ended or that things today are better than they have been, in the past for Black people in Anerica. Since you refuse to tell me what the police did i can only assume that you dont know or that their reaction supports my point. I did not say Black people are not subjected to overt racism, indeed i wrote that i have been subjected to overt racism. My situation did not warrant opening a fedreal case, nor does this one that you are so broken up over. I see so many people reading their social media feeds consuming a ton of nonsense and getting worked up over some bullshit of no consequence, at least until the next shiny thing flashes before them and they get worked up all over again... Even my participation in this conversation feels into the frenzy on some level. While i'm trying lend some perspective, by saying both people handled the sutuation poorly, it is not heard or is just rejected without consideration. The only acceptable response is to take out a cell phone record the situarion and cry racism feeding the medias insatiable appetite for dysfuntion. None if are better off escalating the dumb altercations. The media seem to be the only beneficiaries.

Exactly. Now one might think you'd have to be somewhat paranoid to be this be suspicious of Amazon for doing this, but one has not way to determining if this is happening. Plus Amazon takes the first $100 of all you sales, plus you earn less money for each sale, plus you can actually find less expensive printers depending upon the count. plus Amazon does not give a sh-t about you or your book.

The NY Times published an article on over 200 men purged as a result of the me too movment. Some names I completely forgot about.

@Chevdove you are combining all types of unrelated anecdotes, books, and other sources of information to inform this situation to fuel your overreaction. You told me that the police were called. I was unaware of this and asked you what they did. Did they do anything? Why, or why not? If they did nothing perhaps they saw as I do that this is just two stupid people who happen to converge in the building of their lobby. When it comes to books by or about Black people, for obvious reasons, I'm more informed than the average person. I was aware of the Blackmon's book when it first came out a decade ago. We are not talking about slavery here. Even if this woman was the grand wizard of the KKK and she and behaved the exact same way I still would not care about this event to the extent that you do. Again, there are too many mre serious things bend out of shape over... @Cynique I have actually have been the victim of overt racism. I can tell you, whipping out a cell phone to record the incident is not the first thing that occurs to you when you feel threatened. Trust me.

@Mel Hopkins You know your suggestions for the missing information is really important. I'm thinking about writing an article for the minimum set of information an author should provide when sharing information about their book with booksellers, readers, reviewers, news sources, etc. From personal experience if I have to take extra steps to find the required missing information, if there is not other compelling reason for me to do it, I simply won't. The hashtags you provided could also be described a keywords. Ernest provided the ISBN13, which is perhaps the single most important piece of information to me. There is a hot topic in publishing surrounding all of the information regarding a book and it is called metadata; it sounds more technical that need be, so I suspect authors don't think about it very much. This has always been important to me, and has become increasingly important since AALBC is now database driven. I spend a lot of time cleaning up bad or supplementing missing metadata for a book. Here is an example. A publisher uploads a book's, title, series name and series number into the title field when uploading information to Amazon or some other database, This information should be uploaded the 3 fields provided for this information. Not only does this make the book title wrong, it looks sloppy. When I retrieve this information from Amazon I have to manually parse it out and I only do this for paid clients. Amazon does not care, they just take what the author uploads. Another common problem I see on Amazon's site is ISBN13 in the ISBN10 fields. This matter to me because I have a process that pulls this information from Amazon (sadly many author give exclusive rights to sell their books Amazon, so it is the only place the information is available). I so when I pull the ISBN10 but it is actually an ISBN13 -- it srews up the book's record in my database. More importantly is many authors don't make proper use of the BISAC codes. This is a list of almost 5,000 categories in which a book is associated. I just added a new feature to the website that will list books by these categories, which make it so much easier for readers to discover the books they are interested it (this also help search engines as well) For example Mel Sleeping with a D-Man: An Urban Fantasy Novel BISAC category is "Fiction / Romance / Fantasy" and "Fiction / Science Fiction / General." Now visitors to the website can discover all of the books written by Black writers which fall into these categories -- no other site is doing this! If a customer is a paying client I'll apply the BISAC codes that are appropriate for the title -- not other sites does this either 😉 I have 9,300 more books for which these codes need to be applied. I will then update my top 10 lists to be based upon these codes -- making my life so much easier, while improving the discoverability of books 🙂 Metadata matters!

Hey @Riley Perez, would you consider postering an excerpt here, or link to you site where one can read more?