Troy

Well Cynque at least you are not saying all of these people belong to different "races."

@Del, I'm actually going to push back a little more on your statement and actually modify a statement previously made. Just today I was talking to another Brother, older, who runs a business as well. He employs several full time staff, in other words he runs a much larger business. We were discussing the relative advantages of his competitors and what advantages he offer tat they don't. One of the advantages he cited was that his business was Black owned. I told him that I actually did not find that being Black owned was an advantage. He explained that were it not for other Black people, he would not have a business. Upon reflection I had to recognize that the same was true for my business. Now I may not have as much support has I want from my community, and on too many occasions I may not have as much as I need, but I would not have a business were it not for my Brothers and Sisters. Indeed Del, while you are not writing checks to me on a regular basis your participation here makes this forum possible. You and all the regular contributors to this forum could be doing anything else, but you are a Black man who is supporting a Black business. In all seriousness and gratitude; thank you. Almost all of the active participants on this forum have been Black. If I depended upon white folks to keep this forum alive it would never have gotten off the ground. Now I'm not dismissing the support of white folks in keeping AALBC.com alive, but to be clear: there would be no AALBC.com with the support of my people. My sincere thanks to all of you

Del, the "100-year" and "500-year" storms are terms the local "weathermen" use when speaking to the masses. They are terms like "race" that has a technical meaning but no one one uses it that way in informal conversation. Generally these terms are use to refer to storms that should happen very rarely. More formally the terms refer to an 1 one in 100 chance and 1 in 500 chance of occurring in a given year.

You know I watched the video a few more times and it is staring to grow on me It feels like I can visualize more or different energy levels and see how everything is connected. I also see large scale objects in small thing and vice versa. Hmmm is this what an acid trip looks like?

Hi Cynique, why do you like this video? I ask because while it is visually interesting, it does not do anything for me. I was just wondering what it does for you? I see you've complete leap frogged over post images going to video. Next thing you'll be posting custom programs

Ok @HICKSON, it looks like I'm missing half your titles. Would you shoot me the ISBN13 for the titles listed below. If the are they are eBook only shoot me the ASIN number (assuming they are Kindle ebooks). I'll make sure they are on your page: https://aalbc.com/authors/imprint.php?imprint=Ghettoheat BROTHERS BEHIND BARS, VOLUME 1 HICKSONBELIKE... LOVE DON'T LOVE NOBODY (The ISBN13 I have, 9781935148012, seems to be wrong) THICKNESS ULTRAFABNABULOUS SO SEXY TOUGH MR. GHETTOHEAT® BANJEE CUNT TURF GHETTOHEAT® EATS Thanks for the shoutout on Facebook. Peace, Troy

Well the seal has been corrected. I'm going to do some extra promotion for authors who use the seal on their website or marketing materials. I have not decided what yet.

Terrible tragedies all of them. One thing can be said for modern technology, the early warnings we get and superior infrastructure has clearly saved a lot of lives. Lets pray that Irma, the most powerful we've ever seen in the Atlantic basin, does not take any more lives. Scientists say Earth's temperature has increased a full degree over the course of the last century, and that the higher temperatures allows the air to carry more moisture. As a result, the massive 100-year, 500-year storms we are seeing will become the norm. Still there are those who see no cause for concern. To borrow an approps phase, "winter is coming."

In the book world we own AALBC.com, the largest website dedicated to celebrating the diversity of Black culture through books. We also own over 60 bookstores across the nation, when own several independent publishing companies, at least one book printer, a handful of book distribution companies and this is just in the United States. We actually own quite a bit, it is just that we don't do very much, collectively, to support and promote the concerns. We do however jump through hoops to promote the wealthiest and largest corporations. Authors will tell you to you to buy their books from Amazon, as if it was a secret that Amazon sold books. Authors will tell you to follow them on social media instead of their own websites. Of course Black bookstores and websites, like AALBC.com, could benefit from the free promotion so frequently given to corporations. @Delano, the question is not, what do we own; it is what what do we support.

I have some native american blood in me too. I did not know this until my DNA was tested. I also learned where it comes from my mother is descendant from a marriage between the son of a British merchant and a Native American woman. As far as I know, my maternal ancestors were never enslaved. It would be interesting to know how many of 'ole Captain Basse's descendants are considered white today. I wonder if he would be upset about how many negro descendants he would spawn.

Mel I did not realize I was blowing off your comments by making the statement about engineers and programmers, in fact I thought I was supporting it, not sure why you did not see it that way. At any rate, I was really lamenting the fact that these jobs are rather meaningless in that they are not contributing anything of value. Yes I know full well Facebook are using our data in ways we can not begin to fathom, which is why I've largely opted out of the platform--which nowadays is tantamount to being the crackpot living off the grid in a cabin. I also know all these new professions collecting our data is not being done to improve society but the more effectively get us to buy not things we don't really need or to manipulate us into behaviors that don't serve us, like electing 45. The best and the brightest among us are not trying to improve the world, or deal with climate change, but are on Wall Street trying to create a computer program to extract more of our wealth. Hopefully some good will come out off this "technology," but all that has happened is that wealth inequality have grown to a record highs and more of us are living on the margins. Even the life expectancy of white men is down Speaking of white men. When I was in technology on wall street I watched entire departments of white men be replaced by guys in, or brought over from, India. It was really crazy to watch it happen. I also watched the number of contractor increase dramatically while really employees go down. From the cafeteria, mail room and janitorial staff, to administrators and computer programmers, many of these employees are contractors, without benefits offer to actual employee of the firms. This was largely unheard of when I started in corporate America today it is par for the course. No one works their way up from the mailroom, because they are not even employees of the firm. Capitalism make these actions desirable; technology make it easier to accomplish.

It is impossible for humans to analyze the unimaginably large volumes of data being produced. You need programmers and engineers to design the hardware and software to make sense of it all. One of the first things that struck me when I first started working on Wall Street was that they did not make a single tangible product, yet great fortunes were being generated (for a relatively few number of people). Working for defense contractors like GE, United Technologies, and Grumman, you saw the output whether is was a satellite, a jet engine or an aircraft it made sense. Wall Street initially did not make sense to me. Indeed I could not even envision making money in a manner that they did, so looking for a job in the field never occurred to me. Wall Street makes money through schemes that don't actually ad value to society. Sure they say they do, but they really don't. They have consipred with the government to extract as much wealth as possible from the public while virtually eliminating all risk: initiate a collapse of the global financial markets not problem, here is damn near a trillion dollars to start all over again. This Obama hiring so many folks from Wall Street was disappointing to me, but it should not have been surprising given how much money they put into his campaign. Of course 45 following suit comes as no surprise despite all his bluster to the contrary during his campaign. Bernie Madoff got away so long with his ponzi scheme because he was not really doing anything very different from what Wall Street does no a daily basis... I don't believe in the Capitalist system, at least not the way it is practiced in the United States. It is too easy to pervert and corrupt. It is inherently exploitative and the application of rules are unfair and biased--particularly as it concerns poor people--especially the brown ones. It is a rigged game. I think the most successful people in this system are the ones most willing to exploit others. Whether it was enslaving Black people for a few hundred years, imprisoning them and having the work for Walmart, or paying slave wages. If I run a store and don't; have inmates making my products; pay people slave wages, in some 3rd world country; and don't benefit from government tax incentives how to do I compete with Walmart? We are all led to believe we just have to be creative, think smarter, or work harder. But again the fix is in and there is really nothing you can do. I try to get folks to work together behind the scenes, but while the results are better than working alone the results are constrained and will never benefit more than a few people. Sure most businesses fail after a few years and many of them needed to fail because they were poorly conceived or executed. But i suspect many business were put out of business because our capitalist system is broken. Meanwhile the US has been hit by the strongest storm or record, only to followed by an even stronger storm this weekend! Cynique, "winter is coming" is a perfect metaphor for our current predicament. We have an impending disaster known as climate change that will effect all of us, but too many people believe it is myth, meanwhile we are all preoccupied fighting over shit that won't ultimately matter in the end. Game of Thrones was great huh?

Yeah Mel I don't know what Amazon where trying to accomplish. Basically this was for a Kindle eBook, which was not aware could be sold via a platform other than Amazon. This seems to be an effort to prevent the same electronic book being sold via Itunes, B&N or even the universal .pdf format. The author also said they tried other formats, but Amazon resulted if far more sales. This does not come a surprise as Amazon dominates all book sales and effectively owns Black book sales.

I'd settle for unbiased journalism.

@Mel Hopkins, I visited two successful Black owned bookstores this year. One in Oakland (Marcus Books) and the other in Sacramento (Underground Books). (FYI: this is based upon outward appearances, I have not looked at either store's financials). I previously visited Eso Won in Los Angeles They are simply bookstores, no cappuccino machines, no tables filled with people using free WiFi, no Shea butter--just books. All are iconic institutions in their communities and surrounding area. I point this out to say is that I don't think you have to be all that inventive to have a viable bookstore. I think our biggest weakness is that Black people probably buy a higher percentage of books from Amazon than any other group. I don't have data to support this but I'm just seeing Amazon grow increasingly stronger while and places that sell Black book are drying up. Speaking of Amazon a future advertiser on my site, just today told me that they could not run an ad on my site unless I only provided the book for sale via Amazon! I could not believe it but the author provided documentation to the effect. Of course I accommodated the request. We actually don't not have that many options to buy books, certainly not as many as we used to have, as evidenced the dearth of Black owned independent brick and mortar and web based bookstores; the closure of Borders; and the contraction of B&N. Even Walmart and Target don't carry as many Black books as they used to... The first physical Amazon book store I visited in NYC did not have very many book written by Black people (I looked hard trust me). Amazon's store actually does do something "inventive" you check prices and buy the books on your cell phone. The data they collect is just amazing--how longer you were in the store, what book interested you enough to check the price, etc. I agree 100% with everything else you wrote. Daren thanks for joining us. Please create an account so that I don't have to approve your comments. Also make sure you share information about your book too!

Actually Cynique when I say I "feel him" I mean that I understand his sentiment. That does not mean that I agree with it. As I initially and clearly stated I don't. I've said a number of times on the fourm that I actually understand Pioneer dispite disagreeing with him or being unable to get him to budge on a position (but it is hard to get anyone to change their mind). For example, l understand his perspective on race because that is what I used to believe myself.

I was not "complaining" @Cynique, that is how you see it. I'm not interested or need your, or Serna's, justification. Who she marries is her decision. I was just expressing an understanding of Pioneers sentiment, but I thought I was pretty clear, "...people should marry anyone they want..." Similarly, you won't hear me complain about "...money being taken out of the black community by the white wives of rich niggas..., " because I don't care who people choose to marry. Besides, what does a Black man marrying a white woman have to do with taking money out of the community?

Pioneer the problem with your vocabulary "our: vocabulary is that is slopy. When you write something like; I can't begin to comprehend this. "Black" deals with phenotype, "Latino" deals ethnicity, and "Asian" deals with geography. So called Black people can fit into all of these categories and white people can easily fit into the Hispanic and Asian categories. In other words it is impossible to make sense of your statement. Maybe if you cited the scientific proof that will make more sense to me. Again when your equate "race with "genetics" I have to every conclusion that you drawn from that assumption.Because for the umpteenth time there is only one race. That has been scientifically proven.

Oh I wasn't even aware that there were three centuries of weather data to collect. SO that is news to me. Granted you invested more time that I have in analysing the data, but that is not saying much because other than the data that you've shared i have not attempted to double check the findings of the world's climatologist. No scientist can predict the weather 24 hours from now with absolute certainty; nor will they say that they can. Predicting the Earth's climate 50 years from now is obviously much more difficult. @Del, we have hurricane Irma, the second strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, for which current models disagree where this monster of a storm will hit. They don't even say with certainty how strong it will be when it does hit. No one in their right mind will reject the storm potential impact. As a result people are preparing for it's impact--even though it might not hit them. Of course there are people who say that weathermen, suck at predicting the weather and that they have previously prepared for storms that they were warned about but never came. So why should they bother this time? Needless to say many people have lost their lives with the reasoning. In my mind Del your absolute rejection of global climate change is no different that the folks ignoring Irma's forecast and failing to prepare for it. However in this case it is not us who will suffer the consequences of failing to act, but our children.

@Pioneer1, I hear you Bruh. While I feel people should marry anyone they want... I still feel you

I don't think Daren's views are so unique, it is just that most folks, especially Black folks, who share this perspective are not inclined to make it widely known. Of course, I don't see Black people are inferior to white folks; subconsciously or otherwise. I don't see why embracing Black culture implies or means rejecting American culture. Black culture, here in America, is part of American culture--the two are inextricably linked. Now there are things I find wrong with American culture, that need to be fixed. But there are things that are wrong with myself that need to be fixed. So I'm not rejecting American culture any more than I reject myself; both need work. To dismiss the legacy of slavery as having an adverse impact on Black people is tantamount to putting one's head in the sand. There are always exceptional people who succeed despite the odds, but are just that "exceptional." Exceptional people are great role models, but they cannot be used as proof that we can all achieve in the way they have, because the vast majority of us are not exceptional. I don't have the numbers but I'm quite sure Dr. Sowells books don't generate as much profit a Bruno Mars download or as much as a professional athlete ("entertainer").

The following is a conversation I've been having with some on my blog under the post Only 54 Black Owned Bookstores Remain in America. It is one of my post popular posts. If you have not read it check it out and share it with others . Recently someone made the following statement in reaction to my article: “The individual who wrote this article did a disservice to the real truth as to why black book stores are so few and far between - it is simply the fact that over 80% of blacks do not read books as much as their contemporaries...whites and Asians. If you do a study which has been done, blacks are the less likely to have a library card, a newspaper subscription - whether online or a physical paper, and blacks are less inclined to have a private library of books in their home.” —Daren Williams That comment led to the exchange shown below. I've invited Daren to carry on this conversation here. He seems to have the right temperament, opinionated, articulate, and not afraid to have his ideas challenged. Troy Johnson Thanks Daren please share a link to the study you referenced–thanks! Daren Williams I will find the study and forward it to you. Dr. Thomas Sowell has the study in one for his books. I need to research my library of the book. But here is a story this year that illustrates what I’m saying. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/05/75-of-black-california-boys-dont-meet-state-reading-standards/ Troy Johnson Hi Daren I’m familiar with Sowell’s work. All of his books are on this site: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Thomas+Sowell I’ve read two or three myself. But I don’t recall him drawing any conclusions about the dearth of Black owned bookstores. Still, do you think Black people are reading fewer books than we did just 15 years ago when the number of Black owned bookstores numbered in the hundreds? Can you not think any other exogenous factors that might contribute reduction in the number of independently owned bookstores? Daren Williams Sowell doesn’t make the conclusion of the death of Black owned bookstores is due to blacks not reading…I make the conclusion. Education and reading is not a top priority for blacks in general. Sports is more of a priority to blacks….entertainment by way of rapping and dancing….social activism is more of a priority to blacks than education and reading. Though education and reading will move blacks and anyone closer to their goals a lot quicker. Give you a great example to ponder. Name me five black scientist or inventors of the late 20th, 21st century…but you can name me 20-50 black NFL and NBA players off the bat. The Black owned bookstores have of course been in predominately black areas…if those black areas are not reading then the book stores have no customers to sell to in the immediate area. Troy Johnson Sure there are some in the Black community do not view education as a priority. However this is not condition limited only to Black people; it is a function of culture and class. I bet if you asked anyone to name 5 NBA players and five scientists they would find it easier to name the professional athletes, but our culture celebrates athletes for it a lot easier for corporations to profit off them. Poor people could work their way out of poverty with a good education, but they are the one denied this opportunity for the schools in the neighborhoods are often terrible. Sure the parents should compensate for bad schools, but they are often ill-educated themselves and are too busy trying to survive to to be of much assistance. As a bookseller I know first hand people have been trained, for example, to buy books from Amazon. I offer can autographed copy of a book priced less than what Amazon sells an autographed copy for and people will still buy from Amazon. Plus the fact that Amazon can sell books at a loss while indie bookseller much generate profit is also a major factor. The issues are more complex than you have portrayed them. However I will grant you that if reading valued more, or at least as much as swiping through a social media feed, there probably would be more viable bookstores and we’d be richer culturally. Daren Williams Troy if you live in the Washington DC metro area we should meet for coffee…I have completely different views about blacks in America than say 90%-95% of most people. As you and many others would like to see blacks as inferior, subconsciously of course, I view blacks as being completely able to compete with all their contemporaries; white, Asian, Hispanic, and other wise. It is the embracing of the “black culture” (which was made up out of the 1960’s) and the rejection of “American culture” that has caused blacks to be in this current state of failure as a group….whites or institutions have nothing to do with the Negro problem going on right now. Every group of people that comes to America and embraces the American culture, within 5 to 10 years, progresses forward in education, and financial prosperity. Blacks fail to do so because they dont want to follow the order of American traditions. Of course current day blacks will attempt to state the reason for their shortcomings is slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. But I would turn every living black Americans’ attention to Booker T. Washington, who did more in his short life with insurmountable odds against him than most blacks will ever do with all the luxuries and creature comforts at their fingertips. And Professor Washington is not a one-off…there are countless examples of blacks in the past that have accomplished great and mighty things under slavery, JC, and segregation. So there is absolutely no excuse for current day blacks. Institutional racism existed back then, but there is no institutional racism or racism period that can keep a black from being whatever they desire in life….Barack Hussein Obama being the best example. If there was institutional racism, Obama would have never been elected – for whites are 73 percent of the American population…blacks are too small of a voting pool to elect anyone in or out of office. Racism is just an excuse blacks use for their complacency and laziness. And about corporations profiting off of athletes…do you think John Hopkins profited off the great neurological doctor Ben Carson? Or are publishing houses profiting off of Dr. Sowell’s and Condoleezza Rice’s books? Just a thought. Blacks can make all the excuses in the world as to their current plight, but this will only keep them in their situation forever.

Del the last paragraph in the executive summary says: "In general, there is no direct means of translating quantitative measures of past performance into confident statements about fidelity of future climate projections. However, there is increasing evidence that some aspects of observed variability or trends are well correlated with inter-model differences in model projections for quantities such as Arctic summertime sea ice trends, snow albedo feedback, and the carbon loss from tropical land. These relationships provide a way, in principle, to transform an observable quantity into a constraint on future projections, but the application of such constraints remains an area of emerging research. There has been substantial progress since the AR4 in the methodology to assess the reliability of a multi-model ensemble, and various approaches to improve the precision of multi-model projections are being explored. However, there is still no universal strategy for weighting the projections from different models based on their historical performance." Which is a long winded way of saying they can't predict the weather with a high level of certainty, which is not exactly a revelation. Is it? I was interesting to see just how many factors they incorporated, many of which are man made, including land use, methane (farming), aerosol particles, carbon, etc into their models. The report is over 100 pages long and full of terms I'd need to look up to fulling understand. But skimming the graphs of the actual measurements collected they all have an upward trend. The report is not new and is missing most of the past decade. It is possible a similar report with up to date information might draw slightly different conclusions. Would you agree? It is not clear to me why you reject man made climate change based upon what you've read in this report. But if you have read the entire thing and understand it perhap you can shed some light based upon what it actually contained in the report and how it informs your decision to reject man made climate change as "fiction," in the same category as Santa. Thanks.

Yes, race is a social construct and as such it is open to manipulation. We had phenotypically and culturally white people being forced into the "Black bucket" against their will in America due to the "one drop" rule. The whole concept of being able to live a better life by denouncing your family and "passing" is absurd. Race is a tool of our oppressor and a very effective one. I also agree that cultural and ethnic identities exist, but these have little to do with so called racial differences. Hispanics are phenotypical as diverse as so called Black people are. But since we are fixated on skin color, hair texture, and other things we have an additional level of racism to contend with, because of colorism in the Black community, not just here in America but all over the world. These so called racial differences create strife both within our community and from outside our community. This is both unnecessary and detrimental to our community. To be sure, racists will hate brown people no matter what we are called. They can't be appealed to based upon science, facts, logic or reason. Because racists are irrational does not mean we have to be, by embracing the same faulty reasoning they use to justify their hatred of what they define as Black people. For example, the fact that Barack Obama has a lilly white mother and is about as far from being culturally Black as you can get, makes no difference to a racist. My fight is not against white people, but the systems that create white racists. One of the hardest and fastest lessons I learned when I started this business is that people will not buy from me simply because I'm Black. They will not pay a premium, go out their way, or show any difference to AALBC.com because it is Black owned and supports Black authors. It is no different that it was in corporate America where one had to between better than one's peers just be be treated half as good. Of course their are people who buy books through the site and support Black businesses deliberately, because they see it as investing in the Black community, but these folks are the exceptions, not the rule. I have a fighting chance because of these people--in fact some of them are white. Often what is mistaken as bad service is really just a struggling business doing the best they can. I recently began promoting a bestselling book seal, in an effort to encourage AALBC.com bestselling authors to embrace the site they would any bestsellers list published by white folks. I've been publishing a bestsellers list, continuously, for over 19 years. I'm not aware of any bestsellers list, focused on Black books, that has been published consistently for so long. Using an AALBC.com bestseller seal would seem like a no-brainer, especially for authors who are not recognized by any other entity. I got a designer to create a few different bestseller seals on a barter deal. I solicited feedback on the various designs and selected the winning seal. An author, a conscious sister, pointed out a typo on the seal that had gone unnoticed and unreported for months! Now this author could have slammed me and refused to ever us a seal, but instead she told me to let her know when the seal was corrected because she wanted to use it on her marketing materials. I wish every author was this conscious. To date, 698 authors have been AALBC.com bestselling authors since 1998. Will 10% promote the fact; will half do so? Whatever that figure turns out to be will will be less, far less, than it would be if a white entity established them as a bestseller. Now of course one will argue will that NY Times bestsellers list, for example, actually "means" something. At that is my point. The meaning we attribute to making the NY Times list is really the meaning we give it. We allow--no, we seek the validation of other cultures (white folks) to give our bestsellers lists meaning. White folks determine which authors have merit and which books deserve to be read. Damn, we don't even profit from the sales of Black books. I'd like to see that Black entities have some say in which Books are important and I'd like to see us profit more from the resulting commerce.

I hear you man. It is human nature to believe something that makes us feel good or better. I was raised a racist I grew up believing white folks were evil and could not be trusted. How could it be otherwise. Everybody I knew, that was Black, lived in a ghetto, white people lived in fine homes had cars and did not have to deal with crime. At least that is the way it looked on TV... For some religion help deals with the evil we've been dealt, for others it is some brand of Black superiority, for me it is science and ideas which is why books are important and forums like this where people welcome their ideas being challenged are vauable. I used to buy more into the Black superiority thing, but not so much any more--it is no longer necessary. I never did buy into religion--even as a child..my brain simply does not work that way. I should not have said most hispanics are white. I was trying to make a point using sloppy terms. Your statement: Illustrates why I don't like using race. Scientifically there is only one race. When we talk about who is Black and who is white we really are left to our own subjective devices. As a result there is no definitive answer for who is white or Black. There is not genetic test for this either... Hispanics come in every color imaginable. Many brown hispanics self identify as white. Here in this country some people we would describe as white self identify as Black. Walter White and Jean Toomer look like white boys to me, but we embrace them as Black. Those racist terms have as many definitions as there are people. I shouldn't use them but it depends on who I'm talking to and the situation. I run a site celebrating Black culture as reaction to how we are treated. It would be nice if sites like ours were not necessary but as far as I'm concerned we need more.