Troy

Just embedding the video:

Yeah Jesse, had his mind made up and simply was not interested in listening to or understanding what Michelle had to say. @Pioneer1 I've actually felt this way with you on a number of occasions. But I'm sure you'll say the feeling is mutual 😉

"...help get their bills paid..." Is seems to me there are more men struggling to pay their own bills, let alone help pay the bills of a women -- or multiple female lovers. Prostitution, Tinder, sex clubs abound to grease the wheels of the hook up, quickie, and uncommitted sexual encounter culture. However mature adults (men and women) are looking for more than just sex from a partner -- they are looking for a friend and supporter. This may just be me talking, but as a dude in my mid 50's the prospect of having sex with a bunch of different women is not as appealing as it may have been 30 years ago... The prospect of people only having sex with one person, that they are married to, for the entire life seems unnatural -- this is almost common sense; given actual human behavior. I'm not saying polygamy is natural, but it is surely more natural than monogamy. But given that there are slightly more women than men both men and women would need to be polygamous for this to work out -- otherwise someone is being exploited. Since we were raised, in this culture, to aspire to lifelong monogamy with someone you are actually in love with, we are not culturally or psychologically prepared to deal with polygamous behavior... but this is changing. There has been a lot of discussion about this subject recently, particularly as if becomes obvious that one person can not possibly provide all the emotional and physical needs another may need. Because Black women were raped by their owners Black Americans now come in every shade of the human spectrum -- we are unique in this regard and are susceptible to colorism that marketers take advantage of. When light skinned Black women with blonde hair are is elevated it causes self esteem issues for many of your young women. The reality is that Bey does not even look like her public persona, but young women don't see that... She is a product of our system -- which has never served Black people. It is it not Bey it would be some other sister... The notion that Bey should be tied with "empowerment" is problematic, from my perspective, for these and many other reasons. Our biggest problem is that we have been programed, by marketers, to look to entertainers as our role models.

@Delano that huffpo article stems from a Sun article from 2016 https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/1176905/exposed-sweatshop-slaves-earning-just-44p-an-hour-making-empowering-beyonce-clobber/ The Sun a British equivalent of the New York Post, is a step above the Inquirer (barely). It is fascinating just how many outlets have written articles on the Sun's article -- quoting sources 2nd hand even huffpo failed to link directly to the source article. In other words this is all gossip. Do I think Bey would use slave labor for her clothing line. Sure, but I don't think she is involved in that level of decision making. While I don't agree with judging people based upon their looks. I agree more with @Pioneer1's assessment of Bey setting the a eurocentric standard for beauty that does not serve Black people... but I would not be surprised if she were not involved in the decision making for her own look.

yeah poor, often innocent, people languish in jail sometimes for years awaiting trial. uffer the most dehumanizing aspects if jail including beatings and rape raped because they don't have a few hundred dollars for bail... @Chevdove i'm beginning to think this fire wall was more of a headache than a benefit. I don't know why trying to edit post you already made would trigger this. Would you mind just leaving the file unedited?

@Delano, the quote you copied in @Chevdove post was actually her quoting me. The quoted statement you agreed with belongs to me not Chevdove. Since everyone seems to agree with I've turn it into a meme 🙂

@Chevdove that sounds like the sites overly aggressive firewall. Were you attempted to edit the post using a device on a network different from the one which it was originally posted? Please try again and send me a screen shot of the message yiou are getting. You can use this service:https://snag.gy/ to send the screen shot. Thanks

@Neale Sourna, I'm not sure what you mean by, "...a percentage of some shade of brown?"

Agreed race has nothing to do with it. I think however success comes to those who are the greediest and most evil. Strength and smarts, while commendable, don't stand a chance against a man with a gun who is willing to use it

"Fitness" is power which, in the real world, is derived from wealth. I argue any relationship to race is contrived.

Del July was not "uneventful." Fact of the matter is, uneventful would be the last adjective one would use to characterize 45's entire presidency. Again I agree with your indictment of 45 I just dont see him begin held accountable -- certainly not before the end of the year. And if you turn out to be right, then it is a 50 bucks well spent. Plus I'll have whole 'nother level of respect for you predictions. 😉

I guess the real answer as @Chevdove has revealed is that we simply can't rely on one browser if we are serious about discovering all the web has to offer. Due to Google's de facto monopoly, our laziness and convenience, or plain ignorance, most of us are happy to use Google as our default search engine for all the reason described and more. This is a mistake. I'm guilty of this myself. If more web users used other search engines, more sites would be discovered, those site would be in a better position to grow and the web would be a better place. Thanks for helping me to see that it does not have to be about using just one search engine over another but taking advantage of the uniqueness that they all provide.

Yeah, but 45 is a new version and will never end up in a federal supermax prison -- no matter what he does. July is almost over my friend and the year is already more than half over.

🙂 I hope you are right, but don't under estimate the teflon Don.

@Delano Shoot it would be great for traffic to the site too! I posted an answer to your question @Pioneer1 but I don't see it now.... usually posts you start are saved in the editor... maybe I was dreaming anywho... Nah man I'm not related to any Johnson in NYC (thought relatives in NYC keep popping up in Ancestry-- another story). I did meet Mayme Johnson (Bumpy Johnson's wife). I shot video of her 10 years ago when she was 93. A friend of mine wrote a book about Bumpy's life. You can read a Book Review: Harlem Godfather: The Rap On My Husband, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson and watch a video I shot of her here.

I'm saying that they were sexaually abused and raped.

Here is summary of resources some posted to those interested in SEO: Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184 Webmaster Guidelines: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769 High-quality sites: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html And this handy checklist for underperforming sites: Check your site's search performance: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34444 While these sites can help, at the end of the day they don't explain Google's funky (not in the James Brown sense) search results. I just now reran the query that I ran on Monday for "African American Books." Today that bullshit site aabooks.com does not appear in the search results at all. I went 10 pages deep (top 100 search results) and it simply was not there! AALBC is up to page two, not great but better. Even more importantly there are now 3 Black owned sites in the top 20 BlackAmericaWeb, MahognayBooks, and AALBC. I have not seen those kinds of results in a long time. I have already noticed an increase difference in traffic, but there has not been enough time to attribute this to a change in the google algorithm. Bing https://www.bing.com/search?q=african+american+books Has AALBc.com and Mahognay book in the top 3, but they have aabooks.com listed twice in the top 20. Bing also have more Black owned site in the top 20. Because Bing includes aabooks.com (twice in the top 20) I would have to say, today July 26, 2018 Google has better "overall" results on a query of "African American Books," (even though Bing is ranking AALBC higher).

@zaji which search engine do you use? I think I'm going to start using Bing. I also need to find an alternative search solution for this website. The unfortunate thing for me is that I can't ignore Google. I have to monitor how the site perform there. Sure, I check other search engines, but since they get so little use, the impact of my ranking on those search engines don't matter very much -- at least for now. AALBC performs well on Bing, but Bing -- despite having superior search results compared to Google -- has a relatively tiny share of search compared to Google.

I also cautioned you in your use of the word "bred," as in "Blacks were bred in Slavery." Animals are bred. Humans are not "bred," the way dogs, cattle, and lab rats are. When a master rapes his slave (or gets one of his other slaves to do it), to get more slaves, that is a severe form of sexual abuse. When we use euphemisms to describe the sexual abuse of women (and men) we diminish the severity of what actually happened. This is one of the reason people have difficulty understanding the horrors of our enslavement.

Be careful here my friend. Black people perform well at sports because we work very hard at doing so -- not because we were bred for it.

Dilsa I most applaud you. Since because you used an affiliate code in your hyperlink to Amazon. The vast majority of authors don't do this. I used to point this out to each author who failed to do it, but got tired of doing it... Do you have a website, or is your Amazon page your primary web presence? Congrats on your completing your three book series!

Yeah I should make my life easier and just drink the Kool-Aid and swallow the blue pill.

I know. It seems that no amount of internet bullying can compare to real life bullying.... The pull of social media is strong. The only way I can avoid it on my phone is to not install the apps. I was experimenting with Instagram recently but eventually deleted the apps I can't do it. As a contributor there is a level of narcissism required that I can't muster on a regular basis. As a consumer I found myself scrolling through nonsense quickly forgetting way I picked up my phone in the first place. Of course this is by design and even those aware of what is being done can fall prey. So while committing suicide as a result of internet bullying can seems extreme (and it is), the psychology behind it probably escapes us because were not reared on social media. The brains of kids are wired differently.

I appreciate the support @Delano but there is very little member can do -- other than visit the site or turn other on to it. Which will always be appreciated (I of course hope you and anyone else who visits this site gets something in return) Google does not reward high traffic sites they create them. It is a subtle and important distinction. Despite all the deficiencies with Wikipedia, Google has anointed wikipedia as the go to iste for all information. The of course bolsters Wikipedia's traffic which in turn gives them the resources to continue to grow and improve. This comes at the expense of other superior sites on any given subject who wither away and die because they are undiscoverable. This I argue is one of Google's biggest crimes against the net -- despite all their flowery rhetoric to the opposite. I know my position on Google is not universally held, but that is because most people don't (or can't) see the WWW from my perspective. My position also runs counter to some other techies, but these people have brought into the idea that Google is great and can do no wrong. I agree Google is great, but they are a monopoly who have recklessly over reached in the unchecked pursuit of as much money as possible.