Troy

Wow. I can image a number of alternative outcomes for that story. The Skip Gates scenario comes to mind. Your mug shot would have been a nice image for you to test your new image uploading functionality If an 80 year old woman can break into your house, sounds like you can use a security system or simply don't bother locking your doors. Seriously hide a spare key under a rock in your back yard. Speaking of not locking doors, Cynique, in your neck of the woods ,when did people actually start locking doors?

It was loooong over due.

@Pioneer1, 45 speaks his mind too. I think there is some value is discretion. Besides how does a Kanye know who Bush likes or does not like. Maybe he does not like poor people, maybe his reaction to Katrina was incompetent but that had nothing to do with his personal predilections and more to do the failings of the local and national administrators. Sure Kayne's statement, like 45's tweets are great for the media, but counterproductive. I'll have to watch the entire video with my "Hotep Hat" and third eye engaged, and get back to you. The problem is that our activists are validated by media and they are usually celebrities. Celebrities can assist, but they can not be the leaders. Baldwin, Angelou, Belfonte assisted King and other civil rights leaders in the civil rights struggle, they did not lead it. Celebrities get all the attention because that is the way the media get more people to watch. This does us a disservice. Whenever we attempt to choose our own non-celebrity leaders the media marginalizes them, focuses on their flaws and failures, or simply don't cover them. King, Malcolm, The Black Panthers, etc, had media campaigns launched against them and may Black people were turned against these institutions and men. Sure Dr. King is universally celebrated now, but he was not during his day. I doubt a Dr. King could rise to prominence today. We'd probably be fixated on whatever a Little Richard had to say about civil rights if it the media operated the way it did today... So Colin K. the professional football player, has been thrust into the limelight as if his kneeling during a football game, given the media coverage, is the more important civil rights action that has taken place since the march on washington. And (choose your favorite local activist), struggles for the support to make a difference in obscurity.

Hi @Elva D. Green sorry for the confusion. I actually have stopped using my AALBC.com Facebook fan page. I do however post to my Facebook page from AALBC.com to share links to content on this site, but I don't sign onto the fanpage and engage there. Which is why you still see posts. I guess I'll pull the page down at some point. But I am in the process of moving photos I've posted on Facebook to AALBC.com which will take some time. In the meantime, I've edited that pinned post clarifying how I use AALBC.com's fanpage--which again is just to post links from AALBC.com At the end of the day, I'd like people to engage with AALBC's content on AALBC and not Facebook. The challenge i getting people to actually do that. You can find your content on AALBC.com's discussion forums here: https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/9284-elva-d-green/content/

Yeah, it is another filter bubble.

Interesting. Far and away the most popular links are the bestsellers lists and in the newsletter more popular that that was the list of most critically acclaimed books. I really like the fact that people are paying attention to that list, as I incorporate more Black award sources it really will be a great list of books. WInning one award it not enough, so the list of books is pretty good recognizing excellent books overlooked by the mainstream media because the NY Times have not "validated it." These are books Black folks have validated!

I hear you Cynique. I see Colin in a different light now and will monitor his progress with less cynicism. Is Black Live Matters a "movement?" I think my real problem with Colin and even Black Lives Matters is that these two entities are internet memes to me; social media creations that are only as effective as social media allows them to be. But this, of course is my bias that may be clouding my judgement. Still, I will never, ever champion anything done on a corporate site that is purported to uplift us--because that is impossible.

Pop culture is not my strong suit either, but after listening to y'all I've learned to lighten up. When I was a kid I could give you the programming on all of the TV stations. I did not need a TV guide, but there were only about 10 station--6 that people really watched NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and two local stations. I also new all of the popular songs by Black people. I went to every Black movie that came out and I watched every Black sitcom. When cable become available I would sit with my VCR ready to record all the black music videos so that I could watched them whenever I wanted. I LOVED BET! I listened to Black radio exclusively. I mean I grew up in Harlem, witnessed, first hand, the birth of Hip-Hop. But that all started to change once I got into college. After I started the website and was really exposed to the world of books--pop culture failed to interest me. Despite being completely immersed in Black pop culture for the first 30 years of my life, I didn't really know shit about what it really means to be Black. I guess I felt like I had to play catch up ever since. But watching that Minaj (is her name a play on ménage à trois?) video if felt like I missed the last 20 years of music videos--like I was locked up for 20 years, get out and seeing an Galaxy 8 cell phone for the first time. Now seeing scantily clad honeys shakin their rumps in music videos is not new on me--BET made billions promoting those. This video was just so much better than was I recall ever seeing seeing. It is not enough for me to start watching VH1 or BET again, but it was an entertaining diversion from trying to listen to Al Gore drone on about climate change...

Sure Pioneer the video sends all kinds of crazy messages. I completely understand why the Hotep crowd, the religious right, and prudes would be taken aback. This is Viola Davis time cover taken to another whole 'nother level. But Maybe it is just a fun video and ain't all that serious... How would you make the video differently? Would you have Minaj wear a burka?

Thanks for the feedback. @Mel Hopkins what did you find most interesting?

Cynique, I know Kaepernak took a knew during the national Anthem. During the period many other football player engaged in similar activities. As far as I know none of generated as much media attention. which is really all this is about-media. I submit NFL teams take the best players given their budgets and needs, but if you are saying teams are choosing worse OBs over Kaepernak. Then you obviously have more information than I do.

Yes the production quality was very high. Clearly, they have created a video that appeals to a great number of people, I found it compelling until I realized that I was simply riveted by Minaj's physique and I had to turn away before I spent the rest of the evening looking for Minaj videos to watch all night Despite my fascination, I did not feel compelled to buy the music. Man, I have not thought about BET or VH1 in years! I would be willing to bet that more people watched the video on Youtube than VH1 and BET combined. The video has been viewed over 9 million times in less than 3 days!

This is the latest newsletter that I emailed this week. I've been experimenting with shorter newsletters. The engagement per article is much higher plus shorter newsletters are just easier to create. I add so much new content to the site each month that trying to capture it all is just impossible.

With the number of other great books still in print, it is lost on me why anyone would consider paying hundreds or dollars to read this particular book, or to even obtain a physical copy of it. If anyone disagrees I'm open to opposing opinions. @Getemchip there seems to be an opportunity to make some money here. Do you have a few copies of your dad's book laying around?

I never heard of Future until last night. Maybe this is a man thing, but were it not for Minaj, I would not have watched for than 30 seconds of the video. I guess I'm in the minority regarding Future's music, but again I know I'm not the demographic, so this is not surprising. Del I was just too tired to give Inconvenient Truth a good watch, that is really what I meant when I wrote "bored." I was too tired to give the film the focus needed to watch it critically--a Minaj video does not require the same mental capacity. I do plan to get to it and to IT2 well. I'll let you know what I think on the other conversation.

Fair enough.

I just sat down to look at some youtube videos before calling it a night. I generally watch Youtube video on a regular TV. I usually search for subjects that interest me. I started to watch an Inconvenient Truth but after a few minutes I grew bored... I decided to see what was trending on youtube (something I almost never do), the #9 video was the one shown below . This video was watched over 8 million since in the last two days. That is 8 times more than the number of view all of my videos have received in the last decade! I watched at least 1/2 of the video. I doubt anyone would confuse the music with being great, but after watching the video for 5 seconds it is obvious the music was secondary this video was all about Nicki's bangin' body! Her body is so off the chain it doesn't even look real. Imagine the views I would get on a video if I could get Nicky to shake her thang while an author was reading from their book. Shoot I might even sell a few books. Still I wonder who this video is for, really. Is it designed for the teenage white boys who buy most rap. Is it for Black women to give them something to aspire to. Is if for all men to give them something to, well.. use your imagination... Again I can't image it is to listen to the music..., but what I know I'm too old to appreciate this music. Where else does one watch music video nowadays anyway?

Pioneer first you simply can't look at people and derive where they came from--just get that notion out of your head. The most genetic diversity is in Africa all the people in Asia, Europe, the Americas, and throughout Africa originated in Africa. There are plenty of sources on the web, many I've previously shared here when we were debating the existence of just one race.

@Del, do you mean, "Most people can't [t]alk for ten minutes on any subject of substance? You you and I both know people can talk at length about sports, the stuff they've seen on social media, or gossip about celebrities. Funny thing about the solar eclipse coming up, no one I've spoken to about it (in the physical world) expressed any interest in it Ancient civilizations seemed to be much more interested in what went on in the heavens. Maybe it was because they could actually see the sky back then...

Cynique, I stand by the statement. But I'll concede the bit about Pioneer getting on his hands and knees was a bit much, but he should at least be very thankful. Actually I think he would admit that he is.

The operative word with Kaepernak is "was." But honestly I can't hate on the Brother. I think was was trying to make a point, though it was not clear to me what he wanted to happen as a result. Obama Care was a was a windfall for private insurers; things worked out exactly as planned.

Pioneer what you've described, perhaps in an attempt to be cute, are means of transmission and storage. Of course I know thoughts can be saved in a book or transmitted over fiber, but they are not sources of new thoughts nor the origination of thoughts of any human. The origin and migration patterns of humans that you are attributing to the NOI run counter to the to the commonly accepted understanding that humanity (including Black people) originated in and migrated from Africa. I know scientifically derived evidence and the resulting knowledgedge usually means very little to you, but you should probably be aware it nonetheless.

LOL I don't view debating as fighting. But you raise an interesting point @Mel Hopkins, many people, and I believe the majority of women, fall into the category of viewing debating as fighting. I view a fight as an activity with the deliberate intent to cause someone else harm. I few a debate as an opportunity to become enlightened or to enlighten someone else. Of course debates can devolve into fights, but again that is a debate devolving, not what it is. I tend to like people I can disagree with and debate without fighting about it. If the person you are debating is insecure they tend to take your disagreement as a personal affront. Similarly, if you don't respect the person you are debating you will view them as dumb and you definitely won't learn anything from them. Everyone has something to teach us. It can be tricky to walk the tightrope between debate and fight. For example, I know I can say something to that is hyperbolic, or make a personal jab, to @Pioneer1 in a debate and it will roll off his back, while someone else will take personally and want to fight about it. Sometimes who just have to know when to be quiet too. There is a time and place for every debate. I like think here on Cyniques Corner it is always time to debate

Here is a trend that I noticed regarding us of AALBC.com since the website's upgrade: engagement is much higher and page views for 2017 are on track to a record high. I plan to blog about this in the near future to provide more insight. But this is great news and bodes well for the future of this website and websites and indie websites in general. The graph below shows the detail behind AALBC.com last half million pages view. This snap shot is from this summer which is historically the slowest period for website traffic (winter the busiest season). The biggest change are the "Pages / Session" which tells you who many pages are viewed which someone visits the website. If you compare this number to the charts provided above yiu can see that the number of pages viewed per session is up by more than 100%-- people are looking at more than twice as many pages per visit. Also of note is the Bounce Rate, for the period shown it is 35.58%. This is the percentage of people who visit a page but leave without looking at any other pages. This number is much better than it has been historically. In fact, for the the month of July the pages per session is over 5 and the bounce rate is under 7%! This is, if I must say so myself, a remarkable achievement given the very hostile environment I have to operate in. Now I KNOW Google can snatch this away and anytime. In fact if you look carefully, and the graphs of the bounce rate and pages per session, you will see relative abrupt changes. This is usually reflective of a Google algorithm change. Now in this instance this change was in AALBC.com's favor, but it very easily could have gone the other way.

I just added all of the books that have won the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. The award has been present since 2011 and all of the writers like Derek Wallcott have enjoyed world wide acclaim and long careers, but other are relatively new writers whose work you'll enjoy as well. These titles are been factored into the calculus used to deriving the most critically acclaimed books of the past 40 years.