Troy

Oh God, I can't even think about the ramifications of the repeal of net neutrality. The cost of running a website can, and likely will, go up. As we will have to start to paying a premium for providing fast access to our websites. This will accelerate the move 0f people to social media as their primary web presences. The repeal of net neutrality poses an existential threat to independent websites, like AALBC.

Mark do you have a website (other than Amazon or a social media site)? If so post a link to it.

@Mel Hopkins this is important, probably one of the most important things to keep in mind and a good way to differentiate one's product and reach a new audience. You know what, "F" Google's tag manger and Google too. You know they are pissing me off now. recently I noticed AALBC dropped to age two of Googles ranking on the search term "african american books." I'm blogging about his now...

Hi Frances, I'm sorry to read about the difficulty you had with your submission. Our USPS is too busy providing same-day delivery of paper towels for Amazon to be worried about the regular mail. While it is past the deadline I did reach out to the organizers on your behalf -- you never know.

I would be happy to I'd like your send your $50 bucks to the African American Youth Harvest Foundation (AAYHF), in my name PLEASE! In the highlight improbably likelihood that you win. @Delano and @Kalexander2, you may send MY $50, as a tax deductible contribution, in my name to the Literary Freedom Project. I like this bet no one loses and a charitable organization benefits.

In many states it is perfectly legal for a 15 year old to get married. Maybe IL is not one of those states or maybe they require parental consent. In FL you can marry your 15 year old 1st cousin. But these laws come from a period when a person's world, were they were born and died, was a maybe a 50 mile perimeter, and you life expectancy was 40. True, our society has skewed values and it is the reason why people pimp their children and themselves.

An underage harem may be a bit hyperbolic, but for someone of his wealth this is not a big thing. Hugh Hefner had one; the age discrepancy was much larger and he was celebrated. Michael Jackson allegedly courted young boys and vert few called for muting him. Look man, for MOST of human history 14 year old girls were making babies. Now if you told me Kelly was banging babies I'd have a serious problem. Do YOU @Delano believe Kelly should be muted? I'm surprised o no other than me voted in your poll. I think lurkers can vote without creating an account, but I'm not sure.

One thing for sure is that these guys are sloppy. But it is interesting to see these powerful folks fighting amongst themselves. Too bad the poor and vulnerable will be collateral damage..

I did not read the article, I sure nothing new is being related. If there were I would hope you would have highlighted it.

I read the article. Again it still seems like a lot of accusations. Of course where there is smoke there is usually a fire. But it sounds like like a guy who was abused himself that needs help too. I'm not about to rob the brother of his livelihood because he married Aaliyah when she was 15 or allegedly urinated on some girl. There are more important things to worry about. The argument that R Kelly gets away with it because the victims are Black is bullshit, white women are victimized everyday of the week by white men who get away with it -- some of them with the support of the church! Should look at all the dudes in NAMBLA, the Catholic Church, Penn States campus, etc R; Kelly is nothing in comparison... Indeed R. Kelly is highlighted ONLY because he is a celebrity, there are plenty of Brothers doing similar things with teenage girls.

....that does not even address slumlords in places like the Bronx (in NYC) burning their buildings down to the ground for the insurance. To be replaced, after decades of decay with housing unaffordable to both the people previously displaced and low income people trapped in dilapidated housing projects. If you want to live well you can't ignore the plight of your neighbors, or worse actively try to undermine them. Poor and desperate people, of any color, do dangerous things.

The historical context is important and fascinating, but it is also very sad. Generations of people lives have been crushed as a result of these policies.

Just this morning I was listening to the news and there was a segment in which they discussed the #muterkelly movement. The segment was at least 10 minutes long and they never mentioned what the specific allegations against him are. I think part of the problem is just the fact that this is all rumors and hearsay right now. Ha Kelly been charged or convicted of anything? I mean I've seen comedians make jokes about Kelly urinating on women. I have also heard some rumors about undeer age girls. Is Kelly accused to have sex with prepubester youngers are teenager groupies chasing behind him at concerts? I'm not going to go out my way to research this subject. In the universe of things I care about this is way down on the list. The reality is that I don't have to mute R. Kelly. I have never been to see R. Kelly perform live (I understand he puts on a good show) and I have never purchased any of his music, thought of course I've heard it. He is so popular it is unavoidable. "I believe I could fly" was like the graduation national anthem. So I guess were are on the same side of this issue @Pioneer1 albeit, as usual, for different reasons.

I'm selling books directly again. The URL of the store can be found here: https://aalbc.com/store/ What makes the store viable again. First I have a group of people, the Go On Girl! Book Club who are committed to buying books, on their reading list, from Black owned, independent, bookstores. More importantly they recognize that I can not sell books at a loss they way "The Big A" can. But the are willing to do patronize AALBC, because they recognize that we need independent booksellers. Now I can offer Go On Girl! a decent dea deal, free shipping and in the most cases no sales tax (I operate out of FL). I also give a discount for bigger orders and I have committed to contributing 1/2 of my profits to their scholarship fund! It is win-win-win! I also sell @David Covin's upcoming title Raisins in Milk. David is selling his book for $10 ($5 off the regular price) to book clubs who buy his book before the June 1st publication date. Of course more books will be added along the way and alliances, partnership, and more creative strategies are developed. Thoughts?

I witness the turn in the projects in the 60's when they were nice places to live. Sure the mentality of the people is one problem. I'm not even talking about the majority of people -- who are decent folk, but a large enough minority of people who are completely ghetto and destroy the entire community for everyone. They throw garbage one the ground because they don;t know better or care. Nowadays folks carry their household garbage and dump i front of the building rather than placing it in the receptacle inside the building designed to take it. The blast music, urinate in the elevator, break the locks and intercom when ever they are installed on the front doors. Still the builds and the are terribly maintained and I image some people behave like animals because they are treated like animals. Tearing down the projects would probably be worse for many people because there are simply no better options for many, There are people trying to get appartements the PJ's. Nowadays when folks leave the the projects they leave the city altogether.

After I saw the film I looked for some videos of the actual man. Yes it did occur to me upon initial inspection that he might be gay especially with the jherri curl, his strong rejection of homosexuality and waiting until he was 40 to get married. Of course I was biased having seen the film and hearing him interviewed. He was naive thinking the the Church, Pentecostals no less, would change their entire worldview because of him -- perhaps he was looking for away find acceptable for his true nature.... one he will never reveal. It was a good film nonetheless.

Discussions about healthy living usually revolve around diet and exercise. Social interaction is often left out of the conversation, even though research shows that it's critical to our well-being.

Yeah let me know what you think.

Why are so many Black folks running around repetitive West's asinine statements? I know why the so called news media do it -- the celebrity dysfunction drives readers, viewers, and traffic. Of course the BS Kanye West spouts off is Twitter's bread and butter. Were it not for 45 and the lunacy of the Kanye, Twitter would be largely irrelevant. What bothers me is that we going around discussing Kayne statements as if they are relevant. All his does is raise the profiles of stupid remarks and uplifts Twitter so that they can become even more effective at propagating more nonsense. It bothers me because all our attention, energy, and money is diverted from things that matter much more -- things that would actually benefit ourselves and Black people. It is a zero sum game; we can't do both.

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I learned about this film listening to a podcast of This American Life, who produced this film. This American Life podcast of Heretics: the story of Bishop Carlton Pearson Your browser does not support the audio element. It tells the story of Bishop Carlton Pearson, a very successful preacher who began preaching that there is no Hell and the God loves everyone -- even if they are not "saved." I enjoyed both the podcast and the film.

I never heard this before, but it is a brilliant observation.

Cohen too got away with a lot of shit for many years, plus he is not the POTUS. You just don't get rid of the President without due process. This means procecutors will proceed deliberately and carefully -- which means slowly.

Yep that pretty much sums it up. The historical retrospective mirror my experience 🙂

Again, Pioneer if you accepted the fact that race has no genetic basis and is purely an artificial construct, would would be confused about the differences between by and Shakra and only this issue to b th bass for you rejecting our sister. You really should have read the issue from National Geographic recommended these was an article with pictures that illustrated the genetic diversity on the continent of Africa. It would help you appreciate grouping people origin by the basis of their skin color is silly.